Peter Williams: National's Big Day

This post will be relevant for a very short time.

In the famous words of another National Party leader, the current one will be “gone by lunchtime” so these words will be out of date before the clock strikes 12.

Mark down Wednesday August 12, 2026 as the day the National Party took one of the biggest gambles in its 90 year history.

That Christopher Luxon has to go is a no-brainer.

Peter Williams: Political Opinion

If you wanted a display on who is the country’s most composed and unflappable politician, look no further than the reaction to Christopher Luxon’s rather bizarre pronouncement that if returned as Prime Minister after the election he’d hold a referendum on our MMP electoral system.

The whole situation appears completely unplanned. He was on a radio talkback show and commenting on a listener text. It was all very vague. He was “open” to asking voters if they were still supportive of MMP and then pressed further about holding a referendum, he said “yeah, I think I would.”

Can you believe he said that?

Peter Williams: Why are we waiting?

The Ngai Tahu water case is clogged in a judge's chambers

There are no official records for New Zealand’s longest delay between a court hearing and the judgement.

High Court guidelines say judges expect 90 percent of reserved decisions to be delivered within three months of the last day of the hearing. The Chief High Court Judge regards a reserved judgement as being “outstanding beyond a reasonable time” once six months have elapsed.

So where does that leave Justice Melanie Harland and her decision on the Ngai Tahu Freshwater Statement of Claim hearing which finished on April 4th last year?

Peter Williams: Removing the little sh*ts

Act's latest education move is worth a go

Paul Henry always had a knack for cutting to the chase. That’s why his succinct line about Act’s education discipline policy will hit the spot with so many teachers.

“Let’s be honest, there are a lot of little sh*ts in classrooms and we need to address that if we’re to lift education standards.”

So Act want to give teachers more power to throw the little sh*ts out of the class.

Peter Williams: Who can be a racist?

It's not about ethnicity. It's about your politics.

In my not entirely successful career as a radio talk show host, a few encounters remain fresh in the memory.

One was with former Te Tai Tokerau MP Hone Harawira during the time of the Ihumatao land occupation near Auckland Airport in 2019.

Peter Williams: Stop the madness

Local government amalgamation deadlines nonsensical

From the wilds of Central Otago I am cheering loudly, clapping enthusiastically and hooping and hollering “go you good thing” to the councils in Taupo, Tararua and Rangitikei who are basically saying to the government “get stuffed.”

I write this on the last day of July. In ten days the deadline imposed by Local Government Minister Simon Watts for the country’s local authorities to find a dance partner or two runs out.

Peter Williams: My vote needs a home

Fifteen weeks out it's struggling to find one

The great irony of Christopher Luxon ruling out a coalition with those redistributive Marxists of Opportunity is that the longer Luxon leads National it’s becoming the kind of left leaning social democratic party I’ve spent my life avoiding.

Consider some of their recent announcements and claims:

Peter Williams: Swarbrick and her unchallenged claims

If we don't reach climate targets it doesn't matter

Chloe Swarbrick makes ridiculous and outrageous statements, most of which go unchallenged by a sympathetic media.

Here’s the latest nonsense.

Peter Williams: Seriously 1 News ?

Money triumphs over editorial sense

In the immortal words of tennis legend John McEnroe: “You cannot be serious.”

Whatever slight remaining credibility 1 News might have had as a genuine, unbiased, commercially neutral news organisation disappeared completely tonight (July20) because they did not lead their bulletin with one of the great moments in New Zealand sporting history.

Peter Williams: The Modi Lovefest

It was all a bit weird wasn't it?

Like any (sort of) sophisticated nation we’ve always played host to visits from foreign leaders. The APEC meeting of 1999 even had the presidents of the USA, Russia and China all here at the same time.

But never, ever, ever have I seen a New Zealand Prime Minister holding hands with a visiting Prime Minister.

Peter Williams: Act's High Hopes for Henry

It's sure to be second time successful for the former TV host

One of the rapidly emerging features of the 2026 election is the announcement of candidates carrying a profile from another sphere of activity.

Peter Williams: The Flying Golf Ball Conundrum

Being there first doesn't count

One of the more unexpected consequences of the Covid era and its restrictions has been a boom in the number of people playing golf.

According to Golf New Zealand, in 2019 there were 105,967 paid up members of the country’s 390 golf clubs. That number for 2025 was 153,665, a remarkable 45 percent increase in just six years. Somehow thousands discovered a useful way to pass all that lockdown spare time was to take one’s frustrations out on a little dimpled ball.

Peter Williams: Selling food and tyres on the news

Is the cheerleading of expensive eating an appropriate use of TV news time?

Sometimes you just cringe at the content of the television news.

Saturday night was a classic. The New Zealand football team lost, predictably, to Belgium by 5 goals to 1 so ending their World Cup campaign.

Peter Williams: Hooton of The Post

A new way for the newspaper industry

Has New Zealand just appointed its first “celebrity” editor?

The quite remarkable announcement today of columnist, speech writer, PR agent and strategist Matthew Hooton to be the editor of Wellington’s Post newspaper has some overtures of former British cabinet minister Michael Gove becoming editor of The Spectator and one time Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne leading London’s Evening Standard.

Peter Williams: The Naidoo controversy

How the media is fighting back at Richard Chambers' and Mark Mitchell's questions

Here’s a classic case of how media can attract you with a patently misleading headline.

From the New Zealand Herald website, posted at 4.21 pm on June 11:

Former commissioners defend Labour police candidate Rakesh Naidoo’s integrity, question political motives and fear for ‘damaged’ police reputation

Underneath the headline was a photo of the Police Commissioner Richard Chambers.

Peter Williams: Please don't take the Opportunity

The rising star of New Zealand politics are Marxist re-distributors

Any day now the June Curia-Taxpayers Union political poll will be released. It’s less than five months to the 2026 election, the time that polling numbers start to matter.

Last month a party which rebranded as Opportunity (formerly The Opportunities Party or TOP) scored 2.8 percent in the Curia-TU poll. In April Opportunity cracked through to 3.3 percent in the 1 News Verian survey.

Peter Williams: Maori seat manipulation

How a clever campaign could help derail Chris Bishop

There’s an intriguing campaign underway to try and manipulate the existence of the Māori electorates at the next two elections – this year and 2029 - and possibly for 2032 as well.

That’s because the existence of seven such constituencies is guaranteed through the next two elections and there won’t be a review of their number and boundaries until at least 2030. Now that the census has been abandoned and replaced with otherwise available government data, there’s no guarantee the number of seats will change for 2032 either.

Peter Williams: A BoNkerZ idea

No Winston, we should not buy a big bank

Since my first vote in 1975 I’ve been pretty much around the party clock, although I never stopped at Green o’clock. Once I even put a tick beside a Social Credit candidate because Muldoon’s National was just impossible to support in 1981.

I’ve been with Labour and National and Act but in 2023 I went with New Zealand First. That’s because they promised us a proper inquiry into the covid response and that they would ensure if treaty principles were not to be defined, they would at least be taken out of most legislation.

Peter Williams: STV time is up

Time to remove a complicated voting system

For those suffering from insomnia at 2.30 in the morning, can I recommend a taxpayer funded website stv.govt.nz

On second thoughts it may not just make your eyes glaze over. It could also make you bloody angry about how some local government political activists, aided and abetted by their bureaucrats, have conned their voting public to adopt the ridiculous voting system known as Single Transferable Vote or STV.

Peter Williams: A new look for local government

Are wholesale mergers really the answer?

In 1875 New Zealand had 10 provinces, each with their own government.

We now have 26 provincial rugby unions.

Currently there are 78 local authorities – 12 city councils, 53 district councils, Auckland Council, Chatham Islands council and 11 regional councils.

It used to be worse, much worse.