NZCPR Newsletter: The End of Climate Extremism

Breaking News: The extreme climate scenario, used by the expert United Nations  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to forecast catastrophic climate change has been withdrawn. 

The international body responsible for IPCC modelling has now officially declared the extreme RCP8.5 scenario is implausible.

This is the doomsday scenario of a world almost totally dependent on coal, with catastrophic warming of 4 to 6 degrees Celsius by 2100, and sea-levels rising well over one metre, that was adopted by our Ministry for the Environment as “business-as-usual” and applied by government agencies and local councils across the country.  

The significance of this IPCC decision cannot be over-stated. 

Ian Bradford: The Planetary Cycles That Affect Our Climate and Weather

A number of articles have mentioned that climate change and weather have always occurred right back in geological time. All occurring long before the existence of humans. For example, how many know that around 232-234 million years ago it rained continuously for between 1 million and 2 million years?

Steven Gaskell: Public Service Expansion

Labour’s expansion of the public service between 2017 and 2023 saw the biggest staffing growth concentrated in a relatively small number of departments and administrative functions. According to figures from New Zealand’s Public Service Commission and reporting compiled from departmental data, the biggest increases came from:

Breaking Views Update: Week of 17.5.26

Saturday May 23, 2026 

News:
Te reo Māori advocate Vincent Olsen-Reeder criticises govt branding changes
A Māori language advocate says the government's move to prioritise English over te reo Māori in official branding sends a damaging message about the status of te reo in Aotearoa and risks undermining ongoing reo revitalisation efforts.

Earlier this week, the government updated its official branding to give greater prominence to English over te reo Māori, following a directive from new Public Service Minister Paul Goldsmith.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: New Zealand's corruption problem is growing rapidly

For anyone still labouring under the impression that New Zealand is an innocent little place like it was 50 years ago, those prison busts should absolutely shatter that delusion.

What happened was the single biggest bust in our prison system: 20 people arrested and charged across three different prisons - Mount Eden, Spring Hill and Auckland South.

Mike's Minute: Aussie Labor have shown NZ Labour what not to do

Another lesson for our Labour Party if they want to ponder it.

Australia’s Labor have blown their Budget.

It's hard to overstate the anger and pushback on their tax changes made now well over a week ago.

Gary Judd KC: Myth, Memory and the BNZ

Winston should be ashamed

In his column in The Telegraph published on 19 May, “Deluded Labour will never let go of its EU fantasy,” Tom Harris said, “Such is how myths are made in modern Britain. Europhilia is similar to Thatcherphobia – it’s less about actual policies and empirical evidence than about feelings, and the less you remember about it, the stronger you feel.”

I made a note of it because the subordination of historical fact to feelings is so relevant to contemporary New Zealand and Tom Harris’ expression neatly captures the way passage of time and appeal to emotion may result in apparently serious pronouncements being evidence of sheer lunacy.

Such was Winston Peter’s solemn pledge that New Zealand First policy would include buying back the BNZ.

Rodney Hide: China Rising, America Falling? The Delusion Persists in Wellington

In Wellington salons and certain Auckland boardrooms, the conventional wisdom is settled: China is the unstoppable rising power, the United States is in terminal decline, and New Zealand had better hedge accordingly. Smart diplomats, we are told, accommodate Beijing while quietly distancing ourselves from a fading superpower.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Bob Edlin: Count the number of Finnish public servants.....

Count the number of Finnish public servants to see what happens when you trim govt department numbers

Paul Goldsmith, Minister for the Public Service and Digitising Government, was raring to go when asked what action the Government was taking to improve services and deliver better value for money in the public service.

The patsy question was lobbed by National MP David MacLeod.

Insights From Social Media: Why The Word Aotearoa Should Be Discarded

Alfred Johns writes > Fellow New Zealanders,

I want to say about something far greater than politics. I speak about identity, history, truth, and the name of our nation — the name by which the world has known us for generations: that is “New Zealand”.

Names matter.

John MacDonald: Politicians have no idea what's important to us

Sometimes it feels like an easy thing to say that politicians have no idea what really matters to us. What’s important to us - the people who put them in their positions of power.

Today, it may be the easiest it’s ever been to say that sort of thing.

Let’s start with Labour leader Chris Hipkins. Who, I think, said one of the most arrogant things I’ve heard any politician say.

Peter Dunne: Labour's Policy Vacuum

It is often said that Oppositions never win elections because governments lose them. In other words, if a government is unpopular enough it will lose an election, regardless of the calibre of the Opposition.

That was certainly the case in 2023 when Labour was tossed out of office. The public mood then was far more that people had had enough of Labour and were keen to get rid of it, rather than a positive feeling for National. And as National's support has waned in recent months, and Labour's increased, it was beginning to look as though history might be set to repeat itself at this November's election. However, that may be about to change.

David Farrar: Media missed the big story on donations

The annual donations returns were recently published, and the media focused on how CR parties had more than CL parties. They failed to look at the trend,

In the table below I compare 2025 donations to 2022, as like vs like. Both are mid years in the three year cycle.

Friday May 22, 2026 

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Ryan Bridge: The AI takeover isn't coming, it's here

The AI and robot takeover isn't coming, it's here. Well, sort of.

A bunch of data's come out on this over the past few days.

Seek says job ads mentioning AI have doubled in the past year, up 4.1% from March to April.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: AI is just a distraction in the public service discussion

I’ve got to tell you something – I’m embarrassed.

Watching this public debate about how many public servant jobs are going to be cut in order to make way for AI is just embarrassing.

Lindsay Mitchell: Is Whanau Ora lifting student attendance?

I was asked the following question via Family First: "How is the Whānau Ora network developing and what are its prospects. In particular, is it helping school attendance effectively for Maori and Pacific island pupils?"

Whānau Ora was introduced in 2010 resulting from the 2008 Confidence and Supply Agreement between the National Government and the Māori Party, the underlying principle being, it's not individuals who need access to services, but whānau. It is very much a 'by Maori, for Maori' approach.

Mike's Minute: So yes, Chris Hipkins does think you're stupid

I asked yesterday whether Chris Hipkins thought we were stupid.

And as luck would have it, he answered our question – yes, he does.

First you have the Future Fund, a cornerstone policy, revelation that they aren't telling us who's money goes in and what sort of job creation they are expecting because they got bogged down in the Treaty issues, so we will need to wait until after the election.

Elliot Ikilei: Is this a power company or a cultural ministry?

Have you seen this?

Meridian’s job advertisement [below] is seriously revealing, and not for the reasons the company probably intended.

DTNZ: Arctic sea ice levels remain significantly above 2012 record low

New figures on Arctic sea ice have reignited debate over climate projections after the 2025 summer minimum measured 4.6 million square kilometres — around 35 per cent higher than the record low of 3.4 million square kilometres recorded in 2012.