John Raine: EV or Not EV, That is the Question - Let's Be Smart About Transport Energy

Energy as Society’s Economic Enabler

Oil prices escalated as a result of the US-Iran war and have boosted electric vehicle (EV) sales. Once prices at the fuel pump restabilise nearer pre-war levels, should more buyers still be going electric? 

Ryan Bridge: Hey Labour, NZ is not Australia

Hey Labour. NZ is not Australia.

To justify their capital gains tax, they point across the ditch.

"Australia introduced a capital gains tax in 1985, and its economy and incomes have kept growing."

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: I wouldn't be surprised if TOP peaks at 8 percent

So, I think some of the shine might be coming off the Opportunity Party. Helen Clark has taken to social media and described the leader's interview on Q+A on TVNZ as a "train wreck".

She said: "Simplistic responses trying to defend land tax, higher income tax, job cuts in the public sector. Fantasy posing as policy."

Breaking Views Update: Week of 16.8.26

Tuesday August 18, 2026 

News:
Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei welcomes new Vice-Chancellor
In a significant first step in his relationship with the University’s iwi manaaki, Vice-Chancellor Professor Nic Smith was welcomed onto Ōrākei Marae on 11 August by Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, mana whenua of central Tāmaki Makaurau.

Mike's Minute: Time to go back to the bigger picture for the election

This should be it for coup gate questioning of the Prime Minister.

Bruce Cotterill's piece over the weekend in the NZ Herald I hope, and more importantly actually I think, represents a growing feeling in this country among middle New Zealand that the superficiality of what the media obsess in is not really what counts. And what counts is the record and, as Bruce very clearly lays out, the record is not a bad one - from crime, to education, to exports there is a very good story to be told.

Pee Kay: “Show me a starving parent, and I will…”

“More than one in four children in South Auckland growing up in poverty”

This was the searing headline in a recent edition of the Herald, serving as a blunt reminder of a crisis we can neither ignore nor fully agree on how to fix.

The report calls the rise in children living in material hardship between 2023 and 2025 “statistically significant”.

John McLean: Final Verdict On The Exculpation Of Judge Aitken

The fable of innocence we’re all told to believe

Judge Elizabeth (Ema) Aitken has been restored to her District Court throne and is back dispensing her version of justice. I’ve been covering this sorry saga:

Claudio Grass: Freedom of Speech Dying a Slow Death in Europe

For decades, Western democracies operated under a comfortable consensus: censorship was a blunt instrument reserved for authoritarian regimes, while the “free world” relied on open debate, robust dissent, and constitutional safeguards. This sentiment allowed Western leaders to feel superior over the rest of the world, to lecture other countries on democratic principles and, in some cases, to invade and bomb them too, to spread these ideas by force. In recent years, however, that narrative has collapsed under the weight of its own hypocrisy.

Brendan O'Neill: For the love of God, stop the boats

It is a crime against sovereignty that hundreds of men are permitted to intrude on British soil every week.

Nine hundred and eleven. That’s how many people have illegally intruded into our country since Sunday. Just shy of a thousand foreigners, mostly blokes, sailed on to our shores and met not so much as a cough of opposition from border guards. An unresisted tide of newcomers washing upon a sleeping nation. It is intolerable. It is a grotesque insult to the hard-won liberty of this kingdom that armadas of men from distant, regressive lands are permitted to come, week after week after week. For the love of God, stop these boats.

Simon O'Connor: Rinse, Repeat, Revolt

Why National's latest leadership drama is not an ending, but another chapter in an unresolved political struggle.

Back in April, I wrote a Substack titled Rinse and Repeat about National’s attempted leadership spill. Four months later, the same dynamics are playing out once again: another leadership challenge, another ‘victory’ for Chris Luxon, another distraction for National, and little sign that the underlying causes have been addressed.

Rinse and repeat  Simon O'Connor  22 Apr

JC: Lose Your Principles, Lose Your Way

National, whether its MPs realise it or not, has shown the voters what utter brilliance they possess: a brilliance to engineer a situation where they have brought themselves down and, by association, the party. They are now in a sad and sorry state. Those involved in the debacle might be competent in their portfolios but that is not what they will be remembered for. They have portrayed themselves as lying cowards with huge egos. When voters go to the ballot box in November, that will be the picture that they have in their minds. They will be asking themselves what exactly National stands for. That is a very pertinent question.

David Farrar: Two good schools, but not an argument against choice

The Herald reports:

A stoush has erupted between North Shore sister schools after a surprise bid by the junior high to cater for older students blindsided its senior counterpart, which says it is “disappointed” by the move.

The proposal could reshape the long-standing two-school model between Albany Senior High School and Albany Junior High School, with the Ministry of Education now considering an application.

Monday August 17, 2026 

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Damien Grant: Ex-Navy officer Chris Penk can see the iceberg ahead....

......yet National threw him overboard

Last Wednesday I was presenting to the Construction Industry Council. An excellent organisation, despite their lapse in judgement regarding the calibre of their guest speakers.

As I waited my turn, between checking my phone for the revelation on who would emerge as this week’s Prime Minister and silently checking X, a senior executive from the construction division of MBIE was addressing the conference on upcoming and ongoing reforms.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Does Erica Stanford deserve the backlash?

So Erica Stanford denies she was preparing to stand for leader in the coup against Chris Luxon.

Now, no one with two eyes and even a basic understanding of politics is going to believe that story, because Erica Stanford was the only person whose name was in the leadership mix who refused to express confidence in Chris Luxon. Chris Bishop did. Mark Mitchell did. Even Chris Penk did. But not Erica Stanford.

Geoff Parker: The Littlewood Treaty - The Missing English Draft? Or A Back-translation?

A response to Barrie Davis's interpretation of the Littlewood document

Barrie Davis has recently written about the Littlewood document. His argument is difficult to pin down, but he ultimately appears to regard it not as the original final English draft prepared for translation into Māori, but as an English back-translation produced in connection with the Māori translation on 4 February 1840.

It is an interesting argument, but I am left with several questions.

But first what is not disputed?

Bruce Cotterill: Christopher Luxon leadership - National caucus coup attempt overshadows election issues

Christopher Luxon must really like his job. If he didn’t, I’m not sure why he would spend his time working in the environment he has had to endure over the past couple of weeks.

This week’s National Party shenanigans were as close to a political suicide mission as we have seen in this country. I’m not sure what the agitators in the National Party caucus were thinking, but they certainly weren’t thinking about the best interests of their party, the coalition, or, most importantly, the country.

David Seymour: Implementing ONE LAW for ALL in the public service

Below is a video of ACT's One Law for All in the Public Service policy announcement - and following questions from the media - it is well worth watching and listening to. Also a text summary of the speech.

Ashley Church: Has New Zealand permanently moved to the left?

Passing the point of no return

We’re all familiar with the mental image of a man, alone in the middle of the ocean, his ship gone beneath him, clinging desperately to a piece of wreckage and convincing himself that if he can just hold on a little longer, rescue will come.

I’m starting to wonder whether that’s me – hanging on to the belief that New Zealand had decisively rejected the direction of the previous Labour government and that the political drift since then was temporary, accidental, or simply the result of National failing to deliver what people thought they had voted for.

David Lillis: Holding Free and Fair Elections

A colleague of mine, Professor Zlatko Kovačić, has published a book on election forensics, or work that contributes to holding free and fair national elections. Currently, his book is generating great interest in his home country of Serbia, and he has been interviewed online about this book.

You can download the book here:

https://bit.ly/election-forensics