Dr Don Brash: My advice for Christopher Luxon - Stand for something

There is an old political lesson which Christopher Luxon and the National Party would do well to remember:

If you stand for nothing, you get run over.

National is currently polling at around 29 percent. That is an extraordinary position for a first-term Government facing an Opposition still burdened by the failures of the Ardern years.

David Farrar: Be careful what you ask for with IMSB

Radio NZ reports:

New Zealand First will campaign on scrapping the Independent Māori Statutory Board (IMSB), which they say has significant influence over Auckland Council’s decision making.

In a statement, the party said a member’s bill had been written and introduced, which would see the unelected body that has “exercised significant influence” over council decision making since the creation of the Auckland Supercity in 2010.

Geoff Parker: Beware The Referendum Trap

Winston Peters has a gift. He knows exactly how to press the public’s emotional buttons without ever quite delivering what many think he’s promising. His 2026 pledge of a referendum on the Māori seats is a classic example. It sounds bold. It sounds democratic. It sounds decisive. But New Zealanders should pause — because this may be the most dangerous way imaginable to deal with a constitutional issue.

If Peters were genuinely serious about ending separatist parliamentary seats, he wouldn’t be floating a referendum at all. He would campaign openly on abolition of the Māori seats. The legal mechanism already exists. Repeal section 45 of the Electoral Act 1993 — along with the consequential provisions that support it — and the Māori seats disappear. Clean. Parliamentary. Accountable.

Instead, Peters offers a referendum.

Geoff Parker: New Zealanders Aren’t “Leaving the Government Behind” - They’re Pushing Back

Jack McDonald says voters are “looking forwards, not backwards.” He’s partly right. New Zealanders are looking forward — but what they’re leaving behind is a decade of cultural and ideological overreach that crept into public policy with little public consent.

Steven Gaskell: Democracy - Great Until It Votes the “Wrong” Way

It’s funny how democracy is everyone’s best friend until it says something inconvenient.

Nepe Apatu, recently voted onto the Central Hawke’s Bay District Council’s Māori ward, says she’s “shocked and reeling” after locals opted to remove the Māori ward. The result, she says, feels like “a slap in the face.”

Steven Gaskell: The New Land Game - How Councils Could Hand Māori First Dibs on Your Property Without You Noticing

So, you thought Māori wards were just about “representation”? Think again. While everyone’s been busy debating flags, karakia, and consultation quotas, a quieter revolution is taking shape in council back rooms — and it’s got “land” written all over it.

Rob Paterson: Māori Wards RORT - A Reversal of Democratic Principles

Michael Laws’ recent commentary “On the Rejection of Māori Wards” (13 October 2025), viewed by many viewers , signals how contentious this issue remains. However, unlike Don Brash ( Hobson’s Pledge 16 October 2025), I do not believe the recent outcome is cause for celebration.

Until 2021, only three councils in New Zealand had Māori wards:

Matua Kahurangi: Maori Wards

A step backwards for democracy

The results of the Māori ward referendums have made one thing crystal clear: common sense still exists in parts of New Zealand, but not everywhere. Twenty-five councils across the country voted to remove Māori wards by 2028. Seventeen, however, chose to keep them. Those seventeen councils are a national embarrassment.

It’s no surprise to see the Far North keeping them. Up here, where Māori make up a the majority of the population, the outcome was predictable. What these decisions show is not strength, not pride, and certainly not progress. It shows a lack of faith in Māori themselves.

Mike Butler: Voters still don't want Maori wards

Twenty-four of the 42 councils that were required to hold a referendum on Maori wards voted them out while the remaining 18 voted to keep them.

A total of 45 councils had imposed Maori wards after the Ardern government outlawed council votes on the issue in 2021.

One council, Kaipara, voted to disestablish its Maori ward when enabled to do so last year when the right to vote on the issue was restored.

Steven Gaskell: Democracy Strikes Back - 66% of New Zealanders Say “No” to Māori Wards

Well, isn’t this a delightful surprise? After years of the Left lecturing, brow-beating, and rewriting history, ordinary New Zealanders have finally said what most of us have been thinking all along: 66 percent of councils have voted “No” to these undemocratic, race-based Māori wards. The people have spoken and the social engineers are sulking.

NZCPR Newsletter: Fighting Elections

Two years ago, we were counting the days to the 14 October General Election. With the left-leaning legacy media in overdrive – promoting the parties on the left and attacking those on the centre-right, New Zealanders desperate for change were anxiously wondering whether enough was being done to overthrow Labour.

The problem was that Jacinda Ardern and her ‘we are the sole source of truth’ ruling elite had not only crushed our rights during those Covid years but were radically changing our culture too. By forcing He Puapua – their secret agenda to replace democracy with tribal rule – onto the country without any public mandate whatsoever, Kiwis had lost faith in Government and were looking for parties willing to dismantle the political establishment and give them their country back.

Frank Newman: Different views on Māori Wards

With local body elections looming, Frank Newman of the New Zealand Centre for Political Research argues strongly against Māori wards, saying councils are not Treaty partners and that Māori are already well represented in governance.

He believes Māori have multiple avenues for influence without needing separate wards and points to low turnout in Māori ward elections as evidence that most do not want them.

Newman warns that Māori wards risk deepening social divisions in an already fractured society, arguing unity should be the priority. Voting papers are due back by 11 October, and he stresses that the most important thing is to participate and have a say.


Click to view

Clive Bibby: Are Maori Wards about to become a dot on the Timeline of History

I have always thought that the introduction of Maori Wards was a naked attack on the democratic institution of government in this country.

It was based on a false premise that people claiming to be of Maori decent were underrepresented in the corridors of power at all levels throughout the nation.

Mike Butler: An iwi and some Maori wards

For those of you about to vote on whether or not to continue with the Maori ward your council has imposed, a bit of published bragging shows what “iwi Maori” think about seats on councils.

The August 25 edition of the Hawke’s Bay Today included a two-page advert displaying what looked like 63 candidates for eight councils from Wairoa to South Wairarapa.

The Wairoa District, Hawke’s Bay Regional, Napier City, Hastings District, Central Hawke’s Bay District, Tararua District, Masterton District, and South Wairarapa councils are listed on a map in the background of the advert.

Anglo Saxon: New Zealand Local Body Elections - Time to restore democracy?

In October 2025 New Zealand goes to the polls in its local body elections across much of the country. For this year the coalition government has restored the right to ratepayer veto of maori wards.

In this video, I explore the bigger picture of where collective governance comes from, its outcomes, and why we should vote against it.

Click to view

Steven Gaskell: What a day will be like under Maori Council Wards

Local Council Area – Year 2027 And Beyond.

7:30am – Rates Bill Arrives
You open your email and see your quarterly rates have gone up another 14%. The notice lists “cultural consultation services” and “partnership initiatives” as key budget pressures. You sigh and wonder why your driveway is still full of potholes.

Insights From Social Media:

Referenda 2025 - Halting Māori Wards To Protect Equal Democracy - Te Kahu

In October 2025, 42 New Zealand councils will hold referenda on Māori wards, yet many Kiwis are unaware of their threat to equal representation.

These wards give Māori disproportionate influence, undermining democratic fairness.

NZCPR Newsletter: Reversing the Cultural Takeover

All around New Zealand there’s a growing concern that a cultural takeover of our country is underway. It’s a problem that’s being exacerbated by the weaponisation of “Te Tiriti o Waitangi”, and the domination of the Maori language.

Insights From Social Media

So The Long Awaited Review Of Treaty Clauses In NZ Statutes Has Started. - June Kearney.

Check out the four members of the review panel:

1. Chair is David Cochrane, lawyer former member of the Waitangi Tribunal and part of a review of the Tribunal also.

Insights From Social Media

Why Bother Voting at All? - by Rex Anderson

Following the recent local council elections, New Zealanders now face a familiar and frustrating pattern: more mayors and councillors pushing for Maori Wards and unelected Māori appointments to councils and boards, while parcels of public land and resources are handed over to favoured iwi groups—with little or no input from the communities footing the bill.