Breaking Views Update: Week of 19.7.26

Monday July 20, 2026 

News:
“Our culture is worth fighting for”: Trustees seek fresh hapū mandate over wāhi tapu in Whakatāne
Calls for greater transparency from Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa are intensifying as trustees of Ōpihi Whanaungakore say the iwi must confront growing tensions over hapū authority, governance and the future of one of Ngāti Awa’s most culturally significant sites.

The dispute centres on a proposed residential subdivision at Ōpihi Whanaungakore near the beachside suburb of Piripai, east of Whakatāne. The development, proposed by MMS GP Limited in partnership with Whakatāne District Council, affects part of the 26.9-hectare site historically known as the 100-acre block.

David Farrar: Ngâ Tauira Mâori

I received the following e-mail (names redacted by me) a couple of months ago:

This report summarises a series of serious allegations and concerns raised regarding conduct associated with the University of Auckland Māori Students Association (Ngā Tauira Māori) and activities connected to the “KatchaMāori” event held for first-year tauira [student].

Colinxy: The Industrial Revolution and the Myth of Capitalist Child Labour

How Prosperity, Not Poverty, Ended the Drudgery of Childhood

One of the more curious accusations routinely hurled at the Industrial Revolution, and by extension at capitalism itself, is the charge of child labour. The argument is delivered with theatrical indignation, as though the moment steam engines appeared, Victorian factory owners spontaneously invented the idea of putting children to work.

This is historically illiterate. Child labour did not begin with capitalism. It predates the Industrial Revolution by millennia.

Ryan Bridge: Is swearing really that bad?

Swearing. Most of us do it.

Unless you're a Bishop (or maybe they do it in private, too?).

Especially in New Zealand.

Insights From Social Media: Now It Gets Interestinger?

Gravedodger writes > Followers of T W Ratana a Maori Prophet who began a sect near Wanganui at what is referred to as the Ratana Pa destination for socialists who have been joined at the Hip for Labour and Ratana.

The “Pa” is the must go to celebration of T W “s birthday January 25th that sees the socialist faithfull and wannabees like Luxon trooping up to the Twin tower Ratana Church to seek to be recognised.

Dave Patterson: Are the Baltic States Ripe for a Russian Invasion?

Poland and the Baltic States of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia believe they are the targets of Russian hybrid warfare. Russia is, in fact, at war with these countries, each of which has an eastern border ripe for an invasion similar to that which took place in April 2014 in the Ukrainian Donbas region and Crimea. Prior to the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine by Kremlin troops in February 2022, Russia carried out a campaign of disinformation, sabotaging Ukrainian infrastructure and cyberattack operations.

Brendan O'Neill: It is not ‘Islamophobic’ to stand up for Jews and Western civilisation

A new report accuses me and other Spectator writers of ‘anti-Muslim hostility’. It is a grotesque lie.

I’ve had a lot of flak in my career. But I never imagined I’d be condemned for expressing horror at the parading of an emaciated Jew through the streets by a mob of anti-Semites. I never thought I would get it in the neck for using the word ‘medieval’ to describe a swarm of men who surrounded and jeered at a terrified half-starved Jewish woman. And yet here we are.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Everyone is a winner with TOP

The Opportunity Party wants to be known as the party of ideas. Now polling near five percent, I decided to test one.

The party’s website offers a calculator. You enter your income and land value, and it reveals how much better off you will be under its radical tax proposal. Their so-called ‘Tax Reset’ promises a cash payment of $19,400 a year to every adult, the ‘Citizen’s Income’, funded by a 1.75 percent annual tax on land.

I tried to invent someone who would pay more net tax under the scheme. I failed.

Major General John G. Howard: China missile test highlights New Zealand’s fragile trade lifeline

On July 5, the Prime Minister announced plans for free trade agreements with seven more countries, on top of the deal with India he signed in April.

The next day, a Chinese submarine fired a missile from the South China Sea into the Pacific. It splashed down between Nauru and Tonga, in our own neighbourhood. The warhead was a dummy. The message needed no explosives.

The two stories ran a day apart; one filed under trade and the other under defence. They are the same story.

Dr Eric Crampton: Legalising groceries

The Commerce Commission’s retail grocery competition inquiries always had the wrong focus.

If there are enormous profits to be made in groceries, why is nobody else trying to steal them away? The world has many supermarket chains. Kiwis can also build new ones. If there are $100 notes on the sidewalk, why is nobody picking them up?

Zoning rules seemed to be the underlying problem. We argued that large-scale entry was de facto impossible.

Sunday July 19, 2026 

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Ani O'Brien: A week is a long time - 18 July 2026

Note: apologies this isn’t my best wrap up. I got home from an event at 10.30pm last night and hadn’t even started writing it. I kept falling asleep writing so excuse typos etc.

Mike's Minute: Is this why the National vote is soft?

Federated Farmers have quite rightly raised what you would loosely call "the alarm" around a rush of new deals between councils and local Māori.

The rush is on because of the Government's new Natural Environment and Planning bills.

They were released late last year, saying you can't do local Māori deals under it. It's passed its first reading and is sitting at committee level and due back soon.

Bryan Leyland: A solution to our electricity problems

The proposal to subsidise plug-in solar — small solar panel units that households can hang off the balcony and plug straight into a wall socket – indicates how far the debate over our power system has drifted from its fundamental objective: to provide a reliable and economic supply of electricity

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Trump's stolen election claim reflects a nervous outlook for midterms

Question for you: was Donald Trump's speech to the American people a classic case of muddying the waters?

For Trump, it was a relatively short speech, about 40 minutes, in which he claimed there had been Chinese interference in the 2020 presidential election, that there were extreme vulnerabilities in the election system that need to be closed and that China obtained more than 200 million American voter registration records. He then released a trove of documents that he claims back up these allegations.

John MacDonald: Bird-flipping ECan needs its wings clipped

I know the real reason why Federated Farmers is so brassed-off with Environment Canterbury. Nevertheless, I agree with them.

They’re saying that ECan is showing “flagrant disregard” for the community, with this push it’s making for Ngāi Tahu to have a permanent role in the region’s resource management after ECan disappears.

Because, with the Government’s local government reforms, ECan is toast.

Melanie Phillips: Scapegoating the Jews

The demonisation of Israel has become a key driver of Western politics

Astonishingly, in America and Britain, the vilification and scapegoating of Israel through an agenda of malice and mendacity — and with undertones of something even darker — has become a key driver of political life.

US Vice President JD Vance has ramped up his attacks on Israel by channelling anti-Jewish tropes of covert manipulation and warmongering.

Roger Partridge: The corruption of privilege (and why it matters)

The exercise has many names – privilege walk, power line, power walk – and a well-documented lineage. It originated in North American social-justice education in the 1990s, drawing on Peggy McIntosh‘s 1988 working paper on the “invisible knapsack” of white privilege, and is run at school retreats, university orientations and workplace training sessions across the English-speaking world. The format is standard. A facilitator reads a list of statements, and participants step forward or back according to their answers. Step forward if you were raised by both your parents. Step forward if there were more than fifty books in your house. Step forward if your parents took you to galleries or plays. Step forward if you came from a supportive family environment.

Clive Bibby: Common Sense, Trust and Vision

Leadership that actually benefits the people of any country is almost always the result of a visionary approach to the problems faced - either those that are self-inflicted by previous governments or ones that are the result of extreme climatic variations over which there is little control.

David Farrar: RIP Bill Birch

Was sad to see today that Bill Birch has died. I knew him quite well, and he was one of the most competent Ministers of any Government.

His worth ethic was legendary. For the 1998 Budget I was in charge of producing the information sheets (propaganda) for the Government about them. This meant having each iteration signed off by the Finance Minister. They were taking me longer than I expected so I popped in to see him at 10 pm to say I didn’t think I’d get them finished tonight, but could show them to him tomorrow. He asked when I thought I’d finish them, and I said around 1.00 am to 1.30 am. He said that he would still be there, so just come through then.