Saturday August 8, 2026 

                   ⇩

Hon Chris Bishop: Speech to the Law Association

Thank you for the invitation to come and speak to the Law Association.

I’ve just come from announcing the opening date for the City Rail Link in Auckland. It may not surprise you to learn that my address to you today is not as exciting as that news!

It is a real privilege to be the Attorney-General. All Ministers and officeholders in New Zealand say that about their jobs, but I genuinely mean it. For someone interested in politics and public law and who is deeply interested in our constitution, it is a dream job.

Graham Adams: RNZ’s te reo policy dovetails with He Puapua

Jacinda Ardern always insisted He Puapua was not official government policy although critics could be forgiven for thinking it was — whether it was the blind eye turned to illegal iwi roadblocks in Northland during Covid or the co-governance provisions under Three Waters.

Similarly, RNZ’s management would undoubtedly deny that its te reo policy closely echoes the He Puapua playbook despite striking similarities.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 2.8.26

Saturday August 8, 2026 

News:
MMP Referendum Must Include Vote On Māori Seats - Hobson’s Pledge.
Hobson’s Pledge spokesperson and former National Party leader Don Brash says Prime Minister Christopher Luxon must honour long-held National Party policy by including a vote on the future of the Māori seats in any upcoming referendum on the voting system.

Geoff Parker: Who Should Govern New Zealand's Freshwater – Parliament or the Courts?

Open Letter To:

The Rt Hon Christopher Luxon, Prime Minister - Christopher.Luxon@parliament.govt.nz
The Hon Nicola Willis - Nicola.Willis@parliament.govt.nz
The Rt Hon David Seymour - Deputy Prime Minister - David.Seymour@parliament.govt.nz
The Hon Nicole McKee - Nicole.McKee@parliament.govt.nz
The Hon Paul Goldsmith - paul.goldsmith@parliament.govt.nz
The Hon Winston Peters - Winston.Peters@parliament.govt.nz
The Hon Shane Jones - Shane.Jones@parliament.govt.nz

Dear Prime Minister and Ministers,

New Zealand is awaiting what has been described as one of the most constitutionally significant court decisions in recent history.

The High Court's pending judgment in Tau v Attorney-General concerns Ngāi Tahu's claim that its rangatiratanga over freshwater was never extinguished and should be recognised through a new regime for the regulation, governance and allocation of freshwater resources.

Chris Morrison: Global Greening Hits New Record as Climate Emergency Fails to Materialise

Global mean vegetation greening reached a record high last year, extending an already significant multi-decade upward trend, according to recent findings published in Nature. In fact, 2025 set a record for global vegetation greening with a steepening of the average trend. Top of the list with 77.6% showing extra greening was croplands, meaning more food is becoming available to boost global diets.

Centrist: Growing rivalry - Is NZ helping India become a kiwifruit competitor?

Helping India grow

New Zealand is providing plants, scientific expertise and improved nursery, orchard and post-harvest methods that the government-owned Bioeconomy Science Institute says could help increase Indian kiwifruit production by as much as tenfold.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: NZ voters trust party names over actual policies

When I specialised in marketing for the business part of my economics degree, I came across a puzzling group of people: consumers. Ask them about their product choices and they will tell you what they care about, how diligently they compare different items and how much weight they put on quality.

Yet analyse what they actually do and a different picture emerges. They infer quality from brand names they have never heard of. They do the same from packaging. They will prefer one of two identical products because one of them somehow feels more premium.

Consumers are strange. So why should they be any different as voters?

William Foster: “Ripples never come back”: Why Political Motivations for Centralisation and Amalgamation ignore the subsequent economic and social costs.

Abstract: Centralisation/amalgamation can look administratively tidy while creating delayed democratic, fiscal and institutional costs. Yet centralisation repeatedly survives mixed empirical evidence because it aligns with the operating logic of hierarchical political systems themselves.

John Raine: The Electricity System - Energy Realism versus Policy Greenwash

Cheap High-Density Energy is the Key to Prosperity

It’s Election 2026 policy silly season. No surprise that some party policies on New Zealand’s energy future are detached from reality, particularly those of the Green Party and Labour. At least NZ First’s bold oil and gas exploration policy is sound in principle.

David Farrar: It’s too soon for another MMP referendum

The Herald reports:

Christopher Luxon says he supports having another referendum on the MMP voting system if he’s re-elected as he encourages greater support for National so the party can avoid working with “some yahoo and numpty” in Cabinet.

Mike's Minute: Why would the councils not amalgamate?

I'm trying to work out in this council amalgamation back and forward, how many who aren't amalgamating are genuinely stuck, versus how many are simply sticking it up the Government because they don't like them and/or they don’t like being told what to do?

Councils are the bane of our lives. We are over council-ed, we are overrated and we should be immeasurably grateful to the central government who are capping rates and reducing the number of these groups.

Kerre Woodham: I can't see how you can justify giving prisoners massages

So, the Corrections Minister has halted a $9 million plan, as you will have heard this morning, to provide Rongoa Māori healthcare in prisons, including giving prisoners traditional massages called mirimiri, after questions were asked about the programme. Mark Mitchell said, first I heard of it. But Corrections launched a procurement process for the services in all New Zealand prisons in July, after a trial was run in a couple of prisons. Seemed to work well.

Friday August 7, 2026 

                   ⇩

Taxpayers' Union-Curia Poll: August 2026

Here are the headline results for August's Taxpayers’ Union – Curia Poll:

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: No-one was asking for an MMP referendum

Yeah, well, if Chris Luxon's week wasn't already bad, it's not much better.

Not after he apparently announced off the cuff on ZB Mornings with Kerre that he's going to hold an MMP referendum if he wins the election.

Now, where do I start with the problems with him doing this?

Ryan Bridge: Luxon blindsiding his colleagues puts him in a tough position

Christopher Luxon's going rogue.

The risk when making constitutional policy pronouncements 92 days out from an election, blindsiding your colleagues and diverting attention from your key messaging, is that you look erratic.

David Harvey: The Limits Una Jagose KC Cannot Name

Why Parliament, Not the Courts, Must Prevail

When former Solicitor-General Una Jagose KC told a Law Association breakfast on 2 July 2026 that New Zealand risks “sleepwalking” towards a collapse of the separation of powers, she framed herself as the constitution’s anxious guardian. The framing deserves scrutiny.

Colinxy: The Fertility Crisis - Why New Zealand’s Birthrate Won’t Recover

New Zealand has finally begun to notice what demographers have warned for decades: the country is now deep into a fertility crisis. Our birthrate sits well below the replacement level of 2.1, and nothing in the cultural or economic landscape suggests a rebound.

Jacinda Ardern’s Best Start payment was a timid gesture. Winston Peters’ recent proposal, a $45,000 incentive for families who have three children, is the first explicit attempt to reverse the decline.

Will it work?

Peter Williams: Removing the little sh*ts

Act's latest education move is worth a go

Paul Henry always had a knack for cutting to the chase. That’s why his succinct line about Act’s education discipline policy will hit the spot with so many teachers.

“Let’s be honest, there are a lot of little sh*ts in classrooms and we need to address that if we’re to lift education standards.”

So Act want to give teachers more power to throw the little sh*ts out of the class.