Mike's Minute: Why hasn't fast-track helped the Port of Tauranga?

Let me ask you this: if fast-track is the answer, then why do we still have the Port of Tauranga problems?

Surely I don’t need to go through the fine detail of what is one of this country's most embarrassing modern travesties.

David Harvey: A Regulator's Impulse

Hasten Slowly on Social Media Restrictions

This article is a companion piece to that entitled “A Regulator’s Reflex” which can be found here. It deals with the issue of social media access restrictions and explains the danger inherent in the proposition - to paraphrase an old saying - “Legislate in haste; repent at leisure”

Stuff reported on 16 June some interesting comments by Education Minister Erica Stanford, who now seems to be leading the charge for what has been described as a social media ban for under 16 year olds.

Dr Kumari Valentine: NZCCP Sets a Precedent of Censorship

When a professional body removes a peer-reviewed article because it conflicts with organisational values, the issue is no longer a single publication, but the future of open inquiry, editorial independence, and professional disagreement.

A few days ago, members of the New Zealand College of Clinical Psychologists (NZCCP) received an email informing them that a published article (He Wero Ano: Don't Just Tell Me, Show Me How Science and Psychology Are Racist in New Zealand by A. Mitchell) had been removed from the Journal of the New Zealand College of Clinical Psychologists. This article had been submitted in 2024 and been peer reviewed and then published in later 2025.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Half a Turnaround - Why ACC's recovery must be built on rehabilitation, not exits

The Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), which funds injured New Zealanders’ care and recovery, has halted a decade of decline. But a New Zealand Initiative report warns its recovery rests on tighter decisions and exits, not proven rehabilitation.

After years of injured people waiting longer, more getting stuck on long-term support and liabilities roughly doubling, the government ordered a review, demanded a turnaround and installed a new chair. The long-term claims pool, once growing by nearly 15 percent a year, stopped growing by April.

Kerre Woodham: How do you know what's real and what's not?

Do you know what's real and what's not when you're scrolling through your news feeds? When you're scrolling through your social media? AI generated “news” pages and political deepfake ads are swamping social media feeds. They've been around for a while, but there's more and more and more of them and they're becoming harder to detect as the technology gets more sophisticated, as people understand how to use the tools they're discovering.

David Farrar: Meet the Greens – Animal Welfare Policy

Policy No 3 is Animal Welfare. Some extracts:

• Ban cats from roaming outdoors (mandatory catios!)

• Establish a Parliamentary Commissioner of Animal Justice

Thursday June 25, 2026 

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The Co-Governance Charade And $8m Taxpayer Funding to Ngai Tahu - Otago Marine Reserves

Michael Laws exposes the co-governance charade and $8m taxpayer iwi funding that has gone into the Otago marine reserves

Click to view  

Karl du Fresne: Camp Freedom revisited

Where should the balance be struck between public safety and individual freedom? At what point should the latter be curtailed to protect the former? More than four years after the anti-vaccination encampment that ended in mayhem outside Parliament, the answer isn’t clear.

New Zealand in 2020 was threatened by a global pandemic. No one knew how serious it might be.

Clive Bibby: Politicians and Your Money

As the general election draws nearer, politicians of all persuasions are hitting the streets in an effort to bribe us with our own money.

For the rest of the year, we might as well not exist.

I accept that this appearance on street corners is part of the ritual we must endure in order to get a handle on who is promising value for money but it would be so much easier and a less debilitating process if they all actually did what they promised when in charge of the Treasury Benches.

Gerry Eckhoff: Santana Gold Mining

I recently came across the following verse of the American poet John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887) which is a perfect analogy for the Santana gold mining debate, here in Central Otago.

“It was six men of Indostan, to learning much inclined 

Who went to see an elephant (though all of them were blind)

That each by observation might satisfy his mind “

Andrew Dickens: Reality lost in conservation bill rhetoric

The hub bub yesterday over the Conservation Amendment Bill brought to light 3 issues for me

Firstly, how bad much of our law is and that stems back to how it’s written and processed. Secondly that many concerned organisations are not afraid to scaremonger and exaggerate to win their way. And thirdly how many New Zealanders rely on social media to keep informed on the issues of the day.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 21.6.26

Thursday June 25, 2026 

News:

Concerns grow over Conservation Bill and weakened land protections
As debate over the Conservation Amendment Bill intensifies, iwi and environmental advocates in Hauraki say a central issue is being overlooked: much of the conservation estate sits on ancestral Māori land, and proposed changes could place future decisions over that whenua further beyond the reach of mana whenua.

The Conservation Amendment Bill proposes changes to how public conservation land is managed, which makes up about a third of New Zealand’s land area. Some changes are framed as streamlining and modernising decision-making processes.

Geoff Parker: Marine Reserves Or Co-Governance By Stealth?

This week we were told to celebrate the launch of five new marine reserves along the Otago and South Canterbury coastline.

Protecting marine environments is a worthwhile goal. Most New Zealanders support conservation, sustainable fisheries, and preserving unique ecosystems for future generations.

But buried beneath the environmental language is something else entirely: another example of race-based governance quietly becoming embedded in New Zealand's public institutions.

Matua Kahurangi: NZ Media - Celebrating brown success, airbrushing brown atrocities

In the nightmare which unfolded in a quiet Swedish village, a father allegedly pumped bullets into his two young daughters before blowing his own brains out. One girl clings to life in hospital. The other is critically wounded.

In the nightmare which unfolded in a quiet Swedish village, a father allegedly pumped bullets into his two young daughters before blowing his own brains out. One girl clings to life in hospital. The other is critically wounded.

Colinxy: Is There a “Cost of Greed” Crisis?

Chlöe Swarbrick recently declared that New Zealand is facing a “Cost of Greed Crisis.” It’s a catchy line; the sort of slogan that fits neatly into a press release and even more neatly into a worldview where every social problem is caused by someone else having too much.

But let’s take the claim seriously for a moment. Is there a “Cost of Greed Crisis”?

Surprisingly, yes. But not in the way Swarbrick imagines.

JC: Labour Is in Free Fall

Labour is in ‘free’ fall. Any hope of them being parachuted into power on the basis of the nonsense we’ve heard so far is about as good as discovering fairies at the bottom of the garden. Maybe they did. They are certainly ‘away with the fairies’. Every policy they have released so far is FREE. Can you believe it? Three FREE GP visits, FREE maternity scans, public transport fares capped then FREE rides, FREE prescriptions. I have no doubt this is just the start and there will be plenty more from where these moments of brilliance emanated.

Kerre Woodham: Let's put the 'demos' back in democracy

Now I mentioned Thomas Coughlan's excellent piece in the Herald yesterday. He looked at the costings for Labour's policies so far. He got the Treasury costings for them, got Nicola Willis, the Finance Minister's accusations about lack of detail, crunched it right down to give us the best possible chance of getting a real world look at the numbers and whether Labour will be able to afford the policies. It is well worth a read if you haven't already. We'll talk to Thomas tomorrow about the importance of costing all of the parties' different promises. It's not just Labour's, it's just that they've released probably the most policy thus far, shockingly, given how late they were to the party.

Bob Edlin: How Chlöe is taxing our credibility when she says flawed figures flowed from a “typo”

The Green Party’s Chlöe Swarbrick was taxing public credibility when she blamed a “typo” for an error in her party’s tax policy costings.

RNZ reported that the mistake – around $800 million over four years – resulted from extra funding for Inland Revenue being calculated as a revenue measure, rather than a cost.

Mike's Minute: Electoral fantasy vs what will actually happen

So, how to handle the avalanche of ideas that are starting to tumble our way even though we are still five months away from the election?

The nuances of MMP mean the vast majority of what is promoted on the campaign trail will never see the light of day.

This is a great advantage to small parties and those in Opposition.

The simple thing to do is hear it all, debate it all, and work it out for ourselves. Trouble with that is you get fatigue and you get confusion.