Bryan Leyland & John Raine: The Energy Storage Elephant

Christopher Luxon announced the LNG Storage Terminal plan on 9th February 2026. By 28th February, the USA and Israel had attacked Iran, and we were forcefully reminded that New Zealand’s is one of the most vulnerable advanced economies to oil supply disruption. We are geographically isolated, fully import‑dependent for refined fuels, and exposed to geopolitical upheaval and chokepoints like the Strait of Hormuz.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 5.4.26

Saturday April 11, 2026 

News:
Council staff ‘didn’t know’ red-zoned property was Māori cemetery before they proposed selling it
Redcliffs residents are pushing back against a council proposal to sell off a piece of red-zoned land that was once a Māori cemetery - something council staff say they didn’t know about.

David Harvey, A Framework For Media Regulation In The Digital Age

A standalone proposal for the reform of media and communications regulation in New Zealand

Preliminary Note
This article contains a standalone proposal for the reform of media and communications regulation in New Zealand. It sets out both the theoretical and analytical foundations for reform and a concrete institutional model for a unified regulator.

Insights From Social Media: We will all drown eventually?

Gravedodger writes: Not from the predictable if somewhat erratic tropical storms that today again threaten the North but from the torrent of inanity that surrounds Co Governance and Partnerships in current political thinking.

Maori are no more indigenous than my forbears who arrived by sea following the signing of the pacification document often referred to as “The Treaty” as if it is the one sole such document ever signed by a current authority here in New Zealand.

Colinxy: Tova O’Brien - A Case Study in Race‑Obsessed Critical Media Framing

Last year, I analysed the Jessica‑and‑Tova double act through the lens of Critical Media Theory. In that piece, I described Tova O’Brien as the Emotive Enforcer of the Ardern era — the journalist whose job was not to interrogate power but to emotionally validate it. She was the velvet‑gloved auxiliary to a velvet‑fisted government.

This week, she returned to form.

Mark Angelides: What Did You Think Victory in Iran Would Look Like?

Like the national debt, politicos of all stripes treated the despotic regime in Iran as a problem for future generations to worry about – until President Donald Trump decided to make it an issue for now. With the ceasefire currently holding, the world seems split regarding whether the ten-point plan presently on the table is a win for Washington or Tehran. But what did the pundits think a victory in Iran would really look like?

Dr Oliver Hartwich: I’m a liberal now but I still mourn the slow death of the Social Democrats in Germany

A few years ago, I found an old calendar from 1979 in a box of things from my childhood. It was filled with the scribblings of a four-year-old. Stick figures, misshapen houses, the usual doodling. And there, in red ballpoint pen, three letters: SPD.

I grew up in the Ruhrgebiet, Germany’s industrial heartland. In those coal-and-steel cities, the Social Democrats, the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, were not just a political party. They were the natural order. In my home region, the SPD regularly pulled more than 50 percent of the vote.

Simon O'Connor: A fragile President and ceasefire

Some reflections on Donald Trump's recent comments and the somewhat ceasefire in the Middle East


Please note, events are moving very fast in the Middle East and changing almost as fast as I can write a paragraph. The ceasefire, for example, has already been breached as Iran continues to fire ordinance at Gulf States and the Strait of Hormuz is once again blocked. To that end, be aware some aspects of this Substack may soon be out of date.

There’s a ceasefire in the Middle East, somewhat. The details are sketchy and only time will tell if it holds for two weeks or longer.

Bob Edlin: Northland council has replenished a trough to provide scholarships.....

Northland council has replenished a trough to provide scholarships – the rules favour Maori applicants

The Northland Regional Council has sounded the hog call that draws attention to a trough it has replenished.

According to the eligibility criteria, Māori who rush for a share of the swill have a much better chance of being nourished at the expense of ratepayers than non-Māori.

Bob Edlin: No, matauranga Māori has not been forgotten.....

No, matauranga Māori has not been forgotten as Govt focuses policy on advanced technology and redirects science funding

Shane Reti, in his last press statement as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology, last week said the Government is backing a shift in science spending to areas that will have the greatest national impact.

A stronger focus will be placed on advanced technology.

Friday April 10, 2026 

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Ryan Bridge: Energy security will be hot this election

Energy security is shaping up to be the hottest item on this year's election agenda, and with good reason.

Ask any business who's about to renew an energy contract, any transport business who's battling the price of diesel or any factory or mill thinking about mass layoffs and shutting up shop.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: What did Jacinda's latest testimony really tell us?

Jacinda Ardern is back in the news after transcripts of her behind-closed-doors testimony to the Royal Commission were published by the New Zealand Herald today.

While the contents of the testimony contain few surprises, the transcript is notable as much for what it omits as for what it includes.

Mike's Minute: There are lessons for us to learn from this war

Do you think we will learn some lessons or change our mind now that the war is essentially over?

Do we need to be more oil independent or, overall, is the way we do it for good reason i.e. it's cheaper to buy refined product?

Do we need to seek out new markets for products that have previously been brought blindly through the Strait, like plastics and gases?

Ani O'Brien: The Strait of Hormuz, Trump, and the end of Pretend Peace

The world held its breath today. The Leader of the “Free World” had threatened that “a whole civilisation will die tonight” and everyone seemed to take this very literally. And understandably so! This kind of rhetoric is not something we are used to from Western leaders. In the West we do diplomacy and handshakes and express disapproval. Well, we have in the years since the World Wars (with a few notable exceptions).

Brendan O'Neill: So Iran’s civilisation is safe. Now what about the West’s?

For all his digital bluster, it isn’t Trump who threatens to unravel our civilisation – it’s his influential haters.

Imagine calling for the destruction of a civilisation. Imagine dreaming about violently scrubbing an ancient nation from the face of the Earth. Imagine flirting with the idea of obliterating a land with thousands of years of rich history. I am referring, of course, to the activist class and its annihilationist hatred for the Jewish State. For nearly three years, these people have beat the streets and swarmed the digital networks to agitate for the erasure of Israel, all the way ‘from the river to the sea’. President Trump’s juvenile bluster on Iran has nothing on their existential loathing for the Jewish homeland.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Who runs the country? Restoring democratic control of New Zealand's public service

New Zealand’s ministers answer to Parliament for departments they cannot control. They cannot choose, direct or remove the chief executives who run those departments. The Public Service Commissioner makes those appointments.

The New Zealand Initiative argues this arrangement is broken. It recommends that New Zealand adopt a version of Germany’s model, where ministers appoint their top officials while a protected career service operates below.

Bob Edlin: Come on, Prime Minister – can’t you drum into the media your focus on merit, not race?

The headlines below illustrate the mainstream media’s fixation with the idea that Maori are getting a raw deal. The implication is that more of them should be Cabinet ministers.

Two of the news reports were generated by our hapless PM’s falling into a trap set by a broadcaster who aimed to embarrass him rather than glean information on behalf of her audience. She succeeded.

Alwyn Poole: Just How Bad NZ’s Productivity is!

Last week I posted on how problematic the size of NZ government is.

Duncan Garner picked up on it here – and also interviewed David Seymour on it. Seymour seemed unusually tepid on bringing about smaller government – even going with the “at least we are not Labour” type statement.

I mentioned that the Public Sector is “crowding-out” the Private Sector and making genuine economic growth extremenely difficult. Treasury notes this:

David Farrar: Outrageous salary

The Post reports:

The head of an investment fund which is being shut down by the Government has been on an annual salary of nearly $1 million paid by the public purse, which the climate change minister says is “hard to justify”.

Green Investment Finance was established under the previous government to support investments in emissions-reducing ventures, but in April last year it was announced it would be wound up in April last year after anger among ministers over the fund’s failed investment in rooftop solar installer SolarZero.