Author: Peter Williams

OPINION: Peter Williams. Money triumphs over editorial sense In the immortal words of tennis legend John McEnroe: “You cannot be serious. Whatever slight remaining credibility 1 News might have had as a genuine, unbiased, commercially neutral news organisation disappeared completely tonight (July 20) because they did not lead their bulletin with one of the great moments in New Zealand sporting history. Any sensible person looking at the news events of the day through a genuine editorial lens would have automatically said “Ryan Fox is our lead story.” On any other day that the World Cup final isn’t on, Fox’s win…

Opinion: Peter Williams. It’s sure to be second time successful for the former TV host One of the rapidly emerging features of the 2026 election is the announcement of candidates carrying a profile from another sphere of activity. New Zealand First started the trend in April with former All Black captain Taine Randell announced as the candidate for Tukituki. He won’t win the seat but will surely be in the top ten on the NZF list and take his place in the House of Representatives after November 7th. Then came Labour with the high ranking police superintendent Rakesh Naidoo named…

OPINION: Peter Williams. Is the cheerleading of expensive eating an appropriate use of TV news time? Sometimes you just cringe at the content of the television news. Saturday night was a classic. The New Zealand football team lost, predictably, to Belgium by 5 goals to 1 so ending their World Cup campaign. They began as the tournament’s lowest ranked team and confirmed that position as they were eliminated after group play without a win. Yet somehow that result on Saturday, traditionally a slow news day, was worth 15 minutes of valuable prime time television! A quarter of an hour of…

OPINION: Peter Williams How a clever campaign could help derail Chris Bishop There’s an intriguing campaign underway to try and manipulate the existence of the Māori electorates at the next two elections – this year and 2029 – and possibly for 2032 as well. That’s because the existence of seven such constituencies is guaranteed through the next two elections and there won’t be a review of their number and boundaries until at least 2030. Now that the census has been abandoned and replaced with otherwise available government data, there’s no guarantee the number of seats will change for 2032 either.…

OPINION: Peter Williams. Any politician who refuses to front on a particular media outlet essentially because he or she is afraid of being made to look foolish is, frankly, a coward and not competent to be in a position of responsibility. It’s into that category that we must now place the current Prime Minister. We know that Jacinda Ardern was already a certified member. Christopher Luxon has cancelled his regular appearances on TVNZ Breakfast after being hopelessly ill-prepared for a predictable barrage of aggressive questioning on a trivial topic from Tova O’Brien. He is also a regular decliner of interview…

OPINION: Peter Williams The following was written in Peter’s capacity as Taxpayers’ Union board member In 2022, I joined the Board of the Taxpayers’ Union to fight Nanaia Mahuta’s plan to confiscate community-owned water assets and put them into ‘co-governed’ Three Waters entities. And with the Luxon-led Government being elected with such a clear mandate, I thought we had won. So it gives me no pleasure to give you the bad news. Co-governance of local water is back. And it rests on you and me to stop it. I am asking you to join me in supporting the Taxpayers’ Union…