<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Bassett, Brash & Hide]]></title><description><![CDATA[Brash&Mitchell]]></description><link>https://www.brashandmitchell.com/home</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Tue, 14 Apr 2026 16:28:26 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.brashandmitchell.com/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[ZORAN RAKOVIC: The Tyrant Without a Face]]></title><description><![CDATA[Inspired by RCR Bites, a modern interpretation of Aristotle on how uncertainty, information overload, and ambiguity quietly shape power. Aristotle reaches us today not through a lecture hall or a worn manuscript, but through a passing line in a modern bulletin, RCR Bites . A fragment dropped into the stream of daily updates. And yet, like all enduring ideas, it refuses to stay small. “It is also the policy of a tyrant to impoverish his subjects… that they may be kept busy with their daily...]]></description><link>https://www.brashandmitchell.com/post/zoran-rakovic-the-tyrant-without-a-face</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69ddb2c48946a7ddf470695b</guid><pubDate>Tue, 14 Apr 2026 03:27:08 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7b14b8_8f6c0ea1bb7b4410867f7f56c6e4af42~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Administrator</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[ACT: A great idea for councils, from the Labour Party]]></title><description><![CDATA[The Labour Party constitution contains a real gem. We doubt Willie ‘democracy has changed’ Jackson has read his party’s constitution, but here it is: “All political authority comes from the people by democratic means, including universal suffrage, regular and free elections with a secret ballot.” It is the first principle in their Party Constitution, and we couldn’t have said it better ourselves. If democracy means anything, it’s that the majority can vote the bastards out. Democracy amounts...]]></description><link>https://www.brashandmitchell.com/post/act-a-great-idea-for-councils-from-the-labour-party</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69dc9eac43e56f31776fce0a</guid><pubDate>Mon, 13 Apr 2026 07:44:35 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7b14b8_b91491d494334562828c68ab7d93d9dc~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_859,h_934,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Administrator</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[LINDSAY MITCHELL: Immigrants pull their weight]]></title><description><![CDATA[Just-released March 2026 ethnic data  shows Maori form the largest group of dependent unemployed people. At the end of March 2026 48,261 Maori  were receiving a Job Seeker-Work Ready benefit (Job Seeker-Health Condition/Disability is a separate category for those considered temporarily unemployed  due to illness.) NZ Europeans followed at 43,626. Pacific  people occupy third place at 19,005. Asians trail back at 6,840 with  Middle Eastern/ Latin American/ African   people numbering 2,178....]]></description><link>https://www.brashandmitchell.com/post/lindsay-mitchell-immigrants-pull-their-weight</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69db536c8614fb4128b0360b</guid><pubDate>Sun, 12 Apr 2026 22:04:20 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7b14b8_85fc3715e713436486db90dd6ff83ae6~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Administrator</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Elizabeth Rata: NEOTRIBAL CAPITALISM AND CO-GOVERNANCE]]></title><description><![CDATA[In a Nutshell Capitalism creates prosperity. But its relentless drive to accumulate must be controlled by democratic politics. Neotribal economic corporations (the 'neo' means they are different from the pre-modern tribal re-distributive economy) are like socialist ones. They merge the economy with politics. Dangerously, they institutionalise the merger in legislation, policy and practice. Because those combined interests are invisible, they are unchallengeable. Democracy first required the...]]></description><link>https://www.brashandmitchell.com/post/elizabeth-rata-neotribal-capitalism-and-co-governance</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69db1af275afb0779a739d9e</guid><pubDate>Sun, 12 Apr 2026 04:11:19 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7b14b8_bf86860a74b34b8b91d8775ec3b7dd08~mv2.webp/v1/fit/w_180,h_180,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Administrator</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Bryan Leyland and John Raine: THE ENERGY STORAGE ELEPHANT]]></title><description><![CDATA[Christopher Luxon announced the LNG Storage Terminal plan on 9 th  February 2026. By 28 th  February, the USA and Israel had attacked Iran, and we were forcefully reminded that New Zealand’s is one of the most  vulnerable advanced economies to oil supply disruption. We are geographically isolated, fully import‑dependent for refined fuels, and exposed to geopolitical upheaval and chokepoints like the Strait of Hormuz. The energy storage behemoth has been in the room for a long time and was...]]></description><link>https://www.brashandmitchell.com/post/bryan-leyland-and-john-raine-the-energy-storage-elephant</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69d985f875afb0779a703892</guid><pubDate>Sat, 11 Apr 2026 19:33:47 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7b14b8_ec160e3721164954864fad8397e855bb~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_275,h_183,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Administrator</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[ROGER PARTRIDGE: What Freedom of Speech Is For: The case against silencing]]></title><description><![CDATA[In 1633, the Roman Inquisition condemned Galileo for heresy. His offence was to argue that the Earth moves around the Sun. The Church was not acting out of malice. It was protecting a politically approved consensus against what was considered to be dangerous nonsense. The theologians and philosophers who condemned Galileo were not fools. They were defending what every educated person knew to be true. They were also wrong. And being wrong with institutional authority behind you is far more...]]></description><link>https://www.brashandmitchell.com/post/roger-partridge-what-freedom-of-speech-is-for-the-case-against-silencing</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69d95033515c02011a0c665d</guid><pubDate>Fri, 10 Apr 2026 23:02:58 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7b14b8_48ce4ea718e14730b9f817edc00dac8c~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Administrator</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[GRAHAM ADAMS: The Rosy Resurrection of Helen Clark]]></title><description><![CDATA[Just don’t mention the foreshore and seabed.   Helen Clark’s gift of $86.8 million to the arts sector in May 2000 turned out to be a canny investment. The opera aficionado’s benevolence early in her first term as Prime Minister seems to have guaranteed her the undying devotion of the luvvies who dominate the world of theatre, music and film.    They will forgive her anything — except perhaps 2004’s Foreshore and Seabed Act.   Little surprise then that Auckland Theatre Company — which received...]]></description><link>https://www.brashandmitchell.com/post/graham-adams-the-rosy-resurrection-of-helen-clark</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69d8056c0b7119100d01b37f</guid><pubDate>Thu, 09 Apr 2026 20:04:35 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7b14b8_3de95095e60c4fd8bbbd8cb694c13d25~mv2.jpeg/v1/fit/w_960,h_960,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Administrator</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[DON BRASH: IT’S NO LONGER SAFE TO BE AN AMERICAN ALLY]]></title><description><![CDATA[For all my now-rather-long adult life, there has been a largely unquestioned assumption that the best way for New Zealand to get along in the world is to be an ally of the United States.   And an ally we’ve been since at least December 1941 when, after being attacked by Japan at Pearl Harbour, the United States entered the Second World War.   New Zealand was a formal treaty ally of the US from 1951 when the Australia, New Zealand and United States Security Treaty (ANZUS) was signed.   The...]]></description><link>https://www.brashandmitchell.com/post/don-brash-it-s-no-longer-safe-to-be-an-american-ally</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69d70d49a51db32c14c150a2</guid><pubDate>Thu, 09 Apr 2026 02:37:05 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7b14b8_2947fe4ce58848a681ec1a27681251da~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_155,h_204,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Don Brash</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[KARL DU FRESNE:  Luxon still hasn’t got the hang of politics]]></title><description><![CDATA[“I’m not going to play that game,” Christopher Luxon said – rather lamely – when Tova O’Brien asked him how many Maori National MPs were in his cabinet. “It’s not a game,” countered O’Brien, doubtless trying hard to conceal her glee at having so easily caught the prime minister out. Oh, but it is a game. The game is called scalp-hunting and it’s commonly practised by journalists and broadcasters who mistakenly think their role is to make politicians squirm. The funny thing is, no one can...]]></description><link>https://www.brashandmitchell.com/post/karl-du-fresne-luxon-still-hasn-t-got-the-hang-of-politics</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69d6115bd3b1a3633e6f1f4d</guid><pubDate>Wed, 08 Apr 2026 08:28:43 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7b14b8_4ba936ffab4d4d149f5f03aa7db47cde~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_191,h_264,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Administrator</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[ELLIOT IKILEI: It is worse than you think: Far North Council has been taken over]]></title><description><![CDATA[Things are going badly wrong in the Far North, and the Government is choosing to sit on its hands and let it happen. We have to take action now. A sitting councillor, Davina Smolders has come forward in an interview with Duncan Garner on his podcast and described what is happening inside the Far North District Council. This is no petty disagreement over policy. It is a fundamental shift in who is exercising power and the complete overriding of democracy. We are calling for Minister for Local...]]></description><link>https://www.brashandmitchell.com/post/elliot-ikilei-it-is-worse-than-you-think-far-north-council-has-been-taken-over</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69d59ed9212fd86027b4f7ed</guid><pubDate>Wed, 08 Apr 2026 00:22:07 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7b14b8_879272a1e00549eea838332bd03100cc~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_243,h_207,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Administrator</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[ROGER PARTRIDGE: Wellington takes the gold]]></title><description><![CDATA[Winston Peters was in Westport on Sunday, announcing  that a future NZ First government would return 50 per cent of all mining royalties to the regions where mining occurs. It is one of the more sensible growth ideas to emerge from this election campaign so far. The logic is simple. When a mine is proposed, local communities experience the disruption – the consent battles, the pressure on roads and services, the divided town meetings. Wellington gets the royalties. In those circumstances,...]]></description><link>https://www.brashandmitchell.com/post/roger-partridge-wellington-takes-the-gold</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69d40aacd142869289e8b417</guid><pubDate>Mon, 06 Apr 2026 19:40:23 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7b14b8_48ce4ea718e14730b9f817edc00dac8c~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Administrator</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[DR MIKE SCHMIDT: Pragmatic Water Management]]></title><description><![CDATA[In my previous article “WCC’s Actions Are a National Moral Hazard” , the objection to transferring water assets was framed in moral and ethical terms: councils hold critical infrastructure in trust for the public, and irreversible transfers undermine trusteeship and create moral hazards by allowing responsibility to be exported rather than exercised. Some councils may not subscribe to such ideas, conveniently treating the issue as merely “practical” or “technical.” Thus I appeal to them on...]]></description><link>https://www.brashandmitchell.com/post/dr-mike-schmidt-pragmatic-water-management</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69d19830f7044e6cf7ae55af</guid><pubDate>Sun, 05 Apr 2026 20:19:33 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7b14b8_6ed231994cbf4f7cab1fb88692e856a5~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_713,h_541,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Administrator</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[JONATHAN SWIFT: A modest proposal for superannuation affordability]]></title><description><![CDATA[Being a practical scheme whereby New Zealand's retirees may personally contribute to the fiscal sustainability they currently enjoy Superannuation reform is politically impossible, so let us not bother. Instead, let us fix the problem the way we have been fixing it anyway, just more honestly. The pension costs more every year because New Zealanders keep getting older. The only reason things aren’t even worse is that younger people keep arriving from overseas and paying taxes. Treasury...]]></description><link>https://www.brashandmitchell.com/post/jonathan-swift-a-modest-proposal-for-superannuation-affordability</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69ceae6a40e74dbec4fea735</guid><pubDate>Sat, 04 Apr 2026 19:57:26 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7b14b8_e82261f5a50b48c99742ec29151b17b1~mv2.webp/v1/fit/w_528,h_581,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Administrator</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[DAVID HARVEY: The Distant Yet Pervasive State]]></title><description><![CDATA[The Shepherd and the Flock: De Tocqueville’s Warning and the New Zealand Condition This article arose after I had read a number of different pieces. One was Bryce Edwards’ “Democracy Briefing: The Establishment joins the electricity insurgency” . That in turn led me to Danyl McLuchlan’s Listener article “Fuel for a Crisis”. Then from out of the blue arrived a piece about the state of social media discourse and how volatile, vicious and elemental it can be. All this gave rise to some thinking...]]></description><link>https://www.brashandmitchell.com/post/david-harvey-the-distant-yet-pervasive-state</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69d014cef7044e6cf7abcc90</guid><pubDate>Fri, 03 Apr 2026 19:30:19 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7b14b8_1a54859d95d84bb292464a2769523f9f~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_96,h_96,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Administrator</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[PROFESSOR JERRY COYNE: Indigenous “ways of knowing” invade Canadian science classes]]></title><description><![CDATA[I’ve spent a lot of time pushed many electrons going after the fallacy in New Zealand that indigenous “ways of knowing”—in this case from the Māori—are just as valid as so-called “Western ways of knowing,” which is what Kiwi progressives call “science”. You can see my pieces here , but there are many. This sacralization of the oppressed, whereby the beliefs of minorities are given extra credibility, has now spread to Canada, a pretty woke place. Lawrence Krauss, who now lives in British...]]></description><link>https://www.brashandmitchell.com/post/professor-jerry-coyne-indigenous-ways-of-knowing-invade-canadian-science-classes</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69cf477df7044e6cf7aa4680</guid><pubDate>Fri, 03 Apr 2026 05:53:55 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7b14b8_0d16c203f53d4cfda5d0f91becd50e1d~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_241,h_209,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Administrator</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[DR MIKE SCHMIDT: WCC’s Actions Are a National Moral Hazard]]></title><description><![CDATA[At the heart of the Wellington City Council’s (WCC) decision to transfer water assets to a new, externally governed entity lies a fundamental ethical failure. These assets were not created by the Council, nor do they belong to councillors in any moral sense. They were paid for by Wellingtonians over generations through rates, charges, and debt serviced by the public. The Council holds them in trust , charged with their care, maintenance, and prudent management on behalf of the community....]]></description><link>https://www.brashandmitchell.com/post/dr-mike-schmidt-wcc-s-actions-are-a-national-moral-hazard</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69cdb347535e7bcd26964375</guid><pubDate>Thu, 02 Apr 2026 17:49:34 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7b14b8_6ed231994cbf4f7cab1fb88692e856a5~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_713,h_541,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Administrator</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[RHYS HURLEY: MBIE paying staff for daily waiata sessions]]></title><description><![CDATA[Rhys Hurley is Investigations Coordinator for the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union Earlier this year, it was revealed that Health New Zealand was holding compulsory "Karakia" sessions during work hours. Now, our own research has uncovered something even more absurd, this time at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE). While Kiwi businesses are facing economic uncertainty, the Ministry supposedly responsible for helping businesses has been spending our money on Workplace...]]></description><link>https://www.brashandmitchell.com/post/rhys-hurley-mbie-paying-staff-for-daily-waiata-sessions</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69cd9d592a4608ae001ae438</guid><pubDate>Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:07 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7b14b8_a72a4e0ce7f24385b80eddf4e3f86074~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Administrator</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[LINDSAY MITCHELL: 'Brown Optimism']]></title><description><![CDATA[I visited the new Wellington Library today unprepared for the towering inscription, rising through almost three stories, which has been installed on the west face. This is the text of the poem depicted: Brown Optimism With dust of labour on a summer’s day They slouched with careless stride of people come From nowhere, going nowhere, smiling, tired, And cursing with a laugh the pakeha Veneer. For them life is a childish farce To paint in white the brown which stains their lives. Their ancient...]]></description><link>https://www.brashandmitchell.com/post/lindsay-mitchell-brown-optimism</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69ccb5e57d31fe550c65fa93</guid><pubDate>Wed, 01 Apr 2026 06:31:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7b14b8_22e90007bb9748c196de65355a39c05c~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_194,h_259,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Administrator</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[JOHN MCLEAN: Woke Entrenchment]]></title><description><![CDATA[Mechanisms of ideological Identitarian societal capture…complete with a case study. I’ve written screeds on how Woke/Critical Social Justice/Identitarianism/Neo-Marxism/Post-Modernism – call “it” what you will - has been entrenched in New Zealand society. New Zealand’s only indigenous strain of Wokery is Māorification. All the rest - Trans activism, biological sex denialism, the hierarchy of victimhood and oppression and all other Woke Slop – has been mindlessly imported from foreign Western...]]></description><link>https://www.brashandmitchell.com/post/john-mclean-woke-entrenchment</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69cb3976e7de3cb00608e3f4</guid><pubDate>Tue, 31 Mar 2026 03:35:53 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7b14b8_494fa66816f6446db403afaca7ce66dc~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_200,h_200,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Administrator</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[BRYCE EDWARDS - Democracy Briefing: A Country losing faith]]></title><description><![CDATA[New Zealand’s annual trust survey is out. The trust figures are not good. But this year, the most alarming finding in the 2026 Acumen Edelman Trust Barometer isn’t really about trust at all. It’s about hope. Only 17% of New Zealanders believe the next generation will be better off than today. That’s a nine-point drop from last year, a sharp collapse in optimism, and it puts us among the most pessimistic countries in the developed world. Lower than Australia, lower than the US, lower even than...]]></description><link>https://www.brashandmitchell.com/post/bryce-edwards-democracy-briefing-a-country-losing-faith</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69ca0ffd495b613043555ba5</guid><pubDate>Mon, 30 Mar 2026 06:08:58 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7b14b8_81f135aa8b5e44f38a32cb11fcd6ac95~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_225,h_225,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Administrator</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>