Pee Kay: Where should the ambulance be placed?

And Why the Taxpayer is Left at the Bottom of the Cliff

A recent letter to the editor in the NZ Herald read – “…when are we going to wake up as a nation and realise that we need more tax income to pay for all the health, education and infrastructure that the country needs attending to?

Adding – “Future generations will be burdened with debt that will need to be repaid unless we are brave enough to change our tax structure to meet our growing needs”

So here we have another economic visionary gracing the letters to the editor page, imploring the state to extract even more cash from our already empty wallets. Because obviously to them, the only reason New Zealand’s hospitals are crumbling and our roads resemble the surface of the moon is that the government simply doesn’t have enough of our hard earned tax dollars to fritter away! The prevailing wisdom from these bleeding hearts is always the same; if we just tax our way to prosperity, future generations will magically inherit a debt-free utopia.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Are the days of building big roads really over?

Yeah, I don't know what to make of Shane Jones's prediction last night that the days of building big roads are over. He was at this infrastructure debate in Wellington and he said, and I quote, I personally don't see ever another four-lane highway being built in New Zealand in my lifetime. The politicians are going to struggle to justify the cost.

Graham Adams: Media talks up Winston Peters’ rise

The path to election glory has traps.

NZ First’s prospects at the election after a run of good polling are being talked up by increasingly enthusiastic commentators. But if a week is a long time in politics, more than six months is an eternity. And there are traps aplenty for the party to navigate before November 7.

Listening to the media, however, you might think the continuing rise of Winston Peters and NZ First is unstoppable.

Bob Edlin: How Jones passed the ball to ACT on co-governance.....

How Jones passed the ball to ACT on co-governance – and watched them score – by trying to nobble a Far North councillor

New Zealand First’s Shane Jones was desperately striving to recover lost ground when he despatched an email to team supporters and the media late in the week.

The email landed in PoO’s office while we were digesting the publicity Jones had won when he stumbled and put the ball into his own goal while – it seems – trying to score political points in two separate constituencies.

Dr Bryce Edwards: Democracy Briefing - The Energy insurance that NZ never bought

Arguments about the current energy crisis have shifted. It is no longer just about what ministers are doing now. It is also about what they chose not to do when they had the chance.

This morning brought the clearest accountability journalism to this debate. Kate MacNamara in the Herald and Edward Miller in The Post both zero in on the same issue: New Zealand was left more exposed than it needed to be, and ministers were warned about the country’s lack of fuel reserves.

Matua Kahurangi: NZ First implements ban to stop the “rape of the rockpools”

For months, locals along the east coast north of Auckland have been forced to witness the same disgusting spectacle. Busloads of predominantly Chinese immigrants descending with buckets, chilly bins, spades, and even piano wire, turning vibrant rockpools into lifeless deserts.

Ani O'Brien: Waitangi 2026 - the year of in-fighting on the Left

Labour and Te Pāti Māori competed in the drama stakes airing their dirty laundry

Waitangi Day is an annual time of remembrance, renewal, grievance, self-flagellation, and competing narratives. The summer ritual at the Treaty Grounds is part civic commemoration, part political theatre, and part family reunion. It is also, the ultimate testing ground for the mettle of centre-right politicians. There is a difference between demonstrating respect and grovelling, and often leaders fall into the trap of the latter.

Waitangi is where speeches are met with heckling and iwi remind the Crown of nearly 200 years of promises as well as issue new demands. This year’s commemorations were charged with protest, apology and juicy gossip, yet they also contained glimmers of hope and common sense.

Geoff Parker: Anti-Māori Talk, Pro-Māori Funding

Author’s note: This article is offered in the spirit of strengthening political credibility through honest engagement with the record, rather than as an argument against any party or leader.

Winston Peters and Shane Jones have built a political brand on railing against what they call “race-based policy”, “co-governance excesses”, and the supposed capture of the state by Māori interests. Their language is sharp, performative, and deliberately confrontational. It resonates with voters who feel alienated by identity politics and who believe governments should treat all citizens equally.

But there is a problem. A very large one.

Matua Kahurangi: NZ Deserves doctors and nurses

Not more Uber drivers and curry chefs

At last, one political party is willing to say out loud what many New Zealanders have been thinking for years, that our immigration system is broken, and the numbers pouring in are unsustainable.

Mike's Minute: Shane Jones can help the Govt shift up a gear

Shane Jones is fast becoming my favourite politician.

And he might have summed up the Government's issues with one on of his increasingly famous quips.

"The Ruth Richardson bare austerity approach is not delivering the economic growth we need."

John McLean: Yet Another Perfectly Innocent Mistake......(Not)

NZ's Department of Conservation pleads guilty to a lesser crime

On 5 June 2025, the Department of Conservation (DoC) declined a mining company’s application for a resource consent to expand an existing gold mining operation - by a moderate 6 hectares.

The company is OceanaGold. The mine is Macraes mine near Dunedin. Macraes, which opened in 1990, is New Zealand’s largest gold mine.

John McLean: High Time To Wield The Axe

Tribal threats to New Zealand’s democracy must get the chop, before it’s too late

There’s no such thing as pan-Māoridom. Never has been. Not before colonisation, and not now. “Māori” are a collection of separate tribes (iwi), which now number about 150. None of these tribes were or are democratic. The head of each iwi hierarchy is a paramount chief, the Ariki, typically an inherited status. At the bottom of each traditional Māori tribe were the slaves and baby girls.

So it should come as no surprise that many Māori leaders are no fans of democracy.

Centrist: Ngāpuhi talks face ultimatum as government pushes for single settlement

The government is signalling the clock is ticking on Ngāpuhi Treaty talks, with Treaty Minister Paul Goldsmith warning negotiations “can’t be as long as forever” and should conclude by 2040.

NZ First’s Shane Jones, who is drafting a Member’s Bill to force a single Ngāpuhi settlement, said taxpayers had already spent “well beyond $20 million” and could not afford endless delays.

Mike's Minute: We need leadership on the Ngāpuhi settlement

Is Shane Jones showing the Minister for Treaty Negotiations Paul Goldsmith how to run his own portfolio?

In response to Jones and his Member's bill on the never ending Ngāpuhi drama, Goldsmith says the process can't go on forever.

Which is the same as saying nothing, because clearly it is, and Goldsmith clearly has no plan.

JC: Shane Jones Hammers in the Nails

Following the presentation of the budget I put myself through the agony of listening to the speeches from the party leaders in reply. The best, unsurprisingly, was delivered by Matua Shane Jones. This man never fails to impress. He is parliament’s top orator and always manages to include some humour while lambasting all and sundry. He wore a light blue jacket to illustrate where he belonged and a red tie to show the Labour Party what might have been. I will get to him but first a cursory glance at the other speeches.

Bob Edlin: Jones enthuses about “holistic” strategies.....

Jones enthuses about “holistic” strategies – and has a whole lot of money ($60m) for Taupo geothermal project

This report was triggered by a ministerial press statement which our Beehive watchdogs last week filed in the “what the hell does that mean?” category.

The statement came from the Coalition Government’s master of verbosity, Shane Jones, but it contained an expression which we expect will be employed by politicians disposed to “wokeness”.

He said:

Bob Edlin: Tākuta Ferris – chided by Shane Jones for delivering apology only in Maori....

Tākuta Ferris – chided by Shane Jones for delivering apology only in Maori – says his generation was born to agitate

Tākuta Ferris found to have misled the House…

That was the headline on a post by David Farrar on Kiwiblog yesterday after the Privileges Committee reported:

Geoff Parker: National in decline

Has Prime Minister Christopher Luxon just signed the National Party’s death warrant?

According to our unreliable, biased media: “The Prime Minister says he will refuse any demand from the Act Party for a referendum on the Treaty Principles Bill after the next election – even if he needs Act to form a Government.”

With the present mood of the country calling for a referendum on the Treaty Principles Bill (TPB) and Luxon’s utterances above, I now predict a huge swing to David Seymour and ACT, it could be a swing so large that National will no longer be the go to party for sending the looney lefties to the opposition benches, in fact with National’s current pro-Maori ideology they may as well join the lefties.

Shane Jones: The Carnival Is Over, The Hikoi Does Not Overwrite Our History And Values As A Country

The carnival is over, the hikoi does not overwrite our history and values as a country.

Click to view

Cam Slater: Goodbye, Freddy

Archey’s Frog vs a $4b gold mine: goodbye, Freddy.

Shane Jones, finally gets his wish: to get a gold mine going, and removing a frog that may not be in the way.