Dr Oliver Hartwich: The New Mandarinate

In November 2018, officials at Immigration New Zealand began work on replacing the ageing biometric systems that verify identities and manage immigration risk. Seven years later it was dead, having delivered no measurable benefit. Nobody can yet say what it cost.

Kerre Woodham: It's about time the Government cracked down on debt dodgers

Over the weekend too, Nicola Willis announced policy around student loans. And finally, finally, finally, we have a government that's going to get tough on overseas student loan defaulters.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis said yesterday that National will introduce harsher penalties on Kiwis who move overseas and simply refuse to pay back the New Zealand taxpayer.

Bob Edlin: Good health news for Hutt....

....but we didn’t see a picture of Simeon Brown among patients in the Wellington ED queue

It’s a great publicity shot, for two cabinet ministers keen to persuade voters that they should be re-elected at the General Election just a few weeks hence.

Health Minister Simeon Brown is shown wielding a pair of scissors to cut the ribbon at a new medical centre in Lower Hutt.

David Farrar: A huge One Nation swing

Voters in the Western Australian state electorate of Secret Harbour just delivered a huge swing. Here’s the results.

Mike's Minute: "Why risk choking off what little we currently have?"

To the Reserve Bank, the cash rate and the state of NZ Inc.

It's assumed by most that the cash rate will be increased 25 points to 2.75%.

It's also assumed there will be another one by the end of the year. What happens after that has a “who knows” feel about it.

Tuesday September 1, 2026 

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Centre Left will Entrench Te Tiriti & Co-Governance will be the start.

Michael Laws on The Platform says forget co-governance - the Centre Left will entrench Te Tiriti and co-governance will and it will only be the start.

Click to view

NZCPR Newsletter: Gaming the Election

The election is on a knife edge.

On one side is a coalition that wants to encourage people to get ahead through lower taxes, less regulation, stronger economic growth, and more freedom. On the other side are parties that want to penalise success.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Is National's new student debt policy really going to stop our brain drain?

Jeez, I'm not going to lie, I love the punitive part of National's student debt policy.

In case you missed it, it is essentially this: go easier on people with student loans who still live in New Zealand and crack down harder on those with loans who live overseas. National says it's a bid to keep our brightest graduates here.

Ryan Bridge: Have we found the next leaky building saga?

Two questions for you this morning if you're buying or have bought a property recently.

1. Did you get a pre-purchase inspection done?

2. And did that person have a qualification?

Remember leaky buildings? Well, there are a builders and surveyors out there who reckon we're sitting on another leaky building saga.

Yvonne Van Dongen: Introducing The Clap-O-Meter

An unscientific gauge of public opinion at campaign meetings

After Quilae Wong was enthusiastically clapped at the Opportunity Party gathering for dismissing my concerns about women’s sex-based rights, I realised that spontaneous clapping was as good a gauge as any of audience sentiment - although in my case, it was the equivalent of being booed. Rude.

Since I plan to attend more random political party campaign meetings I decided to largely ignore what the aspirants say (it’s all hot air until they’re in power anyway) and listen for the claps. If nothing else, it would tell me something about the audience and their concerns.

Colinxy: Davina Smolders and the Price of Dissent

When “participation” means silence, and “consultation” means obedience

Every so often, a local‑government story breaks through the noise and reveals something deeper — not just a dispute over process, but a clash of political worldviews. The case of Davina Smolders, councillor for the Far North District Council, is one of those moments.

Pee Kay: The Sovereignty Machine

How Corporate Iwi Outmanoeuvre the Fragmented Right

New Zealand is witnessing the formidable operations of a highly sophisticated, unified political force, the Maori sovereignty machine.

Or is it more a case of what too many in New Zealand are not witnessing? We are sleepwalking into a constitutional crisis.

Lindsay Mitchell: Hipkins' play for the Maori seats

Yesterday Labour promised to reinstate the Maori Trades and Training Fund (MTTF) at a cost of $21 million annually. The fund was initially set up as part of the post COVID recovery spend. National later cut it to economise.

It's part of the by Maori, for Maori kaupapa so is run by maraes and iwi for mostly Maori participants. Reinstated, it will be exclusively for Maori. An evaluation of the scheme was generally positive.

Melanie Phillips: Britain’s moral depravity

The campaign against the Israeli “settlers” amounts to racist ethnic cleansing

Astoundingly, the British government is not only demanding that Israel ethnically cleanse its own people from their ancestral homeland but is proposing to punish it for refusing to do so.

The new prime minister, Andy Burnham, is poised to announce “robust” sanctions targeting trade with Israeli “settlements” in the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria, as well as the sanctioning of Israelis linked to businesses there.

Vincent Cook: What Do “Capitalism” and “Socialism” Really Mean?

The old debate between socialism and capitalism is back. It wasn’t that long ago when socialist economics had been repudiated even by former Soviet insiders, businesses like Wendy’s and Miller ran clever television advertisements poking fun at the once-mighty but by then grossly dysfunctional Soviet Union, and the remaining leftist political parties in Western countries pivoted to focusing on promoting welfare statism while admitting that government controls over the means of production is a losing proposition. Back in the day, even people lacking the keen theoretical insights of a Ludwig von Mises could plainly see that actual attempts to realize socialism, however well-intentioned they were originally, only delivered totalitarian tyranny and mass impoverishment.

David Farrar: National does carrot and stick with student loans

Nicola Willis has announced some changes to the student loans scheme to reward those who stay in NZ and repay the loans, and targets those who go overseas and don’t. The changes are:

Mike's Minute: What a waste of time the social media bill was... this year

In the end, was this a “to do” about nothing?

The social media ban for under 16s is a global bandwagon that we were already late to.

And by the time it arrived on Monday, it turns out the party that wrote it didn't have the numbers.

Monday August 31, 2026 

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Roy Morgan: August National-led Government leads Labour-led Parliamentary Opposition (49% vs. 41%)

Roy Morgan’s New Zealand Poll for August 2026 shows the National-led Government (National, ACT & NZ First) unchanged at 49%, maintaining a clear lead over the Labour-Greens-Te Pāti Māori Parliamentary Opposition, unchanged at 41% - and a record high 9.5%, up 1.5% support Opportunity.