Blog

by Geoff Parker Winston Peters has a gift. He knows exactly how to press the public’s emotional buttons without ever quite delivering what many think he’s promising. His 2026 pledge of a referendum on the Māori seats is a classic [...]

by Nathan Smith Looking at the latest Jeffery Epstein files, I realised that I know people exactly like him, have read books written by people like him and that people like him are part of America’s deep history. Was Epstein [...]

by Kathryn Ennis-Carter Hi Maree and Marty Great to have you back on RCR again - we've missed you. A couple of things that maybe you'd like to pick up/comment on some time. The Sexual Revolution Very interesting discussion about [...]

by Katie Ashby-Koppens New Zealand has one month left to make a consequential decision that will shape how future pandemics are governed, yet key domestic inquiries into New Zealand’s response to the last World Health Organization-declared pandemic remain unfinished. By [...]

by Peter Williams Stop the presses! A political party wants the Maori electorates back on the election agenda. New Zealand First says let’s have a referendum and let the people decide. The Winston party thinks it knows what the people [...]

by Peter Dunne Contrary to what many commentators are suggesting, Labour is not in the dominant position on what happens regarding the proposed free trade agreement with India. Labour is actually over a barrel on the issue. Thanks to New [...]

by Dr Oliver Hartwich The Resource Management Act 1991 was an act of economic self-sabotage. Over three decades it inflated house prices by imposing what economists call a regulatory tax: the share of prices created by planning restrictions alone. In [...]

by Richard Prebble Politicians make mistakes. They are human. Decisions must often be made with inadequate information. It is easy to be wise in retrospect. We should be understanding. What we should not be forgiving is reckless decision-making — when [...]

by Physicians and Scientists for Global Responsibility NZ PDF SUBMISSION TO THE ENVIRONMENT SELECT COMMITTEE New Zealand’s Natural Environment Bill arrives with big claims. It promises stronger environmental protection, better enforcement, clearer limits, and a more coherent system than the [...]

by Rachel Stewart We’ve known each other for a while now and you know that I’m a naturally suspicious person whenever I’m told what to think by “experts” and mainstream media and corporations. You too? And given we’re in the [...]

by John MacDonald Labour leader Chris Hipkins has fallen into the trap that I could very easily find myself falling into if I didn’t think a little bit more carefully about this plan by the Government to set-up a new [...]

by Simon O'Connor So, Hong Konger Jimmy Lai is going to die in prison – a martyr for democracy, freedom, and faith. This might sound a bit dramatic, but if you know the story of Jimmy Lai, you will understand [...]

by Nathan Smith “I’m going to miss this tree, and that tree over there, and all the memories in between.” On the day they moved house, my friend asked his daughter what she thought about the decision to sell the [...]

by Lindsay Perigo So we just observed another Grievance Day, sometimes known as Waitangi Day, where the pseudo-natives get restless and leer up, scream and shriek about colonisation and its unspeakable evils and demand that we White Supremacists remain ever [...]

by Roger Partridge Economic historian and Hoover Institution senior fellow Niall Ferguson declares that Donald Trump “won Davos, hands down.” Writing in The Free Press, Ferguson’s argument runs as follows. European leaders genuinely feared Trump might use military force to annex Greenland. They [...]

by Julian Adorney For the past few years, the world has been falling into what Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE)’s Matthew Harwood calls a “free speech recession.” It’s tempting for those of us who grew up in a robust [...]

by Dr Oliver Hartwich For the first time since the Second World War, New Zealand is being asked to make major economic decisions under direct threat from an ally. New Zealand is negotiating a minerals deal with the United States. [...]

by Roger Partridge In last Waitangi Day’s NZ Herald column, I argued that New Zealand’s sovereignty was not created in a single moment in 1840 but built over generations through practical governance, with Māori and Pākehā participating together. This year’s column takes [...]

by William McGimpsey In an article in The Press, David Farrar proposed that New Zealand become Australia’s seventh state. Summarised, Farrar argues that: The “rules-based world order” is crumbling and being replaced with a “might makes right” world; In such a [...]

by Peter Dunne The election year blame game over the state of the economy is underway, with all the accompanying fanatical partisan vehemence that makes the politicians' claims and counterclaims tedious and pointless. National will always say that they have [...]

by Liam Hehir David Farrar has made an argument in The Post for New Zealand becoming a state of Australia. His views are thoughtful and offered in good faith. We should acknowledge it as a serious attempt to think clearly about New [...]

by Gerrard Eckhoff First of all - the good news. The Resource Management Act (RMA) is gone for good. After reaping destruction over our productive sectors - of all hues for past thirty-five years, the RMA is to be finally [...]

by Michael Bassett If you are watching the bizarre goings on at Waitangi, keep an eye out for which politicians use the term “The Treaty”, and which refer to what was signed on 6 February 1840 as “Te Tiriti”. The [...]

by David Seymour, Deputy Prime Minister E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā iwi, e rau rangatira mā. Tenā, koutou katoa. I'm proud to be here, celebrating the 186th anniversary of the Treaty being signed on these grounds. I [...]

by Rachel Stewart Someone you know, someone you will know, or you, will be caught up and flailing in the net of deep-sea grief – if you haven’t been there already. And now it’s my turn. Over the last nearly [...]

by Dr Bryce Wilkinson Consumer price inflation in New Zealand is not beaten. The Reserve Bank might decide it has cut interest rates a bit too much. It has cut the official cash rate nine times in just 16 months. [...]

by Nathan Smith Congratulations, Australia, you now have censorship laws that are nearly identical to post-WWII Germany. Did Australia lose a war? If we’re being honest, it probably did. The recently passed Australian hate speech legislation could have been a [...]

by Lindsay Perigo Thank you Paul and Happy New Year everyone! It's been a few weeks of the best and worst of everything. The worst leaves me wondering still, can Western Civilisation and its pillars - freedom of speech and association, the [...]

by Ian McLean New Zealand faces a grey rhino event. We now feel the impact of the NZ birth rate dropping. Across the world it’s happening. Birth rates are well below replacement. Workforces are tightening. Populations are ageing. The cost [...]

by Simon O'Connor Consistency. Not the most exciting word in the English dictionary, but an attribute I place a high value on. As some of you may know, philosophy is one of my great loves and I think the merit [...]

by Maree Buscke For those who aren’t aware of Louise Perry, she is a British journalist, author, and commentator known for her sharp, research-driven writing on sex, culture, and modern feminism. With a background that includes working at a rape [...]

by Roger Partridge Imagine Parliament passes a Schools Act “to promote the establishment of schools for the benefit of New Zealand.” Parliament is careful. It specifies exactly what the Minister must consider before approving a new school: the operator’s financial [...]

by David Lillis New Zealand has a Problem Recently, Peter Williams has commented on Australia's social media ban for under-16s (Williams, 2025) and Joanna Grey has expressed her own views on the problem in New Zealand (Grey, 2026). Unfortunately, the [...]

by Dr Muriel Newman On its introduction in the early nineties, the Resource Management Act was hailed as groundbreaking. It was “enabling” legislation – a bold departure from the rigid, prescriptive Town and Country Planning Act that had governed land use for decades. Instead [...]

by Yvonne van Dongen Yesterday I spent the morning with the wrong sort of Maori. The kind that believe in God, sing the national anthem and wave the New Zealand flag with pride. The Destiny Church Maori. The Brian Tamaki [...]

by Roger Partridge The pre-Christmas stoush between Finance Minister Nicola Willis and her 1990s predecessor Ruth Richardson has faded. The planned debate was cancelled. But beneath the theatre lies a puzzle neither of them addressed. The Government has cut contractors, culled [...]

by Peter Dunne Dame Jacinda Ardern transformed a hitherto ho-hum Prime Ministership that had been looking decidedly one-term with her response to the Christchurch Mosque attacks in 2019. Her handling of the Covid19 outbreak a year later cemented her reputation [...]

by Bruce Cotterill We’ve only just finished the third week of January, and already we are seeing a level of global change that feels unprecedented. According to the timeline of my holiday reading, it started in Iran, where the people [...]

by Nathan Smith The American cartoonist Scott Adams died last week at the age of 68. When he was correct, he was useful. But when he was wrong, it was because he was scared. And fear is not a good [...]

by David Thunder he UK government has pledged to introduce a digital ID system for all UK citizens and legal residents by the end of the current Parliament (so no later than 2029). The integration of digital ID into government [...]

by Matua Kahurangi Today is the last Tuesday of January. It is a date that should matter more in New Zealand’s political memory than it does. On the last Tuesday of January in 2004, Dr. Don Brash stood at the [...]

by Corey Smith Thanks to the Constitution and dozens of Supreme Court cases, we live in a country where you can say almost anything you want – within reason. American free speech means you can tell a crowd of globalists that only [...]

by Roger Partridge “If not military intervention, then what? And when is intervention justified?” Those were the challenges from readers of my recent essay arguing conservatives should not be too quick to praise President Trump’s removal of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro. My objection was [...]

Dear Members of Parliament, Ministry of Health officials, Auditor General and the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission leadership team and board, We respectfully submit our paper Reclaiming Health, and its reform recommendations for your consideration. PSGRNZ (2026) Reclaiming Health: Reversal, Remission & Rewiring. Understanding [...]

by Nathan Smith While everyone was watching Venezuela, my eyes noticed something strange 25.4 billion kilometres into space. Something didn’t feel right about what I was being told. As a cool New Year’s gift (I’m not sure who was the [...]

by Simon O'Connor Iran has a wonderful, deep, and rich history. Persia, as it was once known, has enriched the world from the great poetry of Rumi to Avicenna’s work in medicine and philosophy. Persians are a distinct ethnic, linguistic, [...]

by William McGimpsey Introduction – 2001: A Space Odyssey and the logic of breakdown One of my favourite films is 2001: A Space Odyssey. The central drama (though by no means the only interesting or important part) is the conflict between the [...]

by Roger Partridge There was something deeply satisfying about watching Nicolás Maduro being hauled from his palace and deposited in a Brooklyn jail cell. The man was a monster. Under his rule, Venezuela’s economy contracted by roughly three-quarters – the [...]

by Emanuel E. Garcia, M.D. As I watch the world in its convulsions lurching towards a newer age — and I for one believe it will be a better age despite the transitional chaos — I have been reflecting on [...]

by Ian Bradford The first IPCC Assessment Report in 1990 found that the climate record of the past century was “broadly consistent” with changes in the Earth’s surface temperature, as calculated by climate models that incorporated the observed increase in [...]

by Thomas L. Hogan Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are widely – but wrongly – panned as unregulated casinos or Ponzi schemes that create no real value. For example, US Senator Elizabeth Warren called crypto a “threat to financial stability,” while [...]

by Simon O'Connor The capture by American forces of now former Venezuelan President, Nicolás Maduro, raises a host of complicated issues. Right from the outset, we wrestle with simply finding the correct description concerning his removal from the country. Was [...]

by Michael Tomlinson Evidence continues to mount indicating that the global response to the Covid-19 pandemic was counterproductive and harmful, yet mainstream opinion continues to proclaim that it was a triumph. This is based on scientific papers that often manipulate [...]

by Simon O'Connor Hello everyone. A short Substack to wrap up the year and to wish you all a Merry Christmas and enjoyable summer ahead (or to my northern hemisphere followers, an equally happy and relaxing winter). I am very [...]

by Bruce Cotterill The past couple of weeks have seen plenty of conjecture about the future of Christopher Luxon as the leader of the National Party and hence, Prime Minister. I don’t know if the rumbles about Chris Bishop rolling [...]

by Peter Williams If you have been following the New Zealand media in recent days, you may have noticed my name surface in coverage of a defamation trial currently before the Auckland District Court. This week I appeared as a [...]

Have Your Say on PC120 (Housing, Density, Rezoning & Hazard Mapping) Information and Feedback Template Below Auckland Council is currently consulting on Proposed Plan Change 120 (PC120), a major rezoning exercise that will decide where high-density housing can be [...]

by John Raine The media and many politicians worldwide continue to push a narrative of impending climate catastrophe. Whether or not you are a climate change pessimist, we live on a gradually warming planet and will need to adapt to [...]

by Peter Williams One of the curiosities of modern journalism is not how often stories are missed, but how often they are found, laid bare — and then quietly abandoned. A week ago, the Otago Daily Times published what I regard [...]

by Dr Muriel Newman The National Party has performed poorly in opinion polls for the past two years. The question has been whether this would improve once their major policy platform of economic recovery became more apparent, or whether their [...]

by Peter Williams By coincidence, I find myself in Australia this week watching my 15-year-old grandson play cricket against boys his age—precisely the cohort targeted by the new national ban on social media use for under-16s. The timing could not [...]

by Lindsay Perigo I want to begin by quoting a recent Daily Telegraph editorial by Allister Heath in the wake of Sir Keir Staliner's latest antics in turning Britain into Bolshevik Britonistan. As I read it, ask yourselves, ladies and gentlemen, [...]

by Simon O'Connor I’m not sure about you, but it is hard reconcile the words of Jacinda Ardern who on one hand said she wanted to punch a political colleague in the face and yet on the other is discussing wanting a [...]

by Zoran Rakovic John Tamihere’s recent declaration that “no MP is above the party” sounds, at first, like the kind of firm leadership expected in a disciplined political movement. But scratch beneath the surface, and you’ll find something much darker: [...]

by Roger Partridge Last week, Commissioner Richard Chambers announced new targets for trust and confidence in police. They will mean little if the organisation continues to treat deliberate dishonesty as a minor employment matter. That proposition may sound harsh. But what else [...]

by Peter Williams First there was the Waipareira Trust, then the Manukau Urban Maori Authority (MUMA) and now there’s Te Kaika. They have much in common. They’re all Maori owned and controlled health and social service providers. They’re all predominantly [...]

by Roger Partridge Last month, Dame Anne Salmond issued a public challenge to the very idea of reason – the commitment to shared standards of inquiry that has delivered unprecedented human flourishing over the past three centuries. Salmond is one of New [...]

by Fiona Mackenzie (Note: To reduce word count and aid understanding, Māori words have been omitted where possible.) New Zealanders who pay attention to the slow creep of our political and legal institutions have every reason to feel uneasy. Many [...]

by Ani O'Brien A handful of activists, with a tenuous grip on reality and a plethora of mental health issues between them, are dragging the government into the courts over the puberty blocker ban. On 1 December 2025, the Professional [...]

by Simon O'Connor As anticipated, Zohran Mamdani has won the New York mayoralty. He will be the 111th mayor, and while I am not remotely interested in numerology, this figure could well be seen - tongue in cheek - as [...]

The Perspective's week almost began with a coronary. This, from the Taxpayers' Union first thing Monday morning: The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming Finance Minister Barbara Edmonds’ comments over the weekend that she will prioritise fiscal consolidation and getting the Government’s [...]

by Roger Partridge A familiar lament has resurfaced in recent weeks: that Robert Muldoon’s decision to cancel Norm Kirk’s 1975 compulsory superannuation scheme cost New Zealand a trillion-dollar nest egg. The Government’s weekend signal of higher KiwiSaver contributions has given [...]

by Guy Hatchard Dear Grant Illingworth KC and fellow Commissioners I understand from your latest panui that you are currently assessing the evidence you have gathered in order to prepare your final report. Although the Hatchard Report submitted evidence to [...]

by Don Brash With less than a year to go to the next general election, polls suggest that the current Government could well lose to a Labour-led coalition, despite the mess which the last Labour Government left just two years [...]

by Dr Muriel Newman At 4.45 am New Zealand time on 20 April 2010, then Minister of Maori Affairs, Maori Party co-leader Dr Pita Sharples, announced to the United Nations in New York that New Zealand would support the UN’s [...]

by Alwyn Poole School attendance in NZ is in deep trouble. Not just in reference to our historic levels but also compared to other OECD countries. New Zealand’s school attendance is lower than the OECD average, especially in upper secondary [...]

by Rachel Stewart You’d think once you’d decided to eliminate regional councils - as the Government has – you’d be very clear about what you’re replacing them with. Combined Territories Board will be their new code name, but there’s some [...]

by Jenny Ruth Dear Mr Goldsmith, I’m writing to complain about my treatment, and the treatment of Helen Joyce, a former finance editor and international editor at The Economist, at the hands of the Human Rights Review Tribunal (HRRT). I’m [...]

Well, there was I, lolling on my couch watching Steve Price on Sky News Australia filling in for the fiercely grim Peta Credlin, when a News Flash flashed. What was it? An earthquake, ten on the Richter scale? Another attempt [...]

by Sean Rush Response to Your Letter Regarding Upholding Te Tiriti Dear Members of the Board, I am writing in response to your recent letter to the Government stating your intention to uphold Te Tiriti. I have been a proud [...]

by Richard Prebble I admire Dr Bryce Edwards. Our universities like to proclaim themselves the “critic and conscience of society” while remaining silent on almost everything. In contrast, Dr Edwards is industrious. His daily email round-up of commentary often alerts [...]

by Peter Williams The government’s sudden decision to replace elected regional councillors with panels of district and city mayors has been sold as a bold stroke toward streamlining local government. But bold is not the same as wise, and decisive [...]

by Luca Fant We have all heard from the supporters of the proposed Gene Technology Bill that in New Zealand non-GMO can ‘coexist’ with genetic engineering (GE). That we can have it all – GE crops, conventional crops, and organic [...]

by Simon O'Connor Have you noticed how cold water is quickly and figuratively poured over emerging political issues in New Zealand? The latest scandal around some senior police commanders is a good case in point as too the exposure of [...]

by Peter Williams Aah .. Australia. The Lucky Country, the Big Brown Land with its seemingly limitless supply of valuable minerals waiting to be extracted from that vast interior. It’s hard not to be envious of a nation with its [...]

by Richard Prebble If a week is a long time in politics, a year is an eternity. Both Prime Minister Luxon and President Trump must hope so — though for one of them, time may already have run out. In [...]

by Roger Partridge When serious allegations threaten an institution’s reputation or its leader’s credibility, the temptation to bury them may be overwhelming. In New Zealand’s public institutions, a structural flaw makes this suppression not just tempting but rational. Andrew Coster [...]

by Andrew Moran An inflation wave is coming, and it will not be because of tariffs. In the United States and the rest of the world, governments and central banks are preparing to fill the pool with red ink and [...]

by Rachel Stewart How are you feeling about the NZ Police right now? Trusting? I haven’t exactly been feeling great about them ever since the ‘Cuddles’ Coster-led blue boys turned up at my door in 2021, and even put their [...]

by Craig Rucker In Brazil, they call it a “mutirão,” meaning the community pitching in together to accomplish a common goal. At COP30 in Belém, it means you do the paying, and the UN pitches in by doing the collecting. [...]

by Lindsay Perigo It's been a bad month for climate hystericists and their exquisitely stupid Net Zero. First, the junior party in Australia's coalition opposition, the Nationals, dumped it; then the senior partner, the Liberals dumped it too, after much agonising [...]

by Barry Davis Ani Mikaere published He Rukuruku Whakaaro in 2011 which considers the effect of Maori customs, obligations and practice (tikanga) on European law, legal processes and teaching in New Zealand. Mikaere’s book has had indirect influence on legal and policy [...]

by Alwyn Poole A Summary of Cameron Bagrie’s Business Desk Piece on Education (all quotes below) - Do we have equality of opportunity in schooling? We’d like to think so. I’ve heard many politicians talk about it. We do not have [...]

by Dr Muriel Newman Dr Julie Posetti, a Professor of Journalism at the City University of London, described the growing scandal over editorial bias at the BBC as an “existential crisis”. She warned: “You cannot have democracy without credible public [...]

by Dr Eric Crampton Announcements earlier this month make the Emissions Trading Scheme a bit less credible over the longer term. The problem can be fixed – and relatively easily. But it should be fixed. First, a bit of background. [...]

by Zoran Rakovic It was once said (probably by someone in a bar with more brains than security clearance) that New Zealand is the least corrupt country in the world because we’ve perfected the art of doing it politely. No [...]

by Peter Dunne Yes Minister’s Sir Humphrey Appleby once advised his Minister that “nothing must be done for the first time” because “doing the ‘right thing’ once could create a dangerous precedent, obligating one to do it again.” Therefore, he argued it was [...]

by Bruce Cotterill In a week where our unemployment rate hit a post-Covid peak of 5.3%, I’m starting to wonder if Kiwis want to work any more. In a recessionary, low-growth environment, we’re seeing well-paid government servants, people earning more [...]

by Dr Oliver Hartwich Prime Minister Christopher Luxon this week opened the door to asset recycling. He suggested that the government could sell state-owned enterprises and commercial assets it no longer has any reason to own, to fund new infrastructure. [...]

by Rachel Stewart Well, well, well, What do we have here? A former journalist named Michael Prescott, who up until June this year was an independent adviser to the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines and Standards Board, has had a document he [...]