Mike's Minute: I don't blame Hipkins for having a crack, but tell him he's dreaming

I don’t blame Hipkins for having a crack, but tell him he's dreaming.

Having closed, or at least announced they are closing off, the absurd deals between local councils and Māori, once they get the new RMA laws up Hipkins suggests that this will lead to a lot of renegotiation of Treaty settlements.

It will do no such thing.

Philip Leith: Climate Scientists Clearly Don’t Believe Their Own Tales of Doom

To be referred to as a scientist suggests that someone has studied science, passed exams relevant to their subject and continued to work, exploring that particular field. Most people would consider a scientist as an intelligent human being.

Climate scientists are constantly warning us that if the global level of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions is not cut the world will suffer badly.

Ryan Bridge: The price of being a climate warrior

Chris Hipkins is floating the idea of an effective tariff on imported cement.

He reckons it could be a better way of dealing with our cement problem than $60-million in corporate welfare.

Richard Shaw: NZ’s political ‘centre’ is an electoral strategy, not a set of beliefs

Most of us use an imaginary two-dimensional spectrum to chart the positions of political parties, generally based on the fundamental issue of the relationship between the state and private enterprise.

Parties of the left tip towards a greater role for government, while those on the right favour free markets and lower taxes.

Colinxy: The Origins of Equality - A Genealogy of an Idea That Took Millennia to Mature

Equality is one of those concepts that modern politics treats as self‑evident, universal, and morally compulsory. Yet the road to equality is anything but straightforward. It took thousands of years for the idea to even form, let alone become politically actionable. And even today, we fight over what equality means: equality of opportunity versus equality of outcomes (now rebranded as equity). For readers wanting the deeper dive into that modern conflict, see my earlier piece: The Equalities: Merit, Marxism, and the War Over Fairness.

Andrew Moran: Trump Leading a New World Order of Oil Markets

The fallout from the Iranian conflict has resulted in a new world order in oil markets. Prior to the war in the Middle East, multiple factors significantly influenced a sizable share of international energy, including the Strait of Hormuz and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Almost five months later, it appears these dynamics are shifting, as the United States has lit the match that will blow up the current arrangement.

Overhauling Oil Markets

Dr Oliver Hartwich: New Zealand by Comparison

Two weeks ago, New Zealand by Numbers asked whether New Zealand was improving. Our latest report asks a harder question: is it keeping up?

New Zealand by Comparison, edited by Dr Oliver Hartwich and Dr Bryce Wilkinson, measures New Zealand against 28 other countries across more than a hundred indicators, from work and prosperity to health, institutions and the environment.

Among this group, New Zealand ranks first for labour force participation, second for economic freedom, fourth for honesty in government and eighth for life satisfaction, ahead of Germany, Britain and the United States.

Dr Eric Crampton: Supermarket Competition

Is the reason we don’t have enough supermarket competition because councils have banned new ones?

When the Commerce Commission was looking into retail grocery competition, my shop urged the Commission to check on something important.

As best we could tell, it would be effectively impossible for a new large-format supermarket chain to open in New Zealand. Cities had not zoned enough space for full-sized grocery stores. So, anyone wanting to open a set of stores up and down the country would have enormous difficulty finding viable sites with the right zoning.

Alwyn Poole: Another look at the provision of school lunches.

It is clear – from school feedback and an Auditor General’s report that the current school lunch programme is beset with issues.

Societally it is controversial as our history in this area has been parents providing the lunch box. On a Friday, when I was at primary school, you could order fish’n’chips and you could get plate sized potato fritters for 5 cents (still addicted). I was completely fired up when I returned home one day, as a boy called Ronald had beaten me up and stolen my lunch. I was around 8 years old. I wanted him sent to prison for life (or worse). My mother’s response was to make two lunches the next day.

 Wednesday July 22, 2026 

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NZCPR Newsletter: Climate Realism

One of the things we’ve learnt about climate change politics over the years is that their predictions are always wrong.

Perspective with Andrew Dickens: "This cost of living crisis is not going away anytime soon

So, this cost of living crisis is not going away anytime soon, despite what any number of New Zealand political parties promise they can do about it.

The inflation figures are out. It's gone up by one percentage point and there's now a four in front of it. A large part of that cost is petrol, which we can do nothing about. Diesel is up 7.1%.

Ryan Bridge: We don't have the money for corporate welfare

A $60 million corporate welfare cheque for Golden Bay Cement is fixing a symptom but not the disease.

It's taxpayer money. It's not a loan – it's free money. Owner Fletcher Building has agreed, in return, to keep the thing open till 2040 and invest $150 million, phased over time.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 19.7.26

Wednesday July 22, 2026 

News:
Scrapping council-iwi agreements will see existing Treaty settlements relitigated - Labour
Labour says the government scrapping council agreements with local Māori will mean "a lot" of relitigating existing Treaty settlements.

The opposition party has stopped short of promising to repeal and replace the legislation, instead vowing to produce ahead of the November election a reworked bill setting out in detail what it would change.

Kerre Woodham: A one-off payment is not going to fix the problem

I have so many questions around the Government bailout of Golden Bay Cement, which is not in fact manufactured in Golden Bay, but in Northland.

Fletcher owns the company and they said Golden Bay Cement operates New Zealand's only domestic cement manufacturing facility at Portland near Whangarei. It supplies nearly 60% of the cement used in New Zealand – about 95% of its output is sold domestically.

Dr Kelvin Kemm: Solar for the soul or for the senses

The Sun has mystified mankind for centuries. In days long gone, primitive people worshiped the Sun or a Sun God. But much more recently, in the later 1800s, people were still mystified because by then science had advanced a great deal and physicists had acquired a significant understanding of thermodynamics and energy. They knew that thermodynamics states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, and it can only be converted to another form. They also knew how to calculate the heat emitted from burning coal, wood, or anything else.

Mike's Minute: So many questions around the Govt's cement bailout

Nicola Willis told us she did not take the decision lightly, and well, she might have said that.

She's lucky it's only cost $60 million. We still don’t know the terms, but we need to.

This is Golden Bay Cement, and the Government has come to their rescue.

Hannah Bunting: Andy Burnham becomes prime minister.......

Andy Burnham becomes prime minister after Keir Starmer leaves Downing Street for the last time

After being named leader of the Labour party, Andy Burnham has officially become prime minister of the UK. That many people considered this day an inevitability doesn’t make it any less momentous.

Kevin: What Does This Change?

Consent has always been problematic and what is being proposed isn’t going to change that.

National is promising to modernise laws on sexual consent, saying there must be consent before sex every time, rather than assuming it has been given.

The party says if it is re-elected, it will ensure that consent is actively given, meaning there must be a “yes” rather than the absence of a “no”.

David Harvey: Searching in the Dark

How three government agencies are ignoring twenty years of e-discovery technology — and using their own backwardness against OIA requesters

Preface

In an article published in the New Zealand Herald in February 2026 I considered the operation of the Official Information Act. I observed that avoidance strategies persist: repeated requests for “clarification” that reset statutory clocks, fragmented record-keeping, and opaque decision-making. The cumulative effect is delay, frustration, and diminished public confidence. I also noted that most records are now electronic, searchable, and capable of rapid review using modern tools, including AI-assisted search and e-discovery techniques. Claims that requests are unduly burdensome because they involve hundreds of documents ring hollow when compared to contemporary information-management capabilities. Indeed, the digital paradigm should have made compliance easier, not harder.