Author: Dr Muriel Newman

The Coalition’s proposed shakeup of local government is well underway. Time is now running out for councils to decide on the shape of their mergers. This is not the first time local councils have undergone major structural reform. Let’s see whether any lessons have been learned. In the 1980s, New Zealand had around 850 separate elected local authorities serving our 3.3 million population. This included 250 city, county, and borough councils operating alongside hundreds of single-purpose boards including pest destruction boards, drainage boards, and harbour boards. Controlling all of this was difficult for any sitting government, especially as communities had…

Opinion: Dr Muriel Newman After decades of rampant migration across Europe, governments are finally confronting a problem they have ignored for far too long: the rise of “parallel societies”. These are enclaves of immigrant communities living under alternative cultural and authority structures that undermine social norms, weaken national cohesion, and challenge the ability of the State to govern. Denmark, Sweden, Germany, and France are amongst the growing number of countries that now realise that once parallel authority takes root, it becomes increasingly difficult to reverse. Denmark has taken the most forceful approach. After years of rising concern about immigrant neighbourhoods,…

OPINION: Dr Muriel Newman. The recent appointment of ten unelected iwi representatives with full voting rights onto a Council Committee of just six elected Councillors is a stark illustration that the tribal takeover of Local Government in New Zealand is now well underway.  But before we examine a prominent King’s Counsel’s findings that this development is unlawful, we should first ask a more fundamental question: how on earth has it come to this in a supposedly democratic country?  To answer that question, we need to revisit the egregious betrayal of voters by Jacinda Ardern’s Labour Party after the 2020 election, when they…