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.

DTNZ: Digital ID will enable unprecedented government control, journalist warns

Concerns about the potential use of digital identification systems to restrict personal freedoms have been raised in a social media post by Scottish journalist Alex Newman, who warns that the technology could eventually allow authorities to exercise control over individuals without relying on traditional legal processes.

David Farrar: TPM’s overhang campaign gave the Greens two extra List MPs

The Greens quadrupled their party vote in the seven Māori seats, as Maori voters did what TPM asked them to do, and did not give TPM their party votes.

This gave the Greens an additional 2.1% of the total vote. Without it they would have got 11.2% in the election instead of 13.3%. This means that without the TPM overhang campaign, the Greens would have had 14 MPs instead of 16 MPs.

Mike's Minute: Opportunity's decision could make or break the party

A totally pointless debate is raging online at the moment as to who voted for Opportunity and whether that vote was skewed left or right.

And based on that, whether they should pick, if they get a chance, a left or right combo.

Obviously as we sit here there is no choice because even if they went left, the left still don’t have the numbers.

 Friday November 13, 2026 

                   ⇩

NZCPR Newsletter: The 2026 General Election Result

New Zealand’s 2026 General Election is done and dusted, but the outcome is too close to call. We won’t actually know who won until the special votes are tallied and the final result released by the Electoral Commission on Friday November 27.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Would a move to the centre really help the National Party?

Well, it seems it's the season to line up and take shots at the National Party, particularly if you're a past or current member.

The latest, after Vanessa, Gerry, Don and Simon, is Sue Wood, a former National Party president. She's written an open letter to MPs, published in The Post in Wellington, calling on them essentially to revolt behind closed doors against the party powers.

Ryan Bridge: Why the vote count takes so long

People keep asking what is taking so damn long with the vote counting.

There are fewer specials to count this time round - the were expecting around 700k but only got 400k.

The problem is they need to send all the votes from people who voted outside their electorate back to that electorate for counting.

John McLean: Queen Weenink

An ousted National Party MP returns to her happy place…Outer Space

Banks Peninsula voters have unceremoniously booted Vanessa Weenink from her National Party electorate seat in Parliament. When the counting’s done, she’ll lose to Labour’s Tracey McLellan by over 2,000 votes. In typical Leftist deflectionist fashion however, she’s taken not one iota of personal responsibility for her loss.

Instead, Vanessa has blamed her very own political party, National Party voters and the hordes of deplorable New Zealand bigots that - with her infinite wisdom and mad eyes - she’s uniquely equipped to see.

Ashley Church: A Open Letter to Christopher Luxon

"Please do the right thing for New Zealand"

Dear Mr Luxon,

By 2023, New Zealand had become a bitterly divided place – wracked by years of social engineering during which we were told how we could work, how we should raise our families and what we could say. Certainly some of this came about as an emergency response to COVID – but those measures quickly evolved into an authoritarian regime that sought to centralise control over everything from education to water. Our nation had become a very dystopian place where people who’d gotten along all their lives were suddenly at odds with each other. We were tired of being angry, we were tired of feeling defensive and we just wanted a government that would end the social engineering, ease the division and give the country a chance to breathe again.

Richard Prebble: Luxon is a caretaker

The law is clear. Christopher Luxon remains Prime Minister, but in a caretaker capacity. He should not make significant policy decisions or use his position for party-political advantage.

Ministers defeated at the election can remain in office until 4 December, when they must leave.

Dr Eric Crampton: The data centre opportunity our next government should embrace

Whichever coalition forms out of this past weekend’s election has a substantial opportunity ahead of it.

America’s midterm elections brought a Congress that may be more inclined to take back authority over tariffs from the President. Uncertainty over trade will hopefully decline. It would be good for Americans and good for us as well.

The elections also brought another shift that’s been less noticed.

Bob Edlin: The “hatred” which upsets Weenink.....

.....might reflect National supporters’ disappointment in a soft Treaty stance

PoO recalls suggesting – in an article about the passage of the English Language Bill – that National MP Vanessa Weenink should think about raising her profile.

Too late to keep her Banks Peninsula seat, she has been raising it this week.

David Farrar: Donald Hipkins

Radio NZ reports:

Chris Hipkins says National is only in pole position to form a government because it “manipulated the electoral system”.

“There are a lot of people very angry about the direction that the country has been heading under this government, and you actually see that in the fact that after only one term, National has lost the party vote in this election, they’re only holding on to the prospect of power because they’ve manipulated the electoral system.

Dr Don Brash: The Prime Minister's Task Will Be Tricky

As I write, it is just three days after the election. At this stage, it seems likely that there will again be a National-led coalition Government of some kind, possibly supported by Opportunity by means of a Confidence and Supply agreement.

The exact shape of that Government is by no means clear. Indeed, it is not even clear that it will be led by Christopher Luxon who, right to the very end, seemed sincere in his belief that the best way of returning a National-led Government to power was to give two ticks to National in order to reduce the risk of too many “numpties” from coalition parties sitting around the Cabinet table. At very least that was insulting to the parties which National is inevitably going to need to form a Government, but it also suggested that Mr Luxon could not count because it was clear from an early date that National was likely to hold most of the 44 electorates it won in 2023 but most unlikely to attract a commensurate party vote; hence the logic of “strategic voting”.

But assuming for the sake of this commentary that Mr Luxon continues as Prime Minister, one of his key tasks will be choosing the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Speaker, arguably the most important positions in the new Government.