Mike's Minute: Some good energy news for winter, for once

Christmas came early for Tiwai Aluminium Smelter.

They get to do business. In fact, they get to do business in a country where you would have thought doing business is to be encouraged.

They have been prevented from doing all the business they can because they have a deal with their power company, Meridian, whereby they have to contain themselves if things are a bit tight in the old power department.

David Farrar: May 2025 1 News Verian poll

The 1 News Verian poll is:

Vote:

• National 34% (-2% from April)

• Labour 29% (-3%)

• Greens 12% (+2%)

• ACT 8% (-1%)

• NZ First 8% (+1%)

• TPM 3.7% (+0.3%)

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: I see nothing's changed in camp Jacinda

Looks like nothing's changed in camp Jacinda, has it?

You will get no admission that she and her Government got anything wrong during Covid, from what I can gather.

Now, this is my disclaimer - I haven't actually read the entire memoir just yet. But from what I've skim read and from what I've read and heard in the reviews, and what I've read and heard with her interviews promoting the book, if you are looking for her to admit that she got anything wrong at all during Covid, you're not going to find it.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 1.6.25

Wednesday June 4, 2025 

News:
Luxon 'comfortable' with Chris Bishop's response after Aotearoa Music Awards 'rant'
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says he's "comfortable" with Chris Bishop's response after his comments at the Aotearoa Music Awards.

Luxon told Morning Report he spoke to Bishop over the weekend about this and other issues but there was no need to step in.

DTNZ: Trade Me and legacy media outlet Stuff announce merger in major digital media shakeup

Legacy mainstream media outlet Stuff and auction site Trade Me have agreed to a merger in which Trade Me will take a 50% stake in Stuff Digital, the division behind stuff.co.nz and ThreeNews, while Stuff’s newspapers, events, and Neighbourly are excluded from the deal.

Simon O'Connor: Call it what it is

A recent fracas involving a government Minister at a music event simply shows that an artist is allowed to provoke, but cannot be provoked.

So, a government Minister has found himself in woke hot water because he dared to give his honest opinion at the recent Aotearoa Music Awards. Chris Bishop, a former colleague of mine and who would happily describe himself on the liberal side of the National Party, was at the awards night and called a highly political musical performance “a load of crap.” Unfortunately for him, even as a liberal, he crossed an unwritten and unseen line which is that you never critique anything progressive or woke. Celebrate, yes. But never criticise.

Dr Eric Crampton: The only way to find out if more supermarket competition is real

There’s an old joke about economists walking past a $20 note on the sidewalk. One says to the other, “If that note were real, someone would have picked it up already.”

It could be that the $20 note was a photocopied counterfeit with advertising on the other side. You’ve probably seen those before.

But there are other potential explanations.

Matua Kahurangi: This Pride Month, let’s celebrate national pride instead

Scrolling through social media this morning, I came across a tweet that gave me pause. It was from James Foley (@Jimmy508989672), and it simply read: “This is my pride flag”, accompanied by an image of the New Zealand flag. In its simplicity, the message struck a deeper chord than most of the noise I have seen online lately.

Kerre Woodham: Our workplace fatality rate is appalling

On average, there are 73 work-related deaths in New Zealand every single year. Relative to the number of people in employment, the New Zealand workplace fatality rate is double that of Australia, and it hasn't shifted in many, many years. More road cones have not made a difference. The New Zealand rate is similar to the rate the UK experienced back in the 1980s. The gap between New Zealand and Australia is consistent across most industries and occupations. It's not like we've got one that is more dangerous than any other, which is why it's throwing these figures out. It's consistent across industries and occupations.

Insights From Social Media

Steven Mark Gaskell writes > Welcome To The Newsroom: Leave Objectivity At The Door, Bring Your Cultural Fluency

There was a time when journalism prided itself on objectivity, scrutiny, and a healthy dose of scepticism toward those in power. But welcome to 2025, where the newsroom’s guiding principle is no longer “hold power to account,” but rather, “don’t ruffle cultural feathers unless they’re Pākehā.”

David Farrar: Ukraine strikes back

The Ukrainian military have managed to take out 40 nuclear-capable long-range Russian bombers, representing a third of the Russian air missile carrier fleet.

The cost of the damaged or destroyed planes is estimated to be between US$2 and US$7 billion.

Tuesday June 3, 2025 

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Geoff Parker: The Crown, The Treaty, The Promises And The Waitangi Tribunal

At the centennial of the Treaty of Waitangi 1940 Sir Apirana said: “Let me acknowledge first that, in the whole world I doubt whether any native race has been so well treated by a European people as the Maori”

Occasionally, it is alleged that the Government failed to uphold ‘Treaty promises’ in the nineteenth century. Here is my response to that allegation…

Steven Mark Gaskell: The return of the Alliance Party

Just when you thought New Zealand’s political stage had reached peak saturation with virtue signalling and utopian wish crafting, the Alliance Party has decided to stumble back into the spotlight like an aging garage band convinced their 90s demo tape was misunderstood brilliance.

Yes, the same Alliance that flamed out of national politics years ago is now eyeing a return, this time through the back door of local body elections. Because apparently, nothing says “grassroots democracy” like dusting off tired socialist slogans and hoping no one remembers how badly it went the first time.

Dr Don Brash: Why get on the housing ladder?

Almost since I returned to New Zealand from nine years abroad in 1971, there has been a widespread assumption that house prices always go up, if not every single year then almost every single year. And that those prices would rise faster than general inflation and faster than income growth.

As a result of that widespread belief, it was taken as a self-evident truth that the most important financial decision a young person could make was to “get on the property ladder” by borrowing as much money as the bank – the commercial bank or the bank of Mum and Dad – would lend to buy as much house as possible.

Mike's Minute: The Reserve Bank didn't inspire me

Call me superficial, but to watch the Reserve Bank heavyweights lined up, as I did Wednesday post their cash rate decision, I did not see dynamism.

These people outwardly do not fill you with any sense of excitement.

The Reserve Bank is in a spot and, as a result, so are we as a country.

Harris Sultan: Why Britain is falling apart

From a Muslim mayor to an education regulator and Scotland’s next First Minister — Britain is quietly being Islamised. 

Migrant mayors who can’t speak English. School regulators pushing hijabs. Justice ministers pledging loyalty to Sharia. Welcome to 2025 Britain — where faith-based politics and identity quotas are replacing Enlightenment values. 

In this powerful video, Harris Sultan exposes the ideological capture of Britain’s institutions—from education to law—and asks the uncomfortable question: Is this multiculturalism or civilisational suicide?

Tui Vaeau: The Perils of Cultural Tokenism - A Critical Examination of Recent Māori-Centric Initiatives

Why New Zealand’s Obsession with Identity Politics Threatens True National Unity and Meritocracy

In recent times, New Zealand has witnessed a surge in initiatives aimed at promoting Māori culture and recognition. While the intent to honour and integrate Māori heritage is commendable, the execution of these initiatives often borders on tokenism, potentially undermining the very objectives they seek to achieve

Matt Ridley: CRISPR announcement is great moment in medical history

Baby KJ lacked a working copy of a vital gene

The announcement last week that a nine-month-old baby in Philadelphia has been cured of a rare genetic disorder by gene editing is a great moment in medical history. For the first time, doctors have altered a gene inside many cells in the liver of a living human being using CRISPR, the molecular tool borrowed from microbes that can home in on particular DNA sequences and in some cases alter them.

Insights From Social Media

Steven Mark Gaskell writes > "Fly the Woke Skies: Air New Zealand’s New Preferred Supplier Your Identity"

Air New Zealand, our proud national carrier (and 51% taxpayer owned, don’t forget), has decided it’s not enough to simply fly planes or balance books. No, it must now soar to even greater heights of virtue signalling.