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.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 5.4.26

Friday April 10, 2026 

News:
Getting to know the korero
Storyboards capturing moments of cultural significance to local hapu Ngāti Rōrā are open to the community following a blessing late last month.

After weather hampered attempts to officially open and bless the Mangaokewa Cultural Walkway Storyboards for eight months, Ngāti Rōrā joined with the community to welcome each of the nine storyboard sites lining the walkway between Mōtakiora and Mangaokewa Reserve in Te Kūiti.

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.

David Farrar: The future for NZ?

CTV reports:

The head of Canada’s largest airline has been summoned to Ottawa to explain why he spoke only in English when he offered his condolences to the families of those killed or hurt in the collision between a plane and a fire truck at a New York City airport on Sunday.

Thursday April 9, 2026 

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Karl du Fresne: Luxon still hasn’t got the hang of politics

“I’m not going to play that game,” Christopher Luxon said – rather lamely – when Tova O’Brien asked him how many Maori National MPs were in his cabinet.  

“It’s not a game,” countered O’Brien, doubtless trying hard to conceal her glee at having so easily caught the prime minister out.

David Harvey: Justice Should Be Seen By All - A Sequel

Why Courts Chose Bluesky to Notify Decisions of Public Interest

On 27 March I wrote an article querying why the Courts of New Zealand had decided to abandon X in favour of Bluesky as a means of disseminating information about the release of decision of the Courts that were of public interest.

One of my criticisms of the move was that no reasons had been given for the move. It appeared to be a shift from a platform where there was a wide following to one that was something of a niche, “progressive” bent.

Dr Bryce Edwards: Democracy Briefing - The OIA at the crossroads

The Government is reviewing the Official Information Act behind closed doors. Most readers will immediately grasp the irony.

This review of the OIA wasn’t announced. It wasn’t publicised. It came to light because transparency advocate Andrew Ecclestone happened to be told about it, then revealed it to attendees at a parliamentary forum on democracy last month.

JC: TPU/Curia Poll Says It All

The points I outlined in my last article regarding the National Party’s poor poll numbers appear to have been borne out in the latest Taxpayers Union/Curia poll released on Tuesday. National has once again failed to crack the 30 per cent mark. Admittedly the 29.8 per cent number (up 1.4 per cent from the previous TPU/Curia poll) is up from the 26.5 per cent in last week’s Roy Morgan poll. However the inescapable fact is these numbers reflect poorly on the senior party in a government coalition. While not wishing to regurgitate the points made in Tuesday’s article, they are nonetheless relevant to this poll. National definitely needs a rethink in terms of the direction of its future travel.

Pee Kay: When pressure builds, Politicians react

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a 17th century Swiss writer and philosopher wrote – “Those who desire to treat politics and morals separately will never understand anything of either.”

You would have to agree wouldn’t you. The practice of politics must be reconciled with the imperatives of honesty and integrity. But is that possible in todays political world?

Colinxy: Revolution in Uniform - How the NZ Army Became a Vehicle for Ideological Transformation

Introduction: When the Army Starts Talking Like a University Department

Michael Laws’ recent commentary on The Platform has struck a nerve — and rightly so. When senior NZ Army officers begin speaking in the language of “transformation,” “bicultural realignment,” and “intergenerational change,” we are no longer dealing with military doctrine. We are dealing with ideology.

And not just any ideology. This is the vocabulary of Critical Theory, Critical Indigenous Theory, and the Te Tiriti–centred transformation agenda that has swept through the public sector since 2019.

The Army is simply the latest institution to be captured.

Elliott Ikilei: It is worse than you think - Far North Council has been taken over

Things are going badly wrong in the Far North, and the Government is choosing to sit on its hands and let it happen. We have to take action now.

A sitting councillor, Davina Smolders has come forward in an interview with Duncan Garner on his podcast and described what is happening inside the Far North District Council. This is no petty disagreement over policy. It is a fundamental shift in who is exercising power and the complete overriding of democracy.

Mike's Minute: Let's take a proper look at the polls

For what it's worth, let me have a crack at the latest Taxpayers' Union-Curia poll.

Firstly, officially, I pay no attention to them other than a broad theme i.e. a collection of polls and an overarching trend.

The trend continues in this latest poll with the Government being re-elected by a fairly heavy margin, 65 seats to 55.

David Farrar: More taxpayer funded lobbying

The Taxpayers’ Union released:

The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal through an Official Information Act request that the Ministry for Ethnic Communities funded $30,000 for Asturlab Cultural Centre to run a nationwide advocacy campaign, using taxpayer funds to promote pro-Palestinian narratives on the conflict in Gaza.

The campaign was a political lobbying campaign encouraging people to lobby the PM and MPs on this issue. I’m all for NGOs lobbying using their own money, but here we have bureaucrats handing out money to NGOs to lobby the Government on a highly contested political issue.

David Farrar: Another charity scandal

Bryce Edwards writes:

In Dunedin, a charity called Te Kāika has been receiving tens of millions of dollars in government funding to provide health and social services to some of the city’s most vulnerable people. Over the past year, the Otago Daily Times has been methodically pulling back the curtain on what is going on inside this organisation. The picture is not pretty: nepotistic governance, unexplained payments to the leadership, staff fleeing in droves, government contracts unfulfilled, a youth facility shut down over abuse allegations, and a senior manager convicted of domestic violence. The Department of Internal Affairs is now investigating.

And yet, almost nobody else in New Zealand media or politics has said a word about it.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Trump's won the battle, but will he win the war?

You might not like Donald Trump’s boorish ultimatums or his threats to end a civilisation but it worked, didn’t it?

Iran backed down with 90 minutes to spare. The Strait of Hormuz will be reopened and they will go to Pakistan for ceasefire talks in two days.

Ryan Bridge: This ceasefire, can we celebrate yet?

Should we welcome a ceasefire? Yes, of course.

Should we count on it holding? No, of course not.

The Iranians now control a strait they didn’t control before the war and the Israelis are still dropping bombs in Lebanon even though this ceasefire apparently says they shouldn’t be.

Wednesday April 8, 2026 

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Duncan Garner: 'No Accountability’ - Far North Councillor On Co-Governance Power Shift

In this episode, Duncan Garner investigates the rapid shift toward unelected governance in the Far North District Council. Councillor Davina Smolders joins the show to blow the whistle on a committee structure where six elected members are sitting alongside 15 unelected iwi and hapu representatives—all with full voting rights on multimillion-dollar decisions.

Click to view

Barrie Davis: From Consultancy to Co-governance

At the 2023 election many New Zealanders voted for the present Coalition in the expectation that would result in the removal of the maorification of our constitution. Is the Coalition meeting that expectation? Given the results, how should we now approach the next election?

Judy Gill: The New Zealand Anglican Church - Ethnic Division, Gender Politics, Social Justice Language, and the Politics of Identity

Last month, members of Te Pīhopatanga o Aotearoa (the Māori Anglican Church) attended the installation in London of Sarah Mullally, the first woman to become Archbishop of Canterbury in the office’s 1,400-year history.[1] In Te Ao Māori News, Archbishop Don Tamihere (no relation to John Tamihere or David Tamihere) described the occasion as one in which a “Three Tikanga Church” could rightly rejoice, and he framed that response in terms of justice, equity, colonial history, and culturally grounded expressions of faith.[1]

Ryan Bridge: This war in Iran has been a total balls-up from Trump.

Lets' talk about the elephant in the room, this war in Iran has been a total balls-up from Trump.

He's cried wolf three times on his ultimatums.

He's said one thing and then in the next breath said exactly the opposite.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Do we think Trump will go through with the Iran threats?

Midday tomorrow - our time. That is the deadline Donald Trump has given Iran.

Now, if your reaction is something along the lines of not really caring because Donald Trump has set plenty of deadlines before and then walked away from them, that’s fair enough. All of that is true.

Pee Kay: This is a social and financial fraud of massive proportions…

It was no surprise to see the “usual suspects” swiftly turn to their harmonised friends in the MSM to condemn the coalition governments, 2025 announced, review of the Waitangi Tribunal.

“This review is not about efficiency or clarity, it is about control.”

“For nearly 50 years, the Waitangi Tribunal has played a vital role in advancing justice for Māori.”

Colinxy: The Failure of the New Zealand Right - Why National Keeps Losing Even When It Wins

For decades, the New Zealand Right has been trapped in a strange political purgatory: it wins elections, but it never governs. It occupies the Treasury benches, but it never wields power. It campaigns as a counter‑force to the Left, but once in office, it behaves like a timid caretaker for the very institutions that oppose it.

National’s problem is not electoral. It is philosophical, cultural, and moral. It is a party that has forgotten what it is for — and worse, a party that is terrified of remembering.

Mike's Minute: Trump's way or the UN way?

So what is the alternative to what Trump has done in Iran?

The answer was discussed at a meeting over the weekend.

The British appeared to host it. 40 countries took part, including ours, and they were talking about what you might remember is the “global rules-based approach”.

That broadly was the way things were done pre-Trump.

JC: How Low Do National Wish to Go

The poll numbers are not kind to National or Luxon. Why? The answer is simple. National is not kind to its voter base. Can we identify the problem? Yes: it stems from the leadership of the party’s parliamentary team – Christopher Luxon, Nicola Willis and Chris Bishop. These three are driving the party down a road paved with ‘politically correct’ bitumen. Bitumen is a raw and sticky binding agent, now preferred to tarseal in the paving of roads, and National is using a political equivalent when it comes to matters of climate change and race relations. They are binding themselves to these issues in a ‘sticky’ manner that is very much at odds with their voter base.

Steve Gibson: Why Councils Need to Live Within Their Means

Across New Zealand, councils are drifting away from a simple principle that every household understands. You cannot spend more than you earn and expect it to end well. In Hastings, where I serve as a councillor, we are seeing this play out in real time.

Our council has approved a draft annual plan with a 9.1 per cent increase in spending. That is roughly three times inflation. At the same time, ratepayers are being asked to accept higher rates while the council borrows $4.8 million just to fund day-to-day operations.

DTNZ: Wayne Brown to scrap council meeting lunches

Auckland’s mayor has ordered an end to ratepayer-funded lunches at full council meetings after scrutiny of a catering bill that reached $1.4 million in the past year and nearly $5 million over four years, though meeting lunches themselves accounted for a relatively small portion of that total.

Centrist: The kids are alright – but the system still isn’t

First, the good news

Despite showing a sharp drop in serious youth offending and improvements across several frontline indicators, the report appears to have attracted little, if any, attention from RNZ or the wider New Zealand mainstream media.

Read straight, the latest annual report on the Child and Youth Strategy shows that, across several frontline indicators, New Zealand children and young people are doing better.

David Farrar: Fitch says we need fiscal consolidation

Fitch Ratings released:

Fitch Ratings has revised the Outlook on New Zealand’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to Negative from Stable and affirmed the IDR at ‘AA+’.

The Outlook revision reflects our view that a substantial debt reduction is becoming more difficult to envisage, as fiscal consolidation has been delayed in the past few years. The general government debt-GDP ratio has increased substantially over the past six years as the economy has been buffeted by a number of shocks.

Tuesday April 7, 2026 

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Ryan Bridge: Should we be preparing to go to war?

An interesting article in the Herald yesterday about army training at Waiouru.

The troops are singing from the same song sheet as Winston and Judith in terms of how threatening the world is at the moment.

Taxpayers' Union-Curia Poll - April 2026

Here are the headline results for April's Taxpayers’ Union – Curia Poll:

Dr Michael John Schmidt: Pragmatic Water Management

In my previous article “WCC’s Actions Are a National Moral Hazard”, the objection to transferring water assets was framed in moral and ethical terms: councils hold critical infrastructure in trust for the public, and irreversible transfers undermine trusteeship and create moral hazards by allowing responsibility to be exported rather than exercised.

Colinxy: The Lie of “Endless Growth”

Why Marxists Keep Repeating It — and Why It’s Nonsense

One of the most persistent talking points in Marxist circles — and among their fellow‑travellers in academia, activism, and the bureaucratic class — is the claim that capitalism supposedly promises “endless growth.” According to this myth, economists and capitalists are engaged in a kind of metaphysical delusion, imagining that markets will expand forever until the planet melts, the seas boil, and Jeff Bezos personally blocks out the sun.

It’s a neat story. It’s also completely false.

Peter Dunne: No-frills leadership

Christopher Luxon's mentor Sir John Key quickly and successfully transitioned from international businessman to national political leader when he became Prime Minister. Luxon, on the other hand, is still struggling to do so. And nor is it clear that he even wants to.

Key's smooth transition occurred because he was both driven, and a sponge for new knowledge. He knew what he wanted to achieve, and was always eager to learn the best political ways of doing so.

Dr Eric Crampton: If free parking is a problem, the solution is obvious: Put a price on it

It’s hard to compete with free. Who wants to pay for something if you can get it for nothing?

Unfortunately, sometimes free comes at others’ expense, as it can with on-street parking. Better council parking management, including pricing, would encourage better decisions.

Nick Clark: How to fix RMA Reform

New Zealand's resource management system is broken. Many attempts have been made over the past three decades to fix it. All have missed the mark.

Cue the latest attempt, the Planning Bill and Natural Environment Bill.

Dr Michael Johnston: Teachers deserve better than their union

Every two or three years, the Ministry of Education and the teachers’ unions engage in the spectacle of ritual combat known as collective bargaining. In 2025, the Public Service Commissioner took over from the Ministry in the arena. But the exercise remains a ritual.

Everyone knows, more-or-less, what the outcome will be before bargaining even begins. The education budget is fixed, so the government negotiator has very little room to move.

Typically, the ritual goes as follows.

David Farrar: Murder data

I read an overseas article that cross-tabulated homicide data by ethnicity for both the victim and the killer. I thought this was interesting, so asked for NZ equivalent data. Sadly it was declined on privacy grounds, but they did provide the data without the cross-tabulation.

For those interested the breakdown by ethnicity for homicide victims for the last ten years is:

Mike's Minute: I can help Steve Abel

Steve is the Green's agriculture bloke and he wants an urgent inquiry into the Wattie’s and Heinz mess in Hawkes Bay.

He is wasting his time. Not because he shouldn’t be concerned, because he should. We should all be concerned.

But the answers he seeks are already readily available.

Monday April 6, 2026 

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Anglo Saxon: New Zealand's indigenous wealth transfer scam

Transcript:
“Radio New Zealand, is also a maori broadcaster in all but name and its granular source of funding.

 
Radio New Zealand is taxpayer funded, but separately from the funding dedicated to other Maori propaganda agencies.

We are in effect paying twice to hear about what a bunch of entitled thieving pricks we are.

The whole idea of Maui broadcasting has become a mission to transfer more taxpayer funds into the hands of Maoris.....”

Click to view  

David Lillis: Workplace Bullying and the Education and Workforce Select Committee

Recently I published a submission that I had made on the Health and Safety at Work Amendment Bill and indicated that I had asked to make a related verbal presentation to the Education and Workforce Select Committee (Lillis, 2026). The 5-minute presentation, given on 30 March, covered workplace bullying. See:

Caleb Anderson: The Economic Smoke Machine – Ignoring the Real Crisis

For decades, we have been told that "it’s all about the economy." It is the ultimate political conversation stopper, a blunt instrument used to narrow the scope of public debate to GDP, inflation rates, and the cost of living. While economic security is undeniably crucial, this relentless refrain has become a masterclass in distraction, masking a deeper, more insidious erosion of our social fabric, and inevitably of any sense of common good.

Pee Kay: “…the language is the lifeblood that fosters Māori identity.”

This Auckland University newsletter was sent to me by 1 of my mailing group.

Comments I have received so far –

…….even if not compulsory. 2023-26 is viewed as a short pause.

They need their heads read! What do they think this will do for their international ranking, or the attractiveness of the university to the parents of Asian kids wondering where to send them for higher education! Absolutely bonkers!

Dr Oliver Hartwich: The end of the golden bargain

Campaign slogans used to sell the future. In 1960, John F. Kennedy promised Americans a ‘New Frontier’. Bill Clinton chose Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Don’t Stop’ as his anthem. Tony Blair swept into Downing Street to D:Ream’s ‘Things Can Only Get Better’. Gerhard Schröder promised Germans he would not do everything differently but many things better.

These were statements of faith: the future would be an improvement on the present, and democratic politics was the vehicle that would take you there.

Dr Eric Crampton: A small tweak that could avert driverless car gridlock

Friction, at least as a metaphor for real-world inconveniences and minor hassles in doing things, is usually viewed as a bad thing. Something best done away with, if possible.

And that’s usually true.

But some frictions are load-bearing. Get rid of the friction, and important things can start falling over.