JC:

The recent spat between the pope and the president of the United States highlights the role each should play in maintaining peace and stability in the world particularly in times of conflict. The state, as in the government, is obviously the lead player in a crisis. Some could, and would be within their rights to accuse the president of being the cause of the crisis. The church, while not directly involved, being the institution it is, has every right to have an opinion on the matter and it has every right to express that opinion in public.

Mike's Minute: National's internal stirrers need to quieten down

You know exactly how today is going to go.

The Prime Minister does the media rounds this morning. There will be no shortage of cortisol spiked journalists hanging off every word, double dissecting every pause and utterance—many of them desperate to write something disparaging about a man they’ve already decided they dislike.

I wouldn’t be Luxon for quids. He’s been dealt a sh*t hand.

Pee Kay: A Democratic Defikcit

It was like a cancer, disguised, undisclosed and incrementally it grew. Insidious in its reach we now witness the infection of people in places of authority.

It was, the proponents say, the misunderstood political hot potato in the 2023 general election and it played a significant role in the election of our current coalition.

As we headed towards the 2023 General Election, one topic that dominated debates and the airwaves alike was co-governance. A term of many layers but of real potency, co-governance is a descriptor frequently distorted and misrepresented when used to drive agendas across the political spectrum.

Dr Bryce Edwards: Democracy Briefing - How to stop the rise of NZ First

Winston Peters has just promised to break up the supermarket duopoly. It’s the latest economic populist policy he’s thrown into the 2026 election campaign. Also today, the Greens used their State of the Planet speech to urge the Government to electrify the economy.

If you had to bet which one cuts through, it’s Peters’ supermarket breakup line. That’s the kind of thing voters instantly understand. The Greens’ electrification pitch, by contrast, barely registers.

That contrast captures the whole campaign so far. NZ First is the only party effectively tapping into public discontent

Bob Edlin: How Jones passed the ball to ACT on co-governance.....

How Jones passed the ball to ACT on co-governance – and watched them score – by trying to nobble a Far North councillor

New Zealand First’s Shane Jones was desperately striving to recover lost ground when he despatched an email to team supporters and the media late in the week.

The email landed in PoO’s office while we were digesting the publicity Jones had won when he stumbled and put the ball into his own goal while – it seems – trying to score political points in two separate constituencies.

John McLean: BSA BS continues unabated

What’s the best response to the Broadcasting Standards Authority’s unrelenting lawless lunacy?

The Broadcasting Standards Authority is now formally considering additional complaints against The Platform’s founder and CEO, Sean Plunket. Complainant Richard Faneslow’s original complaint is that Plunket’s “mumbo jumbo” epithet to describe Māori tikanga (mystical Māori rules for how Māori should go about daily life) was RACIST. Fanselow’s additional complaints allege that Plunket uses hurty words.

John Klar: Elon Musk Battles for Free Speech for Artificial Intelligence

Free speech champion Elon Musk is once again leading an effort to protect commercial speech from government control. His company, xAI, filed suit on April 9 against the state of Colorado, seeking to block the enforcement of a Democrat bill that regulates the content of artificial intelligence applications to prevent unlawful discrimination. xAI asserts that the anti-discrimination statute cripples business development and is discriminatory in itself.

David Farrar: A transparent Governor

Jason Walls writes:

By the time Breman took over, the bank’s reputation appeared to be at a near all-time low.

But, in the short four months she’s been in charge, that tarnished reputation has been on a fast track toward recovery.

On transparency, she’s nailed her brief.

Monday April 20, 2026 

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Damien Grant: There’s no reason to listen to millionaires complaining about mining projects

I have never been to Central Otago. There is every likelihood I will slither into my crypt without stepping into that pristine environment, treading on the brown grasslands or gazing at the uninspiring vistas that serve little purpose other than as a backdrop for postcards no one will ever send.

Somewhere in the wilderness that has never been troubled by my walking boots is the Dunstan Mountains. Until I began the research for this column, I’d never heard of this aspect of our geographical heritage and, well, I’d have been happy if that remained the case.

However, this obscure and untrampled slice of Kiwi Paradise is getting attention because multi-millionaire actor, vintner and local activist, Sir Nigel (Sam) Neill, is upset that someone wants to mine these hills for gold.

Liam Hehir: Time to put up or shut up

National Party members deserve better than they're getting from some MPs.

There will always be MPs willing to destabilise their own party while lacking the courage to put their name to it. We have been watching them at work for months, and it is past time somebody said what most people in the National Party are already thinking.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 19.4.26

Monday April 20, 2026 

News:
Treaty of Waitangi clause review: Government quietly agrees to amend, repeal provisions in laws
The Government has quietly agreed to repeal a number of references to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi within laws, while amending others to be more specific.

Cabinet has also decided that, going forward, these provisions in legislation will reference both the Treaty of Waitangi and Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Tom Day: National and PM nosedive to new lows, left bloc would gain power

Support for the National Party and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has crashed to new lows in the latest 1News Verian poll.

Full poll results:

Dr Bryce Edwards: Democracy Briefing - Luxon in limbo

Another month, another round of coup talk, another testy press conference in which Prime Minister Christopher Luxon assures the country he has “the full support of my caucus.” He managed to state the line nine times yesterday in a chaotic six-minute press conference, Stuff political editor Jenna Lynch noted. Her observation was dry: “Those are words a politician always tries to say confidently, but if they’re having to say them it’s often not true.”

Colinxy: Are We at Heart Communists?

Every so often—usually from people who should know better, and occasionally from people who definitely do—someone confidently declares that the family is “inherently communist.” Ben Shapiro has repeated it. Countless left‑leaning commentators repeat it with a knowing smirk. And Marxists, of course, treat it as a kind of anthropological mic‑drop: See? You’re already communists. You just don’t realise it yet.

Dr Eric Crampton: Bring the noise! Or zone housing for choice

If you think hell is other people, then cities aren’t a great place to live.

We are all at least a little bit annoying. We all impose small bits of nuisance. Those of us unwilling to live in an off-grid hermit’s shack have to find tolerable ways of accommodating each other.

There are no perfect solutions. But surely improvements on New Zealand’s status quo are possible.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Splitting power generators from their retail arms would not cut electricity bills

With energy prices spiking, an old idea has gathered fresh momentum: break up the big electricity companies. New Zealand First put the proposal on its agenda at the party’s State of the Nation address, calling for the four gentailers, companies that both generate and retail power, to be split apart.

When people are hurting, the urge to do something is understandable. But doing something is not the same as doing the right thing. I should disclose that several gentailers, and Chorus, are members of The New Zealand Initiative, which I run. But the case against splitting them depends on economics, not loyalty.

Dr Michael Johnston: Technology lessons

In 2007, then Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced a ‘digital education revolution.’ His government allocated A$2.4 billion (A$3.9 billion in today’s money) to the project. A large chunk of that went to providing a laptop to every senior secondary student.

Australia was not alone. There was an international rush to adopt digital technology in classrooms. Principals were afraid their schools would be left behind. Eyewatering sums were spent on replacing pens and paper with keyboards and screens.

Roger Partridge: Why boundaries matter in government

The Reserve Bank keeps inflation in check, oversees the financial system, regulates banks and issues the country’s currency. These are important jobs, defined by Parliament. Nowhere among them does it say: decide where banks must put their ATMs.

But that is what the Bank is now attempting. It wants banks to establish more than 1,200 cash service sites across the country, at an estimated annual cost of $104 million. An 84-page consultation document details coverage maps and cost projections. What it conspicuously lacks is a legal basis for any of it.

Nick Clark: The census that counts more by counting less

New Zealand has solved one of the great puzzles of modern government. A Bill currently before Parliament abolishes the census and declares its replacement to also be a census, only annual and therefore better.

Since the 1850s, this exercise required statisticians to ask every person in the country where they live, how many people they live with, what languages they speak, what faiths, if any, they observe, and much more. The results were invaluable but increasingly expensive.

The 2023 census cost $326 million, roughly $63 per person counted, assuming they were counted, which not all of them were.