Mike's Minute: The BSA legislation should have been delivered sooner

If I was generous, I would let him off, given he has got more portfolios than anyone.

But Paul Goldsmith has delivered to Parliament the bit of legislation that will finally finish off the Broadcasting Standards Authority.

He did it with a flourish of slightly embarrassing bonhomie.

Bob Edlin: Hikoi by horseback (or pony express)....

....how 52,000 names were delivered to Parliament after a five-day journey

PoO was somewhat surprised to learn that a hikoi involving 40 horses had arrived at Parliament with 52,000 names on a petition against proposed amendments to Treaty references in legislation.

We had supposed hikoi involved walking, marching or some similar activity that would require sturdy footwear.

Bob Edlin: The Nats (like Labour) have ruled out a streaming tax....

....but they have put their message on repeat

Those of us who keep an ear to proceedings in Parliament should have been left in no doubt this week about National’s policy position on a streaming tax. They are agin it.

Fair to say, they comprehensively laboured the point: after three days of hearing the PM and Paul Goldsmith banging on at Question Time about ruling it out of the National agenda, those listening would have been yearning to hear what they will be doing to improve our well-being rather than what they will not be doing.

Bob Edlin: What Carl Bates says about expertise in tax policy....

....and (good grief!) the Finance Minister lacks those credentials

As one measure of the politicians’ preoccupation with tax policy in the runup to the general election, Hansard recorded the word “tax” 371 times in its record of proceedings in the House of Representatives yesterday.

But if we listen to Carl Bates, National MP for Whanganui, only some were qualified to discuss it.

Bob Edlin: What the Treaty industry is costing us.....

The Waitangi Tribunal and those urgent claims – what the Treaty industry is costing us

Readers were short-changed by a 1News report which said the Government has spent well over $4 million defending legal challenges by Māori since taking office, “with the number of urgent inquiries by the Waitangi Tribunal soaring to record highs”.

The report said:

David Harvey: The Regulator's Reflex

Why the State's worldwide hunger to govern internet platforms should worry us more than the platforms themselves

There is a revealing little scene in this week’s New Zealand political news. The Media Minister, Paul Goldsmith, told a select committee that he goes on phoning the chairs of the public broadcasters at “random times” to see what is going on, keeps no notes, makes no recording, carries — in his own phrase — no “little notebook,” and assumes the chairs keep no record either.

Bob Edlin: Advice to Todd Stephenson - leave the patsies to others...

Advice to Todd Stephenson: leave the patsies to others and press on with promoting common sense in state agency names

ACT MP Todd Stephenson has used his right to question government ministers in Parliament to toss a patsy about the Government’s response to the prospect of a fuel shortage.

He could be accused of squandering his right.

Bob Edlin: A guaranteed Govt income for artists....

A guaranteed Govt income for artists – some MPs see merit in Ireland’s scheme but Newsroom didn’t ask ACT or NZ First

In Budget 2025, Vote Arts, Culture and Heritage was funded $403 million in 2025/26 – or $1.5 billion over four years.

The spending initiatives included:

Bob Edlin: If skydiving spending from the Govt is wasteful, what has Goldsmith done about it?

Let’s not jump to conclusions – if skydiving spending from the Govt is wasteful, what has Goldsmith done about it?

PoO expects to hear a staunch defence of its activities from the New Zealand Skydiving School in Parakai, after the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union revealed that more than $1.1 million in taxpayer funding has been spent subsidising a Diploma in Commercial Skydiving through the Government’s Fees Free tertiary education scheme.

The press release containing this revelation said:

Bob Edlin: Labour perhaps supported the English Language Bill because it could not build a strong case for scuttling it

Stuff reports –

The bill to register English as an official language of New Zealand passed its first reading on Tuesday, and there was silence from the Opposition benches when it came to the vote.

It was initially assumed Labour and the rest of the Opposition parties were against the bill, and had just forgotten to vote in opposition – but Labour, on Wednesday, confirmed to Stuff that it supports the legislation.

Bob Edlin: Extremists will be irked.....

Extremists will be irked, but Govt has put Law Commission’s transgender report into the “no need for urgency” basket

Someone once raised questions that drew PoO’s attention to trans extremists being illogical.

If you can change your sex then why not change your race or species? Why is one possible, but not the others?

Bob Edlin: Kaipara champions the rights of Māori women in prison....

Kaipara champions the rights of Māori women in prison – and is given a reminder of what our voting laws demand

Māori Party MP Oriini Kaipara went out to bat for democracy – hurrah! – at Question Time in Parliament yesterday. But her mission, more pointedly, was to expose the discrimination against Māori which (she would have us believe) will result from government proposals to change electoral legislation.

In the upshot, she was reminded of what the law now requires.

Jenny Ruth: Open letter to Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith

Minister of Justice

P.Goldsmith@ministers.govt.nz

OPEN LETTER

Dear Mr Goldsmith

I’m writing to complain about my treatment, and the treatment of Helen Joyce, a former finance editor and international editor at The Economist, at the hands of the Human Rights Review Tribunal (HRRT).

Graham Adams: Stanford Redeems Herself With Reverse Ferret

Furore over Treaty flip-flop boosts her credentials.

A “reverse ferret” refers to someone suddenly taking a dramatically different position on a particular issue — as Erica Stanford did last week with her screeching u-turn over removing the most prominent of the Treaty clauses in the Education and Training Act (2020).

Mike's Minute: Paul Goldsmith cannot regulate the internet

Tell me how Broadcasting Minister Paul Goldsmith is going to sort the unsortable?

The Broadcasting Standards Authority has, deliberately or not, opened a box of whoopee that is playing out all over the world in various forms.

In simple terms regulators are trying to work out how to control tech.

Graham Adams: Maorification Is National’s Achilles heel

Its opposition to Treatyism is bafflingly haphazard.

At times it’s impossible not to wonder whether some of National’s ministers — and the Prime Minister — have early-onset Alzheimer’s. It is as if they have found themselves in government but can’t remember exactly how they got there and why they won.

Barrie Saunders: The BSA power grab: Post 2

Media and Communications Minister, Paul Goldsmith’s handling of the BSA power grab follow 80 years of abysmal leadership by National Party governments re broadcasting, which have consistently betrayed their rhetoric about supporting competition and private enterprise.

The National Party Holland/Holyoake government of 1949-1957, did nothing of consequence to roll back the Savage/Fraser Labour governments nationalisation of radio. No private radio under National then nor any TV at all.

John McLean: Poor Goldsmuck

Paul Goldsmith shows why The Nats are doomed as a major political party

The Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) has launched a surprise attack on media channel The Platform, aiming to lynch Platform head honcho Sean Plunket.

The attack has taken the form of an unlawful assertion that The Platform falls under BSA’s umbrella, such that BSA can consider complaints against The Platform. BSA’s tactic is to open the floodgates in order to drown The Platform in upheld BSA complaints.

Kerre Woodham: Is it any wonder the Govt's interfering with the judiciary?

I've steered clear of much of the sentencing changes proposed by the Government because it's a topic that we do canvas often. The Government campaigned on toughening up on crime and on criminals, and so far they seem to be delivering, so you know, leave them to it. But Paul Goldsmith's proposal that the government could introduce more minimum or mandatory sentences for crimes, meaning less power for the judges and more for the government, couldn't come at a better time as far as I'm concerned.

David Farrar: Tougher anti-stalking laws

Paul Goldsmith announced:

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is welcoming changes to toughen up the proposed anti-stalking law, including being triggered after two specified acts within 24 months.