Breaking Views Update: Week of 15.11.26

Sunday November 15, 2026 

News:
Hapū sees lead role in Waitara climate plan
A Waitara hapū wants to help lead the response to climate change risks in the town.

New Plymouth District Council approved a draft Resilience, Energy and Climate Action Plan for public consultation in August. Otaraua - one of the hapū with mana whenua in Waitara - says it supports the draft plan but should help lead the response from the beginning.

Dame Elizabeth Rata: Episode 11: Geography 1877 - 1899

In the video below Episode 11 is about Geography's importance to the school syllabus and contains plenty of interesting examples to show exactly what 19th century school children were taught. There were accounts of the earth and its inhabitants with an emphasis on the local environment as well as New Zealand and global physical and climatic features.

Ani O'Brien: A week is a long time: 14 November 2026

Election 2026: Labour has the most votes. Luxon has the numbers. For now.

Here we are on the other side of the election and things are just as mad, if not madder. As expected we have a kind-of-result, but nothing set in stone. We await the final result on the 27th of November while some are tentatively beginning negotiations, others are indulging in election denialism, and the smartest of them all told the media that he had nothing to say until the votes are officially in and has allegedly gone fishing.

Bob Edin: The columnist who is bothered by bickering.....

.....and blind to the breadth of beliefs among Maori politicians

Stuff columnist Joel Maxwell has bemused us again in a post-election article headed

A movement was happening, but Māori leaders chose to bicker instead

Which Maori leaders – you might wonder – is he talking about?

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Can we please stop talking about this grand coalition idea?

Now, listen, just indulge me for a minute or two, because I'd love to address the worst idea of the week.

No disrespect at all to Guy Haddleton, who I have a lot of respect for and credit with some very good ideas.

JC: What a Mouth They’ve Got

Since the election, politicians and other political commentators have given their verdicts. These come from both the left and the right. Those from the right, bar a few exceptions, show they have a very good understanding of how MMP is supposed to work. Those from the left are dripping in irony. Had they won, the comments we are currently hearing would never have been made. We might have had a bit of noise about beating a ‘rigged election’ but mostly they would have been congratulating themselves on a great win. If they win on special votes, will they say, ‘We don’t accept the result because the election was rigged’? No chance.

LilBaP: They Keep Championing Socialism, but Never Live It

Guest Post on GoodOil by LilBaP

After the USA mid-terms, Ron DeSantis said the quiet bit out loud. Many young people like socialism more than capitalism.

Part of the issue he noted was certain universities. Teaching has been taken over by people who have never lived under socialism but are happy to pin every perceived problem on capitalism.

Gravedodger: Does the person exist PM will “listen to”

It was entirely understandable Luxout wanted two ticks blue to keep his main people in the Parliament yet it was abundantly clear from all the polls that should National, as indeed resulted, would be in Overhang with little prospect of that changing as it was just so far out of reach.

National with under 30% has a nominal allocation of 35 seats, but with 42 electorate seats that was extinguished by some margin, any chance for Willis, Bishop, Goldsmith as list MPs, gone. National would have needed another 8% of the party vote and that was not going to happen. Yet Simeon Brown and Luxon remained in denial. So does Luxon actually have a single soul he will listen to?

Chris Morrison: Shock Evidence Suggests Humans Are Not Responsible for Most of the Increase in Atmospheric CO2

Humans contribute just 4% of the carbon dioxide that enters the Earth’s atmosphere each year but the ‘settled’ science of anthropogenic climate change states that this has caused a 50% rise in the trace gas since pre-industrial times. In fact, this arguable statement can be tested using carbon isotope data and the results are in from a detailed mathematical paper just published by a leading climate scientist (sceptic branch) Dr Willie Soon. His bombshell conclusion is that fossil fuels are not responsible for the recent increase in atmospheric CO2. This is despite the widespread scientific conclusion to the contrary that has the added advantage of backing the political Net Zero fantasy.

Rodney Hide: He stood down

Jensen Huang has stood down as chief executive of Nvidia. He co-founded the company in 1993 at a Denny's in San Jose, with about US$40,000 between the founders. It was worth next to nothing. Its chips first powered 3D games, then the computers that train and run much of the world's artificial intelligence. By early October the company was valued at nearly US$6 trillion. On the day he resigned, it was still worth about US$4 trillion.

He built a company 58 times the value of our government debt

Mike’s Minute: Report card for week one, post election

I think week one post vote has gone pretty well, hasn’t it?

Two to go and the coalition chinwags begin.

These could be the real news. I have got from all sides the sense that:

Saturday November 14, 2026 

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Anglo Saxon: National's Bud Light Moment - New Zealand election carnage

Anglo Saxon takes a look at the post-election fallout, the results of tactical voting and what National must do to regain credibilty

Click to view

Dr Oliver Hartwich: NZ’s slow count allows National to navigate strategic minefield

New Zealand voted on Saturday, but the final result will not be known until 27 November. Roughly 400,000 special votes, about one in seven, have yet to be counted.

They come from voters abroad, outside their home electorates or missing from the printed roll. Each arrives in an envelope that officials must check against the roll before the vote counts.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 8.11.26

Saturday November 14, 2026 

News:
Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell pushes back on conflict questions
Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell denies having a conflict of interest involving an influential iwi trust, and says in her view a fellow councillor has damaged her reputation by suggesting otherwise.

Councillor Robert Lee has asked whether Tapsell is a beneficiary of the Pukeroa Oruawhata Trust and therefore conflicted on council decisions involving it.

Geoff Parker: Claire Charters' Next Constitutional Step — Who Really Governs New Zealand?

In her latest article in The Press, Professor Claire Charters argues that New Zealand's constitutional system provides inadequate protection for Māori and Indigenous rights because Parliament can change or override legislation protecting them.

Her proposed solution is stronger constitutional protection, placing those rights beyond the reach of ordinary political bargaining and changes of government.

Pee Kay: National’s Identity Crisis

Why Abandoning the Right is Costing the Party

Outgoing National MPs Chris Penk and Vanessa Weenink have recently sounded an alarm, warning that the National Party faces peril at the ballot box if it allows itself to be dragged further to the political right by its coalition partners.

Peter Dunne: Cross-Party Collaboration

In the wake of the provisional election results and the divisions across the country they revealed there has been much talk of the need for more co-operation between parties on long-term issues and the things they agree on.

That approach has been part of the mantra of the Opportunity Party since the outset of its election campaign. It picked up on deepening public sentiment that since the end of the Covid-era “team of five million” conformity, and the difficult economic and social recovery subsequently, our society’s divisions have become more pronounced and obvious than at any time probably since the Great Depression.

Kerre Woodham: Is the era of two Chrises over?

Outgoing National MP Vanessa Weenink and sacked National MP Chris Penk say National's gone way too far to the right. They're losing voters because they've gone too hard. Voters who deserted National and ticked the box for Act say I don't think so. National's too soft and centrist, needs to find a backbone. That's why we went away from two ticks blue and we gave our vote to Act.

LilBaP: Be Careful What You Wish For

Guest Post on GoodOil by LilBaP

MMP may not be perfect, nor was FPP.

Plenty of people say they want FPP back so governments can actually get things done. They may want to be careful.