Breaking Views Update: Week of 21.12.25

Monday December 22, 2025 

News:
Supreme Court Rules on Climate Clinic Aotearoa Case
The Supreme Court has delivered its judgment in the landmark climate case Climate Clinic Aotearoa Incorporated v Minister of Energy and Resources, agreeing with the applicants on every major point of law – but ultimately dismissing the appeal on the final legal threshold.

David Farrar: Quite a few green shoots!

Business NZ says:

After a prolonged period of stagnation and negative per capita growth, the New Zealand economy is now expected to expand at just under 3% per annum through to 2027.

Both official and forward-looking indicators point to a steady improvement in the economic outlook as we enter 2026. Key indicators of growth include:

Graham Adams: Maori nationalism takes a hammering in 2025

At the end of 2024, Māori nationalists were riding high in their quest to assert a special place in the nation’s laws and policy.

In November, the video of Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clark leading a haka in Parliament and ripping up a copy of David Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill racked up hundreds of millions of views worldwide.

James Fite: Operation Hawkeye Strike - Trump Responds to ISIS Attack in Syria

The president promised there would be retaliation.

One week ago today, two American soldiers and a civilian translator were killed in an ambush attack in Syria, presumably perpetrated by an ISIS terrorist, according to intelligence reports. President Donald Trump promised “serious retaliation.” Yesterday afternoon, we found out exactly what that meant. At 4 p.m. Eastern on Friday, December 19, US Central Command launched Operation Hawkeye Strike. A combination of fighter jets, attack helicopters, and artillery bombarded more than 70 targets at multiple locations across central Syria, targeting known ISIS infrastructure and weapon sites.

Gary Judd KC: Bondi, Tarrant, victimhood, faith, the primitive, relativism, cultural boundaries of knowledge

The attack on members of Sydney’s Jewish community by the father and son one writer has dubbed the Bondi Barbarians is a shockingly horrific event. It is emerging that the shooters were devotees of ISIS who had just returned from Mindanao, a Muslim outpost in the predominantly Catholic Philippines. It is supposed they may have gone there to be trained for the terrorist acts committed just days after their return to Sydney. Reports indicate possession of ISIS regalia and association with known ISIS members in Sydney.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: From blueprints to building

After many difficult years, 2025 felt different. It was not easier. The economy remained stagnant and the reform agenda demanded hard choices. But attitudes shifted. New Zealand stopped merely diagnosing its problems and started taking practical steps to solve them.

Bob Edlin: Here are the numbers the PM didn’t have at his finger tips....

Here are the numbers the PM didn’t have at his finger tips – but we are still looking for his immutable laws of economics

The PM – it is fair to suppose – did not have the latest stats by his side when he was questioned by Chris Hipkins in Parliament the other day.

On the other hand, he should have had a rough idea of what has been going on in the labour market but he was not of a mind to admit it.

And so he ducked the question.

DTNZ: NZ and Japan sign new defence and security agreements

New Zealand and Japan have signed two new agreements aimed at strengthening defence cooperation and information sharing between the two countries.

Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins confirmed the arrangements following meetings in Tokyo.

Sunday December 21, 2025 

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Net Zero Watch Samizdat: All I want for Christmas is cheap power

UK

Miliband to miss clean power target by three years

Despite all the pain for British billpayers, a new report warns Miliband is set to miss his 2030 clean power target by three years. There’s not a hope in hell Miliband meets his target for 2030, or by 2033 for that matter.

Geoff Parker: Wai 1040 Isn’t History - It’s Politics Backdated

The Waitangi Tribunal’s Wai 1040 inquiry is presented as a long-overdue correction to New Zealand’s constitutional history. Its central claim is stark: that Māori never ceded sovereignty in 1840, and that the Crown has governed without legitimate authority ever since.

That claim may be influential in contemporary politics, but it does not withstand historical scrutiny.

Ani O'Brien: A week is a long time: 20 December 2025

🇦🇺 Naming the problem in the Bondi Beach Terror Attack

There is nothing I can say that has not already been said about the terror attack at Bondi Beach this week. The details are well known, the heroes, the victims, and the evil perpetrators have been named. What I will do is name plainly the things that unfortunately are not always named as explicitly as they should be…

Robert G Patman: Trump’s new security strategy exposes the limits of NZ’s ‘softly-softly’ diplomacy

President Donald Trump’s recently-issued National Security Strategy marks a decisive break in United States foreign policy. It also poses an uncomfortable challenge for New Zealand and other countries that have long depended on a rules-based order.

The document formalises the most significant shift in Washington’s global outlook since 1947. It confirms, as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned earlier this year, that the “West as we knew it no longer exists”.

John MacDonald: Are we ready to accept the truth about NZ Super?

After yesterday’s half-year fiscal update from the Government, the canary in the mine is gasping for air and the elephant in the room is walking all over everything.

And economist Cameron Bagrie is saying that we can’t ignore either of them - particularly in relation to the long-term outlook and what it means for superannuation and retirement planning.

Melanie Phillips: The global intifada

How many wake-up calls does anyone need? The cliché that the Bondi Beach Chanukah massacre was just that is singularly inappropriate.

Australia and the West have had one wake-up call after another. Since the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, Australian synagogues have been firebombed; as elsewhere, anti-Israel marches have regularly chanted for the mass murder of Jews; and on campus, Jewish students and academics have been harassed and intimidated.

Kerre Woodham: Rejecting the Waihi gold mine project would've made no sense

You can take the girl out of Waihi, but you can't take the Waihi out of the girl, I tell you.

News that Oceana Gold's Waihi North project has been approved makes good sense, as far as I'm concerned. The permit that was confirmed yesterday guarantees the securing of 350 existing jobs, the creation of 100 plus new roles, the project to be in operation until at least 2042, so that gives some continuity, some certainty, which is fantastic, and a billion-dollar investment from Oceana Gold.

David Harvey: A Saucerful of Secrets

TVNZ Obfuscates Balance and Bias

In July 2025 it was announced that TVNZ was commissioning an independent review of its news. The focus was mainly on balance and bias. Concerns had been expressed by the Government that TVNZ needed to improve its trust levels.

Dr Don Brash: RMA Reform - A step forward. But concerns for equal citizenship

It is almost the end of 2025 and, as you may know, the Government has recently introduced to Parliament the two Bills it seeks to replace the Resource Management Act (RMA) with.

The Bills were pushed through first reading under urgency and have been referred to the Environment Select Committee. We will shortly be able to make submissions.

We have already looked at the Bills and sought some initial legal advice. As you can anticipate, there is a lot to take in, but I wanted to give you some initial impressions.

Saturday December 20, 2025 

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Karl du Fresne: Death Wish 2025

I did something last Sunday that I hadn’t done for probably a year or more. I listened to RNZ’s Mediawatch. 

There was a time when I tuned in to the show every week. But as with so much RNZ content, I grew disenchanted to the point where I simply decided I was better off without it.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: My politician of the year

It’s that time of the year where we pick our politician of the year.

For me, it's the same person as last year.

Political commentators, myself included at times, have an unfortunate tendency to sometimes choose politicians because they’re good at playing the political game.

Geoff Parker: Bastion Point - The Untold Context

Public discussion of Bastion Point is often framed as a simple morality tale: an unjust Crown taking followed decades later by righteous protest and inevitable redress. History is rarely that neat. When the full record is examined, Bastion Point looks less like a story of continuous bad faith and more like a sequence of decisions made — sometimes bluntly, sometimes imperfectly — but largely in good faith, according to the laws and public expectations of their time.

Compensation and the 1886 taking

Karl du Fresne: RNZ's boss gives New Zealand the fingers

A few thoughts on the announcement that John Campbell will take over next year as co-host of RNZ’s Morning Report:

■ RNZ chief executive Paul Thompson had a choice. He could make a polarising appointment or a non-polarising one. He chose the former. In doing so, he gave the fingers to the large (and I suspect growing) number of New Zealanders who neither like Campbell nor trust him as an impartial journalist and commentator. Disregarding RNZ’s obligation to serve all New Zealanders, Thompson made an appointment that he must know will alienate people and almost certainly lead to a further loss of faith in RNZ. He didn't have to do it; there were alternatives.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 14.12.25

Saturday December 20, 2025 

News:
Tribunal: Crown governance denied Te Raki Māori authority guaranteed by Te Tiriti
The Waitangi Tribunal has released a major new volume of its Te Paparahi o Te Raki inquiry, examining Crown governance in Te Raki (Northland) and finding the Crown systematically denied Te Raki Māori the tino rangatiratanga guaranteed under Te Tiriti o Waitangi by marginalising Māori authority in favour of Pākehā-led national and local governance structures.

David Farrar: Labour’s GP policy is even worse than I thought

I previously blogged:

Labour’s policy to have taxpayers fund three GP visits a year to every NZer aged 15+ will be costly and will also make it much harder for people to see a GP.

The policy is not targeted towards low and middle income NZers. It will apply to everyone regardless of income or wealth. So every Labour MP will get taxpayer funded GP visits despite earning around $200,000 a year or more.

Ani O'Brien: NZ Courts think its 2018 and declare puberty blockers reversible

New Zealand's activist judiciary strikes again

I have taken several deep breaths before bashing this response out, but do excuse me if my incredulity and rage is particularly evident. You can read the initial piece I wrote about the Puberty Blocker ban here. This piece was written in a rush so apologies for errors.

The New Zealand High Court has just handed down a judgment that effectively says because puberty blockers are being prescribed, they must therefore be safe. Pretty circular logic there, champ. Basically the reasoning is that because doctors are using them, they must be okay and the state should not interfere. And because harm has not yet been universally acknowledged by the medical establishment, the law should treat that harm as unproven, marginal, or speculative. Sounds a bit back-to-front.

JC: What Is up With Willie ‘Wonky’ Jackson?

And where’s the mainstream media?

There’s an old proverb ‘Where there’s smoke there’s fire’. It first became popular in the English language in 1546, meaning that rumours or signs of trouble usually point to some kind of underlying truth. This appears to be very much the case with the current situation Willie Jackson is in. Here we have another classic case of a member of the ‘Māori elite class’ thinking they can exert power in any way they see fit and get away with it.

Mark Angelides: Blockade - Venezuela Gets the Terror Treatment

A total blockade of oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuelan waters has been imposed by the Trump administration, ratcheting up tensions that came to a head Tuesday evening, December 16. Ordering a “total and complete blockade,” President Donald Trump has escalated the South American situation in an effort to disrupt and destroy the flow of illegal drugs into the US. And yet, the political and economic ramifications go far beyond the drug cartels.

John MacDonald: What needs to happen because of our terrorism complacency

You would think that, having had a major terror attack here, we’d be the last people that needed to be told after what happened in Bondi on Sunday night that we’re too complacent.

But that’s what security experts are saying. That New Zealand remains complacent and naive, despite 51 people being killed in the mosque attacks in Christchurch in March 2019.

Kerre Woodham: Auckland is far behind the eight ball when it comes to trains

For those who have been here over summer, Auckland is a lovely place to be. A lot of residents push off, and it feels like the city is yours to explore, and visitors are very welcome and make a welcome addition to the city, new people with new energy and seeing things that you don't see, seeing the city through new eyes.

But it's going to be a little bit tricky to get around, unless you fancy a bus on a sweltering day or you bring your car, because Auckland trains have announced that they're delivering the last big push on the rail network rebuild and other critical city rail link preparations.

David Farrar: The UK Labour crisis

The latest YouGov poll is brutal for UK Labour. Don’t even look at what all voters think. Let’s just look at what voters who voted Labour in 2024 say.

Friday December 19, 2025 

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Heather du Plessis-Allan: This is why postal voting needs to go

Surely that judge throwing out the election result in Auckland has started the clock ticking on postal voting.

This case may not seem a big deal given that it involves just 79 votes, in just one subdivision, in just one relatively small local board election in Auckland.

John McLean: Bondi Barbarians

Bad or bonkers? The role of bad ideas in abominable behaviour

I rarely comment on events outside of New Zealand, because I almost never have anything to say. Oodles of others, closer to the action and with deeper insights and inside sources, do to death big overseas happenings, including mass killings.

But in the wake of the Bondi Beach Barbarity*, I’ll offer a few thoughts from my New Zealand perspective.

Nick Clark: Finally, RMA replacement worth the name

For over three decades, the Resource Management Act has been a significant hindrance to New Zealand's economic growth. It promised sustainable management but delivered housing crises, infrastructure delays, stifled productivity and environmental decline. Successive governments tinkered while the fundamental problems festered.

This week, the Government introduced legislation to finally address the disease.

Dr Michael Johnston: The story that did not count

In many countries, an educational study claiming a radical improvement in mathematics learning would receive considerable media attention. But not, it seems, in New Zealand.

Two weeks ago, Education Minister Erica Stanford announced the results of a trial involving Year 7 and 8 students who were at least a year behind in maths. Nearly 1,400 such students received small-group tutoring four times a week for 12 weeks. In that time, they made an average of two years’ progress.

Roger Partridge: A plan that isn’t really a plan

A plan typically answers straightforward questions: what is needed, what should be done first, and why.

This month, Ministers will receive the Infrastructure Commission’s 30-year National Infrastructure Plan. It will not answer those questions – although not because the Commission has failed. It will have done exactly what it was tasked with doing.

Dr Michael John Schmidt: Why the Quiet on This?

Australia’s renewable energy sector has recently been jolted by the discovery of asbestos in the imported components of wind turbines. The material identified is ‘white asbestos’, banned in Australia since 2003. It is found in the brake and clutch pads used in the internal service lifts of turbine towers – the elevators that carry technicians up for maintenance. While the contamination is confined to a specific subsystem rather than blades or towers, the implications are serious. More seriously, ‘white asbestos’ was banned in New Zealand in 1984. It has long been recognised in this country that the substance is harmful.

Gary Moller: Digital ID and Its Impact on Free Speech and the Future of Our Children

Today, we are wrapping our children up in digital cotton wool! What are the implications?

Freedom and privacy are cornerstones of any democratic society. In New Zealand, recent discussions led by the Taxpayers Union and the Free Speech Union have brought urgent attention to two critical issues: the rise of digital ID systems and the increasing control over children's exposure to the digital world. Both developments raise serious questions about the direction our country is heading and the kind of future we want for our children.

Kerre Woodham: The Finance Minister is charting a tough course

We're going to start this morning with the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update, which was actually the Three-quarter Year Economic and Fiscal Update. It delivered news we all expected, and that is that we're getting there as a country. It's just taking longer than we thought.

Treasury's half-year update, published on Tuesday, predicted a return to surplus in 2029/30, a year later than it forecasted in May. Finance Minister Nicola Willis said she'd continue to aim for 2028/29 and said we're on target to return the books to surplus faster than they will in Australia, the UK, Canada, and many other advanced economies, while maintaining a prudent debt position.

Bob Edlin: Treaty principles, unelected Māori with voting rights and a letter of resignation....

Treaty principles, unelected Māori with voting rights and a letter of resignation – what would Mandela make of this?

PoO was somewhat bemused to learn that Napier mayor Richard McGrath’s executive assistant had quit her job, saying she could no longer work for him due to his “disregard for Treaty principles”.

According to Stuff:

Thursday December 18, 2025 

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Heather du Plessis-Allan: Nicola Willis needs to be braver and cut more

It's no surprise that Nicola Willis has pushed out the surplus by another year.

That now makes it three years in two years, as in she has delayed surplus by three years in just the space of the two years she’s been at the Finance Minister’s desk.

Perspective with Ryan Bridge: Can we appreciate the good economic news coming out?

I know you shouldn't count your chickens before they hatch, but can we just take a minute to look at the good economic news coming out?

Government books aside, tomorrow's GDP read will show we bounced back with a spring in Q3 - close to 1 percent growth, they reckon.

Pee Kay: An Open Letter to Simeon Brown

They slap us in the face, call us racists, condemn “white privilege” and at the same time they have the effrontery to abuse taxpayer generosity with mismanagement of government funded Maori Health Providers!

This is my follow up to PDM’s posting last week of Peter Williams article, The Dysfunctional Maori Health Trusts, by way of an open letter sent to the Minister of Health, Simeon Brown.

Dr Will Jones: New Homes Must be Bird-Friendly Despite Reeves War on “Green Tape”

New homes will have to include special bricks for endangered birds such as swifts under Labour’s new planning rules, despite Rachel Reeves’s war on “green tape”. The Telegraph has the story.

In a shake-up of England’s planning rules, Labour will insist that new builds are fitted with nature-friendly features such as swift bricks, hollow nesting boxes for the bird species that fit into walls.

Centrist: Luxon brushes off coup talk, says he rebuilt National from “civil war”

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is pushing back hard on leadership speculation, telling media he will “absolutely” lead National into the 2026 election and portraying the chatter as media habit formed during National’s unstable years.

Luxon framed himself as the fixer who dragged the party back from chaos, saying: “The National Party was in a state of civil war, we’d had five leaders in five years.”

Brendan O'Neill: The hatred for the Jewish State is endangering the Jewish people

After Bondi, we can deny it no longer – bourgeois Israelophobia has aided and abetted a lethal new violence.

Let me get this right – we’re expected to believe it is entirely coincidental that there has been a spike in anti-Jewish violence at the exact same time as hatred for the Jewish State has soared? We’re meant to think there is no connection whatsoever between today’s frothing bourgeois animus for the Jewish nation and the rise in disdain for the Jewish people? You’re telling us the targeting of Jews in the West is wholly unrelated to the Western elites’ ceaseless damning of the Jewish homeland as a uniquely barbarous entity?

Kerre Woodham: How do we heal our country's divisions?

I remember back when I first started talkback, a million years ago at nighttime, it must have been the semicentennial of the waterfront workers strike of '51, or the lockout, depending on which side you're on. It was the biggest industrial confrontation in New Zealand's history for those who don't know of it. It was 151 days from February to July, and at its peak, 22,000 waterside workers, or wharfies, and associated unions were off the job, out of a population of just under 2 million.

David Farrar: Yes there should be a by-election in Papatoetoe

Radio NZ reports:

A district court judge has reserved his decision on whether a by-election is needed in an Auckland local body election.

The hearing followed a petition by former Ōtara-Papatoetoe Local Board member Lehopoaome Vi Hausia, who claimed to have received reports of voting papers being stolen from residents and submitted without their consent.

David Farrar: TPM skip electorate offices, as well as Parliament!

The Herald reports:

Te Pāti Māori has broken with tradition and decided against running MP constituent offices in their electorates, despite getting additional funding for the large electorates it won at the 2023 election.

New Zealand First, as well, has decided not to run any offices in the community – but it has no electorate MPs.

Wednesday December 17, 2025 

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Perspective with Ryan Bridge: Another fiscal result telling us what we already know

Well, of course you heard it here first last Monday - the surplus has been pushed out again.

It's like waiting for Christmas when you're a ten-year-old, the whole month of December feels like an eternity.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: The Bondi attack was a race relations problem

This business of Australia tightening up its gun laws feels like it runs the risk of distracting from the bigger problems over there.

I don’t think guns were the problem on Sunday. Australia already has some of the tightest gun laws in the world.

Pee Kay: DOC’s OIA Response

In late October I posted an article about Northland iwi, Ngatiwai, landing on one of the strictly protected Poor Knights Islands, raising a flag and concreting in a carved pou in protest at the amendment to the Marine and Coastal Area Act.

Click to view