Bob Edlin: McKee’s promotion - Maori voices....

McKee’s promotion triggers an article recognising (or maybe lamenting) there is no one Maori voice

A headline on The Spinoff today stated the obvious:

Nicole McKee’s new Act leadership role means record Māori party leaders – but no one Māori voice

The article beneath was triggered by news that Nicole McKee has become the Act Party’s new deputy leader. Both minor parties in the coalition government therefore have leaders and deputy leaders “who whakapapa Māori”.

Nicole McKee: Speech - Rally '26

I have to admit, I never saw myself becoming Deputy Leader of a political party. In fairness, I never really saw myself becoming a politician. When I gave my maiden speech, I said maybe this was my mid-life crisis. Now I’m a Cabinet Minister and Deputy leader of the only party that has the courage and the principles to unlock New Zealand’s potential.

Mike's Minute: Gun law debate ends in a whimper, not a bang

It seemed like a thing, until it wasn’t.

Guns are like fluoride and the MSM – they get people angsty.

Out of the Christchurch mosque attack came the idea that gun law needed amending. The amending got another look when ACT came to power because they are libertarians and people with, broadly speaking, a common-sense view of the world.

Dieuwe de Boer: Rogue Bureaucrats and Feeble Ministers

I hadn't followed the story of Janet Dickson's fight against the Real Estate Authority (REA) very closely. I knew she objected to the REA requiring real estate agents to do a left-wing "cultural course" before they can be licensed. I admire her taking this conscientious objection all the way to a Judicial Review, which she unfortunately lost.

Gary Judd KC: Minister tells Real Estate Authority CPD requirements did not meet her expectations

On 13 July 2023, LawNews published my article “Lessons for lawyers from the regulation of real estate agents.” I published a modified version on my Substack, here. Introducing my Substack, I said:

Centrist: Govt moves to curb Māori studies mandate for realtors

The government isn’t just softening penalties for realtors who refuse compulsory Māori studies—it’s moving to scrap the mandate altogether.

After the High Court dismissed Auckland agent Janet Dickson’s challenge to the Te Kākano course requirement, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee introduced a bill stripping the Real Estate Authority (REA) of its power to impose five-year bans for non-compliance. But McKee’s intervention goes further.

Dr Bryce Edwards: The Act Party’s highly influential year

The Act Party ends the year on 9.6% in an average of the last public polls, a moderate gain on its 2023 election result of 8.64% but still a strong result considering the poor track record of minor parties in MMP, and a testimony to the high profile enjoyed by its leader David Seymour and his Treaty Principles Bill.

Rachel Stewart: Gunning for McKee

What's really behind the incessant Nicole McKee hatred?

Political scientist Bryce Edwards is someone I respect for his level-headedness but his recent article on Nicole McKee needs to be fact-checked, and fact-checked hard. If you haven’t seen it here it is: https://substack.com/@democracyproject/p-149335230

I mean, I get if you’ve only got access to journalism that is overwhelming negative - and clearly that’s the case here when you read who his key sources are - then this is the result. But it’s lazy. And far too trusting.

David Farrar: Bad and good from the Government on law & order

The bad:

The Government has introduced a Bill today to restore the Three Strikes sentencing law, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee says.

“New Zealanders are rightly concerned about violent crime. We are delivering on our commitment to introduce a revised Three Strikes law as one of our key law and order priorities.

Chris Lynch: Revised Three Strikes Law to include strangulation and suffocation offences

The Government has introduced a Bill to restore the Three Strikes sentencing law, with tougher sentences.

Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee said “New Zealanders are rightly concerned about violent crime. We are delivering on our commitment to introduce a revised Three Strikes law as one of our key law and order priorities.

Chris Lynch: New gun laws coming – Nicole McKee

Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee has announced a programme to reform New Zealand’s firearms laws.

“The Arms Act has been in place for over 40 years. It has been amended several times – in a piecemeal, and sometimes rushed way. This has resulted in outdated and complicated requirements that unfairly target licenced firearms owners, often with no clear benefit to public safety,” McKee said.

David Farrar: A weak Three Strikes law

The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today.

The return is welcome in principle, but what is being proposed is actually pretty weak and even ineffective.

Cam Slater: Nicole McKee Smashes Labour with Facts

Watch the video above, as Nicole McKee destroys the emotive and rubbish rationale that drove Labour to push their anti-gun agenda and their and the Police’s insistence that we’d all be safer with a gun register.