Breaking Views Update: Week of 14.3.26

Thursday March 19, 2026 

News:
Kura Toa gives students more options in Term 3 2026
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today announced that Kura Toa will open as an iwi led charter school in Term 3 2026.

“Every child deserves the opportunity to learn and grow in ways which are more specific to their needs. Today’s announcement demonstrates the innovation enabled by the charter school model,” Mr Seymour says.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Another common-sense move from Erica Stanford

Okay, once again - not for the first time on this show and probably not the last - thank goodness for Erica Stanford.

Normally, she’s righting wrongs in education but today it’s her other portfolio: immigration.

Ryan Bridge: Why today’s GDP number is not irrelevant

Old, yes. Backward looking, by its nature, but not irrelevant.

We’re tipped to grow around 0.3%-0.4% for Q4 2025. It would mark, barring any surprises, the second straight month of per capita growth on the trot.

That means average income and standard of living was ticking up on a per persons basis, albeit from a low base.

Mike's Minute: The Hipkins allegations and effect

I suppose the ultimate question is, what do you want in a leader, or more specifically, the Prime Minister?

Chris Hipkins is immersed in a growing mess around social media and an angry ex-wife.

Hand on heart, if it hadn't been sent to me I would not have asked, because I genuinely don’t care.

Guest Post: The Path Back: New Zealand’s 50‑Year Drift — And How We Can Still Turn Around

Wayne Jackson writes on Point of Order

New Zealand likes to imagine itself as a small nation that punches above its weight. But for the past 50 years, we’ve been punching underwater.

Since 1973 — the year Britain joined the European Economic Community and our guaranteed market vanished — New Zealand has been drifting while the rest of the world has been moving with purpose. The countries we once outperformed have overtaken us. The ones we used to pity now lap us. And the reason is painfully simple: when the world changed, New Zealand didn’t.

Peter Williams: National about to lock-in co-governance of local water

The following was written in Peter's capacity as Taxpayers' Union board member

In 2022, I joined the Board of the Taxpayers’ Union to fight Nanaia Mahuta’s plan to confiscate community-owned water assets and put them into ‘co-governed’ Three Waters entities.

And with the Luxon-led Government being elected with such a clear mandate, I thought we had won.

So it gives me no pleasure to give you the bad news. Co-governance of local water is back.

Centrist: If ministers can’t interfere, who fixes state-media bias?

Who is accountable at TVNZ?

Editorial independence protects TVNZ from political interference. But when balance fails, who is actually accountable?

Tim Donner: On the Brink - Long National Nightmare for Cuba Is Almost Over

Poverty. Hunger. Disease. Darkness. Misery. These have, for 67 years, been the defining characteristics of life in Cuba, a beautiful island nation 90 miles from American shores, brought to its knees by communism. Since Fidel Castro seized power on New Year’s Day 1959, the country has been in a death spiral, propped up for years by Soviet communists, then by Venezuela’s discount oil courtesy of President Nicolás Maduro until his capture. But now, finally, the totalitarian regime that has enslaved the people of Cuba has weakened to the point that its demise appears imminent.

Roger Partridge: Supreme Court matters - Why lawyers need to speak out

Imagine a system in which those who understand it best see a problem developing – slowly, incrementally, case by case – but choose not to say so publicly. Not because they are forbidden to speak. Not because they are ignorant. But because speaking carries personal cost, while silence is professionally safer.

The system continues to function. No single failure is dramatic enough to force action. Each adjustment can be defended on its own terms. Outsiders assume that if something were seriously wrong, those closest to it would say so.

Over time, the problem becomes structural. By the time it is widely acknowledged, it is no longer easy to reverse.

Matua Kahurangi: NZ First draws a hard line on global interference

For a long time, there has been a quiet but growing tension between national sovereignty and the expanding influence of international bodies. That tension came into sharp focus during and after Covid-19, when global coordination often blurred into expectation, and expectation into pressure. Decisions that affect the daily lives of New Zealanders began to feel increasingly shaped by consensus overseas rather than accountability at home.

That is why this move matters.

Kerre Woodham: New Zealand's conflict of interest problem

What I found more outrageous on the internet yesterday was yet another example of this country's propensity for doling out jobs for the boys and indeed the girls. Every political party does it, every government does it, rewards the party faithful and their generous donors and backers with cushy sinecures. Grafter-in-chief would have to be Trevor Mallard's posting to Dublin – although would it? Because there are plenty of other opportunities to point the finger. Look at Simon Bridges, the ex-National Party leader was appointed as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency, Waka Kotahi, in March 24.

David Farrar: The $30 billion Covid splurge on non-Covid projects

Nicola Willis wrote:

Chris Hipkins has let the truth slip about Labour’s Covid spending.

On Newstalk ZB yesterday he admitted the Labour Government would have gone ahead with many of its spending decisions even without the cover of the pandemic.

Wednesday March 18, 2026 

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Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: The National Party needs to rethink its plan for this election

We need to talk about inflation, because inflation is making me pretty sure now that the National Party needs to rethink its plan for this election.

We’ve just had the food inflation data out today. No surprise - food has gone up in price again in the year to February, up 4.5 percent.

Karl du Fresne: A masterclass in damage control, and Labour's PR flunkies didn't have to lift a finger

It has been fascinating to observe the media’s treatment of allegations against Labour leader Chris Hipkins by his ex-wife. 

The first thing to note was the uniformity of the coverage. It was as if the political editors of the mainstream news outlets hurriedly got their heads together when the news broke yesterday and decided on a common approach.

Mike's Minute: Invented stories and the media

How long can you pedal an invention?

On Friday March 6th the poll is out. It's bad for National and the media has concocted the idea that as a result of these numbers and the previous Monday's press conference about the war, that things have got so bad for the Prime Minister he is “considering his position over the weekend”.

Ashley Church: This Is More Dangerous Than the Media

The real threat is the one that you don't recognise.

Most people in the Western world have now worked out that the old media priesthood can no longer be trusted – but there’s one media organisation, in particular, that constitutes a greater threat to free speech than, arguably, all of the others combined.

It isn’t the New York Times, the Washington Post, or even the BBC. Nor is it CBC, in Canada, the ABC, in Australia, or even TVNZ or RNZ here in New Zealand.

David Farrar: Urgency Stats Part 2

In this part, I look at how often urgency has been used to bypass select committee consideration of a bill, and also how often the 6 months standard consultation period has been reduced.

This practice is what should most strongly be pushed back. Bypassing select committee robs the public of the ability to submit on laws, and also for technical improvements to be identified.

Gary Judd KC: Lessons from Iran

The dangers of appeasement

There are lessons to be learned from what has happened to and in Iran. Without doubt there is more to be learned, and more will become apparent in the days, weeks, months, and years to come. One such lesson has been taught through history but is forgotten more often than remembered.

Appeasement, the attempt to avoid conflict and to maintain or restore peace, may sometimes be a virtue but is frequently capitulation to evil actors. Those who have the power but, for whatever reason, lack the inclination to stand up for what is right often find that visions of peace are a mere illusion or fabrication of the mind. They may find that the goodwill they thought to buy through appeasement is rewarded with aggression and the sacrifice of innocent victims to the whims of persons of authoritarian temperament who now have totalitarian power.

Pee Kay: Ponder These…

Do you ever read a newspaper headline and think WTF or wonder what the hell the writer was trying to prove?

I find it almost impossible these days to read articles in the Herald and not contemplate what lies beyond the headline, what questions hasn’t the “reporter” asked, what hasn’t been said, what is the “other side of the coin.”

Here are examples from yesterday’s paper –