Breaking Views Update: Week of 14.3.26

Wednesday March 18, 2026 

News:
Bringing heat to New Zealand’s geothermal sector - Shane Jones
From the Ground Up was launched by Mr Jones in Rotorua today, at an event attended by industry, stakeholders and media. The document sets out a practical plan to boost investment in the sector, build regional resilience and economic growth.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: The National Party needs to rethink its plan for this election

We need to talk about inflation, because inflation is making me pretty sure now that the National Party needs to rethink its plan for this election.

We’ve just had the food inflation data out today. No surprise - food has gone up in price again in the year to February, up 4.5 percent.

Karl du Fresne: A masterclass in damage control, and Labour's PR flunkies didn't have to lift a finger

It has been fascinating to observe the media’s treatment of allegations against Labour leader Chris Hipkins by his ex-wife. 

The first thing to note was the uniformity of the coverage. It was as if the political editors of the mainstream news outlets hurriedly got their heads together when the news broke yesterday and decided on a common approach.

Mike's Minute: Invented stories and the media

How long can you pedal an invention?

On Friday March 6th the poll is out. It's bad for National and the media has concocted the idea that as a result of these numbers and the previous Monday's press conference about the war, that things have got so bad for the Prime Minister he is “considering his position over the weekend”.

Ashley Church: This Is More Dangerous Than the Media

The real threat is the one that you don't recognise.

Most people in the Western world have now worked out that the old media priesthood can no longer be trusted – but there’s one media organisation, in particular, that constitutes a greater threat to free speech than, arguably, all of the others combined.

It isn’t the New York Times, the Washington Post, or even the BBC. Nor is it CBC, in Canada, the ABC, in Australia, or even TVNZ or RNZ here in New Zealand.

David Farrar: Urgency Stats Part 2

In this part, I look at how often urgency has been used to bypass select committee consideration of a bill, and also how often the 6 months standard consultation period has been reduced.

This practice is what should most strongly be pushed back. Bypassing select committee robs the public of the ability to submit on laws, and also for technical improvements to be identified.

Gary Judd KC: Lessons from Iran

The dangers of appeasement

There are lessons to be learned from what has happened to and in Iran. Without doubt there is more to be learned, and more will become apparent in the days, weeks, months, and years to come. One such lesson has been taught through history but is forgotten more often than remembered.

Appeasement, the attempt to avoid conflict and to maintain or restore peace, may sometimes be a virtue but is frequently capitulation to evil actors. Those who have the power but, for whatever reason, lack the inclination to stand up for what is right often find that visions of peace are a mere illusion or fabrication of the mind. They may find that the goodwill they thought to buy through appeasement is rewarded with aggression and the sacrifice of innocent victims to the whims of persons of authoritarian temperament who now have totalitarian power.

Pee Kay: Ponder These…

Do you ever read a newspaper headline and think WTF or wonder what the hell the writer was trying to prove?

I find it almost impossible these days to read articles in the Herald and not contemplate what lies beyond the headline, what questions hasn’t the “reporter” asked, what hasn’t been said, what is the “other side of the coin.”

Here are examples from yesterday’s paper –

Ian Wishart: ‘Son, your ego is writing cheques your body can’t cash’

It was memorable advice in the 1986 movie Top Gun, and it’s advice that Labour party alumni Phil Goff and Helen Clark should pay heed to still, as they make calls for NZ to take a “principled stand” on the Iran conflict.

Both those politicians (Clark, then a backbench MP and Goff, a cabinet minister) were members of a government that was publicly promising “New Zealand justice is not for sale, the convicted Rainbow Warrior bombers must serve their allotted sentences”, while behind the scenes we were furiously trying to sell that same justice system to the French, working out a plan to allow the prisoners to be deported swiftly.

DTNZ: India comments on Strait of Hormuz talks with Iran

There is no “blanket arrangement” between New Delhi and Tehran on the movement of ships, Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar has said.

The Liberia-flagged Suezmax tanker Shenlong, carrying crude oil, among the first ships to reach India amid the Middle East crises, is seen at Mumbai Port on March 12, after sailing through the Strait of Hormuz. © Photo by Imtiyaz Shaikh/Anadolu via Getty Images

Talks with Iran are the most “effective way” to restart the passage of ships through the crucial Strait of Hormuz, Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar has said.

Bob Edlin: If skydiving spending from the Govt is wasteful, what has Goldsmith done about it?

Let’s not jump to conclusions – if skydiving spending from the Govt is wasteful, what has Goldsmith done about it?

PoO expects to hear a staunch defence of its activities from the New Zealand Skydiving School in Parakai, after the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union revealed that more than $1.1 million in taxpayer funding has been spent subsidising a Diploma in Commercial Skydiving through the Government’s Fees Free tertiary education scheme.

The press release containing this revelation said:

Tuesday March 17, 2026 

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NZCPR Newsletter: Tikanga On Trial

At the Wellington District Court on 10 March 2026, charges of intentional damage and obstructing police against the protester who defaced Te Papa’s Treaty of Waitangi exhibit in 2023 were dismissed.

Professor John Raine: It’s Election Year but Are They Listening?

Wobbly Democracy in the Western World

Danyl McLauchlan’s Listener article [1] on New Zealand’s voter tribes highlights the complexity the political parties face in harvesting votes, particularly from the “alienated conservatives” and “precarious left.”

The article also touches on something else - trust in government. Western democracy is not doing well - authoritarian behaviour from governments on issues where they do not have a mandate, and public service bureaucracies (not much of a stretch to say “deep state”) undermining elected governments. Governments also ignore information/advice that would steer them away from counterproductive policy.

Ryan Bridge: Nicola Willis is right not to splash the cash

A 1pm presser and Covid‑style alert levels.

This fuel price spike is bringing back bad memories from those dark days of lockdown.

But a few facts help put things in perspective.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: It wasn't a mistake to cancel the EV subsidy

The Government is copping heat today for cancelling the EV subsidy a couple of years ago. Critics now say it looks like a mistake, because oil prices are rising and, as a result, petrol prices are rising too.

They argue that, of course, we’d all be better off in electric vehicles - which we supposedly would have been if the Government hadn’t cancelled the subsidy at the end of 2023.

Ryan Bridge: Labour shouldn't automatically back the Unions

Last week ended with a bizarre situation where Labour effectively came out against a pay rise for teachers.

They did this because that’s what the unions wanted. And what the unions want, the unions usually get.

Union strategy 101 is getting everyone who’s not a member to become one.

Geoff Parker: The Māori Seats - History, Not Myth

Professor Anaru Eketone claims the Māori electorates were a cynical device to suppress Māori political influence.(paywalled) The historical record suggests the opposite: the Māori seats were created to bring Māori into the parliamentary system and guarantee representation, rather than exclude them.

By 1867, when the Māori Representation Act 1867(1) passed, Europeans outnumbered Māori roughly four to one. In 1864 there were about 62,000 adult European men, but only around 19,500 were on the electoral rolls. Many more were actually qualified under the property franchise but had not enrolled. Even so, the number of potential settler voters already exceeded the total number of adult Māori men in the country(2). Any fear that Māori might “outvote Europeans” was therefore absurd.

Peter Williams: Royal Commission always destined to come up short

Confidence we'd get a hard hitting report was low

There were numerous warning signs Phase 2 of the Royal Commission into the Covid Response would produce a disappointing outcome.

The initial terms of reference specifically excluded an adversarial approach where evidence and submissions could and would be challenged.

Pee Kay: The Man Who Would Be King

The 1975 film Man Who Would Be King is an historical adventure film that is an adaptation of the famous short story by Rudyard Kipling that tells the story of two ex-soldiers in India when it was under British rule. They decide that the country is too small for them, so they head off to isolated “Kafiristan” in order to become Kings in their own right.