During Helen Clark’s second term, Don Brash’s Ōrewa speech saw National surge in the polls and the Labour government’s social policies tighten. Fifteen years years later, could history repeat? When a socially progressive party wins an overwhelming electoral mandate, it’s natural to wonder how long its luck will last. Will Labour really implement strong social … Read more
The man who led the All Blacks to victory in the first World Cup went on to become a Rhodes scholar, political operator and business leader. Today he’s worried about tribalism and the Trumpian tendency to vilification. He sits down with Spinoff business editor Maria Slade in Sydney. Rugby legend, Rhodes scholar, business leader and … Read more
You may have seen the picture, but do you know the people and the policies behind it? Hayden Donnell takes a trip inside Auckland’s newest lobby group, OpenTheBooks. Read Clive Matthew-Wilson’s response to this article here Have you ever looked at Auckland’s sclerotic roads, its traffic jams stretching to the horizon, and thought: “You know … Read more
When Don Brash was invited onto national television to speak about Māori language week this year, I decided I could speak about almost anything, writes Madeleine Chapman. This post was first published 10 September 2018. There are plenty of uninformed takes to be heard on the radio. People call into talkback and air an opinion … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Māori language week starts te reo teaching conversation, Tax Working Group looking likely to reject capital gains tax, and landlords propose alternative to rental WOFs. So what exactly is the government’s te reo Māori education policy? As Māori Language Week has got underway, that’s been a … Read more
If Don Brash can be invited onto national television to speak about Māori language week, then I can speak about almost anything, argues Madeleine Chapman. First published in September 2018. There are plenty of uninformed takes to be heard on the radio. People call into talkback and air an opinion that isn’t shared by a … Read more
Swearing, nudity, blasphemy and Clarke Gayford – these are just some of the things New Zealanders have been vehemently complaining about to the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) over the past year. Blasphemy Using the Lord’s name in vain is always a big no-no for many God-fearing New Zealanders. The ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) gets plenty … Read more
Whether you’re on the left or right, it’s obvious that Manning should be allowed to speak in New Zealand, argues Act leader David Seymour. And the same goes for Molyneux, Southern and Brash. Here we go again. Another polarising person who will infuriate at least half the population is having their right to speak challenged. … Read more
An otherwise unremarkable Auckland University debate on free speech and PC culture turned into a cause célèbre when one of the participants, Don Brash, was banned by Massey University. Madeleine Chapman tunes in to the livestream. “Good evening” “Good evening” “Good evening” “Good evening” “Good evening” The head of the University of Auckland debating society, introduced … Read more
The function and frailty of liberalism has been thrust to the fore as New Zealand debates the meaning of free speech. Yet the biggest threat to liberalism may be the failure of elites to make the systems and institutions of modern liberalism work for the rest of us, writes Danyl Mclauchlan If, like me – … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Don Brash ban backlash intensifies, nurses and DHBs finally come to an agreement, and Queenstown residents concerned about airport expansion. Former National leader and Hobson’s Pledge founder Don Brash has been prevented from speaking at an event on Massey University’s campus, after a decision from the … Read more
The former National leader and Hobson’s Pledge advocate has become a fresh lightning rod in the debate around free speech and ‘deplatforming’. We asked a range of people to give us their view on the decision. Massey University announced this morning that a planned address by Don Brash this week would not go ahead. In … Read more
A newly formed Free Speech Coalition has raised $50,000 in one day to support the rights of two racists to speak at the Bruce Mason Centre. Hayden Donnell catalogues a few times some of the coalition members have been less fervent in their defence of free speech. David Farrar has written about his inclusion in … Read more
If you think there’s an easy answer on the whole Lauren Southern/Stefan Molyneux saga, law professor Andrew Geddis reckons you probably haven’t thought about it hard enough. Up until about a week ago, I and most of New Zealand hadn’t the faintest clue who Lauren Southern or Stefan Molyneux were. Having better things to do … Read more
An announcement: We will no longer be responding to all the tired old opinions on Māori language and culture trotted out by people with no lived experience of being Māori in Aotearoa. Instead, we will rank them here. You know what’s tiring? Like, so deep-in-your-bones exhausting your very marrow puts on trackpants and goes back … Read more
This morning on RNZ Kim Hill generously gave Don Brash 30 minutes in which to explain his problem with Guyon Espiner speaking te reo on the radio. Self-appointed Kim Hill expert and superfan Sam Brooks brings you her best burns. When it was announced that Don Brash was going to be interviewed by Kim Hill … Read more
Māori historian Dr Danny Keenan explains why it is highly unlikely William Hobson ever made his famous ‘pledge’. Great play has been made by anti-Māori Pākehā on a statement attributed to Lieutenant Governor Hobson at the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, that new settlers and Māori ‘were now one people’. But did Hobson ever … Read more
Western Bay of Plenty district council already voted in favour of Māori wards, but one councillor, the partner of Hobson’s Pledge head honcho Don Brash, is demanding a rate-payers’ poll. Let’s vote for progress, writes Graham Cameron. In our balmy autumn months in Tauranga Moana, during the commemorations for Te Weranga (the 1867 Tauranga Bush … Read more
Building magnate Sir William Gallagher’s recent comments calling the Treaty of Waitangi a ‘fraud’ have been roundly condemned. But he’s not the first to believe it, writes Scott Hamilton. Sir William Gallagher knows a lot about fences. He joined his father’s fencing business in 1962, and has turned it into a multinational company that he … Read more
Madeleine Chapman becomes bewitched by a new television phenomenon: people reacting to Don Brash on current affairs panels. This morning Don Brash, former leader of the National Party and current bad person, was on The AM Show alongside writer Verity Johnson. The topic was the Māori Party and I guess every single other person in the country … Read more
The party led by Te Ururoa Flavell and Marama Fox is at once clinging by a thread and on the brink of the balance of power. Morgan Godfery examines the crucial battlegrounds in the Māori seats Don Brash is waking each morning at 3am, cold sweat crawling across his face, and reaching for his iPhone. … Read more
From Don Brash to Helen Clark to the latest media spiel, the ‘debate’ is one of the great bogeymen of NZ politics. And it needs to get in the sea, writes Ben Thomas. It’s probably a little too cute to observe that the foreshore and seabed “debate” in New Zealand is built almost entirely on … Read more
Is Alan Greenspan the demon author of the GFC, or a true immortal of central banking? A monumental new biography persuasively argues he was neither – but that his latter-day critics have got him wrong, writes Duncan Greive. There are two Alan Greenspans in popular mythology, each in direct contradiction to the other. The first … Read more
Don Brash is the public face of Hobson’s Pledge, a new identity for his longstanding campaign against ‘special privileges’ for Māori. Deborah Mahuta-Coyle explains why for her, it feels personal. Kia ora Don, When I was 11 years old I took part in my school’s yearly speech competition. The topic was a famous Māori leader … Read more
A new ‘one nation’ New Zealand movement has sprung up, albeit from the usual suspects. Toby Manhire is captivated by the unique face of modern, anti-separatist New Zealand. Like sands through the hour glass, so are the anguished screams of “Māori special treatment fnarrrrrr!” The latest caterwaul comes in the form of Hobson’s Pledge. You … Read more
We have been waiting for a dramatic political event to live blog, and the unraveling events of yesterday’s ghastly meeting of local politics and a ceremonial sword fit the bill. 8.45am: As politics editor of the reality-television-and-housing-issues-focused New Zealand website The Spinoff, I have been waiting for an opportunity to launch a live blog. Preferably … Read more
Opinion: Five years ago, many mocked a speech calling for liberalised drug laws. Today, such a position is becoming mainstream, writes former ACT leader Don Brash. It is astonishing how rapidly attitudes towards marijuana are changing. Less than five years ago, most politicians thought I had lost my mind (indeed, perhaps had been smoking pot … Read more