The Methodist Church of New Zealand has formally opposed the Legislation (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill -- a modest attempt to restore biological clarity to New Zealand law. In doing so, it has abandoned its most basic pastoral duty: protecting the vulnerable, especially girls and young women entrusted to its care. This is not abstract theology. It is a direct threat to the safety and modesty of daughters at church camps, youth events, changing rooms, and overnight stays. The...

The Opportunity Party wants to be known as the party of ideas. Now polling near five percent, I decided to test one. The party’s website offers a calculator. You enter your income and land value, and it reveals how much better off you will be under its radical tax proposal. Their so-called ‘Tax Reset’ promises a cash payment of $19,400 a year to every adult, the ‘Citizen’s Income’, funded by a 1.75 percent annual tax on land. I tried to invent someone who would pay more net tax under the...

A month before 2023’s election, Winston Peters ignited a brush fire in the media after he told a campaign meeting in Nelson that Māori were not indigenous to New Zealand. His reasoning was simple: “We come from Hawai-iki. Where's our Hawai-iki? We think it is in the Cook Islands. We think it’s in Rarotonga... but we’re not from here.” He noted that his tribe Ngāti Wai “came to Aotearoa about 900 years ago or longer”. And “if our story says we came from Hawai-iki or this place from the...