Breaking Views Update: Week of 24.5.26

Tuesday May 26, 2026 

News:
'A grift': Far North district councillor raises concerns over sovereignty agreement
ACT-aligned councillor Davina Smolders is spreading claims the Far North District Council plans to sign agreements ceding sovereignty to five iwi.

She previously challenged a recent Council decision to expand a Māori liaison committee - appointing 10 iwi members with voting rights, out of a total 16.

Smolders says it's not co-governance, but rather outright iwi governance.

Chris Lynch: Stalking becomes criminal offence

Stalkers will face up to 5 years in prison from midnight [25/5/26] as new anti stalking laws come into force across New Zealand.

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said the Government was sending a clear message that stalking behaviour would no longer be tolerated.

Pee Kay: “…equal treatment is deemed discrimination”

2026 finds New Zealand standing at a critical political and social intersection.

The path a future New Zealand takes, will in some part, likely be decided at the ballot box on November 7th and will most probably be central to heated and continued constitutional discussion and argument into the late 2020s!

With a population of 5.3 million New Zealand is wrestling with a fragile economy and a constitutional and an identity crisis. If our country is to ever secure a prosperous future, surely it is now time to turn away from the politically imposed obstructions of co-governance, partnership and the movement towards Maori sovereignty.

Revti Raman Sharma: India is a ‘country of countries’....

India is a ‘country of countries’ – NZ business needs a regional strategy to make the trade deal work

The recently signed free trade agreement between New Zealand and India has so far been discussed and debated in very broad terms: the size of the Indian market, opportunities for exporters, implications for immigration.

Much of this is understandable. Preferential access to a market larger than the European Union and ASEAN countries combined, with purchasing power forecast to grow exponentially by 2050, is indeed an opportunity.

David Farrar: No to SMPs for minerals

The Herald reports:

Resources Minister Shane Jones invited leaders from the minerals sector and diplomats, including a high-ranking official from the US State Department, for a critical minerals roundtable at Parliament today.

Jones spoke frankly with attendees about the US’ keenness to develop minerals supply chains and about the Government pondering minimum prices for certain resources in order to establish viable operations for their extraction.

Mike's Minute: We're reliant on cars and we need to stop pretending we aren't

A couple of interesting property developments for you.

1. Half finished town houses in Christchurch.

2. Lack of demand for off the plan deals from developers.

Chris Hunter: The Kiwi Cradle. Why We Need a "Grow NZ Families" Revolution

As Kiwis, we’ve always punched above our weight. We’re the innovators, the builders, the "number 8 wire" thinkers. But there’s a quiet crisis unfolding in our suburbs and rural towns that no amount of backyard ingenuity can fix if we don't address it now. Our most precious resource is our future generations, and it is thinning out.

Right now, New Zealand’s total fertility rate sits at a historic low of just 1.52. For a population to naturally replace itself and sustain its economy, that number needs to be 2.1. We aren't just slightly below par; we are staring down a demographic cliff.

Damien Grant: Nicola Willis talks fiscal discipline — then Winston Peters enters the chat

We saw two very different visions of our economic future last week, from two parties in the same government. Let’s take a closer look.

Nicola Willis has discovered fiscal discipline. She has promised her budget will begin a process of reducing the public service headcount by nearly nine thousand and cutting most agencies operating budgets by 2% in the coming year and 5% in subsequent years.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: New purge to give totalitarian control of police, schools, prison, bureaucracy of German state

Observers of European politics know Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) as a right-wing, populist party, probably extreme, certainly friendly to Russia. Less visible from the outside is that the AfD is not an ordinary opposition party that might win an election, govern badly and then be voted out.

The AfD’s goal is to change the fundamental structures of the German state. While such a transformation is still some distance at the federal level in Berlin, a small eastern German state called Saxony-Anhalt already shows what this means in practice. The changes are beginning before the AfD has even taken office.

Monday May 25, 2026 

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Sean Rush: New Zealand is planning for a climate future scientists now reject

New Zealand is planning for a climate future scientists now reject. And fixing it will require more than a policy tweak

New Zealand’s coastal climate change planning system is built on a simple legal standard: councils must plan for the likely effects of climate change, using the best available evidence.

But across the country, planning is being anchored to a future that scientists now say is implausible—and, legally, should never have been treated as “likely” in the first place.

Colinxy: The Evolving Māori Language — and Who Controls It

Every so often, I encounter the claim that “most of the Māori language is made up.” Is that fair?

Only partly. All living languages evolve. They absorb new words, shift meanings, and quietly abandon older vocabulary. Māori has survived into the 21st century, so of course it undergoes the same pressures as English, French, or Japanese.

But the real issue is not whether Māori changes. It is how it changes — organically or by decree.

Dr Benno Blaschke: Stop counting houses. Start watching prices.

Housing targets have long been a political football – and an emotional subject. Would it not be better to take some of the heat out of the housing debate and ask more systematically how we could better plan for future housing supply?

The housing target for Auckland shrank twice in mere weeks as central government searched for a politically acceptable number. But planning-by-numbers is part of the problem.

Net Zero Watch Samizdat: Britain loosens sanctions on Russian fuels

UK

UK loosens sanctions on Russian fuel

The UK government has watered-down sanctions on Russian diesel and jet fuel amid the ongoing energy crisis. Miliband is closing down our refineries and banning new North Sea licences so we can fund Putin’s war machine. RUSI estimates the policy will gift Putin £1bn in additional revenues. 

Dr Eric Crampton: Amending alcohol

An alcohol licensing regime should have one big job: to ensure that licensed outlets operate responsibly, first by vetting applications and then by monitoring compliance.

Its measures should be proportionate to the risks being addressed, and cost-effective. Licensing should not be the primary tool for reducing every kind of harmful alcohol-related behaviour. It needs other policies targeted at specific harms. Without those, too much of the burden of harm reduction falls on local alcohol policies and licensing conditions.

Henry Olsen: Pride and Prejudice and Zealanders

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single politician in possession of good polling must be in want of an election.

Similarly, politicians lacking public support are wary of the electoral meatgrinder that awaits them. Unfortunately, when politicians try to course correct and avoid misfortune, they risk exposing both their pride and their prejudice.

Bruce Cotterill: AI must simplify, not complicate, our way of life

I watched a video the other day. It was sent to me by a friend. It was quickly obvious that the video was created by artificial intelligence, or AI as the moniker now reads. My friend thought it was real. It looked real. And my subsequent research revealed that the story it told was real.

The video featured a textile factory, with people going about their day jobs of manufacturing, colouring and even sewing fabric. The product output was apparel, canvas bags and shelter cloths.

Roger Childs: A well-paid Chief Maori Officer at Wellington City Council

Well compensated bureaucrats in Wellington—33 employees on the Wellington City Council Rich List earn $200,000.or more

The Wellington Ratepayers’ Alliance put a full-page advertisement in The Post on Wednesday May 20 listing the rich list. All 33 bureaucrats earn more than Mayor Andrew Little starting with Town Clerk Matt Prosser on $531,616. Most are called “Chiefs” or “Managers”. At number 34, the Mayor gets 201,947.

Roger Partridge: Commission still confusing competition with counting

Imagine that a public health authority publishes a report on the nation’s diet. After 22 years of data and a 100-page methodology, it announces the four least nutritious food groups. They are: beverages, snacks, prepared meals and condiments.

The categories tell you nothing, because beverages include both water and vodka, and snacks include both carrot sticks and deep-fried Mars bars. The four least nutritious food groups are not food groups at all. They are categories with contents differing so much that any encompassing judgement about them is meaningless.

Sunday May 24, 2026 

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