Breaking Views Update: Week of 12.7.26

Wednesday July 15, 2026 

News:
Māori artwork at Waitematā Station
Te Komititanga is one of the largest public plazas in the city centre. The name means to mix or to merge.

It reflects both the gathering of people and the place where the Waihorotiu Stream, which today is buried below Queen Street, merges with the Waitematā Harbour.

Kerre Woodham: The conversation around replacing our ageing warships

I would like to get your feedback on whether or not we should be upgrading our warships. New Zealand's two main warships will reach the end of their working lives within about a decade, and Cabinet must decide by 2027 what should replace them.

Mike's Minute: Free trade is our calling card

Maybe India said it better than we did.

But to be clear, here is what India says: the 5000 Kiwi visas as part of our FTA are about "mobility, not migration".

Immigration and mobility of skilled manpower are two different issues altogether.

Dr Kelvin Kemm: Alice in Hydrogen Land

At a shopping mall or amusement park one can see vendors selling balloons filled with Helium. Kids love them and dance around trailing their balloons, which float above them. From time to time some kid accidentally lets go and you see the balloon soaring high into the sky, to the delight of many watching, but to the heartbreak of the kid. The balloon soars up into the sky because it is filled with Helium, and Helium is a gas much lighter than the Oxygen and Nitrogen which make up most of the atmosphere.

Pee Kay: An Ode for .. Lord Winston

Guest Post on No Minister by Victor Billot

Inside the basement levels of the Dark Tower, Lord Winston summons forth the evil dead known as Michael Laws

Peter Williams: The Modi Lovefest

It was all a bit weird wasn't it?

Like any (sort of) sophisticated nation we’ve always played host to visits from foreign leaders. The APEC meeting of 1999 even had the presidents of the USA, Russia and China all here at the same time.

But never, ever, ever have I seen a New Zealand Prime Minister holding hands with a visiting Prime Minister.

Kerre Woodham: This one's for small business owners

The editorial this morning goes out to all the small and medium business people. Those of you who are starting the work week looking to earn your own keep, employ some New Zealanders, pay your taxes, and provide a product or service that people want or need. You don't want luxury yachts and private jets. You just want to work hard, be rewarded fairly, have people get out of your way, not be strangled by red tape. Seems a fairly reasonable state of being.

David Farrar: The most Māori Government ever

Nicole McKee becoming ACT Deputy Leader means that four of the six leadership roles in the Coalition are now held by Maori NZers.

David Farrar: Think how Labour would have dealt with the fuel crisis?

ACT points out:

It’s hard to see Adam Smith’s invisible hand of the market, perhaps that’s why media don’t report on its many successes. They’re first to complain when things go wrong, but who’s around to praise the market when it works? Free Press, that’s who, and this week we look at the crisis that wasn’t.

So, what happened to the fuel crisis? Only two months ago, it felt like we could be digging in for a COVID-level crisis. Shock jock commentators seemed to hope so, as they made scarier forecasts and called for deeper Government interventions.

Tuesday July 14, 2026 

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Peter Williams: Act's High Hopes for Henry

It's sure to be second time successful for the former TV host

One of the rapidly emerging features of the 2026 election is the announcement of candidates carrying a profile from another sphere of activity.

David Farrar: RIP Sam Neill

Sad to hear that Sam Neill has lost his battle with cancer, and NZ has lost arguably its greatest actor.

Ryan Bridge: We need to believe in our economy

We're cruising towards 2% growth off the back of these two bits of good news on the economy.

2% is not rocketing along but it's not stuck in a ditch, either.

And given the war and diesel and Trump, some (i.e. the government) might even say it's fantastic.

Perspective with Andrew Dickens: High oil prices are back, baby

Oil prices. Oil prices are back, baby.

At the moment, West Texas crude is sitting near US$74 a barrel, while Brent crude is around US$79. Prices are up slightly, rebounding as tension continues between the United States and Iran.

Mike's Minute: National took a credibility hit on roads

What's working for the Government at the moment is the economy.

The economy looks like it's coming right, in time to milk it all the way to the election.

So the Roads of National Significance reset is what you would loosely call a setback, if not a dead rat.

Pee Kay: National… the Enemy Within? (Part Two)

PART TWO: The Key/English years

John Key, National Prime Minister from 2008 until 2016 when he suddenly decided he had undertaken enough ‘brand management,” abruptly threw in the towel and passed the baton to Bill English!

John Key and his trusty sidekick for all things Treaty, Attorney-General and Treaty Negotiations Minister Chris Finlayson oversaw the period when National’s munificence to Maori moved from regional resource deals to a sweeping constitutional surrender of the New Zealand coastline!

Rodney Hide: Modern Politics has become a Parallel Universe

New Zealanders are a practical bunch. We like straight talk, fair play, and fixing problems with a bit of number 8 wire and common sense. So why does so much contemporary political talk leave us scratching our heads, muttering into our beers, and shouting at the television? Two flashpoints capture the bewilderment: the furious resistance to simply defining biological sex in law, and the relentless focus on race, reparations, “partnership,” and “stolen land”. The confusion stems from a deeper shift. Beneath the slogans lies a powerful, secularised salvation story that has quietly displaced traditional ways of thinking.

DTNZ: Iran declares Strait of Hormuz closed until US ends ‘illegal’ interventions

Tehran has defied President Donald Trump’s demands to fully reopen the strategic waterway to shipping.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has declared that the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed to shipping until the US ends what it called its “illegal” interference in the region.

Andy Oakley: Kapiti Mayor Exposes Her Racist Agenda

Unelected Māori infiltrate Council

Well, today we have a real humdinger to discuss. In a July 6 article in Kapiti News by Ashleigh Collis, Kapiti Mayor Janet Holborow made what amounts to a public confession that she is a Marxist, or rather, she’s in charge, and she’s against democratic accountability.

Peter Williams: The Flying Golf Ball Conundrum

Being there first doesn't count

One of the more unexpected consequences of the Covid era and its restrictions has been a boom in the number of people playing golf.

According to Golf New Zealand, in 2019 there were 105,967 paid up members of the country’s 390 golf clubs. That number for 2025 was 153,665, a remarkable 45 percent increase in just six years. Somehow thousands discovered a useful way to pass all that lockdown spare time was to take one’s frustrations out on a little dimpled ball.