Andrew Dickens: Is the Greens' co-leadership a thing of the past?

Yesterday's talkback outrage was all about the MPs and the gangs.

A meeting that was condemned by both the Chrises in the Leaders debate.

But despite this weight of opinion, Marama Davidson doubled down on the visit – and then she promised more funding for gang run social programmes.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Te Pāti Māori and Greens have scored the campaign's first own goal

I think we might have the first significant own goal of the election campaign. It's the Mongrel Mob photos.

If you haven't caught up on this yet, you should take a look. It's blown up online. Photos have emerged showing a group of Māori Party and Green Party MPs and candidates meeting the Mongrel Mob at one of their gang pads.

Pee Kay: Soviet Style at your Checkout!

The Reality Behind the Greens’ $10 Million Supermarket Fines

Paul McCartney wrote about it; the Beatles sang about it –

“I’m back in the USSR

You don’t know how lucky you are, boy

Back in the USSR”

Now welcome to Chloe and Marama’s nostalgic trip back to the USSR, where basic economics are replaced by socialist bureaucracy!

Pee Kay: Is a Marae Near You Worth $2.44 Billion of Your Tax Money?

When a political party announces a $2.44 billion “social” policy in the lead up to a general election, you expect banner headlines and non-stop media fanfare. You expect political editors to dissect the spending and critics to demand accountability. If the current government dropped a multi-billion-dollar bomb like this, the usual suspects would be rushing to print with fierce condemnation.

Yet, the headlines remain small, the fanfare muted, and the critics silent.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: The Greens have made another mistake with their new tax policy

The Greens’ tax policy is only a day old and there is already a big maths problem with it. They counted $100 million a year as income when it was really an expense. It was money they had set aside to run the new tax system.

So, instead of $100 million over four years coming in, it is now going out, creating an $800 million hole in their budget.

Ryan Bridge: The Green's wealth tax isn't going to happen

There's no point talking about the latest loony bin tax plan grab from the Greens because it's not going to become anything more than a word doc on their website. It's not going to happen.

An inheritance tax is about the cruellest thing a state can impose on a grieving family. 33% when mum or dad dies. You've got to then take out a loan from the bank, congratulations bank and pay the government. Or sell the shares or property or whatever. Then pay the state. Congratulations state.

Colinxy: The Success Rate of Rehabilitation of Criminals

New Zealand Labour’s crime policy is built on a simple premise: rehabilitation works, and therefore the best way to reduce crime is to focus on treatment, programmes, and reducing reoffending. Labour rejects the “tough on crime” approach and frames rehabilitation as the humane, evidence‑based alternative.

Peter Bassett: Where Water Has a Life Force, Whales Are People — and the Sewage Escapes

In New Zealand, an unelected list MP from the Green Party is drafting legislation — a Member’s Bill — to make whales legal persons.

Not protected species.

Not culturally significant symbols.

People — in law — with rights, standing, and representation.

Mike Butler: Waitangi heckles and what’s ahead

The squabbles and heckles at Waitangi on Thursday and Friday can be rooted to fear of losing preferential treatment, according to my chosen research assistant. However, there is a qualifier.

Maori reactions were framed in terms of losing what they say is treaty guaranteed status, tino rangatiratanga (chiefly authority), and partnership obligations.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Don't forget a Chippy-led Government comes with Green baggage

You know what that Labour and Green Party unity news conference at Waitangi today looked like to me? It looked like desperation.

Parties don’t generally get other parties to stand next to them and hold their hands in an election year just to convince people to vote for them.

Steven Gaskell: Greens Push to Lock in Māori Seats Because Some Votes Need Extra Protection

Just when you thought New Zealand’s electoral system couldn’t get any more “future-proofed,” along come the Greens with a helpful new idea: entrench Māori seats so they can’t be removed without a super-majority of MPs.

That’s right. In the name of democracy, the Green Party wants to make it harder for future Parliaments to change how representation works provided the seats in question are the right ones.

Bob Edlin: Greens set out to change the electoral laws....

Greens set out to change the electoral laws to improve the privileges (or “enhance” the voting choices) of Māori

Perhaps because she is not too flash at winning elections by attracting sufficient votes, the Green Party’s Hūhana Lyndon is aiming to stack the deck in favour of Māori politicians and voters.

The Green Party today announced a member’s bill, in her name, to entrench Māori seats in law.

Dr Noah Carl: Has Britain Shifted to the Right?

Since the 2024 election and the dramatic rise of Reform, numerous commentators have argued that Britain is ‘shifting to the Right’. And you can see where they are coming from.

Reform is the most right-wing party Britain has had since the BNP contested the 2010 election, and it has led in every single poll since April of 2025. Over the last six months or so, 30% of prospective voters have said they would back Reform — about 10 points more than have said they would back Labour, the next most popular party.

Peter Bassett: Knocking on Doors, Pretending Not to Notice the Stairwell Is on Fire

Chlöe Swarbrick wants the Greens out knocking on doors.

Not metaphorically. Literally. Imagine her pounding the streets of Auckland Central, her home electorate — clipboard in hand, optimism applied like a hi-vis vest.

Graham Adams - Election 2026: Swarbrick’s plan for Green supremacy falters

When Chlöe Swarbrick became the Greens’ co-leader in March 2024, she announced that she wanted the party to go “mainstream”.

Her professed aim was to supplant the Labour Party to ultimately form “the nation’s first Green-led government”, all without compromising the movement’s core values.

Peter Bassett: The Greens Discover the Internet Is Mean

The Green Party has made a troubling discovery.

The internet, once a kindly meadow where progressive ideas fluttered freely from phone to phone, has become — according to its co-leaders — an outrage-generating machine.

This revelation comes via an end-of-year Newsroom chat in which Chlöe Swarbrick and Marama Davidson explain that their biggest fears are now found online. Not climate change. Not emissions. Not biodiversity loss. But nasty algorithms.

Ele Ludemann: Is shoplifting ever okay?

What happened to law makers being on the side of the law? A Green Party MP thinks it’s okay to shoplift:

Green MP Tamatha Paul is giving shoplifting the green light as she opposes the Government’s plan to strengthen penalties, National Party Spokesperson for Justice Paul Goldsmith says.

“The Greens are singing from the same old song sheet, making excuses for anyone who attacks or steals from hard working New Zealanders.”

John Porter: Greens or Home for the Disaffected?

Back in 1972, not long before the general election of that year, an idealistic ex journalist and political science student at Victoria University, 25-year-old Tony Blunt founded the Values Party. They were actually the world’s first national-level environmentalist party and were a precursor to the Green Party we know today.

There are many political pundits who credit the Values Party, by bringing the environmental issues to the forefront of political thinking led the world by formulating their own environmental policies. 

Peter Dunne: Darleen Tana

The only thing missing when Speaker Gerry Brownlee solemnly announced Darleen Tana’s political execution this week was the Black Cap Judges used to wear in the days of capital punishment when sentencing some hapless criminal to death.

While there will be little sympathy for Tana’s plight, because of the way it was played out, and she herself seems relieved that after more than seven months the saga is over, questions remain about whether the Electoral Integrity Act is fit for purpose and desirable.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: The Biggest Capital Gains-Wanna-be-Tax-Dodgers in NZ are Labour & Greens own MPs.

Forget PM Luxon - The Biggest Capital Gains-Wanna-be-Tax-Dodgers in NZ are Labour & Greens own MPs.

The Labour Party is trying to lay the foundation for capital and asset taxes in NZ. To build their case, in cahoots with their mates in the Main Stream Media, they're trying to make the likes of PM Chris Luxon look bad for making money by selling off houses & making capital gains. So lets have a proper debate on capital taxes, rather than the drivel our biased Main Stream Media "economics expert journalists" (none of whom have ever studied economics) pour out every other day.