Rodney Hide: Raine showed us the lecture room. Here's the staffroom.

John Raine has laid bare what our universities teach students. The University of Auckland's new gender equity plan shows the same machinery aimed at staff: hiring, promotion and annual reviews. No budget, no targets.

"I thought back then that we might quickly pass peak woke and that rationality would have taken hold again by now," writes Emeritus Professor John Raine in The indoctrination must stop but Labour would double down. "Not so fast, some warned - they were right!"

John Raine: The Indoctrination Must Stop But Labour Would Double Down

The Ongoing Long March Through the Institutions

More than three years ago, along with many others, I was drawing attention to New Zealand’s trajectory towards cultural authoritarianism, and the widespread identity politics and critical social justice activism in our public service, the universities, the wider education system, but also in the private sector. I thought back then that we might quickly pass peak woke and that rationality would have taken hold again by now. Not so fast, some warned - they were right!

John Raine: EV or Not EV, That is the Question - Let's Be Smart About Transport Energy

Energy as Society’s Economic Enabler

Oil prices escalated as a result of the US-Iran war and have boosted electric vehicle (EV) sales. Once prices at the fuel pump restabilise nearer pre-war levels, should more buyers still be going electric? 

John Raine: The Electricity System - Energy Realism versus Policy Greenwash

Cheap High-Density Energy is the Key to Prosperity

It’s Election 2026 policy silly season. No surprise that some party policies on New Zealand’s energy future are detached from reality, particularly those of the Green Party and Labour. At least NZ First’s bold oil and gas exploration policy is sound in principle.

John Raine: Can universities recover their mojo in the AI age?

 

The Path of Cultural Re-Engineering 

The 2020s have been a period of cultural change in academia throughout the Western world. In countries such as the USA, Canada, the U.K. and Australia, where universities have been heavily captured by ideological agendas, we have yet to see a much loss of momentum in “progressive” left wing politics on campus.  

John Raine: Smaller Government and Less Bureaucratic Bloat - Yes, but How?

Bureaucratic Bloat   

ACT has announced 2026 election policy (28^th June 2026) to reduce government from 28 to 18 ministers, and from 43 down to 19 departments [1].  This complements National’s earlier announcement of a reduction in the public sector by 8700 employees (~14%) by 2029. Both much needed policies, but will they succeed?

John Raine: Canary in a Climate World - When Political and Media Narratives Depart from Scientific Evidence

Richard Prebble commented (22^nd June in Brash and Mitchell) on the problematical operation of the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). The present article (updated from a Substack post https://jkr31350.substack.com/p/canary-in-a-climate-world) was intended primarily as a review of a new contrarian publication on climate change but again questions the politicisation of the current climate narrative and the very existence of the ETS. It calls again for a more realistic adaptation approach to climate change.

John Raine: Our Culture - Can National Learn from Australia or the UK in Election Year?

The British Labour Party reacted with disbelief to the massive voter shift to the Reform Party in the early May Local Council elections, but the Labour response has been an astonishing doubling down on the existing policy positions (“we need to tell our story better”) that alienated their traditional voter base.

John Raine: Don’t Back Down on the Education Reforms, Erica Stanford

The Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) has circled its wagons and is mounting a noisy counterattack on Education Minister Erica Stanford’s much-needed Education Reforms [1].   Last year it was loud objection (still ongoing) to the new literacy and numeracy curricula, solid science learning, and a lessening in the focus on the Treaty of Waitangi required of School boards. Now it is the pushback on the new NZCE Year 12-13 schools’ qualification which will have compulsory exams in every subject.

John Raine, Michael Kelly and Brian Leyland: Why New Zealand must drop Net Zero 2050

Climate Change Realism Not Alarm

Climate change alarmism has become a quasi-religion, where many normally rational scientists have moved to a rigid belief state rather than continuing to question the science and constantly check the latest evidence. Fortunately, a core of respected atmospheric physicists continues to speak out and keep rational debate alive [e.g. 1, 2, 3]. Environmental activist and writer, Michael Shellenberger [4], also counsels strongly against climate doom thinking.

John Raine: Petrol head musings on the shape of our vehicle fleet

No Climate Alarm but a Time Limit on Fossil Fuels

Amid mounting evidence that we are not facing anthropogenic climate doom [1], there has been some relaxation in the push to legislate fossil-fuel powered vehicles off the roads over the next 10 years [2]. But let’s not kid ourselves that fossil fuels are an unlimited resource on human time scales. Their replacement in the Earth’s crust requires geological events over tens of millions of years.

Bryan Leyland & John Raine: The Energy Storage Elephant

Christopher Luxon announced the LNG Storage Terminal plan on 9th February 2026. By 28th February, the USA and Israel had attacked Iran, and we were forcefully reminded that New Zealand’s is one of the most vulnerable advanced economies to oil supply disruption. We are geographically isolated, fully import‑dependent for refined fuels, and exposed to geopolitical upheaval and chokepoints like the Strait of Hormuz.

John Raine: Drive Climate Change Policy with Evidence not Alarmism

The Challenge of Opening Closed Minds

The media and many politicians worldwide continue to push a narrative of impending climate catastrophe. Whether or not you are a climate change pessimist, we live on a gradually warming planet and will need to adapt to this. Ongoing wide-ranging, balanced critical analysis is needed of the long-term history of Earth's climate, scientific models, current evidence, and underlying political and economic motivations driving the climate debate. This article addresses only limited recent evidence and analysis which indicates that climate change is real but does not pose an existential threat.

Professor John Raine: Waipapa Taumata Rau University Course Now Optional for Some – Don’t Take a Victory Lap Yet

Exemptions to the Ruling

On October 15th 2025, the University of Auckland Council voted to make its compulsory Waipapa Taumata Rau (WTR) paper optional. Act Party MP, Parmjeet Parmar, said, “This is an enormous victory for student choice over ideology”, and “The compulsory nature of this course was always about pushing Treaty ideology onto students, with no regard for their interests.”

John Raine & Bryan Leyland: A Realistic Energy Future

The 23rd July 2025 USA Department of Energy (DoE) Report, “A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate” [1], authored by five eminent scientists, brought some balance back into the climate change debate, and outrage from many in the climate science community. The report exposed significant alarmism in the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) statements on anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) and climate change, projected temperature rise and extreme weather events. The DoE report is against apocalyptic projections, far more moderate in its findings, and underlines the fact that science is NEVER settled. In a recent article [2], it was noted that:

Professor John Raine: Balancing the climate narrative - The science is not settled

The 23rd July 2025 USA Department of Energy (DoE) Report, “A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate” [1], authored by five eminent scientists, at last brings some balance back into official statements on climate change and humankind’s contribution to this. The USA DoE Report reviews the science around how anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas emissions have affected, or will affect, climate in the USA, extreme weather events, and selected metrics of societal wellbeing.

John Raine: Holy Water

As the coalition Government reviews Te Mana o Te Wai policy, it must come down on the side of both science and common sense. We must not move to a future where Iwi authorities have an exclusive co-governance role, with the additional costs, cultural impositions and rent seeking this involves. Public concern and anger over future water management in New Zealand are running hot across the country.