NZCPR Newsletter: A Wake-Up Call

New Zealanders are now confronting the most serious energy and fuel pressures in a generation. Diesel prices have surged to record levels, truck stops in several regions have already run dry, and questions are increasingly being raised about whether national fuel supplies will hold. Fertiliser importers are warning of tightening global markets, supply chains are under strain, and the latest price spikes are already feeding directly into the cost of living and inflation.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: There's more at stake here than Tamihere’s guilt or innocence

So David Tamihere has finally got what he’s been fighting for for decades. The Supreme Court has quashed his convictions for murdering the two Swedish backpackers all those years ago.

Now this doesn’t mean a retrial will necessarily happen. That’s up to the Crown, which must decide whether it wants to pursue the charges again.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 29.3.26

Wednesday April 1, 2026 

News:
Fuel crisis the priority, not style guides, Judith Collins tells ACT
Public Service Minister Judith Collins has shrugged off pressure from coalition partner ACT over the government's English-first policy, suggesting the matter is not a key priority.

"To be frank, right at the moment, my concern is fuel," she told RNZ. "That's my big focus. I'm not too worried about everything else."

Dr Bryce Edwards: Democracy Briefing - The Energy insurance that NZ never bought

Arguments about the current energy crisis have shifted. It is no longer just about what ministers are doing now. It is also about what they chose not to do when they had the chance.

This morning brought the clearest accountability journalism to this debate. Kate MacNamara in the Herald and Edward Miller in The Post both zero in on the same issue: New Zealand was left more exposed than it needed to be, and ministers were warned about the country’s lack of fuel reserves.

John McLean: Woke Entrenchment

Mechanisms of ideological Identitarian societal capture…complete with a case study

I’ve written screeds on how Woke/Critical Social Justice/Identitarianism/Neo-Marxism/Post-Modernism – call “it” what you will - has been entrenched in New Zealand society.

Bruce Cotterill: AI revolution is coming for service jobs....

AI revolution is coming for service jobs: How work will change by 2030

There are plenty of things distracting us at the moment. With an election looming, another war in the Middle East, swollen oil prices and concerns about supply, and the risk of a return to recession as a result.

Amidst the madness we’ve stopped talking about the fact that we are about to experience the biggest change to our way of life, probably in our lifetimes.

Simon O'Connor: Of fuel and fury

How can a government ministry blatantly fund political and 'furious' activism, yet there be so little media scrutiny? And why the fuel crisis should have been anticipated.

One of the striking aspects around modern media is not so much the bias that various outlets pursue, but deliberate ignoring of stories and perspectives of importance.

Bob Edlin: Another costly Code of Conduct inquiry....

Another costly Code of Conduct inquiry – but captious councillor contends he had to lodge yet another official complaint

Exactly what was said seems to be uncertain.

According to the Southland Tribune, Invercargill deputy Mayor Grant Dermody is alleged to have directed some vituperative words at a council officer, whereas Dermody claims he said something else to someone else.

Ryan Bridge: The CRL has to hit the ground running and forget its transitional timetable

As far as conditions go ahead of a grand opening, you couldn’t do much better than a petrol price spike for the City Rail Link.

Construction and testing will be finished within three months.

Then it’s handed over to operators, who need another three months.

Dr Bryce Edwards: Democracy Briefing - A Country losing faith

New Zealand’s annual trust survey is out. The trust figures are not good. But this year, the most alarming finding in the 2026 Acumen Edelman Trust Barometer isn’t really about trust at all. It’s about hope.

Only 17% of New Zealanders believe the next generation will be better off than today. That’s a nine-point drop from last year, a sharp collapse in optimism, and it puts us among the most pessimistic countries in the developed world. Lower than Australia, lower than the US, lower even than the United Kingdom.

David Farrar: The biggest enemies of renewable energy are … environmentalists

Radio NZ reports:

A plan to fast-track a controversial West Coast hydro scheme has been given an initial go-ahead.

The West Coast lines company, Westpower, has applied to fast-track its controversial plans to build a run-of-river hydro scheme on the Waitaha River, and in its draft decision the fast-track expert panel has given it approval.

Mike's Minute: How awesome is Christchurch?

Christchurch is so awesome.

I told the room that on Friday. It was a fun hour with a bunch of Christchurch businesses and a panel of local experts and, basically, we just chatted about what an amazing story Christchurch is.

It's not perfect and a few issues remain. I note on the same day I was there Winston Peters was there promising money for the cathedral, which as I drove through the square is a shame beyond shame that it remains in the state it's in.

Tuesday March 31, 2026 

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Guest Post: Another proposed "Treaty racket"

Guest Post by John McLean on No Minister

Guess what! The pale faces of the tribal elite have just thought up a new way of extracting more money out of the long-suffering taxpayer. This time it’s TEETH.

That master of one-sided bias and misinformation, the taxpayer funded Radio New Zealand, reported on 20 March, 2026, that the reason why so many Maori have bad teeth is because of “colonisation”. Without bothering to check the accuracy of what it was reporting it gave its piece the blazing headline of “Calls grow for Universal Te Tiriti consistent dental care”.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Consider the LNG terminal idea killed

Geez, that old LNG terminal idea didn’t last long, did it? Seven weeks - that’s it. From the moment it was announced on February 9 to the first knife stuck in it today, seven weeks to the day.

Now, before you come at me arguing that the LNG terminal hasn’t been killed - yes, it has. It is dead. The Herald report this morning that multiple ministers are privately admitting they may have to kill the project did not happen by accident.

Ani O'Brien: He knew - The paper trail Chris Hipkins can’t explain

Either there was a massive conspiracy to deceive the Minister in charge or that Minister is lying

I genuinely didn’t know what I was looking for when I went searching through FYI.org on Friday night. I was confused by timelines that weren’t making sense and increasingly implausible deniability.

Olivia Pierson: Trump didn't blink

On March 26 President Trump laid out an important truth: NATO countries have done absolutely nothing to help sort out that “lunatic regime” in Iran, which by all accounts has been militarily smashed to bits. “The USA needs nothing from NATO,” he said calmly.

Before Trump even became President in 2016, he said then he was going to “rethink NATO.” I guess he's done just that.

I caught the Promethean Action live stream, also on March 26th, and Barbara Boyd hit the nail on the head: “He did not blink. He is reordering the entire world.”

Dr Don Brash: Hidden in the Agenda: When Your Vote Isn’t Enough

The following is written in Don's capacity as Hobson's Pledge Trustee

While the hard-working people of Otago go about their lives, the Otago Regional Council (ORC) is moving pieces across the board that fundamentally change who makes key decisions in that region.

A few days ago, ORC held a council meeting, and we spotted something in the agenda that made us tune in to the livestream. Decisions were being made about the new Integrated Catchment Management Board (ICM), and yet again, a council was ignoring principles of democracy and appointing unelected members to decision-making roles.

Colinxy: The Public Sector as Political Actor - When Bureaucracy Forgets Its Job

The Principle We Pretend Still Exists

New Zealand’s public service is supposed to operate on a simple constitutional rule:

The government decides; the bureaucracy implements.

Not “interprets.” Not “nudges.” And certainly not “advocates.”

Yet every few months, we discover, again, that parts of the public sector have quietly redefined themselves as political actors with taxpayer funding.

Dave Patterson: Is Putting Troops on the Ground in Iran a Good Idea?

As the conflict in Iran continues, a debate is ongoing as to whether the US should put combat troops on the ground in Iran. Naysayers claim such an escalation is unnecessary and puts ground forces at risk. Those who favor the action are as resolute that without soldiers occupying Iranian real estate, there is no winning. Both positions are at opposite poles of the argument. Those against envision an invasion force storming the beaches and airdropping from the skies with enormous casualties. Those in favor believe that there is no opportunity to bring the Tehran government to submission without significant US forces on the ground. Neither position is necessarily right.