Breaking Views Update: Week of 5.7.26

Friday July 10, 2026 

News:
Landmark 35-year energy deal secured for Pirirākau Marae
In a move set to secure community resilience for a generation, the Pirirākau Tribal Authority has signed a historic relationship agreement with Contact Energy, locking in free electricity for four local marae for the next 35 years.

Brendan O'Neill: Nigel Farage lays down the gauntlet

In triggering a by-election in Clacton, he has disarmed the media elites and empowered working-class people.

With righteous indignation, Nigel Farage has resigned today as MP for Clacton, triggering a by-election that he intends to fight. He’s giving up his seat in the hope he’ll win it back. Why?

Rodney Hide: RODNEY HIDE - Breaking news, 15 December - “He’s done it again!”

Mr Winston Peters remains New Zealand’s most enduring and adaptable political survivor. First elected to Parliament in 1978—just months after Sir Keith Holyoake resigned as Governor-General -- Mr Peters and Sir Keith bridge nearly a century of our parliamentary history. Sir Keith entered Parliament in 1932; together, these two men span the modern era. With his bearing and suits, Mr Peters would have slotted seamlessly into Sir Keith’s cabinet. Yet unlike the tuatara, frozen in its Jurassic adaptations, Mr Peters thrives in new terrain. He masters social media with a precision few politicians match, turning tweets into scalpel-sharp commentary.

Mike's Minute: I'm not convinced the Reserve Bank was right

You can't bag the Monetary Policy Committee.

Well, you can, but in this case, you would be fairly churlish.

Personally, I would have held, but given the vote was done by consensus I clearly would have been a lone voice.

Ryan Bridge: National needs Labour's support on its social media bill

Where is National's social media bill at?

We know Seymour doesn't like it. Winston is apparently has reservations with the wording, though that's only according to Stuff, rather than the man himself.

Labour might need to step in and save the day by supporting it from across the aisle.

Dr Eric Crampton: You could have it so much better - The quiet victories of the NZ economy

Every July, members of the New Zealand Association of Economists – academics, practitioners, and officials – meet to tell each other what they’ve been working on. Work presented tends to be work-in-progress. We get a chance to see the work while it is still being built and discuss ways of improving it.

This kind of conference never tends to have an organising theme. Sessions run in parallel; people attend the ones that strike their fancy. If I had to draw a theme from the set I attended, I’d start with one of the last talks I saw.

Kerre Woodham: How would you rate the "liveability" of New Zealand's cities?

What makes a city liveable? The Economist Intelligence Unit, which is such a grand name, has released its latest list of the most liveable cities. There are 173. Three Australian cities are in the top 10 – Melbourne third, Sydney fourth, and Adelaide eighth. For all the bad press Melbourne gets for its crime, it's doing pretty jolly well to be there in the top three. Auckland came in at 12th place, down five – one of the biggest downward movers, along with the Gulf state cities. We all know why they lost their lustre, but we haven't got a war to blame that on, have we? Wellington is out of the top 20.

Bob Edlin: Will all cops be fair when enforcing the “move-on”....

Yes, we know when it’s a fair cop – but will all cops be fair when enforcing the “move-on”

PoO was drawn to the story beneath a Stuff headline which said: The government is confident police will apply move on orders fairly. Here’s what police had to say about them.

It so happened this expression of Beehive confidence in Police fairness was posted at a time when the media were reporting on –

David Farrar: The media should expose their own lobbying!

The Post headline (below):

This was a law to legalise theft where tech companies would be forced to fund media companies, on the basis that people now choose to advertise on Facebook and Google rather than in the print classifieds!

David Farrar: A VPN ban would be terrible

The Post reports:

Education Minister Erica Stanford says she is not pursuing restrictions on Virtual Private Networks as part of her under-16 social media ban, soon after ACT said this would be a red line for it.

The Post reported on Tuesday morning that the Government was pursuing some kind of restriction on VPNs as part of its work on an under-16 social media ban, after being told by multiple sources with knowledge of the work that this was the case.

Thursday July 9, 2026 

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NZCPR Newsletter: Parallel Societies

After decades of rampant migration across Europe, governments are finally confronting a problem they have ignored for far too long: the rise of “parallel societies”. These are enclaves of immigrant communities living under alternative cultural and authority structures that undermine social norms, weaken national cohesion, and challenge the ability of the State to govern. 

A.E. Thompson: Censoring Psychologists

Others have commented on the NZ College of Clinical Psychologists' removal of an article it previously published in its professional journal because, in retrospect, that article did not conform to the organisation's values. Some values!

John Raine: Smaller Government and Less Bureaucratic Bloat - Yes, but How?

Bureaucratic Bloat   

ACT has announced 2026 election policy (28^th June 2026) to reduce government from 28 to 18 ministers, and from 43 down to 19 departments [1].  This complements National’s earlier announcement of a reduction in the public sector by 8700 employees (~14%) by 2029. Both much needed policies, but will they succeed?

Fiona Mackenzie: Local Boards Driving Separatism

The largest governance structure in New Zealand is the amalgamated Auckland Council. It governs a large region, providing infrastructure and essential community services for a third of all New Zealanders. Beneath the Governing Body, the region is divided into 21 Local Boards, each responsible for spending many millions of ratepayers’ funds on “local issues, activities and services”.

Ryan Bridge: We can't bash the RBNZ

The problem with bashing the RBNZ in real time is that nobody really knows how badly they might have cocked something until well after the cocking's happened.

There weren't many, though not none, chiding Orr for low rates until it was bleedingly obvious in actual data, and what Prince Harry would term 'lived experience', that prices were on the march.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Anna Breman delivered a refreshingly boring OCR update

The Official Cash Rate has gone up by 25 basis points. This is the first rise we've seen in three years.

It was unanimous around the committee table that it needed to happen because of inflation. Even though petrol and diesel prices have fallen sharply since the Iran war ceasefire deal was struck, they're not back to pre-war levels yet and they won't be for some time. That, of course, is inflationary.

Mike's Minute: Why is Retail NZ calling for tariffs?

It's hard to reconcile but the power of self interest is never to be underestimated.

Retail NZ is loving the look of the EU, who this month started a new tariff on cheap goods.

It's three euro per package for anything under 150 euros.

It's aimed at Temu and co.

Ani O'Brien: Chris Hipkins is New Zealand's Teflon politician

Chippy the Accountability Houdini

Politics often rewards shamelessness. If a politician can survive the first bad headline, deny everything for long enough, and hang in there for the news cycle to move on, there is every chance the public will simply forget. Memories fade and journalists chase the next outrage. Before long the politician who should have been answering uncomfortable questions is back on television talking confidently about everyone else’s failures. Shamelessly.

Chris Hipkins appears to be betting his political future on exactly that phenomenon.

Dr Eric Crampton: A Kiwi solution to a Canadian problem on refugee sponsorship?

Ten years ago, the NZ Initiative brought a Canadian diplomat to Wellington to explain how Canada let ordinary citizens sponsor refugees. Dean Barry told us that when Canadian communities pledged to support one more refugee, Canada admitted one more. Civil society helped decide how many refugees Canada accepted.

Dean Barry visited in the wake of the Syrian refugee crisis. New Zealanders who wanted to help people had to spend their time lobbying the government to increase the quota. Canadians who wanted to help could fundraise and get on with the job of helping people.