For decades, New Zealand has been undergoing a quiet constitutional revolution. What was once largely unnoticed is now becoming increasingly visible – so much so that the Coalition Government can no longer ignore it if it hopes to remain in office.
The Breaking Views blog is administered by the New Zealand Centre for Political Research at NZCPR.com. The views expressed are those of the author alone.
Tuesday, June 30, 2026
NZCPR Newsletter: Deciding Election 2026
For decades, New Zealand has been undergoing a quiet constitutional revolution. What was once largely unnoticed is now becoming increasingly visible – so much so that the Coalition Government can no longer ignore it if it hopes to remain in office.
Steven Gaskell: How the West Ring-Fenced the Global Semiconductor Industry
Penn Raine - Plus ça change: the rise and rise of antisemitism in the West.
The sanitised view is that the French boldly opposed these actions largely with the courage of the Resistance. The truth is that even before the occupying German force demanded that the deportation quotas be filled the Vichy government of the allegedly Free France had already drawn up its own plans for deportations.
Geoff Parker: Improving Māori Health Requires Facts, Not Narratives
Dangerous in what sense?
That is a fair question, because "dangerous" is an extraordinarily serious accusation. It suggests that Māori are placed at risk by the health system itself—not by illness, not by lifestyle factors, not by socio-economic disadvantage, but by the doctors, nurses, hospitals and institutions entrusted with caring for them.
If that is the claim, then it demands equally serious evidence.
Pee Kay: A Capital Gains Tax is never about economic fairness!
It is quite simple. You simply employ the politician’s oldest political tricks in the book, sleight of hand and deliberate obfuscation.
And labour are well practiced in the art of sleight of hand and obfuscation
Nicole McKee: Speech - Rally '26
I have to admit, I never saw myself becoming Deputy Leader of a political party. In fairness, I never really saw myself becoming a politician. When I gave my maiden speech, I said maybe this was my mid-life crisis. Now I’m a Cabinet Minister and Deputy leader of the only party that has the courage and the principles to unlock New Zealand’s potential.
Mike's Minute: I win one last time against the moaners
It encapsulated everything that is wrong with the BSA.
David Harvey: Reading Between the Lines
The gift at the gate
The Greeks did not take Troy by force. They took it by leaving a gift the defenders could not bring themselves to refuse — and by hiding inside it the army that would do the actual work. The Human Rights Commission’s submission on the Deepfake Digital Harm and Exploitation Bill follows the same design.
Vance Ginn: The Poverty of the UN’s Degrowth Agenda
The UN-backed Roadmap for Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth proposes 80 policies meant to reduce society’s dependence on growth. A separate Global Justice Report, led by Thomas Piketty and researchers at the World Inequality Lab, puts numbers behind this vision.
James Fite: Is War the Only ‘Understanding’ Between America and Iran?
David Farrar: What would a change of Government cost farmers?
Monday, June 29, 2026
Ryan Bridge: The Opportunity Party needs more time to hit five percent this election
It's fun to flirt, people are frustrated, but I was there when Colin Craig got close and failed, saw Gareth Morgan then Geoff Simmons have a crack and fail.
I encourage anyone listening to have a look at their policies, do the maths and figure out for themselves how much worse, or better off, you'll be.
Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Well done to Spark Arena
Now, this is a big deal. This isn’t a list that’s put together by some random Instagram account in Norway with 100 followers. This is a list put together by IQ Magazine. And if you’re into music in a big way - like, really into it, more than a Rolling Stone kind of way - you’ll know IQ Magazine is a big deal.
Ani O'Brien: How National lost the Conservation Bill argument
Disclosure: Prior to working in Parliament I worked at the Department of Conservation for about two years in the digital team.
The Conservation Amendment Bill has become one of the Coalition Government’s biggest political headaches of the year. Over the past fortnight New Zealanders have been told the Coalition is planning to sell off conservation land, open national parks to commercial development, and fundamentally rewrite the purpose of the Department of Conservation. These messages exploded onto social media and spread like wildfire. The Coalition, meanwhile, has accused its critics of scaremongering, insisting it only ever intended to tidy up a handful of low value properties and modernise a conservation system that has become bogged down in bureaucracy.
John McLean: Opportunity......
New Zealand’s latest political poll, a 1 News-Verian poll conducted from 13 to 17 June, has The Opportunity Party at 4.6% of the popular vote. Opportunity is trending upwards. If the trend continues, Opportunity will get over the 5% threshold for representation in Parliament and would probably form part of NZ’s next Government.
David Harvey: A Good Bill and a Bad Detour
The Deepfake Digital Harm and Exploitation Bill is one of the more sensible pieces of legislation to come before Parliament in some time. It does one thing, and it does it well. It should pass. What should not pass — and what should not be smuggled in on its back — is the far larger regulatory apparatus that InternetNZ has used its submission to promote.
The Bill gets it right
Colinxy: A Tax Suggestion for the Coalition
Marama Davidson recently told Ryan Bridge she’d be perfectly happy to pay more tax. Chloe Swarbrick claims people approach her all the time, saying the same thing. And every election cycle, a parade of self‑anointed “rich people” step forward to publicly announce their eagerness to hand more of their money to the State.
Fine. If they’re that desperate to give the government more of their income, let’s make it easy for them.
Net Zero Watch Samizdat: Campaign against Red Ed gathers pace
UK
Banks and unions unite to keep Miliband away from the Treasury
Ed Miliband has done the unthinkable by bringing trade union bosses and bankers together in an unlikely alliance - to stop him becoming Chancellor. They say he would put a ‘noose’ around job creation with a senior government figure saying “It takes something to unite Goldman Sachs bankers and the unions.”
Banks and unions unite to keep Miliband away from the Treasury
Ed Miliband has done the unthinkable by bringing trade union bosses and bankers together in an unlikely alliance - to stop him becoming Chancellor. They say he would put a ‘noose’ around job creation with a senior government figure saying “It takes something to unite Goldman Sachs bankers and the unions.”
Damien Grant: Why default is inevitable under our current fiscal trajectory
It was the American polymath Benjamin Franklin who is credited with the quip that only death and taxes can be certain and a few wags have pondered that perhaps he meant debt and taxes. It’s a good joke but what Franklin actually wrote was “... excepté la mort et les impôts.”
That’s French. Franklin was writing in French. Dette and mort don’t rhyme. And given everyone his age had false teeth I think tooth decay should have been included. I am off-track.
Dr Michael Johnston: Second-class confidentiality
The NZPB claims that “…concepts of privacy and confidentiality may be somewhat altered [for Māori] when the sharing of information leads to additional support and culturally appropriate processes…”
In other words, psychologists may be required to water down the privacy rights of Māori clients based on the NZPB’s characterisation of Māori as a “collectivist culture” in its draft code.
Dr Oliver Hartwich: Better on the books
Between 2015 and 2025, ACC had lost its way. Injured people waited too long for help, many became stuck on long-term support, and the future cost of open claims roughly doubled.
Dr Eric Crampton: A better way to step off the Govt’s deceptive capital charge merry-go-round
The charge had been running at around $576 million per year, in the 2024/25 estimates. Drop it and nothing much changes, because Health New Zealand was funded by the Crown to pay it to the Crown in the first place.
David Farrar: The secret code of conduct complaint
“Never again is now”. This comment of a GP on the official Instagram account of Hastings’s Mayor Wendy Schollum was enough to trigger a bullying, patronizing pack attack by two councillors, aimed to publicly shame one of their constituents.
The councillors involved are Heather Te Au-Skipworth, senior Hastings District Councillor and close ally of the Mayor. A current Green Party Candidate and former Te Pati Māori candidate, most famous for her racist views: “it is a known fact that Māori genetic makeup is stronger than others…”. And Nick Ratcliffe, former Green Party candidate for Tukituki, newly elected (and lowest polling) Hastings District Councillor and political friend of the mayor.
Sunday, June 28, 2026
Ani O'Brien: A week is a long time: 27 June 2026
A story that should have received far more attention this week was Chloe Swarbrick’s extraordinary decision to take her domestic political grievances offshore. The Green Party co-leader wrote (along with Belgian Green MEP Saskia Bricmont) to the European Commission, suggesting New Zealand’s methane target changes may breach our trade deal with the EU and calling for an independent investigation. In other words, she invited foreign trade officials to scrutinise New Zealand’s democratically chosen domestic policy settings because she disagrees with them in the hopes they would punish us economically.
Craig Rucker: The coming nuclear renaissance is small — and mighty
Dr. Kelvin Kemm is a brilliant South African nuclear physicist and longtime dear friend of CFACT’s.
As Kelvin writes at CFACT.org:
Guest Post: Luxon’s silence on Te Tiriti o’ Waitangi is undemocratic and deafening in 2026
Guest Post by William Ludbrook on Brash & Mitchell
Why is te Tiriti o’ Waitangi such a divisive issue?
In April 2025 Prime Minister Christopher Luxon promulgated: “I have been talking to iwi leaders for the past 12 months”
And?– so?– no reasonable New Zealander would object to that. The problem is not that Luxon “had been talking to iwi leaders” The problem is that iwi leaders increasingly infer they are in a privileged position in shaping Government Policy. The National Iwi Chairs Forum requested a meeting after objecting to the government’s review of Treaty clauses throughout legislation. Their complaint was that they had not been sufficiently consulted before Cabinet considered reforms?
Richard Prebble: Why We Cannot Talk About Climate Change
It asked whether the Government should fix the carbon price or continue auctioning carbon credits.
That was the debate I hoped to have.
Lushington Brady: This Is Your Future, New Zealand
Imagine if 81 million New Zealanders upped stakes and moved to Mumbai and Delhi, and then started issuing ultimatums to the Indian government. Imagine if 78 million Kiwis landed in Beijing and Shanghai and started demanding special laws from the Chinese government – or else. How do you think the Indians or Chinese would react? There’d be a non-stop string of flights to Auckland International, repatriating those uppity Kiwis right back where they came from. That’s if they were lucky enough to not end up in a concentration camp in Xinjiang.
Ignore the fact that, of course, there aren’t 78 or 81 million New Zealanders: the point of this hypothetical is to put into relative terms the sheer, overwhelming scale of the twin butter-chicken-and-fried-rice tsunamis which have swamped New Zealand in recent years.
JC: How Can the Left Improve?
In many ways that’s a nonsensical question, because the answer to bringing about the changes needed are not policies the left believe in. I will give you examples. The first is the fact that they have removed themselves from political reality. Their playbook restricts them from making the changes to once again become relevant. They don’t even run themselves – their outside paymasters, like the trade unions, do. “He who pays the piper calls the tune”.
Peter Dunne: The Opportunity Party
With some opinion polls currently suggesting the Opportunity Party is inching closer to the cusp of the 5% threshold that sobering reality remains a daunting challenge. As with the Conservative Party and other small parties before them, potential voters will have to be persuaded that the Opportunity Party can make a difference, and that therefore a vote for it would not be wasted.
Kerre Woodham: The more they crack down, the better
Stuff this morning has the story of Vic, not his real name. He was at Wellington Airport last month heading home to Australia where he's lived and worked as a medical specialist for three, how many Kerry? Three decades, 30 years, when three police officers approached. He was arrested, spent three nights in custody, and at a court hearing had his passport confiscated. He's still here, Stuff writes, a month later, unable to work.
Mike's Minute: The conservation discussion shows our immaturity
Trump suggesting Meloni begged for a photo op is all that is petty and pathetic about a bloke who has bigger fish to fry.
Simeon Brown treating his business partners with verbal contempt by calling them children is not the crime of the century, but it's also not good conduct from people running countries.
But it all pales against the astonishing nonsense peddled, mainly on social media, by those opposed to these so-called conservation changes.
Saturday, June 27, 2026
Anglo Saxon: More racism from Health New Zealand - where's the memo Minister?
The heavily Marxified Health New Zealand has been battling with Minister Simeon Brown. Another notorious job vacancy has mandated full Maori victimhood ideological indoctrination as a must have for, of all jobs a dental assistant - Health New Zealand at Wanganui Hospital Remu House Dental Clinic.
Click to view
Insights From Social Media: A Nation Undivided
In the shadow of 1840's solemn word,
Where chiefs and Crown once forged a single path,
We stand as one beneath the Southern Cross—
Not fractured tribes, but Kiwis born of shared resolve.
Gerry Eckhoff: Realities of the Toxic Willow
Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Who feels sorry for the doctor arrested over student loan debt?
So the details are: this chap owes almost $180,000. Yes, he admits he should have responded to IRD on the multiple occasions they tried to contact him — but he didn’t. And he says he didn’t realise how much money he owed until just recently.
Breaking Views Update: Week of 21.6.26
Saturday June 27, 2026
News:
Govt spends millions on unprecedented Waitangi Tribunal inquiries
The Government has spent well over $4 million defending legal challenges by Māori since taking office, with the number of urgent inquiries by the Waitangi Tribunal soaring to record highs.
But critics say the real cost is the strain on the Māori-Crown relationship and a former senior National minister agrees. Māori and Government have collided on a number of issues since the coalition Government came into office in 2023.
Pee Kay: Don’t Anger the Matua. FFS!
More information is coming to light about Jones trip.
This article, link below, if correct, exposes the level of Jones arrogance and his abuse of taxpayers funds!
Ani O'Brien: The media isn't reporting on TOP's rise, they are creating it
Political momentum is one of the most powerful forces in politics. Voters are heavily influenced by ‘social proof’ which is the psychological phenomenon where people copy the actions of others to validate their own behaviour. People want to support parties that appear viable and relevant. Therefore, a party that is constantly discussed in the media acquires a kind of legitimacy simply through repetition. People hear its leader interviewed, see its policies analysed, watch journalists speculate about its prospects, and begin to regard it as a serious political force. This creates a self-fulfilling prophecy where media attention generates awareness, awareness generates support (or opposition), support (or opposition) generates further media attention, and the party gains momentum.
Dr Eric Crampton: Guardrails for a Compulsory KiwiSaver
That compulsion requires guardrails, according to a research note published today by The New Zealand Initiative's Chief Economist Dr Eric Crampton.
Kerre Woodham: Is it time to take a look at our right to silence?
Bob Edlin: Article Disappears To Protect Maori From Harm
A Maori psychologist’s peer-reviewed paper has been removed from her profession’s journal on the grounds that– wait for it – keeping it accessible could harm Māori.
David Farrar: France says US is surrendering too quickly!
“The return for major concessions that will be asked of Iran is the lifting of sanctions, sanctions that were taken at the United Nations,” Barrot said, referring to a vote in September last year.
As a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, France holds the power to veto any accords.
Mike's Minute: The only winner of the political polls
"Luxon fronts media after bad poll”.
Why is that the headline as opposed to "Hipkins answers questions after poll collapse"?
Friday, June 26, 2026
Ryan Bridge: The problem with Tama Potaka's conservation bill
Most people, left and right, use the outdoors here. We have quite a close relationship to it.
Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Did the Government botch their conservation announcement?
There’s a little bit of green in every New Zealander - and I could not agree with that more.
John Robertson: The Secular State Under Seige
John McLean: Immigration Biometric Project Exposed
Mike's Minute: Why hasn't fast-track helped the Port of Tauranga?
Surely I don’t need to go through the fine detail of what is one of this country's most embarrassing modern travesties.
David Harvey: A Regulator's Impulse
This article is a companion piece to that entitled “A Regulator’s Reflex” which can be found here. It deals with the issue of social media access restrictions and explains the danger inherent in the proposition - to paraphrase an old saying - “Legislate in haste; repent at leisure”
Stuff reported on 16 June some interesting comments by Education Minister Erica Stanford, who now seems to be leading the charge for what has been described as a social media ban for under 16 year olds.
Dr Kumari Valentine: NZCCP Sets a Precedent of Censorship
When a professional body removes a peer-reviewed article because it conflicts with organisational values, the issue is no longer a single publication, but the future of open inquiry, editorial independence, and professional disagreement.