NZCPR Newsletter: The RMA Reforms

On its introduction in the early nineties, the Resource Management Act was hailed as groundbreaking. It was “enabling” legislation – a bold departure from the rigid, prescriptive Town and Country Planning Act that had governed land use for decades.

Instead of councils dictating what people could and could not do with their property, the new law was focussed on managing the environmental effects of a project.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Winston Peters might be story of the year

Now, listen — I think it’s a little early in the year to be making too many predictions about election year. But having said that, I do think there is a very strong chance that Winston Peters might be the story of the year.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 25.1.26

Saturday January 31, 2026 

News:
‘I said it was a surfing accident’: New iwi CEO apologises over ACC ‘mistake’
The newly appointed iwi CEO of Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Whātua has acknowledged giving an incorrect account to ACC when he was a deputy chief executive about how he was injured, and apologised – acknowledging “it brought some shade on our iwi”.

Rēnata Blair said he “made a mistake” in how he described the circumstances of an accident that occurred outside of work hours.

Geoff Parker: When Graciousness Is Used as Power

The Hastings marae controversy has been wrapped in the language of kindness. “A councillor was told he will ‘always be welcome.’ He was offered an ‘open invitation’ and a chance to ‘start his journey.’” The tone is gentle, patient, even magnanimous.

That is precisely the problem.

Mike's Minute: A reality check for the Government on climate hit areas

We end the week with a reality check.

I was a bit underwhelmed by the Government's response to the last couple of week's weather events.

$2 million is not a lot of money, which in a way is good because it indicates the damage isn't that bad.

The damage is that bad. It's just the big stuff, the roads and bridges and infrastructure, is being paid for out of contingency budgets in various Government's departments.

Roger Partridge: The austerity-proof public service

The pre-Christmas stoush between Finance Minister Nicola Willis and her 1990s predecessor Ruth Richardson has faded. The planned debate was cancelled.

But beneath the theatre lies a puzzle neither of them addressed. The Government has cut contractors, culled consultants, deferred capital projects. Yet one number – the one most directly within ministerial control – has barely shifted.

Matua Kahurangi: $10 million for a marae while everyone else pays their own way

The Government’s announcement of $10 million for Ringatū marae in the Bay of Plenty has left a sour taste. Not because marae are unimportant, but because of the growing expectation that the taxpayer should keep footing the bill for projects that other community groups are expected to fund themselves.

Kerre Woodham: It's not our opinions on climate change that matter

I have said it before and I'll say it again. We can argue for hours, we can have online debates, we can write letters to the editor about whether extreme weather events are the result of anthropomorphic activity or whether we're just in the middle of a natural cycle that's occurred for millennia, but ultimately, what we think about climate change doesn't really matter. It's what banks and insurers and councils and the Government thinks that matters.

Bob Edlin: Who has views on WHO?.....

Who has views on WHO? RNZ turned to Phil Goff to tell us what he thinks of Winston Peters’ musings…


PoO was drawn to the news beneath an RNZ headline which trumpeted:

Former Foreign Minister says NZ must stand up to Trump, defends WHO work

David Farrar: Climate change and Mt Maunganui

There has been some discussion about the role of climate change with the terrible tragic landslides at Mt Maunganui that killed six. In discussing this it is important to understand the difference between climate change mitigation and adaptation.

David Farrar: A disgraceful sentence

The Herald reports:

A violent and unprovoked attack at a Rotorua playground over a pair of pink Crocs left a father with a broken jaw and concussion, and shattered his family’s sense of peace and security.

The victim says he now feels “hollow” after the offender, Francee Edwin Reweti Page, 51, was given what was in his opinion a “pitiful” sentence.

Friday January 30, 2026 

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Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Are the insurance companies doing us a favour on flood-prone areas?

The thing we’d been warned about with climate change has now happened - AA Insurance has stopped offering new insurance policies for Westport because of the risk of flooding.

At the very end of last year, AA Insurance wrote to the Buller District mayor advising that the company would be putting a - what they call temporary - stop to new insurance policies for properties in the 7825 postcode, which includes Westport, Carters Beach, and Cape Foulwind.

Ryan Bridge: Here we go again with privacy breaches

This week we've heard about another privacy breach.

We don't strangers on the street everything about ourselves but for some reason, when a business does it online, who we also don't know or trust, you just cannot shut us up.

Geoff Parker: Democracy Needs Neutral Ground

Local government exists to serve everyone — and that requires neutral ground.

The debate surrounding Hastings District councillor Steve Gibson’s decision not to attend a strategic planning session held on a marae is not about disrespect or cultural hostility. It is about whether official council business should be conducted in settings that are secular, linguistically accessible, and free from cultural or spiritual expectations, so every elected representative can participate equally and without pressure to conform.

Mike's Minute: Build what is wanted and housing can't fail

Bit of 'rubber hitting the road' research on unsold real estate for you.

A real estate consultancy company looked at the amount of unsold stock when it came to apartments in Auckland.

There are a record number. 541 to be precise, which is 20% of everything that has been built in the past three years.

Ani O'Brien: At what age does adulthood begin in 2026?

We have to stop infantilising young people.

Reading a recent Stuff article about a 26 year old woman leading the East Cape flood response, I felt two things at once. The first was admiration. In the middle of chaos, she stepped up, coordinated people, trusted her instincts, and helped her community through a genuinely frightening weather event. That deserves recognition. But the second feeling was discomfort, not with her, but with the framing. The article treats her age as the most remarkable thing about the story, as if competent leadership at 26 is an anomaly rather than a perfectly ordinary human possibility.

Michael Rainsborough: The End of the World Order as We Know It – Nice of You to Notice

For the past week the global commentariat has been behaving like someone who suddenly realises, halfway through his morning espresso, that his house burned down sometime last Tuesday and everyone else has been politely stepping around the ashes ever since.

Donald Trump announces, quite openly, that the United States wants to take Greenland, one way or another. Washington sharpens the tariff knife. NATO’s obituary is proclaimed yet again. The United States, we are solemnly informed, can no longer be trusted as an ally and that it is even a predatory state. The West is finished.

Cue panic. Cue Davos. Cue the anguished cries of people who have not had to think seriously about power since the mid-1980s.

Peter Dunne: It is frequently said that the real test of political leadership comes in a crisis

Dame Jacinda Ardern transformed a hitherto ho-hum Prime Ministership that had been looking decidedly one-term with her response to the Christchurch Mosque attacks in 2019. Her handling of the Covid19 outbreak a year later cemented her reputation as a compassionate and empathetic leader who was good in a crisis.

Matua Kahurangi: No wonder Te Pāti Māori wants to abolish prisons when Māori make up most of the inmates

Te Pāti Māori says it wants to abolish prisons by 2040. Māori make up the majority of New Zealand’s prison population. Of course Te Pāti Māori wants prisons gone. It is the most self-interested justice policy imaginable.

At last count, more than half of all prisoners are Māori. Those figures are confronting, uncomfortable but let’s be honest - not really surprising. Instead of asking why violent offending, repeat offending and serious crime are so concentrated, Te Pāti Māori’s answer is to remove the very system that holds offenders accountable.

Kerre Woodham: The slow decline of NZ postal services

The arrival of Netflix and other film streaming services was the death knell for video rental stores. Five years after Netflix arrived in New Zealand in 2015, the majority of stores, once mainstays of our weekends —who didn't go in and spend an hour or so in the video rental store trying to decide what to choose for the weekend?— had closed across the country.

Yet despite 99% of New Zealanders saying they used email regularly in that same year, 2015, postal services have endured. Now sure, they've reduced as mail volumes have dropped off. 2015 was a big year because that's when postal deliveries went from six days a week to three as the mail volumes declined. But at least my toll payment notices and my cards from Aunt Barbara are still arriving in my letterbox three days a week.

Bob Edlin: Health workers are kicking off their day with a karakia....

Health workers are kicking off their day with a karakia, but Act MP ensures it is in their own time and not compulsory

The National Public Health Service has been getting along – it seems – on a wing and a prayer.

The Platform’s Tina Nixon drew PoO’s attention to the spiritual side of the service’s daily rituals and routines in an interview with Act MP Todd Stephenson.

Ewen McQueen: Zero Day comes for the Iranian regime

Last year reports emerged that Tehran, the capital city of Iran, was running out of water. One expert predicted that “zero day” was not far off. As the Islamic regime now enters its final days, it seems that prediction was also a harbinger of what comes for the Ayatollah and those who prop up his brutal rule.

And it is a day which cannot come soon enough. It is now becoming apparent that after the regime put the country into a communications black-out three weeks ago, it engaged in a brutal massacre of its own citizens. Security forces opened fire on huge crowds rallying in cities across the country calling for an end to the Islamic theocracy. Numbers killed are being reported at over 30,000. It was a bloodbath.

Thursday January 29, 2026 

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Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Politics will be a little less fun without Ju‑Co in it

Right, so the biggest political news of the day is that Judith Collins has announced she’s retiring from politics to take up a new job as the head of the Law Commission mid‑year.

I, for one, am going to miss Judith Collins being in politics, because she has that thing very few politicians have.

Ryan Bridge: What was the point in fees free?

Reading this story this morning about fees free - you've got to wonder how the policy got through the boffins in wellington.

It has, by all accounts, failed to achieve it's objective.

David Farrar: Collins to head up Law Commission

The Government has announced:

Minister and National MP for Papakura Hon Judith Collins KC is honoured that she will be appointed President of the Law Commission: Te Aka Matua o te Ture following a political career spanning 24 years.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today announced Ms Collins will be appointed to the Law Commission from mid-2026.

Matua Kahurangi: $1m for marae, everyone else gets a pat on the back

Firstly, I am going to start this off by acknowledging all the marae that opened their doors and helped communities affected by the recent severe weather. That help mattered. People were fed, housed and looked after when things were rough. No one sensible is denying that.

But do they really need a dedicated $1 million on top?

Mike's Minute: Why we should, and shouldn't, pay attention to polls

There are reasons to ignore political polls this year.

And some reasons not to.

Dr Will Jones: Industry is Being Sacrificed to Net Zero Ideology, Says Siemens Energy Boss

Europe is sacrificing industry to Net Zero ideology, the Chairman of Siemens Energy has warned, with strict emission targets crippling manufacturing in Germany. The Telegraph has more.

Tim Donner: The Left Embraces Anarchy

Democrats pile on as Minnesota becomes indistinguishable from a Third World banana republic.

What do the leaders of a political party do when their hated enemy is dominating the stage and grabbing all the headlines for actions of seismic proportions? They welcome any port in the storm. And for Democrats and the left in 2026, endlessly frustrated by the many historic accomplishments of President Donald Trump, that means embracing anarchy, defined as a state of disorder due to the absence or nonrecognition of authority or other controlling systems.

Ani O'Brien: First day back in Parliament - an incomplete summary

We are underway for 2026 and I have thoughts...

The first day of a new parliamentary year is about mood, posture, and jostling for political points. It is when parties show us who they think they are, who they think they are up against, and how they intend to spend the political capital they have left. This is particularly true in an election year.

JC: Trump’s Art of the Deal

Unravelling and analysing Trump’s deal with Greenland is an interesting exercise. It’s a bit like doing a jigsaw: the deal has many pieces to it. But there is a difference: with an ordinary jigsaw, it’s simply a matter of where the pieces fit. But, with a Trump jigsaw, you’re never sure how many pieces there are or where exactly they fit. It’s not until the deal is done that the pieces and fit become apparent.

Ashley Church: The hollow refrain of “Never Again”

Why Holocaust remembrance is more important than ever

The Holocaust did not begin with the gas chambers of Auschwitz or Treblinka. It began much earlier, with ideas, laws, exclusions, and the slow normalisation of cruelty. The part that history often forgets.

When Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, there was no plan to exterminate the Jews. What did exist was a heavily racist worldview: that Jews were alien, that they were a corrosive presence within society – and that the economic hardship, moral decay, and national humiliation that the Germans were facing was their fault.

Wednesday January 28, 2026 

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Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Does the Government need to take over the Mt Maunganui landslide inquiry?

Right, it seems there’s a very good chance that Tauranga City Council is going to have the inquiry they’ve launched taken off them and run by the Government instead.

The Government hasn’t actually said those words out loud just yet. What they have said is that there is a strong case for a Government inquiry.

Ryan Bridge: We're getting a FTA with India

New Zealand is going to sign this free trade deal with India.

The massive boost we got and still enjoy from Phil Goff’s signing of the China FTA is still very much fresh in mind.

Liberty International: Sir Roger Douglas Selected as Freedom Torch Awardee 2026

Liberty International is proud to announce that Sir Roger Douglas will receive the Freedom Torch Award 2026, in recognition of his enduring contributions to individual liberty, economic freedom, and public policy reform.

Sir Roger Douglas, Freedom Torch Awardee 2026

Brendan O'Neill: Islamists have been given a veto over public life

The banning of a UKIP march to appease Islamist hotheads is a scandal.

So now we know: if you want to prevent a public gathering in the UK, just threaten violence. Be menacing. Be intimidating. Let it be known, with a nod and a wink, that you will roundly kick off if those people you don’t like come anywhere near your neighbourhood.

Roger Partridge: The Judge-Made Problem the Government Is Trying to Fix

Just before Christmas, The Post asked for a column on Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk's building consent reforms. They slipped under the radar in December but deserve more attention. New Zealand's consenting system has become an ordeal – and the problem traces back to judicial decisions in the 1970s and 80s that made councils the insurers of last resort for building defects. Penk is trying to fix a problem that should never have existed.

David Thunder: Government-Controlled Digital ID is Not the Optional Convenience It Is Being Sold As

The UK government has pledged to introduce a digital ID system for all UK citizens and legal residents by the end of the current Parliament (so no later than 2029). The integration of digital ID into government services, though already under way, has hitherto been largely voluntary. However, it is becoming steadily less optional, as the government has said it will now be required as a precondition for work in the UK, and a version of it (GOV.UK One Login) is already being imposed unilaterally upon company directors throughout the UK.

Corey Smith: How American Values on Free Speech Became the Gold Standard

The legal giants who paved the way.

Thanks to the Constitution and dozens of Supreme Court cases, we live in a country where you can say almost anything you want – within reason. American free speech means you can tell a crowd of globalists that only stupid people buy windmills or protest peacefully against government actions while shouting four-letter words at federal agents. But, like many things in life, circumstances matter. “The question in every case,” said Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. when delivering the court’s opinion in Schenck v. United States (1919), “is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantiative evils that congress has a right to prevent.” Other cases would follow and challenge this theory.

Ryan Bridge: We're all flocking for gold

Have you seen how much gold is worth lately?

Yesterday it hit another new record - US$5000 an ounce.

It’s up 60% on last year.

Dr Jake Scott: India’s Outlook

South Asia’s powerhouse faces challenges.

India has entered 2026 facing more economic challenges than headline growth figures alone would suggest. While the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has upgraded India’s growth projections for the 2025–26 economic year to 7.3% (up from 6%), the composition and durability of that growth is increasingly hostage to external shocks, policy trade-offs, and structural constraints, especially as the global economy grows more volatile. The challenge for New Delhi is not whether the Indian economy can grow—that is clearly evident—but whether it can seize the opportunities to continue this growth in an era of global instability.

Matua Kahurangi: The last Tuesday of January and the speech New Zealand still refuses to confront

Today is the last Tuesday of January. It is a date that should matter more in New Zealand’s political memory than it does.

On the last Tuesday of January in 2004, Dr. Don Brash stood at the Orewa Rotary Club and delivered what remains one of the most important political speeches given in this country in modern times. It was calm, forensic, unapologetic and, most importantly, correct.

Bob Edlin: If Luxon wants to duck out of accepting his Board of Peace invitation.....

If Luxon wants to duck out of accepting his Board of Peace invitation, he should take his cue from Canada’s Carney…

Perhaps it will be announced some time soon, but at time of writing PoO could find no record of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s decision in response to the formal invitation to join US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” for Gaza.

No doubt he was chuffed to get the invitation, although permanent membership comes with a price tag.

Tuesday January 27, 2026 

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Ian Wishart: Are climate activists ignoring the evidence at Mt Maunganui?

As the grief turns to anger over Thursday’s deadly landslide on Mt Maunganui (Mauao), the blame game has well and truly begun.

The landslide’s immediate cause was a 274mm deluge of rain in the 24 hours to 9 am Wednesday, which Met Service had claimed was the highest rainfall in Tauranga since records began in 1910.

Ani O'Brien: The American immigration narrative & the assassination of truth

How routine law enforcement was rebranded as terror and why facts no longer survive partisan conflict

“In war, truth is the first casualty.”
— commonly attributed to Aeschylus

The claim that the “first casualty of war is truth” is often treated as metaphor. Currently, we are seeing it as a literal description of process. When political conflict is framed and experienced as existential, like when one side is portrayed as no longer merely wrong but morally illegitimate, truth stops functioning as a virtue and becomes an obstacle. Facts that complicate the preferred narrative are too harmful to the goal of winning the info war and so they are erased. History is repeatedly rewritten.

Pee Kay: We are, truly, a nation divided!

In late October last year 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.

Dr Oliver Harwich: A new ‘might is right’ era dawns for small nations

I do not get to Münster often these days, but whenever I am there, I feel drawn to its town hall. This is where, in 1648, diplomats signed the Peace of Westphalia. Thirty years of religious war had left parts of Germany devastated. Some regions lost an immense share of their people to war, famine, disease and flight.

Last summer, on a day when temperatures outside climbed into the high thirties, I stepped into the cool interior of that historic place once more.

Dr Benno Blaschke: English, Twyford, Bishop: Reform needs to outlast its champions

Last week's headlines suggested another wobble in housing reform. Signals from the Prime Minister about easing Auckland's intensification settings appeared to undercut Housing Minister Chris Bishop.

One policy adjustment will not break the economics of housing supply. But it will not help either. Density rules are a means, not an end.

Guest Post: The managed decline of the New Zealand economy

A guest post by Harro104 on Kiwiblog:

New Zealand likes to think of itself as a rich country that has simply lost its way for a while. The reality is more uncomfortable. We are managing our own economic decline, steadily, deliberately, and with broad political consent.Around the year 2000, New Zealand’s GDP per person was roughly 75% of the income level of the richest OECD countries. Today, it is closer to 50%. That is not a cyclical dip or a short-term policy failure. It reflects a long-running structural divergence, and nothing in our current policy settings suggests that trend is about to reverse.This is not about pessimism. It is about incentives, behaviour, and mindset.

Roger Partridge: When Intervention Is Justified … or Not

“If not military intervention, then what? And when is intervention justified?” Those were the challenges from readers of my recent essay arguing conservatives should not be too quick to praise President Trump’s removal of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.

My objection was not that Maduro did not deserve his fate – he did. It was that methods matter. The Venezuela operation was unilateral, without congressional authorisation or allied support. Its justification was openly transactional – oil, drugs, the Monroe Doctrine. There was no plan for what follows. The historian Niall Ferguson, writing in The Free Press, praised Trump as a “nineteenth-century figure” returning to the politics of 1900. But that is not a compliment. The politics of 1900 produced 1914, and then 1945. A rerun with nuclear weapons will be worse.