Ani O'Brien: A week is a long time: 21 March 2026

“Things could get worse”: The Government braces for a fuel shock

The fuel shock triggered by the Iran conflict is already biting in New Zealand, and the Government is openly preparing for a worst-case scenario. Ministers have warned that “things could get worse before they get better,” with contingency planning underway. While officials insist there is no immediate supply crisis, it is important for Kiwis to understand the impact will be far more broad than just the prices at the pump.

John McLean: The eagle has floundered

Labourite Chatham Islands CEO comes a criminal cropper. Where are the coppers?

The phrase “The Eagle has Landed” indicates successful completion of a difficult or important task. Astronaut Neil Armstrong first spoke those words on 20 July 1969, from the moon to Mission Control in Houston, Texas. He did so to communicate that the Apollo 11 Lunar Module, named “Eagle”, had successfully touched down on the Moon.

Neil Armstrong died in 2012 but will be fondly remembered and revered for at least as long as the Western Civilization lasts. Without Western Civilization and the likes of Neil Armstrong, humans would have barely escaped the Dark Ages.

Roger Partridge: Behind the Invisible Hand - Adam Smith and the vile maxim of the masters of mankind

Two hundred and fifty years on, the father of economics is still being misread – and the misreading still matters.

On 9 March 1776, a Scottish moral philosopher published the most powerful attack on trade protectionism ever written. Two hundred and fifty years later, the world’s largest economy has returned to the policy his great book was written to dismantle. Politicians now justify tariffs as instruments of national prosperity. Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations was written to explain why they are not.

DTNZ: Argentina cuts ties with WHO

Argentina has formally withdrawn from the World Health Organization (WHO), completing the exit process one year after first requesting to leave the United Nations health agency.

Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno confirmed the move after President Javier Milei’s government notified the organisation in February 2025 and lodged the formal withdrawal request on March 17 last year.

Melanie Phillips: Wimps and warriors

The war against Iran is having a most clarifying effect. It’s shining a light on those who are prepared to stand with civilisation against barbarism and flushing out those who are not.

The usual suspects — those who hate Israel, despise America and stick pins into effigies of US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — are willing Iran to win, or more to the point, willing Trump and Netanyahu to lose.

Net Zero Watch Samizdat: No easy answers

UK

Renewable UK CEO urges Miliband to restart North Sea drilling

The UK’s wind farm trade body has called on Ed Miliband to “take energy out of the culture wars” by increasing North Sea production.

Damian Pudner: Britain Once Led the World. What Happened?

A country cannot tax its way to success.

An unsettling look at the economic settlement that Britain now seems willing to accept can be found in this week’s latest fiscal forecast. By the end of the forecast period, borrowing will have decreased from 5.2% of GDP in 2024–2025 to about 1.6%. Public debt stabilises at roughly 95% of national income. At those levels, even small shifts in interest rates matter: the Office for Budget Responsibility estimates that a sustained one-percentage-point move in Bank Rate changes government borrowing costs by around £15 billion.

Guest Post: Your land, my rules

A guest post by a reader on Kiwiblog:

The Prime Minister wants a culture of ‘yes.’ A New Zealand that builds. An RMA replacement premised on the enjoyment of property rights. He has said so many times, in many rooms, and with great conviction.

Good on him. It is what would-be homeowners need, too.

But Auckland’s actual homeowners got upset about apartments. Then the Prime Minister discovered the word ‘impose.’

Saturday March 21, 2026 

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Ani O'Brien: The sudden discovery of restraint and empathy in journalism

But is social media really the root of the evil of political scandals?

Disclosure: It has been an awful week of being tied to people, actions, and narratives that I have absolutely nothing to do with. I am feeling pretty beat up to be honest.

Media, bloggers, and the social media mob have decided I am somehow “pulling strings” behind the scenes in relation to Jade Paul’s Facebook post. I am not.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 14.3.26

Saturday March 21, 2026 

News:
Māori Land Court case filed over Hinemaurea ki Mangatuna marae relocation
An application to the Māori Land Court to put a hold on the planned moving of Hinemaurea ki Mangatuna Marae near Ūawa-Tolaga Bay has been lodged.

The marae is one of five in Tairāwhiti impacted by North Island weather events of early 2023 and earmarked to be moved to safer locations through a $136 million national allocation by the Government.

Simon O'Connor: A lost opportunity

The Royal Commission report into Covid was an opportunity for people's voices to be heard. Sadly, it has failed, preferencing power over humanity.

When people are hurt or feel an injustice has been done to them, one of the ways to assist the healing process is to ensure they have been heard and listened to. Importantly, they need to see and hear that they’ve been heard.

I recall one person coming into my electorate office early on in my parliamentary career with a rather complex and fraught situation, and as they spoke my mind was racing as to what I could do to solve the issue. As they finished and were about to leave, I frankly admitted that I did not know what could be done but that I would consider further. Their reply has always stayed with me – “Oh, I know there is nothing you can do, but I wanted to talk and be heard. And I was, thank you.”

Mike's Minute: The worst week for Trump's war

Obviously Chris Hipkins would disagree, but Donald Trump surely wins the "crap week of the week" award, given his week has material outcomes for all of us and Hipkins’ is just a personal mess gone ugly and public.

The war itself doesn’t appear to be any different at the end of week three than it was at the end of week two, or indeed week one.

Chris Lynch: Seymour rules out GST on fuel, dismisses focus on Hipkins’ private life

Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour has defended the Government’s response to rising fuel prices, warning against intervention and rejecting calls to cut GST, during an extended interview in Christchurch.

Speaking to chrislynchmedia.com while visiting the city, Seymour said global supply disruptions were behind rising prices, despite assurances from officials fuel supplies remained stable.

Gary Judd KC: Human rights - are they real?

Or are they just a gift of the government?

Roy, a commenter on my Lessons from Iran, says there is no such thing as human rights: “Human rights are given and allowed by Governments.”

This introduces a deep philosophical/legal question with profound implications. If Roy is right, it means that the Iranian people do not have the right to life or liberty because the government of Iran has not given and allowed them to have those rights. By way of an opposite example, it also means that New Zealanders have those rights only because the government has given them to us or allowed us to have them.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Hormuz crisis may force government reform

When oil prices spiked after the Strait of Hormuz closed, New Zealand’s ministers lined up to reassure the public. Fuel stocks were “healthy.” There was “no need for panic.” The associate energy minister assured New Zealanders that supplies were not under threat “in coming months.”

What the ministers did not dwell on is that government agencies are now briefing them daily on supply disruptions extending well beyond petrol. A fifth of New Zealand’s fertiliser imports come from Saudi Arabia, shipped through the strait that is now closed. For a country whose economy runs on grass-fed agriculture, a fertiliser shock in autumn is no small matter.

Dr Eric Crampton: Let fuel prices rise and do their job

No fuel was available where I lived on the east side of Christchurch immediately after the 2011 earthquake. Power was out. Petrol pumps do not operate well without it.

The west side of town was still running. But the earthquake had also damaged the pipeline bringing fuel from the terminal at Lyttelton Harbour, and power outages were an issue.

More fuel was coming. Tanker trucks were heading up from points south and would haul supply up to Christchurch. It would just take a few days.

But things went wrong.

Bob Edlin: Co-governance and Central Districts water services.............

Co-governance and Central Districts water services – but can we talk of an “experienced board” when it has yet to meet?

Remember Steve Maharey?

Elected to Parliament for the first time in 1990, he was Minister of Social Development and Employment (from 1999 to 2005) and Minister of Education (from 2005 to 2007) in the days when Helen Clark was Prime Minister.

David Farrar: Critical minerals

The Herald reports:

Dr Isabelle Chambefort, general manager – energy at Earth Sciences New Zealand (formerly GNS Science), makes it clear minerals have always been critical.

“Humanity has been developed around mining.

Friday March 20, 2026 

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