Green MP Tamatha Paul criticised beat patrols in Wellington and claimed they make people feel “more on edge,” suggesting they should be replaced by Māori Wardens and cultural alternatives. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏

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Briefing for 29 March 2025

Tamatha Paul pivots to race after backlash over police comments

Green MP Tamatha Paul is under pressure from across the political spectrum after a recent series of controversial remarks about police presence, public safety, and incarceration—then suggesting criticism of her was racially motivated.

She is quoted in an RNZ article stating: “I’m not surprised that people are upset that a young brown woman is being critical of an institution that has let her and her communities down for a very long time.”

Police under fire for persisting with ‘hate speech’ training and protest crackdown

The Free Speech Union says it’s taking legal action against New Zealand Police for failing to scrap unlawful officer training on “hate speech” and “hate crime”—months after promising to do so.

In a statement, FSU chair Dr Roderick Mulgan accused Police of ignoring warnings that the training was inconsistent with the Bill of Rights and outside the bounds of current law.

“No ‘hate crime’ law has ever existed in New Zealand,” he wrote. “So why are Police being trained to enforce them?”

Proposal to regulate protest rights rings civil liberties alarm

In a lengthy opinion for The Spinoff, anti-apartheid campaigner Trevor Richards argues the Independent Police Conduct Authority’s (IPCA) recent report, The Policing of Public Protest in New Zealand, risks ushering in a restrictive legal framework with disturbing consequences.

The report, released in February, recommends standalone legislation that would set overarching principles and police powers for managing “anticipated” protests.

These include advance notification requirements, conditions imposed by police and local authorities, and even criminal penalties for those who fail to notify.

Government toughens sentencing laws as opposition defends status quo

The coalition government has passed changes to sentencing laws aimed at ending what it calls a “culture of excuses” for violent crime.

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says the reforms reflect public frustration with lenient sentencing and send a clear message to the courts.

New study finds vaping didn’t reduce teen smoking

Vaping has failed to cut teen smoking in New Zealand, according to new research published in The Lancet. The study shows that from 1999 to 2023, the decline in daily smoking among 14- to 15-year-olds continued at a similar rate despite the rise of e-cigarettes.

This contradicts a widely cited 2020 study, which claimed vaping may have displaced smoking between 2014 and 2019.

Majority of Kiwis back mining — but gender and party gaps show deep divide

New polling from Curia, quietly buried in mainstream coverage, reveals that more New Zealanders support mining expansion than oppose it — but the devil is in the demographic detail.

Overall, the poll found more support than opposition to mining across all voters. But men were nearly twice as likely to support it as oppose it (1.8 to 1), while support is well under half among women (0.6 to 1).

Gold rush returns to Reefton, with hopes of long-term boom

Miners are flooding back to Reefton, a historic West Coast gold town once thought to be picked clean.

With gold prices surging and a government championing resource extraction, companies are betting that the quartz “reefs” that gave Reefton its name still hold untapped riches.