Barrie Davis - Weimar Germany: Death of a Democracy

“The Weimar Republic was Germany’s postwar experiment with democracy, and a time of unprecedented intellectual and artistic freedom. But beneath the glamour was a polarized society plagued by economic disasters, populist leaders fuelling culture wars and an uneasy political settlement that would soon spawn the horrors of Nazism.”

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Simon Watts made the right call - but it should go further

Credit to Simon Watts.

Some time ago he told me he was going to do something to stop councils like the Far North District Council.

They put ten iwi representatives, not elected by ratepayers, on a committee with six councillors who were elected, with full voting rights, thereby outnumbering the elected folk.

John McLean: Axeable agencies of state

The Government and main stream media outlets have been doing their best to paint a picture of an economic upswing, just in time for Christmas. But the portrayed rosy economic future is a vision through rose tinted glasses. Inflation is at 3%, the highest it’s been since mid-2024 and unemployment, at 5.3%, is the highest since 2016.

More particularly, New Zealand’s core national debt had risen from $81 billion at the end of the third quarter of 2023 (the last quarter of the departed Labour Government’s term in office), to $170 billion at the end of Q3 2024, to $182 billion at the end of Q3 2025. The annual interest cost of NZ’s debt is about $10 billion. New Zealand’s debt will top $200 billion within the next few years (that’s $40,000 for every single man, woman and child in New Zealand). Nothing’s really changed, economically, since my Substack exactly two years ago:

Heather du Plessis-Allan: The Bondi attack was a race relations problem

This business of Australia tightening up its gun laws feels like it runs the risk of distracting from the bigger problems over there.

I don’t think guns were the problem on Sunday. Australia already has some of the tightest gun laws in the world.

Mike's Minute: The Government have read things right

So, one poll tells us something by not really moving and another poll tells us something by being badly misrepresented.

The TV1 news numbers last night show that essentially the Government is travelling well, most parties are stable, the Greens are down a bit, but its all, so far, within the margin of error. Nothing really has changed.

John Robinson: New Zealand Nonsense (one) - the Maori race

Once when Maori called me racist, I would say “No, I am not.”  Then I thought a bit about what racism is, and I realised that they were the racists.  I had entered dangerous grounds, for it did not take long to see that my country is deeply racist.  I do not belong here.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: The Government doesn't need a petty issue around race relations

Inevitably, the Aussies have picked up on the slur from Chris Luxon, where he said when talking to Aussies - it pays to be ‘incredibly simple’.

And they seem to be largely taking in the spirit it’s intended, which is just a bit of humour. And it also means Luxon’s play worked.

Which is - by having a crack at the Aussies to distract us from the actual issue, which is Paul Goldsmith taking Māori words out of the Matariki invitation.

Donald Foster: The Coalition Government’s Progress

In his 15^th May, 2024 pre-budget speech, the Prime Minister asserted that “New Zealanders voted for us last year to do three things – rebuild the economy, restore law and order, and deliver better public services”. 

That may have been his personal perspective on the issue, it may even have been the National Party’s perspective on the issue, but the Coalition Agreement more reliably reflected the electoral issues of concern at point three of the preamble to the agreements between National, Act, and NZ First, which stated “The Coalition Government’s priorities for this term include (in addition to those picked out by the Prime minister and amongst other issues) ending race based policies (and)  defending freedom and democracy, (the latter expanded elsewhere in the Agreement  to uphold the principles of liberal democracy, including equal citizenship and parliamentary sovereignty, the rule of law and property rights), followed by a number of specific steps to that end.

Ross Meurant: Let's All Be One Nation

Gina Lollobrigida once said: “We are all born to die – the difference is the intensity with which we choose to live.”

Or as Machiavelli said: “Fortune rules only half a man’s life; The other half being their will.”  

As a disciple of the erudition enunciated by these eminent advocates of the pathway for individuals to succeed, and whereas I acknowledge the distinction between individuals and ethnic communities, I nevertheless have difficulty endorsing policy of politicians which seeks to artificially elevate cultures by ethnicity.(1)

JC: Paddy Throws One on Matters of Race

Joseph Los’e, the Herald’s Kaupapa Maori editor, had an article in Monday’s Herald featuring Paddy Gower and his thoughts on matters of race. Evidently the problems concerning race are, by and large, caused by old white men. There are a number of points Gower made that I, as an old white man, and no doubt others, take issue with. It’s this sort of idiotic comment and analysis that wind old white men up. And not only men and not only Pakeha.

Barrie Davis: Oh, the Humanity!

We are presently witnessing the closure of some mainstream media companies in New Zealand and it is anticipated there will be more. Several pundits in politics and the media are concerned for the effect their loss will have on democracy in this country. Yet, the mainstream media are known to be biased, overwhelmingly to the Left. The propaganda they published on behalf of the Labour government was instrumental in putting our country in the poor position it is now.

The Government paid them $55 million to “Actively promote the principles of Partnership, Participation and Active Protection under Te Tiriti o Waitangi, acknowledging Māori as a Te Tiriti partner” which they willingly accepted and are now bound to do until 2026. The Treaty is one page which can be read in five minutes. It does not mention principles or partnership, let alone specify them: Those words are just not there. Even Maori leaders say there are no principles in the Treaty.

Ross Meurant: Turbulence of Time

Politics is akin to a surging tide.  Each new wave presents a new challenge and too often, those challenges are not what we expected or wanted

Nelson Mandela was arrested for his role in the Defiance Campaign, launched 26 June 1952, and thus began his odyssey of opposing the Apartheid regime being implemented by the Verwoerd South African government. 

Although found, not guilty, of the 1952 rumbles and that he was initially committed to non-violent protest, in 1961 in association with a militant group he led a sabotage campaign against the government. He was arrested and imprisoned in 1962, and, was sentenced to life imprisonment for conspiring to overthrow the State.

Chris Trotter: Who’s Driving The Right-Wing Bus?

Bill Rowling told New Zealanders that he felt as though he had been run over by a bus. The metaphor was apt. Rob Muldoon’s 1975 electoral victory represented one of the great turnarounds in New Zealand political history. Three years earlier, Labour’s Norman Kirk had sent the National Government of Jack Marshall packing. But, just three years later, Muldoon, Marshall’s populist successor, exactly reversed Kirk’s landslide. National’s majority in the House of Representatives was identical to Labour’s – a whopping 23 seats. New Zealand had voted for the nation they wanted – and Muldoon was determined to give it to them.

Karl du Fresne: Guest post - the Maori electorates

In the following article, retired businessman Perce Harpham makes the point that Maori electorates are no longer necessary to ensure Maori representation and provide a means by which voters of part-Maori ancestry can exercise disproportionate political power. This runs counter to the basic democratic principle that every person's vote should carry equal weight, regardless of race. Publication of his article on this blog doesn't imply endorsement of everything Perce says, but I agree with his essential proposition.

Clive Bibby: Is reparation enough or is there another way

I find it hard to work out what is fair compensation for misdeeds suffered by Maori at the hands of my ancestors.

Given that New Zealand appears to be the only country in the world taking its colonial history seriously enough that something more than an apology is offered to those whose tribal land was confiscated by the state, some would say that the Waitangi Tribunal process provides adequate access to justice.

Cam Slater: Gee, I Wonder What Caused That?

Proof Labour’s policies have made NZ more racist not less

Like everything this Government has done since taking office in 2017, their attempts to supposedly address race relations have had the opposite effect to that which was intended.

Affordable housing policies and healthy home initiatives, plus the war on landlords, have seen rents and house prices skyrocket. The only light at the end of the tunnel in that regard is the oncoming train of recession tanking house prices. The recession will deliver yet more bad news for them, countering any positive claims regarding house prices.

Don Brash: Shane Te Pou is profoundly wrong

On the odd occasion when I have found myself in a TV studio with Shane Te Pou, I have always found him a likeable and reasonable kind of person but he completely lost me in his Herald on Sunday article, "Shane Te Pou asks Christopher Luxon to stop playing the race card and put national interest first" on 2 July.

The article is written as if addressed to the Leader of the National Party, Christopher Luxon, and notes that there are probably many policy areas in which the two are in agreement, though Mr Te Pou makes no secret of his leaning to the Left.

But then he writes:

Bruce Moon: “At Last Bygones Were Bygones”

So said a headline on page 33 of the New Zealand Herald Centennial Record for 13 November 1963.  Hmmm!  I wonder what that was about?

I looked further to read under this bold headline dated January 20, 1882: “Tawhiao, the Maori King, was given an enthusiastic welcome when he arrived in Auckland yesterday as the guest of the Mayor and citizens. ... the great demonstration of public goodwill was a pledge that the people desire bygones to be bygones, and that they wish well to the whole Maori people. It was the formal conclusion of all hostilities between the races, the healing of old wounds, the closing of a bloody chapter in the history of New Zealand.” ...

Garrick Tremain: Merger

 Here is Garrick Tremain's cartoon commentary on Labour's new commissioners! 

Karl du Fresne: The cautionary tale of the Woodville Wire

Ever heard of the Woodville Wire? No, I hadn’t either, until a couple of days ago. It’s a newsletter that publishes community news and comment on local issues in a southern Hawke’s Bay town where nothing much happens (at least, not usually).

I'm guessing the Wire’s readership would be counted in the hundreds, at most, yet this very modest news sheet has unexpectedly been pitched headlong into the culture wars. What follows is a cautionary tale about the febrile state of Maori-Pakeha relations and the precariousness of free speech in a climate of state-sanctioned authoritarian orthodoxy.