A new report by Auditor-General John Ryan has warned that public agencies are failing to meet key Treaty settlement obligations, putting the Crown at risk of legal action.
The audit reviewed commitments made under approximately 80 settlements involving around 70 iwi and hapū groups, with a total of 12,000 legal and contractual obligations held by 150 public bodies.
Michael Laws has accused leading Māori academics of “almost traitorous” behaviour after they told the UN that New Zealand is a racist, backwards regime guilty of cultural genocide.
Laws called the claims “a woeful and appalling misrepresentation of equality and democracy.”
“There is no rights being stripped from Māori… one might well argue that Māori actually have more rights than non-Māori in this country,” he added.
Between April 2020 and August 2022, the government spent over $116 million on COVID messaging, plus another $55 million via the Public Interest Journalism Fund.
“This substantial government funding stifled open debate,” Anna McLoughlin of NZ Doctors
Speaking out on Science (NZDSOS) writes, creating an atmosphere where sceptics were “disappeared or ridiculed and independent journalism was cast quite literally as criminally dangerous.”
Labour, the Greens, and Te Pāti Māori have lashed out at the coalition’s plan to reinstate a full ban on prisoner voting even for those serving short sentences.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon dismissed their outrage, saying: “I do not care what anyone else says about it.”
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith confirmed Cabinet’s decision to reverse Labour’s 2020 law change, which had restored voting rights to prisoners serving less than three years.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has slashed $1.1 billion from new spending, citing “a seismic global economic event” – Donald Trump’s trade tariffs – and unsustainable debt.
With the government borrowing $500 million a week, interest costs now exceed the combined budgets of Police, Corrections, Justice and Defence.
New spending will drop from $2.4b to $1.3b, with Willis warning: “We can’t really afford to have that interest bill spiralling out of control.”
Whānau Ora Minister Tama Potaka has announced four new agencies will take over commissioning services from 1 July 2025, following the decision not to renew contracts with the original three providers.
It’s the first time since the initiative’s 2010 launch that contracts were put to open tender.
The outgoing agencies – Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency (North Island), Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu (South Island), and Pasifika Futures – had held contracts since 2014. The decision could affect up to 1,000 jobs.
Arezki Amiri, writing for The Daily Galaxy, points to a series of studies revealing that attention spans are shortening, problem-solving skills are weakening, and reading habits are collapsing.
“Are we really getting dumber, or is this a sign of a deeper shift in how we think and process information?” he asks.
Many blame part of the trend on changes in media consumption. “Prolonged exposure to screens makes it harder to concentrate and retain information,” Amiri notes, suggesting that the digital age may be rewiring brains in ways that limit deep thinking and sustained focus.
