Breaking Views Update: Week of 27.9.26

Thursday October 1, 2026 

News:
Name for new joint Water Organisation confirmed
Tāheke – Bay Waters Limited has been confirmed as the name for the new joint Water Organisation being established by Western Bay of Plenty District Council and Tauranga City Council to deliver drinking water, wastewater and stormwater services across the sub-region.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: We know Chlöe Swarbrick's not getting the finance portfolio, right?

Well, the Chlöe-for-Finance-Minister debate has gone up a level. She has been asked what her qualifications are. David Seymour is making fun of the idea, I think for good reason. And Chlöe herself has hit back, specifically at Nicola Willis, because there was a poll that showed a touch more people actually trust Chlöe on the economy than Nicola. Touché from Chlöe.

Chris Trotter: Election 2026 - when the tail is growing large enough to wag the ideological dog

From the perspective of New Zealand’s two largest parties, the first MMP election in 1996 was also the worst.

Between them, National and Labour accounted for just 62.06% of the popular vote. Pundits opined that this historically low two-party share reflected in more-or-less equal measure the novelty of the new electoral system and a substantial minority of the electorate’s emphatic rejection of politics as usual.

Ani O'Brien: Should the centre-right split their vote?

Is the overhang a lifeline for the centre-right?

I have thought long and hard about writing this. I wrote a kind of explainer about 6 weeks ago, but I wanted to be sure that I was sharing the best information before really throwing my support behind the strategy. And, to be honest, I have felt really sad for National and the situation they find themselves in. Although, of course, much of it is self-inflicted. I have a great deal of respect for many in the party and I know that they are feeling wounded by the increasing push for strategic voting.

Pee Kay: It has now ballooned out to a massive $1.093 billion!

Welcome to episode 5 of 2026 Election Issues in a Nutshell.
$1.093 billion!

Below is another episode broadcast by The Anglo Saxon.

In this episode (below) the Anglo Saxon focusses on the Maori Health Authority and Maori Health providers, highlighting the extreme costs to the taxpayer.

Roger Partridge: The House Price Story Almost Everyone Missed

This month’s big housing story was not the Reserve Bank’s rate rise, whatever the media coverage suggested. Mortgage rate rises, the effect on house prices, whether the spring market will stall – all of it was reported, correctly, as housing news.

But the bigger housing story occurred last week, when Parliament agreed to something no country has previously tried. As my colleague Oliver Hartwich explained earlier this month, Chris Bishop’s new Planning and Natural Environment Acts, replacing the Resource Management Act, do not merely name housing affordability as a goal. Under the new laws councils will have a duty to keep enough land available that its price stops carrying a scarcity premium. An independent umpire will judge whether they have.

Simon O'Connor: Scapegoats at the Checkout

What the political rush to punish supermarkets reveals about modern campaigning.

This election year’s scapegoat is clear – supermarkets. Every election has some form of scapegoat or ‘baddie’ to blame. This year it turns out to be the mums and dads running the likes of New World or Four Square while the previous election in 2023, it was landlords and property owners, and before that it was the mad covid years.

Kerre Woodham: Strategic voting – is it really a clever decision?

There's an old saying, "you're so sharp you could cut yourself". Similar to "you're too clever for your own good", meaning sometimes a person tries to be too tricky or clever, which leads them to make a simple task messy or fail completely. And that is the warning being given by the main parties to voters who are trying to rig the system.

Bob Edlin: The Nats, Nicola and the no-new-taxes slogan.....

....maybe (to nobble Chloe) a new war whoop is needed

Some readers are likely to have choked on their cornflakes this morning as they contemplated the prospect of a Green Party Minister of Finance.

That prospect was raised by a few ominous headlines.

Mike's Minute: Why the PREFU is important

We have Ruth Richardson to thank for today.

She was the architect of the Fiscal Responsibility Act 1994, what today is called the PREFU – the Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Update.

If you don’t remember it, it heralded a change in approach that seemed to me at the time as significant, if not profound.

Wednesday September 30, 2026 

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Ian Bradford: AI Rips the Mask Off the IPCC’s CO2 Doomsday Narrative

AI is here and will play a part in decision making. A recent decision by AI GroK 3-beta rips the mask off the IPCC’s CO2 doomsday narrative.

In March 2025 Grok3-beta made history as the lead author of a peer-reviewed scientific paper in “Science of Climate Change,” titled “A Critical Assessment of the Anthropogenic CO2-Global Warming Hypothesis.” It was co-authored with Johnathon Cohler, David Leagtes, Franklin Soon and Willie Soon.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Where does Labour plan on finding the $13 billion for pay equity?

Why did Chris Hipkins choose to announce that he will restore the pay equity regime within the first 100 days of a Labour-led Government? Why did he do that?

I'm really confused by it because it's not as if there was a special event or venue that he tied the announcement to. He was just at a public meeting in Spreydon and then seemed to blurt it out.

Kerry Butler: Should Our Country be Named Aotearoa

There has been a movement in recent times to push a name change for our country to “Aotearoa” by way of creeping normalcy. This subversive agenda is brazenly orchestrated by ideologically biased Media ... especially via News Presenters.

Ryan Bridge: How much cash will we get back from tax cuts?

How much cash will we get back from tax cuts?

Nicola Willis will soon an announcement about their timing and potential value, if they get back to the Treasury benches.

The good news out of yesterday's PREFU is that the books are out of structural deficit this year.

Richard Prebble: Who won the election campaign opening?

As a former campaign manager, we used to measure the success of a campaign by the size of the crowds.

Both major parties use to hire the biggest hall, the Auckland Town Hall, which holds 1,529.

Campaign meetings were open to the public. We measured enthusiasm by the numbers who could not get in.

JC: What Are We Looking For

I refer to the types of parties’ policies we, as right-wing conservative voters, would like to see at the forthcoming election. Anything from the left will not sit comfortably so we must look to the three parties on the right. We must start from the base that there is no one party that is going to address everything we may want. Therefore each party has to be looked at individually in each policy area.

Peter Williams: Splitting your vote - It’s the only way

The latest 1News poll tells us what we’ve known for a while. National can only get back to power through its electorate MPs

The arrogance of the National Party is reaching peak level nonsense. There was the still revered former leader John Key at the campaign launch telling the faithful that anything other than “two ticks National” could result in cabinet ministers from parties other than National.

Well blow me down with a feather. Isn’t that the whole point of a coalition government?

Dave Patterson: China’s Presence in the Arctic a Growing Concern

Beijing’s presence in the Arctic is no secret – but it is a cause for concern. China, which euphemistically calls itself a “near-Arctic country,” has for several years become an increasingly frequent presence in the Arctic. A recent intrusion by the PRC prompted close monitoring of the Chinese vessel. Rear Admiral Bob Little, Commander of the US Coast Guard’s Arctic District, told Reuters: “So far in 2026, four Chinese research vessels have conducted work offshore in the US Arctic, compared to a total of five in 2025.”

Ashley Church: Did Israel have advance knowledge of 7 October?

Separating what was known from what wasn't

There’s a theory about Pearl Harbor that has been circulating almost since the day the Japanese attacked the American Pacific Fleet on 7 December 1941.

It says that President Franklin Roosevelt knew the attack was coming and allowed it to happen because he wanted the United States to enter the Second World War and needed an event dramatic enough to change American public opinion.

It’s a compelling story, which probably explains why it has survived for more than 80 years. There’s just one problem. There’s no credible evidence that it happened.