John MacDonald: Are we ready to accept the truth about NZ Super?

After yesterday’s half-year fiscal update from the Government, the canary in the mine is gasping for air and the elephant in the room is walking all over everything.

And economist Cameron Bagrie is saying that we can’t ignore either of them - particularly in relation to the long-term outlook and what it means for superannuation and retirement planning.

Melanie Phillips: The global intifada

How many wake-up calls does anyone need? The cliché that the Bondi Beach Chanukah massacre was just that is singularly inappropriate.

Australia and the West have had one wake-up call after another. Since the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, Australian synagogues have been firebombed; as elsewhere, anti-Israel marches have regularly chanted for the mass murder of Jews; and on campus, Jewish students and academics have been harassed and intimidated.

Kerre Woodham: Rejecting the Waihi gold mine project would've made no sense

You can take the girl out of Waihi, but you can't take the Waihi out of the girl, I tell you.

News that Oceana Gold's Waihi North project has been approved makes good sense, as far as I'm concerned. The permit that was confirmed yesterday guarantees the securing of 350 existing jobs, the creation of 100 plus new roles, the project to be in operation until at least 2042, so that gives some continuity, some certainty, which is fantastic, and a billion-dollar investment from Oceana Gold.

David Harvey: A Saucerful of Secrets

TVNZ Obfuscates Balance and Bias

In July 2025 it was announced that TVNZ was commissioning an independent review of its news. The focus was mainly on balance and bias. Concerns had been expressed by the Government that TVNZ needed to improve its trust levels.

Dr Don Brash: RMA Reform - A step forward. But concerns for equal citizenship

It is almost the end of 2025 and, as you may know, the Government has recently introduced to Parliament the two Bills it seeks to replace the Resource Management Act (RMA) with.

The Bills were pushed through first reading under urgency and have been referred to the Environment Select Committee. We will shortly be able to make submissions.

We have already looked at the Bills and sought some initial legal advice. As you can anticipate, there is a lot to take in, but I wanted to give you some initial impressions.

Saturday December 20, 2025 

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Karl du Fresne: Death Wish 2025

I did something last Sunday that I hadn’t done for probably a year or more. I listened to RNZ’s Mediawatch. 

There was a time when I tuned in to the show every week. But as with so much RNZ content, I grew disenchanted to the point where I simply decided I was better off without it.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: My politician of the year

It’s that time of the year where we pick our politician of the year.

For me, it's the same person as last year.

Political commentators, myself included at times, have an unfortunate tendency to sometimes choose politicians because they’re good at playing the political game.

Geoff Parker: Bastion Point - The Untold Context

Public discussion of Bastion Point is often framed as a simple morality tale: an unjust Crown taking followed decades later by righteous protest and inevitable redress. History is rarely that neat. When the full record is examined, Bastion Point looks less like a story of continuous bad faith and more like a sequence of decisions made — sometimes bluntly, sometimes imperfectly — but largely in good faith, according to the laws and public expectations of their time.

Compensation and the 1886 taking

Karl du Fresne: RNZ's boss gives New Zealand the fingers

A few thoughts on the announcement that John Campbell will take over next year as co-host of RNZ’s Morning Report:

■ RNZ chief executive Paul Thompson had a choice. He could make a polarising appointment or a non-polarising one. He chose the former. In doing so, he gave the fingers to the large (and I suspect growing) number of New Zealanders who neither like Campbell nor trust him as an impartial journalist and commentator. Disregarding RNZ’s obligation to serve all New Zealanders, Thompson made an appointment that he must know will alienate people and almost certainly lead to a further loss of faith in RNZ. He didn't have to do it; there were alternatives.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 14.12.25

Saturday December 20, 2025 

News:
Tribunal: Crown governance denied Te Raki Māori authority guaranteed by Te Tiriti
The Waitangi Tribunal has released a major new volume of its Te Paparahi o Te Raki inquiry, examining Crown governance in Te Raki (Northland) and finding the Crown systematically denied Te Raki Māori the tino rangatiratanga guaranteed under Te Tiriti o Waitangi by marginalising Māori authority in favour of Pākehā-led national and local governance structures.

David Farrar: Labour’s GP policy is even worse than I thought

I previously blogged:

Labour’s policy to have taxpayers fund three GP visits a year to every NZer aged 15+ will be costly and will also make it much harder for people to see a GP.

The policy is not targeted towards low and middle income NZers. It will apply to everyone regardless of income or wealth. So every Labour MP will get taxpayer funded GP visits despite earning around $200,000 a year or more.

Ani O'Brien: NZ Courts think its 2018 and declare puberty blockers reversible

New Zealand's activist judiciary strikes again

I have taken several deep breaths before bashing this response out, but do excuse me if my incredulity and rage is particularly evident. You can read the initial piece I wrote about the Puberty Blocker ban here. This piece was written in a rush so apologies for errors.

The New Zealand High Court has just handed down a judgment that effectively says because puberty blockers are being prescribed, they must therefore be safe. Pretty circular logic there, champ. Basically the reasoning is that because doctors are using them, they must be okay and the state should not interfere. And because harm has not yet been universally acknowledged by the medical establishment, the law should treat that harm as unproven, marginal, or speculative. Sounds a bit back-to-front.

JC: What Is up With Willie ‘Wonky’ Jackson?

And where’s the mainstream media?

There’s an old proverb ‘Where there’s smoke there’s fire’. It first became popular in the English language in 1546, meaning that rumours or signs of trouble usually point to some kind of underlying truth. This appears to be very much the case with the current situation Willie Jackson is in. Here we have another classic case of a member of the ‘Māori elite class’ thinking they can exert power in any way they see fit and get away with it.

Mark Angelides: Blockade - Venezuela Gets the Terror Treatment

A total blockade of oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuelan waters has been imposed by the Trump administration, ratcheting up tensions that came to a head Tuesday evening, December 16. Ordering a “total and complete blockade,” President Donald Trump has escalated the South American situation in an effort to disrupt and destroy the flow of illegal drugs into the US. And yet, the political and economic ramifications go far beyond the drug cartels.

John MacDonald: What needs to happen because of our terrorism complacency

You would think that, having had a major terror attack here, we’d be the last people that needed to be told after what happened in Bondi on Sunday night that we’re too complacent.

But that’s what security experts are saying. That New Zealand remains complacent and naive, despite 51 people being killed in the mosque attacks in Christchurch in March 2019.

Kerre Woodham: Auckland is far behind the eight ball when it comes to trains

For those who have been here over summer, Auckland is a lovely place to be. A lot of residents push off, and it feels like the city is yours to explore, and visitors are very welcome and make a welcome addition to the city, new people with new energy and seeing things that you don't see, seeing the city through new eyes.

But it's going to be a little bit tricky to get around, unless you fancy a bus on a sweltering day or you bring your car, because Auckland trains have announced that they're delivering the last big push on the rail network rebuild and other critical city rail link preparations.

David Farrar: The UK Labour crisis

The latest YouGov poll is brutal for UK Labour. Don’t even look at what all voters think. Let’s just look at what voters who voted Labour in 2024 say.

Friday December 19, 2025 

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Heather du Plessis-Allan: This is why postal voting needs to go

Surely that judge throwing out the election result in Auckland has started the clock ticking on postal voting.

This case may not seem a big deal given that it involves just 79 votes, in just one subdivision, in just one relatively small local board election in Auckland.