Wendy Geus: Seymour must demand Luxon 'incinerate' te mana o te wai or appears to support it

Whilst the Middle East crisis rightfully leads the headlines, race based issues bubbling away continue to be ignored by the media and Luxon, as his trusty mouth pieces implement plans quietly behind the scenes whilst noone's looking.

Seymour's Treaty Principle's bill would have eliminated all this. His flawless and indefatigable fight for his Bill fell on the public's confused ears due to an activist media fighting for the other side, corrupt select committee feedback practices and appalling indifference and opposition from NZ First and National.

Caleb Anderson: The Unlearning of Education: How NZ Schools Lost Their Way

For decades, New Zealand boasted an education system that was world class—a place where foundational knowledge, critical thinking, and academic rigour, were paramount considerations.

Walking through a school today, however, it is hard not to feel a profound sense of loss. We have witnessed in real time the slow, methodical, deliberate, and calculated erosion of traditional academic standards. These have been replaced by a "child-centred" philosophy that, in practice, seems to focus on everything except the core disciplines of reading, writing, and mathematics.

Ryan Bridge: Watch out Luxon, Winston's coming for you

Winston's driving a dump truck through Luxon's political strategy.

Luxon‘s strategy is to let his ministers do the talking.

He says his strength is picking his team.

Chris Lynch: Peters vows to ‘break up power companies’ and blasts ‘woke agenda’

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has used his State of the Nation address in Tauranga to lay out a hard edged election pitch, promising to restructure the electricity market, reject global influence, and take direct aim at Labour, the Greens, unions and what he called a growing “woke agenda”.

Speaking at the Atrium Conference Centre on Sunday afternoon, Peters said New Zealand was facing a period of global instability not seen in generations.

Melanie Phillips: Why the nation of Churchill is no more

The “special relationship” between Britain and America is currently on life support. US President Donald Trump is furious with the British Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, for refusing to join the US and Israel in the war against Iran.

He is furious with others in the west too for similarly refusing even to help defend the Straits of Hormuz, the “chokehold” waterway which the Iranian regime is currently threatening to attack. As a result, traffic through the Straits has dwindled to a handful of tankers and the price of oil has soared.

Dr Eric Crampton: We need to learn how to make liveable cities

Too many of the world’s urban planners grew up playing the city-planning game SimCity. You may have played it too. It’s fun, but it’s a terrible guide both to urban planning and to how cities work. It rewards micromanaging the wrong parts of cities.

Alain Bertaud did not grow up playing SimCity.

Bertaud is one of the world’s most influential urban planners.

Dr Benno Blascke: The fire exit leads back into the building

Recently, during a select committee hearing on an infrastructure funding amendment bill, an MP asked for examples of infrastructure financed without government borrowing.

“Sure,” our chief economist Eric Crampton replied. “The Ngaio Town Hall, a lovely community effort.” Polite smiles.

I added: “The Auckland Harbour Bridge, one of our biggest projects.” Some nodding.

Roger Partridge: Taking Comfort from the 1970s

When a story recently emerged about the government getting advice on carless days under the Petroleum Demand Restraint Act, older New Zealanders will have felt a warm flush of nostalgia.

The 1979 restrictions brought coloured windscreen stickers announcing the weekday car owners had promised not to drive. Thursday proved the most popular choice. A thriving black market followed. Forty-three percent of vehicles secured exemptions.

The first person prosecuted under the original scheme was caught driving at 3.45 am – after falling asleep in his car following a party. His designated non-driving period had begun at 2 am.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: A $110 billion illusion?

KiwiSaver has $110 billion in assets and over three million members. Contribution rates rise from April. Both major parties want to push them to 12%.

Everyone assumes the scheme is working. But no one can prove it.

The only rigorous evaluation of KiwiSaver’s impact on wealth was published in 2017 by Treasury economists David Law and Grant Scobie.

Bob Edlin: Chief Ombudsman has set about rebalancing his office....

Chief Ombudsman has set about rebalancing his office in a plan aimed at delivering fairness for all

Whispers have reached us of a restructuring in the Office of the Ombudsman.

We imagine the outcome will be huge efficiencies because the Chief Ombudsman, John Allen, will have learned a great deal from his previous restructuring experiences.

The whispers have been amplified by Allen, who has signalled his plans in the Ombudsman Quarterly Review.

David Farrar: Kainga Ora slipping again

The Herald reports:

A woman’s 14-year-old grandson was nearly mowed down by her neighbour’s car, while her son was threatened with a machete.

Now an elderly Tongan woman has gone to the Tenancy Tribunal after Kāinga Ora refused to terminate her tenancy despite the woman living in “constant fear” of the family next door. …

Alwyn Poole: The HUGELY problematic size of Government in NZ.

Until a Government has the courage/determination to shrink the size of ITSELF – New Zealand has NO CHANCE of sustained economic growth – or excellence in any sector.

The size of the NZ Public Service workforce, as at December 31 2025, has just been released.

As opposed to the coalition saying they are frugal the lowlights are:

Sunday March 22, 2026 

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Breaking Views Update: Week of 22.3.26

Sunday March 22, 2026 

News:
Australian council to remove First Nations flags despite strong community opposition
A southern New South Wales council will remove First Nations flags from their chambers, despite the motion proposing the controversial move failing to be passed and overwhelming community opposition.

Ani O'Brien: A week is a long time: 21 March 2026

“Things could get worse”: The Government braces for a fuel shock

The fuel shock triggered by the Iran conflict is already biting in New Zealand, and the Government is openly preparing for a worst-case scenario. Ministers have warned that “things could get worse before they get better,” with contingency planning underway. While officials insist there is no immediate supply crisis, it is important for Kiwis to understand the impact will be far more broad than just the prices at the pump.

John McLean: The eagle has floundered

Labourite Chatham Islands CEO comes a criminal cropper. Where are the coppers?

The phrase “The Eagle has Landed” indicates successful completion of a difficult or important task. Astronaut Neil Armstrong first spoke those words on 20 July 1969, from the moon to Mission Control in Houston, Texas. He did so to communicate that the Apollo 11 Lunar Module, named “Eagle”, had successfully touched down on the Moon.

Neil Armstrong died in 2012 but will be fondly remembered and revered for at least as long as the Western Civilization lasts. Without Western Civilization and the likes of Neil Armstrong, humans would have barely escaped the Dark Ages.

Roger Partridge: Behind the Invisible Hand - Adam Smith and the vile maxim of the masters of mankind

Two hundred and fifty years on, the father of economics is still being misread – and the misreading still matters.

On 9 March 1776, a Scottish moral philosopher published the most powerful attack on trade protectionism ever written. Two hundred and fifty years later, the world’s largest economy has returned to the policy his great book was written to dismantle. Politicians now justify tariffs as instruments of national prosperity. Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations was written to explain why they are not.

DTNZ: Argentina cuts ties with WHO

Argentina has formally withdrawn from the World Health Organization (WHO), completing the exit process one year after first requesting to leave the United Nations health agency.

Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno confirmed the move after President Javier Milei’s government notified the organisation in February 2025 and lodged the formal withdrawal request on March 17 last year.

Melanie Phillips: Wimps and warriors

The war against Iran is having a most clarifying effect. It’s shining a light on those who are prepared to stand with civilisation against barbarism and flushing out those who are not.

The usual suspects — those who hate Israel, despise America and stick pins into effigies of US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — are willing Iran to win, or more to the point, willing Trump and Netanyahu to lose.

Net Zero Watch Samizdat: No easy answers

UK

Renewable UK CEO urges Miliband to restart North Sea drilling

The UK’s wind farm trade body has called on Ed Miliband to “take energy out of the culture wars” by increasing North Sea production.

Damian Pudner: Britain Once Led the World. What Happened?

A country cannot tax its way to success.

An unsettling look at the economic settlement that Britain now seems willing to accept can be found in this week’s latest fiscal forecast. By the end of the forecast period, borrowing will have decreased from 5.2% of GDP in 2024–2025 to about 1.6%. Public debt stabilises at roughly 95% of national income. At those levels, even small shifts in interest rates matter: the Office for Budget Responsibility estimates that a sustained one-percentage-point move in Bank Rate changes government borrowing costs by around £15 billion.

Guest Post: Your land, my rules

A guest post by a reader on Kiwiblog:

The Prime Minister wants a culture of ‘yes.’ A New Zealand that builds. An RMA replacement premised on the enjoyment of property rights. He has said so many times, in many rooms, and with great conviction.

Good on him. It is what would-be homeowners need, too.

But Auckland’s actual homeowners got upset about apartments. Then the Prime Minister discovered the word ‘impose.’

Saturday March 21, 2026 

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Ani O'Brien: The sudden discovery of restraint and empathy in journalism

But is social media really the root of the evil of political scandals?

Disclosure: It has been an awful week of being tied to people, actions, and narratives that I have absolutely nothing to do with. I am feeling pretty beat up to be honest.

Media, bloggers, and the social media mob have decided I am somehow “pulling strings” behind the scenes in relation to Jade Paul’s Facebook post. I am not.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 14.3.26

Saturday March 21, 2026 

News:
Māori Land Court case filed over Hinemaurea ki Mangatuna marae relocation
An application to the Māori Land Court to put a hold on the planned moving of Hinemaurea ki Mangatuna Marae near Ūawa-Tolaga Bay has been lodged.

The marae is one of five in Tairāwhiti impacted by North Island weather events of early 2023 and earmarked to be moved to safer locations through a $136 million national allocation by the Government.

Simon O'Connor: A lost opportunity

The Royal Commission report into Covid was an opportunity for people's voices to be heard. Sadly, it has failed, preferencing power over humanity.

When people are hurt or feel an injustice has been done to them, one of the ways to assist the healing process is to ensure they have been heard and listened to. Importantly, they need to see and hear that they’ve been heard.

I recall one person coming into my electorate office early on in my parliamentary career with a rather complex and fraught situation, and as they spoke my mind was racing as to what I could do to solve the issue. As they finished and were about to leave, I frankly admitted that I did not know what could be done but that I would consider further. Their reply has always stayed with me – “Oh, I know there is nothing you can do, but I wanted to talk and be heard. And I was, thank you.”

Mike's Minute: The worst week for Trump's war

Obviously Chris Hipkins would disagree, but Donald Trump surely wins the "crap week of the week" award, given his week has material outcomes for all of us and Hipkins’ is just a personal mess gone ugly and public.

The war itself doesn’t appear to be any different at the end of week three than it was at the end of week two, or indeed week one.

Chris Lynch: Seymour rules out GST on fuel, dismisses focus on Hipkins’ private life

Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour has defended the Government’s response to rising fuel prices, warning against intervention and rejecting calls to cut GST, during an extended interview in Christchurch.

Speaking to chrislynchmedia.com while visiting the city, Seymour said global supply disruptions were behind rising prices, despite assurances from officials fuel supplies remained stable.

Gary Judd KC: Human rights - are they real?

Or are they just a gift of the government?

Roy, a commenter on my Lessons from Iran, says there is no such thing as human rights: “Human rights are given and allowed by Governments.”

This introduces a deep philosophical/legal question with profound implications. If Roy is right, it means that the Iranian people do not have the right to life or liberty because the government of Iran has not given and allowed them to have those rights. By way of an opposite example, it also means that New Zealanders have those rights only because the government has given them to us or allowed us to have them.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Hormuz crisis may force government reform

When oil prices spiked after the Strait of Hormuz closed, New Zealand’s ministers lined up to reassure the public. Fuel stocks were “healthy.” There was “no need for panic.” The associate energy minister assured New Zealanders that supplies were not under threat “in coming months.”

What the ministers did not dwell on is that government agencies are now briefing them daily on supply disruptions extending well beyond petrol. A fifth of New Zealand’s fertiliser imports come from Saudi Arabia, shipped through the strait that is now closed. For a country whose economy runs on grass-fed agriculture, a fertiliser shock in autumn is no small matter.

Dr Eric Crampton: Let fuel prices rise and do their job

No fuel was available where I lived on the east side of Christchurch immediately after the 2011 earthquake. Power was out. Petrol pumps do not operate well without it.

The west side of town was still running. But the earthquake had also damaged the pipeline bringing fuel from the terminal at Lyttelton Harbour, and power outages were an issue.

More fuel was coming. Tanker trucks were heading up from points south and would haul supply up to Christchurch. It would just take a few days.

But things went wrong.

Bob Edlin: Co-governance and Central Districts water services.............

Co-governance and Central Districts water services – but can we talk of an “experienced board” when it has yet to meet?

Remember Steve Maharey?

Elected to Parliament for the first time in 1990, he was Minister of Social Development and Employment (from 1999 to 2005) and Minister of Education (from 2005 to 2007) in the days when Helen Clark was Prime Minister.

David Farrar: Critical minerals

The Herald reports:

Dr Isabelle Chambefort, general manager – energy at Earth Sciences New Zealand (formerly GNS Science), makes it clear minerals have always been critical.

“Humanity has been developed around mining.

Friday March 20, 2026 

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Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Is there a bright side to all the bad economic news?

I’m sorry to say it’s a bit of a bad day - a day of rather unpleasant economic news, I’m afraid.

Let’s start with the GDP number. It came in at 0.2 percent for the final quarter of last year, which is very much at the low end of expectations. We were looking for something in the range of 0.2 percent to 0.5 percent, with 0.5 percent being the Reserve Bank’s forecast.

Dr James Allan: What’s So Great About Diversity?

‘Diversity is our strength.’ One hears this, or myriad variants of the same idea, unrelentingly. Certainly I work in an Australian university where the extent of higher-ups pushing this notion does indeed qualify as unrelenting, even matching totalitarian state levels of propaganda. But even outside the hallowed halls of impartial, politically balanced academia (did I write that with a straight face?) the mantra or cliché that diversity somehow delivers a stronger balance sheet or a more cohesive society or just better outcomes is pervasive in today’s democracies that have committed themselves to multiculturalism and to the various neo-Marxist versions of feminism. Sure, those spouting these ‘diversity is a panacea’ nostrums never cash out the claim. They never tell us precisely how ‘diversity’ is making society better or wealthier or more unified. We are all just supposed to take it on faith, as it were. We’re just to believe the bureaucratic, political and various professional bodies’ elites who push this line, and believe it simply because they are the ones telling us it’s so.

Dave Patterson: Trump Wants Help Securing the Strait of Hormuz

Securing and keeping the Strait of Hormuz open is a key objective of the war against Iran. It’s a big job that requires the suppression of Iranian anti-ship missiles and drones and the destruction of Iran’s capability to produce more such weapons. Though the United States is capable of doing the job, other countries, particularly those in Europe and NATO, have an interest in ensuring the strait remains secure. Consequently, President Donald Trump is asking for assistance in protecting ships transiting the Hormuz Strait. Initially, he received a cool reception.

Graham Adams: Media Campaign Against Luxon Risks Backfiring

Barristers often warn their juniors of the dangers of excessively badgering or humiliating a witness in court. There is always the risk that the jury’s sympathy will shift sharply towards the witness if they are suddenly seen as a victim of bullying.  

The media may be making a similar error in their attacks on Christopher Luxon, which many voters will see as going well beyond reasonable political criticism. In fact, some media outlets are making themselves look recklessly partisan in what appears to be an attempt to unseat the Prime Minister and reduce the chances of a National-led government returning to power in November.

Mike's Minute: Further proof the taxpayer poll was an outlier

Does the Talbot Mills poll out yesterday blow wide open the overt and corrupt actions of the parts of the media that went to town last week, and the week before, on the Prime Minister?

Does the Talbot Mills poll out yesterday with National on 32% also build on evidence that they are not 28%, nor were they ever 28%, therefore there was never a need to go to town last week, and the week before, on the Prime Minister?

Kerre Woodham: At what point does it become unaffordable to work?

To me, what is news is the fact that there are so many people who are working vital jobs, who are doing incredibly important work like our home support workers, and they are really struggling because of the petrol prices. That to me is news, and that to me is something we can do something about. That is going to impact us all as petrol prices surge past three bucks a litre. Sky appears to be the limit. It's going to impact all of us, even the EV drivers who'll end up paying more for anything that's delivered by road. But it's the people like the home support workers who rely on their own cars and fuel to visit their clients that you worry about. It's particularly tough.

Bob Edlin: Māori activists are buoyed by decision to drop Treaty vandalism charges....

Māori activists are buoyed by decision to drop Treaty vandalism charges – but Te Papa prefers to stay stum

An outfit called Te Waka Hourua issued a press statement to welcome a court’s dismissal of all charges against someone named Te Wehi Ratana “for action taken At Te Papa In ’23”.

Action?

That’s one word for it.

Blatant vandalism is another.

David Farrar: An outrageous legal complaint decision overturned

An Area Standards Committee of the Law Society fined Stephen Franks and Franks Ogilvy for, well being lawyers. They sent a letter on behalf of their client to health professionals involved in “gender affirming care”.

The ASC found that they had “used a legal process for an improper purpose”, censured them and fined them.

David Farrar: Desperation from Labour

A journalist asked Nicola Willis whether she would advise people to “ease back on the accelerator” or consider working from home due to higher petrol prices.

Nicola explicitly said she was “very reluctant to adopt the role of the schoolma’am telling people what to do with their own lives”. She went on to say that people will make their own choices based on their circumstances. That NZers are sensible. So she was explicitly saying, no she won’t tell people what to do.

Thursday March 19, 2026 

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Insights From Social Media: National’s ‘Service Delivery Plan’

Re National’s ‘Service Delivery Plan’ Graeme Spencer writes.

Since the inception of the "Local Water Done Well" reforms, I have always questioned what the end game is.

Forgive my scepticism, but anything involving water reform now tends to raise the hackles. After years of "improving water quality", we’ve seen millions, possibly billions, flow steadily into consultants, strategies, delivery plans, reform programmes, governance models, transition frameworks, and then revised versions of all of the above. None of this expenditure has reached our pipes, plants, or reservoirs.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Another common-sense move from Erica Stanford

Okay, once again - not for the first time on this show and probably not the last - thank goodness for Erica Stanford.

Normally, she’s righting wrongs in education but today it’s her other portfolio: immigration.

Ryan Bridge: Why today’s GDP number is not irrelevant

Old, yes. Backward looking, by its nature, but not irrelevant.

We’re tipped to grow around 0.3%-0.4% for Q4 2025. It would mark, barring any surprises, the second straight month of per capita growth on the trot.

That means average income and standard of living was ticking up on a per persons basis, albeit from a low base.

Mike's Minute: The Hipkins allegations and effect

I suppose the ultimate question is, what do you want in a leader, or more specifically, the Prime Minister?

Chris Hipkins is immersed in a growing mess around social media and an angry ex-wife.

Hand on heart, if it hadn't been sent to me I would not have asked, because I genuinely don’t care.

Guest Post: The Path Back: New Zealand’s 50‑Year Drift — And How We Can Still Turn Around

Wayne Jackson writes on Point of Order

New Zealand likes to imagine itself as a small nation that punches above its weight. But for the past 50 years, we’ve been punching underwater.

Since 1973 — the year Britain joined the European Economic Community and our guaranteed market vanished — New Zealand has been drifting while the rest of the world has been moving with purpose. The countries we once outperformed have overtaken us. The ones we used to pity now lap us. And the reason is painfully simple: when the world changed, New Zealand didn’t.

Peter Williams: National about to lock-in co-governance of local water

The following was written in Peter's capacity as Taxpayers' Union board member

In 2022, I joined the Board of the Taxpayers’ Union to fight Nanaia Mahuta’s plan to confiscate community-owned water assets and put them into ‘co-governed’ Three Waters entities.

And with the Luxon-led Government being elected with such a clear mandate, I thought we had won.

So it gives me no pleasure to give you the bad news. Co-governance of local water is back.

Centrist: If ministers can’t interfere, who fixes state-media bias?

Who is accountable at TVNZ?

Editorial independence protects TVNZ from political interference. But when balance fails, who is actually accountable?

Tim Donner: On the Brink - Long National Nightmare for Cuba Is Almost Over

Poverty. Hunger. Disease. Darkness. Misery. These have, for 67 years, been the defining characteristics of life in Cuba, a beautiful island nation 90 miles from American shores, brought to its knees by communism. Since Fidel Castro seized power on New Year’s Day 1959, the country has been in a death spiral, propped up for years by Soviet communists, then by Venezuela’s discount oil courtesy of President Nicolás Maduro until his capture. But now, finally, the totalitarian regime that has enslaved the people of Cuba has weakened to the point that its demise appears imminent.

Roger Partridge: Supreme Court matters - Why lawyers need to speak out

Imagine a system in which those who understand it best see a problem developing – slowly, incrementally, case by case – but choose not to say so publicly. Not because they are forbidden to speak. Not because they are ignorant. But because speaking carries personal cost, while silence is professionally safer.

The system continues to function. No single failure is dramatic enough to force action. Each adjustment can be defended on its own terms. Outsiders assume that if something were seriously wrong, those closest to it would say so.

Over time, the problem becomes structural. By the time it is widely acknowledged, it is no longer easy to reverse.

Matua Kahurangi: NZ First draws a hard line on global interference

For a long time, there has been a quiet but growing tension between national sovereignty and the expanding influence of international bodies. That tension came into sharp focus during and after Covid-19, when global coordination often blurred into expectation, and expectation into pressure. Decisions that affect the daily lives of New Zealanders began to feel increasingly shaped by consensus overseas rather than accountability at home.

That is why this move matters.

Kerre Woodham: New Zealand's conflict of interest problem

What I found more outrageous on the internet yesterday was yet another example of this country's propensity for doling out jobs for the boys and indeed the girls. Every political party does it, every government does it, rewards the party faithful and their generous donors and backers with cushy sinecures. Grafter-in-chief would have to be Trevor Mallard's posting to Dublin – although would it? Because there are plenty of other opportunities to point the finger. Look at Simon Bridges, the ex-National Party leader was appointed as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency, Waka Kotahi, in March 24.

David Farrar: The $30 billion Covid splurge on non-Covid projects

Nicola Willis wrote:

Chris Hipkins has let the truth slip about Labour’s Covid spending.

On Newstalk ZB yesterday he admitted the Labour Government would have gone ahead with many of its spending decisions even without the cover of the pandemic.