Blog

by Hudson Rolls Three years after the City of Melbourne Council vowed to stop recognising Australia Day, the decision has now been officially reversed after a vote put forth by Councillor Philip Le Liu. This is no doubt a response [...]

by Oliver Hartwich Two thousand years ago, according to St Luke, Emperor Augustus decreed that all the world should be registered. A carpenter and his pregnant wife walked from Nazareth to Bethlehem to comply. Evidently, the Romans had little trouble [...]

by Amy Gallagher In 2020, I enrolled at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust to become a psychotherapist. Infamous now for its disbanded Gender Identity Development Service, the Tavistock was one of the first NHS trusts to declare itself an [...]

by Richard Prebble Power corrupts, but the possibility of power corrupts faster. The Opportunistic Party has now issued its five bottom lines. They make motherhood and apple pie seem like a tough demand. Qiulae Wong means it. She will trade [...]

by Peter Williams The Political Giants are Looking Increasingly Ordinary For some reason, both Labour and National saw fit to hold official campaign launches last weekend. I don’t really know why. As far as those that are interested are concerned, [...]

by Rachel Stewart Honestly, I’m not even going to try and make sense of what was obviously an attempted terrorist attack at RAF Fairford a few days ago. I mean, the UK authorities can’t seem to do that either, and [...]

by Simon O'Connor Ladies (and I suppose some men), be aware: choosing not to paint your nails is now considered a sign of white supremacy. Who knew! According to a BBC article, the beauty journalist argues that the decision not [...]

by Nathan Smith Who is more damaging to women? The buxom blonde celebrity Sydney Sweeney or Lindsay Clancy, the mother who strangled her three children to death? The answers, especially from women, have been interesting, to say the least. When [...]

by Mary Hobbs On 30 September 2026, Dr Matt Shelton is scheduled to appear before a Tribunal in Wellington. Not for a well-deserved medal of honour, but for alleged misconduct charges that may result in de-registration as a doctor. The [...]

by Peter Williams The arrogance of the National Party is reaching peak-level nonsense. There was the still-revered former leader John Key at the campaign launch telling the faithful that anything other than “two ticks National” could result in cabinet ministers [...]

by Bryce McKenzie After securing his leadership (again), Christopher Luxon had the opportunity to set a new course for National. Instead, he's doubled down on National’s confused commitment to the Paris Agreement and even said staying in Paris is a [...]

by Celina If One Nation wants not only to win the next election, but to keep winning elections, it needs to quickly comprehend that immigration policy is the battlefield on which the future balance of political power in Australia is [...]

by Spaniard Ngai Tahu killing and consuming endangered yellow-eyed penguins is now okay in the eyes of the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust. It’s also okay, apparently, with the Department of Conservation. Treaty religiosity drives the organisations’ extraordinary loss of compass. In [...]

by Richard Prebble As a former campaign manager, I used to measure the success of a campaign by the size of the crowds. Both major parties used to hire the biggest hall, the Auckland Town Hall, which holds 1,529. Campaign [...]

by John Grant One of the most pressing problems facing anyone who is not a leftist is the simple question of how to make a living. Indeed, the ability to hold down a white-collar job has effectively become dependent on [...]

by Don Brash Just when you think the Waitangi Tribunal has reached the absolute outer limit of its overreach, it manages to outdo itself. To the surprise of absolutely no one, the Tribunal has – as pretty much always - [...]

by Guy Hatchard Preventive lifestyle choices can avert the growing incidence of disease. 2026 has not been a healthy year for Kiwis. An article in the NZ Herald entitled “Christchurch Hospital ED treats 14,582 patients in corridors in one year” [...]

by Rodney Hide Debbie Ngarewa-Packer used the c-word in the House on Thursday. Willie Jackson played gallant. The Assistant Speaker called the Serjeant-at-Arms to walk him out. Cue the usual sermon. Double standards. Mana wahine. Oppression. Wrong sermon. The first [...]

by Richard Prebble A National Party apologist writing in the Herald this week argued that being in favour of markets does not mean being in favour of big business. When does National believe a successful company has become too big [...]

by Richard Prebble New Zealand does not have the world’s most concentrated supermarket market. Woolworths and Foodstuffs have about 82% of the New Zealand market. In Finland, S Group and Kesko have 82.5%. Finland is an OECD country. It has [...]

by Dr Muriel Newman In the lead-up to the 1984 election, Bob Jones’s New Zealand Party stormed onto the political scene, winning one vote in eight, but gaining no seats in Parliament. As a result, 256,000 votes were wasted. Our [...]

by Bruce Cotterill I’m sick of our politics. Like many people, I’m deeply interested in it. But if you have even an average level of aspiration for what this country could be, you’d be right to be frustrated by the [...]

by Peter Williams Nothing appears to have changed much in New Zealand politics in the month that I’ve been out of the country. The National Party continues to be a major disappointment in terms of both policy and election strategy, [...]

by Rachel Stewart Let’s talk about co-leader of Te Pati Māori Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. She is the MP for Te Tai Hauāuru HOW AH OO ROO – a vast Māori electorate covering areas in Taranaki, Whanganui, Horowhenua, Manawatū, the Kāpiti Coast, [...]

by Oliver Hartwich New Zealand has voted under MMP ten times. Through all ten campaigns, the parties honoured an informal rule found in no statute. You do not game the voting system. Everyone knew the system had a soft spot. [...]

by Nathan Smith I’m a writer, so I love words. I also have plenty of experience using words in media, advertising and policy to get people to do things they may not wish to if they sat down for five [...]

by Richard Prebble Whenever Hager publishes one of his hit jobs, it reminds me that I once was a target. The memory makes me burn with shame. Hager wrote that Roger Douglas and I were part of a conspiracy to [...]

by Richard Prebble ACT will complete the historical Treaty claims filed before 1 September 2008, end the Waitangi Tribunal’s contemporary jurisdiction, and wind it up once its historical work is finished, announced ACT Leader David Seymour. I was a member [...]

by Peter Williams The Taxpayers Union (TPU) always struck me as a very good idea. After all, what’s not to like about a lobby group that calls out wasteful government spending and develops policy ideas about how to more efficiently [...]

by Simon O'Connor This election year’s scapegoat is clear – supermarkets. Every election has some form of scapegoat or ‘baddie’ to blame. This year it turns out to be the mums and dads running the likes of New World or [...]

by Ray Pistol One Nation’s new immigration policy was unveiled yesterday morning, and it’s nice to see them propose deep cuts to various visa subclasses and a net-negative migration program for their first term in office, if they can win the [...]

by Peter Williams Any organisation where Cameron Bagrie is the chair I’ll pay attention to. Apart from his in-built advantages of being a proud son of Central Otago and an old boy of Waitaki Boys High School, he’s been a [...]

by M K Grant On the 20th of January 2026, the Commonwealth parliament passed legislation that amended the Commonwealth’s Criminal Code to include mechanisms for the proscription of “hate groups” and creating new criminal penalties for membership or support of [...]

by Peter Williams And so our great African odyssey is at an end. Twenty-nine days across four countries, from the billionaire paradise of Stellenbosch to the subsistence farmers and souvenir hawkers of western Uganda, this continent is and will likely [...]

by M. K. Grant What does grass-roots popularity offer parliamentarians? Very little. In Australia’s constitutional framework, the iron laws of oligarchy are well entrenched. The question of national policy and law is not often dictated by the common desires of [...]

by Dr Muriel Newman A debate is raging over the state of New Zealand’s economy, as we head towards the election. Some say a recovery is well underway, while others claim it remains in crisis. Both can’t be right, so [...]

by Simon O'Connor I recently interviewed Andrew Doyle for a podcast. Andrew’s a comedian, satirist, author, broadcaster, and the man behind Titania McGrath – a fictional character who is super-woke and extremely entertaining. One thing we discussed was how many people struggle [...]

by Nathan Smith With all the talk about the benefits of free trade, would you like to know what your enemies think of the idea? Wellington is in the middle of signing a free trade deal with India while also “accelerating” towards [...]

by Peter Williams Fifty years ago, 1976, was quite the year of significant happenings. New Zealand upset the Montreal Olympics by having the All Blacks tour apartheid South Africa. Nearly thirty black African nations boycotted the games in protest. The [...]

by Red-State Secession Some US states have fewer than a million people. Clearly, it’s possible to be a country with a small population, since 42 UN members (countries) have less than a million residents, mostly island nations. But perhaps their [...]

by Peter Williams One of life’s oldest adages used to be that you could believe everything a taxi driver told you. To be fair, this was from the days when taxi drivers were crusty old white men, often WW II [...]

by Kelvin Kemm Nuclear power will be the future. There is no doubt about it. Nuclear is the cleanest, greenest, cheapest, safest, energy source ever. There is no doubt about that, no matter what anyone says. Also, just look at [...]

by Oliver Hartwich New Zealand is barely a military power. It has had no combat aircraft for 25 years, and its ageing frigates need replacing. Lifting defence spending to 2 per cent of GDP passes for ambition. The country comes [...]

by Rodney Hide The Greens have a plan for cheaper groceries. It’s called KiwiMart. Force Foodstuffs and Woolworths to sell 120 stores and a couple of warehouses into state ownership at a heavy discount, splash about $2.8 billion, ban “price [...]

by Larry This week's announcement by Methanex that they would effectively cease operations at their Motunui methanol plant in the first quarter of 2027 is a big blow to Taranaki and ultimately the wider NZ Inc. This is another casualty [...]

by Rachel Stewart Today is the 25th anniversary of 9/11, or tomorrow in the US. Where it actually matters. It should be a straightforward day of remembrance for the nation, and particularly for the affected families, but alas, it is [...]

by Benno Blaschke Imagine two paddocks at the edge of a city. They have the same soil and access to the same roads and pipes. Then town planners allow homes on one side, but not the other. The first can [...]

by Nathan Smith It’s amazing how many intelligent people insist on believing in nonsensical things. I’m not talking about Zeus, aliens or romantic love. I’m referring to the illusion of “market prices” and why this single idea is ruining your [...]

by Peter Williams Because of our relationship through rugby and cricket New Zealanders have long carried an interest in South African politics. For the first thirty five years of my life many New Zealanders actively protested against the apartheid regime [...]

by Jen Bainbridge Recently surfaced communications and regulatory documents show that senior US health officials and Pfizer were aware of potential pregnancy-related risks before Covid-19 vaccines were widely recommended for pregnant women. Speaking to RCR, investigative journalist Sonia Elijah said [...]

by Frank Shostak According to certain experts, there is an urgent need to remove cash from the economy. It is argued that cash provides support to the shadow economy and permits tax evasion. Another justification for its removal is that, [...]

by Vincent Cook 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 [...]

by Dr Muriel Newman 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 [...]

by Bonnie Flaws After a recent RCR investigation revealed that more than 311,000 teens aged between 12 and 17 were given two doses of the Covid jab in 2021 - without knowing the associated risk of myocarditis, because this knowledge [...]

by Rachel Stewart I find myself contemplating death a great deal of late. Not other people’s. Mine. And the strange thing is, I’ve discovered I’m less stressed than ever. No, I cannot report that an impending fatal illness – that [...]

by Joshua Riley New Zealand's food and fibre exports earned more than $54 billion in the year to June 2024. A large share of that rests on something money can't easily buy: a reputation for clean, natural, GE-free produce, built [...]

by Oliver Hartwich On Monday evening, I sat on a panel at Foxglove on Queens Wharf in Wellington, where I was expected to play the neoliberal villain. The Institute for Democratic and Economic Analysis is a think tank devoted to [...]

by Nathan Smith The ACT Party’s policies to ensure equality before the law would have been fantastic 50 years ago. But in 20XX, they can only be handcuffs for anyone stupid enough to abide by them. This week, ACT Leader [...]

by Simon O'Connor Accountability is a cornerstone of a successful democracy. Yet it is rarely discussed, particularly when public debate is increasingly dominated by topics such as artificial intelligence, social media, and the causes of political division. New Zealand has [...]

by Peter Williams It’s surely a unique tourism experience in the true sense of the word. Is there any other disused prison anywhere, particularly one used to detain political prisoners, where the tour guide was once an inmate? Such is [...]

by Keri Molloy Australian researchers fitted five magpies with GPS devices to track their movements, but the birds skillfully removed the harnesses from each other. The first removal took less than an hour. The devices had been designed to stay [...]

by Peter Williams It was never going to be a good day for the All Blacks. Many of their fans who’d paid thousands of dollars to be in Cape Town for the test were denied access to the game because [...]

by Dr Oliver Hartwich On my first morning as Prime Minister, I would deliver a speech. It would contain no slogans or platitudes about becoming the best country in the world. Instead, it would be a stocktake, and it would [...]

by M. K. Grant What does grass-roots popularity offer parliamentarians? very little. In Australia’s constitutional framework, the iron laws of oligarchy are well entrenched. The question of national policy and law is not often dictated by the common desires of [...]

by Rodney Hide In 1990 I travelled the country warning landowners about the Resource Management Bill. It was sold as a simpler, more permissive system. Farmers welcomed it. The old regime of overlapping statutes would be replaced by a single, [...]

by Dr Muriel Newman Last week I received an email from a colleague expressing outrage over his experience with the Electoral Commission. The Electoral Commission is, of course, the independent Crown Entity tasked with running New Zealand’s General Elections. Since [...]

by Rachel Stewart So, this is me after a week in bed. How do I look? Can I bore you with my flu story? Last Friday lunchtime was the last time I ate. A few short hours later I was [...]

by David Bell and Ramesh Thakur The recent release of Anthony Fauci’s diaries, followed by his refusal to answer questions in an appearance before a US Senate committee by invoking the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination 111 times, highlighted [...]

by RCR Reporters While much of the debate around pandemic preparedness takes place behind closed doors, last month RCR had the opportunity to take part in that conversation at Australia's Parliament House. Last month, RCR's Head of Legal, Katie [...]

by Nathan Smith Much of the talk about collapsing birth rates assumes that every generation must be replaced. Don’t believe it. A falling birth rate is not, by itself, a crisis. The real crisis is in figuring out why your [...]

by Bonnie Flaws Pharmac has announced it will fund flu vaccines for every Kiwi aged six months to four years from April 2027, adding about 260,000 children to the taxpayer-funded programme. The expansion comes three months after the funding was [...]

by Nicole Foss Drones have been a major game-changer in modern warfare. There’s been an arms race in the Ukraine war, and drones have been at the centre of it, with electromic jamming, then fibre-optic drones, then netting over roads [...]

by Peter Williams Our tour in South Africa is about as close to the perfect combination of a tourist experience as you can get - watching the All Blacks in three tests against the Springboks and playing golf in between! [...]

by Simon O'Connor I recently had an unexpected visit to Auckland’s emergency department, followed by a longer stay in hospital. It seems I may have brought back more than memories from a recent overseas trip. Before anyone panics, I should [...]

by Peter Williams Too much of the talk at breakfast in Johannesburg this morning was not about the All Blacks wonderful victory against the Springboks but about how members of our tour group are having their phones stolen, victims of [...]

by Rodney Hide I was a materialist from primary school. An atheist without residual superstition. I had flown in an airplane and seen no old man sitting on the clouds. That child’s observation hardened into adult conviction. Science, not revelation, [...]

by Ray Pistol On August 30 patriots will once again March For Australia. Only this time, the focus is upon free speech instead of immigration. If you fail to attend these marches, you are in effect submitting at the most critical [...]

by Nick Clark Suppose a business is deciding where to expand around Christchurch. It can compare rates and building consent performance in Christchurch, Selwyn and Waimakariri. If one council becomes too slow or expensive, investment can cross the boundary without [...]

by Rodney Hide Imagine a medical authority receiving explicit, documented warnings that a mandated pharmaceutical product carries a heightened risk of heart inflammation for young people — and choosing not to tell the public while rolling out the second dose [...]

by Peter Williams A Personal Perspective from the Margins of Mainstream Media Nearly five years ago, I made the difficult decision to resign from my radio talk show, Magic Talk, after being confronted by management about my stance on the [...]

by Peter Williams There’s a new political party that’s beginning to look increasingly likely to make it into Parliament after the November election. Opportunity has regularly broken through the five-percent barrier in recent opinion polls. Roy Morgan has it on [...]

by Dr Muriel Newman With the 2026 General Election only three months away, let’s examine what the polls are telling us about who’s going to be running the country after November 7 and what the key issues are. New Zealand [...]

by Nathan Smith In the future (re: today), people won’t dream of having 15 minutes of fame. They’ll dream of getting a glorious 15 minutes of anonymity. With data centres going up in our backyard, cameras installed on every street and digital IDs [...]

by Peter Williams Here’s a question. If an organisation experiences “systemic failure” isn’t it the responsibility of the person who oversees that system to take the blame for the failure? Therefore when Tauranga City Council has systemic failure, isn’t it [...]

by Peter Williams The lead story on Sunday night’s 1News was about Te Pati Maori and its plan to chase just the electorate vote. For them, it makes sense. The party is hovering around three percent and dropping. They currently hold [...]

by Yvonne van Dongen American nurse practitioner Michelle Green has been in New Zealand for less than a year but she already uses terms like wahine and whānau when talking about her patients. She is employed at a women’s health [...]

by Simon O'Connor Back in April, I wrote a Substack titled Rinse and Repeat about National’s attempted leadership spill. Four months later, the same dynamics are playing out once again: another leadership challenge, another ‘victory’ for Chris Luxon, another distraction for [...]

by Yvonne van Dongen The news that a male student from Oman identifying as trans was able to access New Zealand funding raises serious questions about our immigration policies in such cases. The Otago University student came here on a [...]

by RCR Reporters RCR EXCLUSIVE: New vaccination data obtained by RCR, alongside emails released earlier this year, reveal that 311,257 teenagers received a second dose of the Covid vaccine after officials and Vaccine Ministers had been advised of the [...]

by Amerikanets In mid-February 2026, before the US military initiated the airstrikes that began Operation “Epic Fury,” the National Intelligence Council (NIC), an agency of the executive branch created to synthesize the analysis of the US’s 18 intelligence agencies, submitted [...]

by Yvonne van Dongen Last week a small local newspaper on the Kapiti Coast apologised for correctly sexing a man who believes he is a woman. The man is described in a media release as the “renowned multidisciplinary Indigenous artist Taupuruariki (Ariki) [...]

by Rachel Stewart Well, a day can be a month in politics, and this week was one of those. Christopher Luxon survived his second leadership challenge in four months, and the Penk slip was given to his Minister of Defence [...]

by Peter Williams If more evidence was needed about the relevance or irrelevance of the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) then a couple of judgements they made this week have rammed home the point. The decision about Sean Plunket on The [...]

by Nathan Smith This week, the party of Winston Peters (Boomer) announced the Kiwi Kids Grant. The policy would offer tax-free payments of $5000 a year for the first three years of a child’s life, for up to three children. Peters [...]

by Peter Williams The National Party is a shambles with a leader and senior MPs whose egos matter more than the good of the country. That’s the only conclusion to be drawn from the disaster that unfolded in Wellington on [...]

by Peter Williams The National Party is a shambles with a leader and senior MPs whose egos matter more than the good of the country. That’s the only conclusion to be drawn from the disaster that unfolded in Wellington on [...]

by Peter Williams This post will be relevant for a very short time. In the famous words of another National Party leader, the current one will be “gone by lunchtime” so these words will be out of date before the [...]

Digital Driver Licences: Understand the Proposal & Have Your Say The Government is consulting on proposed changes to the way driver licensing and other NZTA services operate, including the introduction of an optional digital driver licence. There is a [...]

by Peter Williams There are no official records for New Zealand’s longest delay between a court hearing and the judgement. High Court guidelines say judges expect 90 percent of reserved decisions to be delivered within three months of the last [...]

by Dr Michael Johnston New Zealanders have long seen university as the best educational route to the good life. Trades and industry training is seen as a second-best option. That attitude has always been based more on prejudice than reality. [...]