The Breaking Views blog is administered by the New Zealand Centre for Political Research at NZCPR.com. The views expressed are those of the author alone.
By all traditional methodology and criteria, Iran is now inert: naval and air forces eviscerated, missile defenses offline, and an army rendered largely useless, as no one is fighting on the ground.
However, tactical success is not necessarily equivalent to strategic victory.
It’s the Second Week (17 March 2026) of the so-called Iran war, and we’re told that it’s dragging on, we’re losing, and the Trump administration has no real success plan, or clear end in sight.
How is it then that Iran has no military, navy or leaders left, asks Victor Davis Hanson on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words.”
“When you look at Iran… it has no military left… All of these special contingents are under enormous assault: The command and control is destroyed, the missile defense is destroyed. And yet people say that it's unconquerable. It doesn't make any sense... So what's going on?”
That was my immediate reaction to the news that Stuff’s printing plant at Petone will shut down next year and printing operations will be relocated to Christchurch.
The paper most affected will be The Post, Stuff’s Wellington morning paper – known in a previous incarnation as The Dominion Post, a masthead whose name was itself an ungainly amalgam of its precursor titles The Dominion and The Evening Post.
The Post is on its knees already. It won’t survive this upheaval.
Now look it may not altogether surprise you today to hear that the International Olympic Committee has banned transgender women from competing in female events because this was so obviously going to happen once Kirsty Coventry was elected president of the IOC. She was clearly going to do it, given that she campaigned on doing exactly this.
News: Gisborne $29.7m recovery funding bid awaits Government decision Gisborne leaders are awaiting the Government’s response to a $29.7 million funding bid for a joint agency/iwi-led recovery plan after January’s severe weather event.
The letter was co-signed by representatives from Te Runanganui O Ngāti Porou (Tronp), the council and the region’s economic development and tourism agency, Trust Tairāwhiti.
The courts and Parliament’s support services have quietly moved their social media presence to Bluesky — and in doing so, have made a political statement they had no business making.
The Rule of Law is not a bureaucratic abstraction. It is the foundational promise that the law applies equally to all, that decisions made in the name of the public are accessible to the public, and that no one — not even the state — is above accountability. Central to that promise is something deceptively simple: people must be able to find the law.
Winston is doing himself no favours by playing silly games.
So Winston is, once again, back to his old tricks of playing the joker in the pack, the wild card if you like. Winston is a bright cookie (and probably the best foreign minister this country has ever had) but has a mischievous streak and that engaging smile he so often beguiles us with. According to the Centrist, he will only not go with Labour if Hipkins is leader, because Hipkins lied to him. This is the Winston we are most familiar with. I would remind the elderly gentleman that a leopard doesn’t change its spots.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins isn’t providing an alternative plan of action to help struggling New Zealanders facing pain at the pump and the threat of rising prices elsewhere.
Asked repeatedly what alternatives Labour could suggest, Hipkins said the onus to present ideas was on the current Government.
I think we have a couple of emerging themes as we come to the end of week four of Operation Epic Fury.
If you follow Australia as closely as I do, you will, like me, have been filled with a sense of pride or surprise that we are out doing them in adultness.
The Fuel Shock explained: what’s actually going on The Government has announced a $50 per week support package for working families in response to the fuel price surge that has resulted from the Iran conflict. Around 143,000 households will receive the payment through a boost to the in-work tax credit, with eligibility expanded to a further 14,000 families. It will cost up to $373 million if it runs for the full year. It will run for up to a year or until the price of petrol goes below $3/litre for four consecutive weeks.
I doubt there'll be many people out on the water —certainly not in the upper North Island on the East Coast— but the next time you go out, let me know what the catch is like. The Government's done a U-turn on minimum size limits for commercial fishers, but that's not enough for fishing advocacy groups. They want the Government to kill the Fisheries Amendment Bill entirely. They say it's not doing enough to protect our fish stocks. Meanwhile, Seafood New Zealand says it's ironic that the change has resulted in an outcome that's not great for the environment and doesn't provide the incentive to avoid catching small fish. So when the advocacy groups and the commercial fishers are not happy, you'd have to wonder at the point of the bill.
A new application to prospect for oil and gas off the Canterbury coast has triggered a competitive process, with the Government saying it reflects growing confidence in the sector.
New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals has opened a three month process after receiving an application from CBX Energy Limited to explore frontier acreage in the offshore Canterbury Basin.
I was at a forum on Tuesday where the Reserve Bank Governor was asked about the role of fiscal policy in responding to the increase in prices caused by the Iran war. She said that any assistance should be timely, targeted and temporary.
I agree, and this is of course in great contrast to what the last Government did with the Covid-19 response where the spent a shocking $30 billion of Covid-19 response funds on stuff that had nothing to do with Covid-19.
My overriding reaction to news that a Tom Phillips documentary is being made for Netflix is surprise.
I’m surprised that the police are still allowing this to happen - especially now that it’s confirmed the documentary will appear on a platform as globally dominant as Netflix.
TOP isn’t above Left and Right. It’s just the Left in better packaging.
Every election cycle, like clockwork, Opportunity (TOP) reappears. It refreshes its branding, gets a new leader, rolls out a new slate of candidates, and the media, just as predictably, froths over them. Since Gareth Morgan founded the party in 2016, this has become a familiar ritual in New Zealand politics.
At the Wellington District Court on 10 March 2026, charges of intentional damage and obstructing police against the protester who deface...
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