Dr David Lillis: On the Quality of Opinion Pieces in Our Media

State Your Case but Leave Out the Ad Hominem

Many of us read with interest a piece by Sir Ian Taylor, published in Stuff of 10 June (Taylor, 2025). This particular article is about Mr. David Seymour, leader of the Act Party and current Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand. Clearly, Sir Ian disagrees with Mr. Seymour on various political and social issues and he is quite at liberty to do so. However, this piece generated a degree of negative reaction amongst many within my own circle of friends and associates, even among those who do not necessarily support the Act Party.

Sir Bob Jones: World class tosh

Since I learnt to read, I’ve averaged a minimum 8 hours daily in this pursuit of both entertainment and information. In total that adds up over my life-time to circa 240,000 hours I’ve spent with my nose in a book, magazine or newspaper.

I can unhesitantly say that never in that time have I read such world-class meaningless, pretentious drivel as a half page article over the names of Sir Bob Harvey and Sir Ian Taylor, published recently in the NZ Herald.

Peter Williams: School lunches are not the government’s job

Seymour correct to ask the question

David Seymour’s pushback against the efficiency and value of the school lunch scheme has aroused the ire of tech entrepreneur and self - confessed Labour sympathiser Sir Ian Taylor.

Seymour, after originally wanting to dispense with them completely, now wants school lunches to be cheaper and have less waste from their distribution. As a senior minister in a government facing severe economic headwinds, his desire to save money is understandable.

But Sir Ian is having none of it.

David Lillis: Debating Education on TV

Going Live

Responding to an invitation, on Tuesday 27 February I joined a brief early-morning TV3 debate with Sir Ian Taylor on the place of matauranga Māori in New Zealand’s curriculum. You can hear the debate using the link given at the end of this article.

I was very reluctant and in going live I had to take the risk of public criticism, but decided to take the chance. 

KSK: Choice Has a Long Memory

The ongoing furore around smoking and the new Government’s stance is reaching farcical levels.

Smoking remains a choice. Smoking is not about to become compulsory. For anyone.

The voice of reason was Casey Costello, the Associate Health Minister, rejecting the criticism.

idbkiwi: What Sir Ian Should Be Worried About

The press pile on against the new Government goes on and on, literally and figuratively, and on. One of Saturday’s efforts was a long op-ed from Sir Ian Taylor expressing his buyer’s regret having voted blue for just the third time in his 70+ years.

Point of Order: Education in crisis, in part because of falling attendances......

......it’s a problem NZ does not have on its own

Education is in crisis in New Zealand — that has become a headline which will be all too familiar to readers of Point of Order. This week, Newshub’s AM show featured it with the catchline on how attendance rates in schools had fallen from 66.1% in term 4 of 2019 to just 50.6% in term 4 of 2022.

Economist Cameron Bagrie told AM’s Ryan Bridge he is “horrified” by the figures and they will have significant real-world consequences in a few decades.

Point of Order: Does Sir Ian Taylor’s elegy for the Ardern government match the mood of many Hamilton West electors?

Hamilton West voters sent a direct message to the capital on Saturday, although behind the Labour fence some found it had to read.

For those, the NZ Herald’s political editor Claire Trevett spelt it out:

“Make no mistake: no matter what Labour says about the result, it will be—and should be—very worried about it”.

For its part, Point of Order sees it as vindicating the pollsters who in their national sampling traced the gap widening between Labour and National, and becoming so wide even a budget full of handouts couldn’t do the trick in turning back the tide.

Sir Ian Taylor: Govt's 'we know best' approach strikes again

Sorry!

It's such a small word, but it appears that the Government has banned it from all the spin-doctoring that has now become the standard response to the ever-increasing array of information that is finally emerging from behind the locked doors of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC) via the Official Information Act.

The latest examples include the emails they desperately tried to block that showed that, back in November last year, the Ministry of Health (MOH) advised the Government that it was time to start winding down managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ).