Blog

By Alwyn Poole As the budget nears National/Act/NZF are at pains to say that they are “pulling every leaver”. Prior to the election they made significant promises to reduce the size/spend of bureaucracy. So far they have completely failed. 1. Our [...]

By Dr Michael Johnston Effective policy reform often comes from seemingly minor initiatives. Small changes can lead to significant improvements if they incentivise the right things. The current revisions to the s for the Teaching Profession are a perfect example [...]

By Michael Bassett Now that candidates are gearing up to contest the coming local elections on 11 October, it’s time to ask them serious questions before you vote. The cost of local government has been rising steeply; ratepayers are being [...]

By Bonnie Flaws Read my four part investigative series One Register to Rule them All: Parts one, two, three and four, about Stats NZ’s Statistical Register and Persistent Unique Identifiers for every citizen. ANALYSIS: So now you know what Stats [...]

By Bonnie Flaws The Hillside Farm bird flu outbreak continues to cost poultry exporters, with only 65% of trade recovered. Yet no detailed risk benefit analysis was done before the decision was made to cull 200,000 birds or halt exports. [...]

By Zoran Rakovic Let it be known: the greatest threat to our nation's future is no longer inflation, climate change, or potholes on State Highway 1. No, it’s 14-year-olds with TikTok accounts. The other day, Member’s Bill Ballot Cake Tin [...]

By Andrew Torba, founder of GAB There’s a storm brewing in America. Not the kind that darkens the sky or floods the streets no, this one is far more dangerous. It’s a sociological atom bomb and it’s sitting at the [...]

By Lindsay Perigo It was with great shock that I saw this in my Inbox last Friday afternoon. Quote: “A Provocateur for Liberty”: "The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union marks the passing of Sir Robert Jones with sincere sadness and gratitude [...]

By Rachel Stewart Apart from wisdom one of the only advantages to aging is that you tend to have more money. And if you are wise, you’ll likely be cautious about having too much dosh stashed away in banks. I’m [...]

By Dr Muriel Newman Last week’s revelation by National’s Minister of Maori Development Tama Potaka (a former Maori Party member) that “a new committee led by Adrian Rurawhe is working on formally integrating tikanga Maori into Parliament” has heightened public concern that the Coalition is [...]

By Simon O'Connor As humans, I think we can intuitively identify double standards and sadly, we are surrounded by many in society. Our young are beginning to call this out, but are the adults in the room? I recently was [...]

By Dr Muriel Newman History is replete with governments all over the world using nationalisation to protect a country’s assets and resources in the public interest. The UK is currently in the throes of nationalising British Steel in the public [...]

By Rachel Stewart Today, let’s talk about sanity making a bit of a comeback via the UK Supreme Court ruling where Britain’s top judges decided that a woman, in the eyes of the law, is defined by biological sex, and [...]

By Michael Reddell The IMF’s twice-yearly World Economic Outlook and Fiscal Monitor publications have come out in the last couple of days. If there is gloom in the GDP numbers (eg this chart for the advanced countries, and we don’t [...]

Br Roger Partridge I have no doubt that Peter Smith loves the West. You can feel it in every line of his writing – the anger at its enemies, the contempt for its betrayal, the frustration at its leaders who [...]

By Ron Law As the New Zealand Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Government’s Covid-19 Response continues, the public deserves far more than a sanitised PR narrative. We deserve the truth—and the Commission must have the backbone to deliver it. [...]

By Don Brash Until quite recently, New Zealand Governments of both the Left and the Right were keen to maintain a broadly cordial relationship with China, our largest trading partner, and with the United States, our traditional security partner. We [...]

By Bonnie Flaws Part four of a four part investigation by Bonnie Flaws. Read parts one, two and three. Census 2028 is doing away with the usual population survey in favour of using admin data instead, requiring a Statistical Register It’s initial consultation into [...]

By Bonnie Flaws Part three of a four part investigation by Bonnie Flaws. Read parts one and two. Data protections were watered down in the 2022 Data and Statistics Bill Stats NZ was also given new powers to acquire data not collected for [...]

By Bonnie Flaws Part two of a four part investigation by Bonnie Flaws. Read part one. The Statistical Register being created by Stats NZ doesn’t appear to fit with the Privacy Principles Stats NZ has certain exemptions from the Privacy Act [...]

By Bonnie Flaws Part one of a four part investigation StatsNZ is creating a Persistent Unique IdentIfier (PUI) for each citizen to track them over time in an Integrated Statistical Data System - or 'Statistical Register’. The new system will [...]

By Peter Williams Ever thought of returning to the old system? What a surprise. Teaching is not an attractive career for school leavers or graduates. The number of students training to be in charge of your child’s education has dropped [...]

By Dr Michael Johnston If asked to nominate the main objective of public schooling, most people would probably say that it is to teach young people the knowledge they need to thrive in adult life. However, according to the Education [...]

By Jan Rivers What should have been a completely uncontroversial decision has become a leading new story today with articles and interviews across NZ media.  The Morning Report story was republished in the NZ Herald and on One News and [...]

By Dr Robert Bartholomew Astrology is alive and well in some New Zealand classrooms thanks to the Education Ministry’s push to give indigenous knowledge equal standing with scientific knowledge. In recent years government ministries have produced an array of online [...]

By Lidewij de Vos, Member of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands Chairman, Thank you, Chairman. Climate change is of all times. 150,000 years ago, we were in the middle of an ice age. So were we 20,000 years [...]

By Nick Clark Easter is here, a rare four-day weekend when many of us will travel for getaways, see family and friends, or host those who have travelled to us. Yet Easter can be a trap for the unwary. This [...]

By Lindsay Perigo I concluded last week by celebrating in advance the pending performance by Daniil Trifonov of what aficionados affectionately call the Rach 3: Rachmaninoff's 3rd Piano Concerto. The next night I tuned in to the live broadcast of [...]

By Pepijn van Houwelingen Once again, the radical climate action group Extinction Rebellion (XR) is in the news, this time because of their plan to bombard shops in several Dutch municipalities with butyric acid, a caustic and pungent-smelling substance which [...]

By Dr Muriel Newman US President Donald Trump’s tariff policy is changing by the day, as international investment markets experience unprecedented volatility. It all started last week in the White House Rose Garden, when the President revealed his tariff plan to address [...]

By Don Brash Written by Don Brash in his capacity as Hobson's Pledge trustee This morning, you were meant to open the New Zealand Herald and see a full page ad calling out Christopher Luxon and the National Party for [...]

By Dr Oliver Hartwich There is something tragic about watching the United States deliberately harm itself – especially when the damage spills over to everyone else. President Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ trade tariffs are a disaster for America and the world. [...]

By Rachel Stewart I don’t know what you drive but I mainly drive a Jeep Cherokee. There have been times I’ve wondered whether my Jeep might be targeted for cultural appropriation by white do-gooders on behalf of native Americans, or [...]

By Peter Williams It was probably just coincidence but within two hours of me posting my previous Substack asking how many submissions on the Treaty Principles Bill were opposed and how many were in favour, the chair of the Justice [...]

By Simon O'Connor In recent days, one of New Zealand’s most outspoken charities broke into, and occupied, port facilities causing much disruption. Another charity has been busy promoting healthy eating and spending millions on the likes of the Weet-Bix Tryathlon. [...]

By Dr Eric Crampton The pendulum theory of politics suggests that policies often swing from one extreme to another without finding a balanced middle ground. Consider New Zealand’s supermarkets. Current regulations have made it near-impossible for new large-scale grocers to [...]

By Rachel Stewart Where to begin. What to say. Benjamin Doyle. This latest incarnation of Lucifer has channelled himself through the Green Party into the public consciousness. It’s no accident that he’s there, and no accident that so many before [...]

By Dr Muriel Newman King’s Counsel Gary Judd has been at the forefront of a battle to defend New Zealand from the actions of Maori tribal leaders attempting to force their cultural apartheid onto our country. He’s defending the Rule [...]

By Tim Wilson Sobering news sluices from the latest Acumen Edelman Trust Barometer. In 2025, we’ve gone from being a country of rising distrust to one dominated by grievance. The annual survey, which quizzed 1,150 Kiwis, sets the results in a [...]

By Peter Williams The reaction of the Greens to Winston Peters post about the MP Benjamin Doyle’s pre-Parliament social media activity has been one of all-out attack. No comment whatsoever about what looked like some pretty suspicious behaviour by the [...]

By Michael Reddell Today is the last day in office for the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Adrian Orr. Of course, he hasn’t been in the office since 5 March when, on the eve of his major international conference, his resignation [...]

By Simon O'Connor The word ‘woke’ is thrown around a lot these days and I am often asked what it means. Usually I am asked by those who are woke and who themselves are used to manipulating words to their [...]

By Oliver Hartwich This week, the Government unveiled its blueprint to replace the Resource Management Act. This is not just another policy tweak – it is a game-changer for New Zealand’s economy. By splitting planning and environmental laws, the reforms [...]

By Rachel Stewart What the hell’s happening in Ireland? We all know that migrants are swarming Europe and Britain like flies on shite, but Ireland’s plight feels uniquely dire. Green fields, welcoming pubs, Irish whisky, a proud literary history. It [...]

By Muriel Newman Cheap, reliable energy is the lifeblood of progress. Yet as we approach winter, concerns are already being raised about the security of New Zealand’s electricity supplies. Because of a lack of rain, our hydro-lakes are lower than [...]

By Lindsay Perigo Dump it! Ditch it! DOGE it! exhorted I last week, referring to our Ministry of Education, a contemporary pillar of Evil.  Academia in toto is a pillar of evil all over the Western world, the Epi-Centre of [...]

By Ani OBrien 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 [...]

By Bryce Wilkinson Last night, I found myself standing at St Peter’s Church for the “Red Tape Hui,” not to confess my economic sins, but to proselytise about the virtues of the prospective Regulatory Standards Bill. The event, hosted by [...]

By Dieuwe de Boer There's a stark contrast between the Luxon/Willis "say yes" and "open for business" positive propaganda in trying to attract investors and the reality. We had a net loss of 47,000 citizens last year. A big story [...]

By Peter Williams Zimbabwe, or Rhodesia as it was in those days, used to be known as the breadbasket of Africa. A country with fertile soils and a temperate climate that produced ample food for itself, its neighbours and the [...]

By Rachel Stewart Last week I spoke about the ‘woke left’, and how the movement wasn’t dying any time soon. It’s seems only fair then, that having roundly criticised the yin I should also diss the yang. I’m nothing if [...]

By Christine Smith Seeing down the Generations Introduction: Why are you homeschooling? To give your children a good education? Keep going…why? To remove them from bullying or a dodgy curriculum? Keep going…what’s the next why? To set your children on [...]

By Rodney Hide Warning: If you are likely to be upset by exposure to material available to your children and grandchildren, do not proceed. I fear that in 20 years time the age of consent will be gone. Middle aged [...]

By Peter Williams DISCLAIMER: I’m a financial supporter of the Taxpayers’ Union (TPU) and a former member of the Board. The Taxpayers’ Union did the country a major service in January when it pointed out that $4 million of taxpayers’ [...]

By Muriel Newman National has a problem. They don’t seem to know why they were elected. It is bizarre. After six years in charge, Labour had stuffed up the country. Their incompetence was universal. When they were kicked out of [...]

By Dr Muriel Newman National has a problem. They don’t seem to know why they were elected. It is bizarre. After six years in charge, Labour had stuffed up the country. Their incompetence was universal. When they were kicked out [...]

By Roger Partridge President Trump promised to drain the swamp, fight bureaucratic overreach, and defend American interests. His policies resonated with voters. But his treatment of Canada, America’s closest neighbour, defies rational explanation. Trump’s assault on Canada exposes a grim [...]

By Keri Molloy Health New Zealand is ploughing on, saying that adding fluoride to water is not a treatment to individuals but to the water.   Actions New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power [...]

By Dieuwe de Boer I've long said that New Zealand could be fixed by one rogue billionaire and a dozen men. A handful of millionaires working together could manage it too. The 9% stake that Jim Grenon bought in NZME [...]

By William McGimpsey To be honest, it was really more of a panel discussion. James is touring New Zealand with the Free Speech Union, speaking at events in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. I’m a former Free Speech Union employee and [...]

By Roger Partridge Has the Supreme Court once again stepped outside its lane? A recent ruling about who controls our coastlines suggests our highest court is trying to reshape laws made by Parliament, rather than just apply them. Even more [...]

By Lindsay Perigo In his historic address to Congress last week, President Trump, lovingly known on the Perspective as Orange Man Bad-Ass, listed some of the disgusting and dopey scams Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency had uncovered as recipients [...]

By Dr Muriel Newman New Zealand is now reaping the consequences of the misguided appeasement strategy adopted by successive governments when dealing with the growing demands of radical Maori leaders. They have bent over backwards apologising and kowtowing to these activists, even [...]

By Dr Muriel Newman International commitment to the United Nations Paris Agreement is crumbling. Governments around the world are either rejecting or reducing their climate targets because the cost of compliance is so high they cannot be achieved without sacrificing [...]

By Vincent Vos A couple of weeks ago, a small delegation of Forum for Democracy travelled to London for the second global conference of the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship. We were joined by 4000 other people from all over the [...]

By Dieuwe de Boer Two unrelated stories caught my eye due to two unrelated events this week, but they both tell the same sorry story about the state of politics in New Zealand. "Streamlining and simplifying the Resource Management Act [...]

By Peter Williams The empire's striking back It is one of the most significant moves in the history of the New Zealand media. In time it may be seen as one of the most important manoeuvres in our recent social [...]

By Rachel Stewart And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack And you may find yourself in another part of the world And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile And you may find [...]

By Michael Reddell I’d been thinking last week of writing a post looking ahead to the end of Adrian Orr’s term (due to have run until March 2028) and offering some thoughts on structural changes the government should be looking [...]

By Dieuwe de Boer The government's latest announcement to expand the powers of citizen's arrests are the first ray of light in favour of the common man when it comes to fighting thieves. The increase in violence crime ushered in [...]

By Rodney Hide It was shocking how the institutions we thought we could rely on crumbled like a stack of cards. The opposition, the media, the courts, the bureaucracy. Poof. Overnight our government became tyrannical. We were locked down and [...]

By Lindsay Perigo Well, what a brouhaha!  What a commotion! What a melee! What a maelstrom! What sound and fury! What tumult! What bedlam!    What a delight!    The Globalist agenda exposed and its bluff called, in broad daylight. [...]

By Fiona Mackenzie New Zealand is facing a significant freedom of speech crisis. Across the country, people dependent on their business or employment income are being intimidated into silence regarding the influence of the tribal elite over many aspects of [...]

By Rodney Hide Chris Luxon is done. He staggers on but he no longer has the command or respect a Prime Minister needs.  He’s proved middle management at best. His policies are Jacinda’s. His social media posts appear like skits. [...]

By Rodney Hide The post below is in text or can be viewed as two video clips. You may find the content confronting but as Rodney says it is, " ... representative of the 196 page Navigating the Journey for [...]

By Bryce Wilkinson Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says he wants a bureaucracy that says “yes.” He is right to want that of course, but a lot of current rules would need to change. Under current rules, far too much is [...]

By David Harvey This article looks at some of the changes proposed to the Constitution of InternetNZ. It is not a complete study or critique of the Constitutional changes proposed but focusses on a couple of issues albeit important ones [...]

By Michael Johnston Some people think we live in relatively safe times. Those people are naïve. It is true that you are much less likely to die in a workplace accident, on the road, in a war, or from an [...]

By Dieuwe de Boer I hadn't followed the story of Janet Dickson's fight against the Real Estate Authority (REA) very closely. I knew she objected to the REA requiring real estate agents to do a left-wing "cultural course" before they [...]

By Rodney Hide Last week my 13-year-old at Wakatipu High studied in English “An introduction to culture and identity in literature”. The class guide was as follows: Below are some links to helpful clips that may be useful for understanding [...]

By Simon O'Connor In recent days, JD Vance - the Vice-President of the United States - made some comments around love, including both ‘how’ and ‘who’ we should love. His comments and the consequent reaction illustrates a stark contrast between [...]

By Rodney Hide President Trump promised to drain the swamp. He has turned it upside down, kicked it around, and is jumping on it.  His opponents are left defending fraud, waste and corruption, paper straws and deranged men hellbent on [...]

By Rachel Stewart Just what is it about the NZ Free Speech Union (NZFSU) defending the “free speech” of drag queens reading books to kids in a public library that bothered me - and many others - so much? Well, [...]

By Dieuwe de Boer All the winning that's going on in the United States is a stark reminder how far we still have to go. As Trump announced to restore the English name of Mount McKinley in Alaska, our own [...]

By Don Brash and Michael Reddell When Don was young and Michael’s parents were young, New Zealand had among the very highest material standards of living in the world. It really was, in the old line, one of the very [...]

By Bryce Wilkinson If you believe some of its critics, the pending Regulatory Standards Bill is a demonic measure to end New Zealand society as we know it. This is beyond false; it is ridiculous. In fact, it is a [...]

By William McGimpsey The recent furor in New Zealand around John Minto and his so-called “genocide hotline” provides a good illustration of just what life will be like inside the multicultural longhouse our society is being steered toward. Minto is [...]

By Mary Hobbs The future depends on what we do in the present. — Mahatma Gandhi The Gene Technology Bill – Part 1 The First Reading of the Gene Technology Bill 2024 was introduced to Parliament on 17 December 2024, by [...]

By Rodney Hide I struggle to believe former Prime Minister Helen Clark thinks Elon Musk is a Nazi. That doesn’t stop her of accusing him of being one and of him advocating genocide. Here’s her post on X on 26 [...]

By Paige Wills It’s disheartening and enraging to see Silver Fern Farms betray the very farmers it claims to represent and surrender to global greenwashing under the false banner of “sustainability”. Their latest email (18/12/24) outlining Scope 3 Emissions Targets [...]

By Michael Bassett So loud are the squeals from the likes of Debbie Ngarewa-Packer against the new appointments to the Waitangi Tribunal that I can only assume that Minister Tama Potaka has got things right. And that the new [...]

By Peter Williams The last bastion has cracked. NZME, the only stock exchange listed news gathering operation in the country, has had to face reality and tell staff that jobs at the New Zealand Herald and Newstalk ZB will have to [...]

By William McGimpsey Mere days into the new Trump administration and DEI mandates have been abolished, official government policy is there are only two genders, and Lyndon Johnson’s executive order authorising affirmative action has been terminated. Trump promised in his [...]

By David Seymour Sometimes New Zealand is all milk and honey. Other times you can sense widespread frustration that things could be better. Our country is in one of those times where we need to choose how we proceed. We [...]

By Dr Muriel Newman Freedom, democracy and the Rule of Law are the cornerstones of a modern society. So, let’s start 2025 with a quick stocktake on how well these foundations are being defended. First of all, it’s important to [...]

By Keri Molloy A hit-or-miss approach to gene technology could be catastrophic for New Zealand and its peoples. There’s no certainty that GMOs are safe or beneficial. Public submissions are now being called for the Gene Technology Bill. The closing [...]

By Peter Williams If you were hoping race relations temperatures in 2025 might reduce after the simmering discontent of the hikoi, Christchurch organization Brown Town has turned up the thermostat. In an extraordinary act of tone deafness they’ve decided if [...]

By Michael Reddell Don Brash: This short analysis of the current fiscal position as compared with the fiscal position as projected shortly before the Labour Government left office is sobering. Chris Hipkins and other Labour spokespeople are talking as if [...]

By William McGimpsey I appreciate the opportunity to comment on the Treaty Principles Bill and applaud the ACT Party and the Government for allowing ordinary Kiwis to have this opportunity. I agree with Mr Seymour and the ACT Party that [...]

By Kerri Molloy The requirement for the Far North District Council to fluoridate drinking water supplies in Kerikeri and Kaitaia is intrusive, illogical and possibly illegal. It’s right to say NO. But it’s not so simple for our local council. [...]