Bob Edlin: REVEALED - Auckland Council’s $560,000 ‘Rainbow Machine’

Posted on the Eventfinda website in early February 2020, it shows the Rainbow Machine designed and built by artists Shahriar Asdollah-Zadeh, Patrick Loo and Sarosh Mulla, who had worked with scientists on the project.

The accompanying information drew attention to an opportunity for the public to check out the machine.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Why Māori & Pasifika Do not Share the Same Basic Economic & Non-Economic Values as Labour & Greens.

Former Finance Minister Robertson told a story in his valedictory speech in Parliament. He said that he "wanted to thank [fellow Labour Party MP] Willie Jackson for his patient & calm advocacy. I genuinely felt his aroha when he said “why do you hate the Māoris” when I had just given him a $1 billion of funding". It got laughs, but Labour actually does hate Māori, even though MMP strategies mean that many do vote for it (but only when nothing else is on offer). Here are three reasons why Labour, and Māori & Pasifika, have little in common.

Mike's Minute: Get some expertise around the council tables

Lindsay McKenzie is still busy at work.

You will have forgotten the name because like so much news these days, it's hot stuff until it isn't.

Lindsay is the bloke that was appointed to watch over Wellington Council because of their dysfunction.

Wednesday March 26, 2025 

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Anglo Saxon: New Zealand local body authorities are out of control

Tauranga City Council has given away $38 million dollars worth of rate payers assets into a co-governance arrangement with local rangitira maoris.

Click to view

Ani O'Brien: New Zealand is being pulled in two different directions

Yesterday, the Waitangi Tribunal’s Strategic Direction Review Group quietly posted their report on the Waitangi Tribunal website.1 The group had been tasked with completing “a thorough assessment of how the Waitangi Tribunal was implementing its strategic goals” in accordance with the Strategic Direction 2014-2025 (amended in 2020).

This was the document that, now famously, precipitated the swift resignation from the Waitangi Tribunal of former Labour Minister and Act Party Leader Richard Prebble.

David Farrar: LGNZ Electoral recommendations

Some useful recommendations from the LGNZ working group on local elections.

Move to a nationally consistent system of in-person voting for all local elections that is as similar as possible to parliamentary elections over a two-week timeframe in which to vote, with polling booths in venues where people frequently visit. Preferably by the 2028 local elections or the 2031 local elections at the latest.

If you really want to boost turnout, then I would allow all three methods of voting – postal, in booths and online. Postal is dying, and in booths did not do well in the days before postal.

Graham Adams: Auckland University has a death wish

Sometimes it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the University of Auckland is suicidal. Last year it slipped out of the world’s top 150 universities rankings and this year began a compulsory course on the Treaty and Indigenous “knowledge systems” for all first-year students in every faculty.

So no matter whether you’re studying engineering, accounting, science or arts, you will have to enrol in one of the Waipapa Taumata Rau (WTR) papers, even if you have no interest in the topic and can’t see how being instructed in te Ao Māori is relevant to the subjects you want to specialise in.

Ani O'Brien: Health NZ needs to get back in its lane

In a recent chat about the challenges in New Zealand’s health system, former National Minister Maurice Williamson told me that it is one of the most difficult portfolios a minister can be given. 

He said that no matter how much additional funding is injected into the health system - the current Government has invested more than ever before - it will never be enough. There will always be a new drug to fund or infrastructure to replace. Put out a hundred fires and one hundred and one pop up elsewhere. There will always be someone’s nana who has waited too long for a procedure and news cameras to record her plight. It is the nature of the beast.

Sir Bob Jones: The taxation enigma

One of our very best financial journalists is the Herald’s Fran O’Sullivan.

In a deservedly scathing attack on the insanity of the government’s recent introduction of $100 tourist Visa fee for Chinese visitors, Fran trotted out some hard statistical facts. These are,

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:

John Klar: Homeschooling on the Rise Globally

Once considered the exception rather than the rule, more parents are choosing a homeschooling education over public schools as the best path for their children. A recent Illinois initiative, however, would compel registration of parents who teach their children outside the government’s oversight, revealing the popularity of what has become a parietal movement across the US and in the world’s most developed countries.

Homeschooling Revolt

Bob Edlin: What’s The Future Of Water?

That profoundly critical question was the headline on a local authority’s news release posted on the Scoop website.

The short answer – it seems at first blush – is that there will be plenty of it.

PoO makes that observation on the strength of another headline on the Scoop website:

End Of Eternal Ice: Many Glaciers Will Not Survive This Century, Climate Scientists Say

That steered us to a report from the United Nations which advised us:

Simon O'Connor: Beware signs on footpaths

My free speech sensibilities were the first to kick in last week when I read in legacy media that the Minister of Health had supposedly told public health officials that their views would need to be vetted before being released. The headlines screamed ‘Trumpian’, ‘censorship’, and ‘chilling effect’ and that public health doctors were being prevented from sharing their views.

I should have known better. The headlines were of course sensational and not accurate. I also know the likes of Simeon Brown and others in government, and allowing free speech is a critical value to them.

JC: We Are Funding School Lunches for Pigs

On the face of it, school lunches seem to be yet another example of National wanting to continue funding a Labour Party (Ardern) initiative but this scheme has become a real waste of taxpayers’ money. It would be sensible to have a complete re-evaluation to see how necessary it really is.

Yvonne Van Dongen: The Bogus Promise of Kindness

New Zealanders wondering what happened to the leader who walked away 18 months after a landslide victory have had their questions answered in a soft article in Elle Magazine this month. The ‘be kind’ leader, Dame Jacinda Ardern, has turned her edict to the Covid-ravaged public into a global profession.

Ele Ludemann: Marching for child abuse

Hundreds of deluded people marched in support of child abuse:

Hundreds of people are marching on Parliament to protest against moves that could change how puberty blockers are prescribed in gender affirming care.

Last year, health officials called for a new cautious approach after the government signalled an intent to consider regulating prescriptions to young people.

Mike's Minute: The interest on our national debt will hit $11B

June 2026 is not far off.

In fact, it's next year and next year is election year.

By that time, it is being reported, the interest on our national debt will be $11b.

Do you see how this works?

Tuesday March 25, 2025 

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John McLean: NZME, Oh Me Oh My

NZME Limited is a New Zealand media company that’s publicly listed on NZX, New Zealand’s securities exchange.

NZME publishes several newspapers, including The Herald, and runs multiple radio stations, the most prominent being Newstalk ZB. Curiously, NZME also owns OneRoof, a website for people wanting to buy or sell real estate.