Quotes of the week

Women fought for years, not to pretend they weren’t women, but to seek to redress the wrongs done to their sex class because of their biology. Women and girls are coerced, persecuted and controlled all over the world by the larger, stronger male. Even in our most liberal societies, women remain subject to sex-based violence and assault, still see their reproductive rights challenged and are still threatened with rape and even death by men angry that they’re sticking up for their rights.

‘Womanhood’ is not some quasi-mystical state into which men can identify. Pretending it is makes both studying the harms done to actual women, and enforcing women’s rights, impossible. A straight man who likes wearing stockings is not a lesbian. Wanting breasts doesn’t make a teenaged boy a girl. Both are male, and giving them access to women’s single-sex spaces has caused proven harm to women and girls.

How does taking away single-sex spaces away from vulnerable women advance feminism? How did three men occupying the medal podium at a women’s sporting event help female athletes?

You cannot describe what you’re too frightened to admit. You cannot defend what you can’t define. The last decade has seen a wholesale attack on the rights our foremothers fought for.

It continues to astound me that privileged young women who’ve benefited from those advances all their lives are proudly urging on the dimantling of the protections and spaces that were so hard won, and pretending this is progressive. – J.K. Rowling

If Nicola Willis can pull this Budget off, it’ll be impressive, because she has written a budget, by the looks of things, that is so tight, there is basically no new money. –  Heather du Plessis Allan

This is good. Because you don’t need me to tell the public service has got bloated and the spending of taxpayer money happens way too easily. Especially after Grant Roberton’s free for all and going through spending with a fine-tooth comb and cutting what isn’t good or necessary is not a bad thing.

It is a good fiscal discipline and the country will be better off for it. – Heather du Plessis Allan

To cut red tape, more is needed.

If department heads’ bonuses were linked to the reduction in red tape, the civil service would discover that many regulations are not needed.

When pay was linked to departmental numbers, the general manager of the railways was the second-highest-paid civil servant.

There were 24,000 railway workers and the railways lost $1 million a day. When the general manager’s pay was linked to efficiency, railways needed just 6000 people to haul four times more freight, at half the freight rate, and make a profit. – Richard Prebble

The action plan does include the introduction of Act’s Regulatory Standards Bill. The bill will require that all laws, not just regulations, meet a set of principles for “responsible regulation”.

The principles included the rule of law, protecting liberties, the taking of property, setting taxes, fees and levies, the role of courts, and having greater benefits than costs.

A Regulatory Standards Bill would make a difference. The bill would limit the unbridled power to make bad laws and create red tape. – Richard Prebble

As a country, we benefit from better communication, understanding and partnership between people of different ethnic and religious backgrounds. – Nancy Lu

I think it’s really important that we can have open and honest debates, but the focus should be on the ideas and how we can actually make life better for everyone,” said Nakhle, who is of Lebanese heritage.

“We’re a stronger country when people from all backgrounds – different cultures, ethnicities and religions – can work together and understand each other. – Rima Nakhle

She is the Meghan Markle of local body politics – so self-absorbed and she doesn’t appear cognisant as to just how destructive and useless she is. – Mike Hosking 

The whole point of religious language, liturgy, and ceremonial is not that it should imitate daily life, but that it should sacralize it. Language that is appropriate to shopping in the supermarket (the kind that modern translations of the Bible tend to employ) is not appropriate to worship—I am aware of the difference even though I am an atheist, which increasingly clerics seem not to be. The fact is, however, that we refuse to recognize that what is fitting in one situation is not fitting in another. How you dress for relaxing on a Saturday afternoon, for example, is not fitting for a funeral. In the name of some kind of equality, authenticity, or sincerity, we demand that our language, our dress, our comportment should be the same in whatever situation we find ourselves.

There is also something odiously complacent about the use of the word “modernization.” It assumes that what is modern is best, and therefore that we, the moderns, have reached an unprecedented state of enlightenment. In some things this may be true; no one would wish to go back to the anesthetic practices of the 1930s, for example, let alone those of the 1850s.

But that is not to say that we are the best or most enlightened in everything. To modernize is not the same as to improve. –  Theodore Dalrymple

It follows that we shouldn’t forget the past. We should face it squarely and try to remedy historical injustices wherever practicable (as governments have tried to do over the past several decades). But not forgetting is one thing; bearing a personal burden of guilt seems to me to be quite another. – Karl du Fresne

Three prizes for three good calls this week by the Government.

1) Financial literacy coming to a school near you in 2027, and not a day too soon. In many respects it’s the more valuable end of the education spectrum. It’s education you can actually use.

2) Nicola Willis and her cutting of the operating allowance from $2.4b to $1.3b. The $2.4b number already had headlines for being skinny, or unrealistic. $1.3b is rabbit out of a hat material.

I assume she is telling the truth when she says she has found billions in savings, because you can’t run a country on thin air.

3) David Seymour, with more reality check reminders that we have too much Government. In his speech he alerted us to just how much – 82 portfolios, 41 departments and 28 ministers.

If ever you wanted an example of bloat, there it is.  – Mike Hosking

The real issue is ministers. The good news currently, as Audrey Young in the Herald pointed out this week in her famous marking of ministers annual outing, is most of them are getting good scores and most of them are decent operators. 

But it is not always the case and too often, with the last Government being your classic example, portfolios are used and/or invented to reward loyalty and/or give people pay rises. Whether you can do the job is secondary. 

Good governments are run by a handful of talent. – Mike Hosking

Unlike the real world, you will note Cabinet and Government never downsize. The public service can be downsized, but the Government never is.

Sadly for Seymour, unlike the other two ideas this week, his isn’t real.

Financial literacy will materially improve our kids’ future.

Willis and her austerity will materially improve our economy.

If Seymour somehow trims a single minister or ministry, it won’t be an idea – it will be a miracle.   – Mike Hosking

I’ve always seen the roles of Minister for Women, Minister for the Voluntary Sector, Minister for Auckland, Minister for the South Island, sops to lobby groups. As David Seymour said in his speech, it’s symbolism. Portfolios, he said, should not be handed out like participation trophies.  – Kerre Woodham

In fact, everybody have a Minister! Minister for Hospitality, Minister for Racing, Minister for the Voluntary Sector. It nullifies the effect of having a Minister. If you don’t have a budget and you don’t have a vote, what is the point? If you make everybody a head prefect, what is the point? It devalues the position. It might make the minister themselves feel a little bit better, a little bit special, but if everybody’s special, nobody is. The only good reason, perhaps to have a minister for anything, other than as a sop, is because you do have fine young talents like James Meager who are given a bit more responsibility. But are they? It’s like an apprenticeship for becoming a real minister. It’s an absolute nonsense.

I couldn’t agree with David Seymour more. We’ve had our disagreements in the past and this one I’m absolutely on board with them. There should not be a minister unless they have a budget and something to do. And government departments should only have one minister to report to, not 19. How could anybody argue with what David Seymour has proposed?  – Kerre Woodham

There is always a cost (or sacrifice) borne somewhere when a population strays from the centre, and from common sense … and this is a price that the political extremes (left and right) have always been willing to make.

We are generally poorer as a society when the volume is turned too high on those at the political edges, and we are certainly the poorer when the political edges destabilize society by cannibalising the centre.

Just as with the keel on a yacht, a strong, healthy, vibrant and enfranchised centre, produces a common sense morality, a context for fruitful dialogue, a brake on extreme and divisive ideas … and a counterbalance to the histrionic, self serving and divisive agendas of the left. – Caleb Anderson

Not everyone loves Bob. I know that. He was a polarising character, but he had something that many of us could learn from, and that was a wicked sense of humour.

He laughed a lot. He played pranks. He enjoyed mocking things he didn’t like.

He was incredibly wealthy, but not pretentious – e grew up in a state house in Naenae after all.

And he was very clever. Read anything he’s written – you’ll wish you could write like him.

I count myself lucky to have known Bob Jones.  – Heather du Plessis-Allan

He was deliberately obnoxious at times, but for those of us who knew him well, we knew the cut of the man’s cloth, and he was a thoroughly decent individual. – Barry Soper

In 1973 he published a book called “The first twelve months : a study of the achievements of the third Labour government in 1973”. It was 100 blank pages.

Later on he put up a pole in Wellington measuring the credibility of the Government. Every few weeks he would lower it. Then he started digging a hole. Finally he wrote to the Mayor of a city in Spain that is opposite Wellington and asked them to put up a pole there as the credibility had dropped so much, it had burrowed through the planet. . .

New Zealand is the better for Bob Jones. He contributed so much in business, in politics, in sports (boxing) in literature and in humour.

He will be greatly missed, and I hope his style of irreverent humour will not pass away with him. – David Farrar

But what once identified as a civil rights movement has increasingly revealed itself as a set of demands promoted by the entitled and privileged. Women were expected to give up our dignity, spaces, safety and language. Institutions and even our government caved in, to stop trans activists (metaphorically) pissing on the sofa and chewing their slippers. The Supreme Court, mercifully, compelled the Sweeties to accept that other people have rights too. In essence, the ruling put trans activists back on the leash: whether senior judges or radical undergraduates, they must accept the law.

Today, tantrums no longer translate into policy, and it seems the age of appeasement is over. This isn’t cruelty, discrimination or persecution: it’s how adult society functions. – Josephine Bartosch

What matters most is not stasis, but discipline: recognising that how policies are changed can matter as much as what policies are changed.

It is equally important to resist populist temptations. Big businesses – banks, supermarkets, airports – make easy targets.

But heavy-handed interventions signal that the ground can shift beneath any investor’s feet. This echoes far beyond the targeted sectors.

New Zealand’s prosperity was built on a reputation for good governance, secure property rights, fiscal prudence, and regulatory stability. That reputation remains an invaluable national asset – but it is not immune to erosion.

If the coalition Government wants to foster growth and investment, it must ensure that its actions consistently reinforce New Zealand’s standing as a safe, predictable place to do business. The alternative is to court a sovereign risk problem of our own making. – Roger Partridge

Geography, Latin, and physics are about career pathways and ideas you may, or may not, find interesting. As a result, you may, or may not, ever use them. 

But finance is about life, about success and about navigating the world. 

People who know what money, currency, interest, dividends, investment and returns are, do better in the world than those who don’t. 

It raises the question as to what education is about. Is it about a pathway to university, to skills, or to understanding, or the power and value of learning, or the basics of life?  – Mike Hosking

I figure if nothing else school should be useful. A lot of people don’t use a lot of what we got at school. Things like nomadic tribes of Africa in geography didn’t serve me all that well, but compound interest has.

Economics opened a door for me – a useful, beneficial and financially fruitful door.

The idea that all kids will get that going forward is no bad thing.  – Mike Hosking

This has happened before in human history; religion falls away when times are good – but when suffering returns people start to look to religion for answers. Our modern age felt it had solved this permanently with secular institutions, but they – and the people who run them – are the very things that have caused the suffering. –Tom Hunter

One hundred days into Donald Trump’s second presidency, his economic nationalism has produced an unexpected consequence. The man who campaigned on ‘America First’ and delivered sweeping tariffs within weeks of retaking office has become an unlikely champion of free trade – by forcing his opponents to defend it. – Oliver Hartwich

The political left, previously suspicious of free trade, has suddenly discovered its virtues. Liberal Americans who once marched against trade deals now cite David Ricardo. European leaders who have maintained protected agricultural markets for decades suddenly proclaim themselves champions of open commerce.

This extraordinary reversal represents perhaps the most astonishing ideological about-face I have witnessed. – Oliver Hartwich

From Adam Smith to David Ricardo, from Frédéric Bastiat to Richard Cobden, the case for free trade rests on rock-solid economic logic. When two parties trade, whether across a street or across an ocean, they do so because both benefit. Each values what they receive more highly than what they give in exchange. This mutual advantage underpins the entire theory of the division of labour. Trade rewards specialisation. That fuels productivity. It is the foundation of our prosperity. For an economist, to argue against free trade is like arguing that the world is flat or that the sun orbits the earth.

Yet here we are in 2025, watching former free-market champions on the political right adopt the very same fallacies once championed by the left. The rhetorical parallels are uncanny: protecting workers, preserving national industries, preventing exploitation by foreigners. – Oliver Hartwich

Just two decades ago, the annual Davos gathering needed police protection from left-wing protesters. ‘Davos Man’ and globalisation were the bête noire of the political left. Now it is exactly the other way around, with right-wing populists seeing globalist conspiracies at every turn.

I sometimes wonder whether these recent converts truly believe their new anti-trade rhetoric or if they are simply following the latest intellectual fashion served up by their political heroes. Political tribalism is a powerful force. – Oliver Hartwich

By pushing protectionism to extremes, Trump has inadvertently broadened the coalition supporting free trade. He has reminded liberals why open markets matter. He has forced the European Union to confront its own protectionist contradictions. He has even pushed China to embrace market principles – rhetorically, at least.

Perhaps this moment offers an opportunity to build a broader, more durable support base for free trade. Maybe we can engage those on the left who have rediscovered these principles, while hoping the right eventually returns to economic reason. – Oliver Hartwich

Donald Trump may well be the Mephistopheles of trade policy – a figure whose protectionist impulses have paradoxically strengthened the intellectual case for free exchange. Through their negative effects, his tariffs may ultimately prove more damaging to protectionism than to trade itself.

That would be a fitting irony for the first 100 days of Trump’s second term. – Oliver Hartwich

I think what we are seeing unfold is a political lesson for the political right which was only recently also dealt to the political left. That lesson is that, despite appearances, social media isn’t the real world, and you can’t govern as if it is.

The left’s moment of learning came in the mid to late 2010s leading up to 2022. This was the period where identity politics was all the rage, and the phrases “pile on” and “being cancelled” entered the lexicon.

Across the social media platforms and especially on Twitter, the identity trolls ruled the roost, and woe betide anyone who thought outside the mandated social construct.

Left-leaning parties virtue-signalled their way to electoral success. – Steven Joyce

The key point is that this was fed by the social media echo chamber which looks like the mainstream, but isn’t. The left, and many journalists, made the political mistake of thinking the views of Twitter were shared by everyone.

They lost touch with middle voters and, as a result, for the most part were unceremoniously booted out.

The Maga movement is in part a reaction to identity politics, but I think it, too, is making the same mistake. – Steven Joyce

As in many things, social media is a magnification and acceleration of what used to happen in real-life forums. When I went into politics, I learnt that the National Party membership and activist base did not accurately represent the broad middle of New Zealand voters, and if you follow their policy prescription exactly, yours would be a long, pure, and unsuccessful political life on the opposition benches.

The same applies to the Labour Party, I’m sure. Their most vocal active partisans are not likely to be mainstream in their views, because they are, by definition, more motivated than most in rejecting the status quo.

In our case, we learnt to respect the views of party members and the sense of direction they provided, but understand that the path to political success was through the median voter. – Steven Joyce

The trick, as always, is to govern from the political centre, or at least the centre-right or centre-left.

That doesn’t mean you don’t try new or even radical policy directions. Just that the path to acceptance of those policies is by convincing the majority, and not just winning the applause of social media denizens.

And by remembering always that most people don’t ever post on Twitter/X, which is in the end no more than the citizen band radio of our times.

Playing to the narrow base in politics is never durable, wherever they hang out. Politicians either learn that lesson themselves, or the less visible but more numerous ordinary voter teaches it to them. – Steven Joyce

The challenge for those defending the right to speak, and to listen, is to acknowledge the consequences of our position. It comes at a cost. –Damien Grant

Free speech isn’t free; which makes it vulnerable to being undermined and the resolve of those few protecting it increasingly consequential. – Damien Grant