Breaking Views Update: Week of 15.2.26

Sunday February 15, 2026 

News:
Hamilton City Council Confirms Continuation of Maangai Maaori Representation
Hamilton City Council has formally confirmed that it will continue its innovative Maangai Maaori representation model for the upcoming 2025–2028 triennium, reinforcing dedicated Māori participation in local government decision-making.

Duggan Flannakin: Forging and vaulting ahead for critical minerals

While the nation was focused on an ongoing personal tragedy and the Super Bowl, representatives of 54 nations met last Wednesday in Washington, DC, at the request of Secretary of State Marco Rubio to plot out a pathway to mutual independence from the Chinese stranglehold on access to critical minerals and rare earths.

Net Zero Watch Samizdat: The Way Up

WATCH OUR NEW FILM: THE WAY UP

Net Zero Watch has produced this short documentary on Britain’s energy story and the real-world harms of Net Zero. CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FILM.

John McLean: Waste, Waste Everywhere.....

Defund Da Sewerage. The Albatross around New Zealand’s neck

Untreated human waste continues to gush from the failed Moa Point treatment plant into the sea off the South Coast of Wellington. Pat Dougherty, the chief executive of Wellington Water, initially blamed the catastrophic failure on “under‑investment over a long period”. Wellington Water has now claimed that it cannot comment on the disaster because there’s an inquiry. Which is a lie. No inquiry, governmental or otherwise, has been initiated.

Dr Eric Crampton: The great equalizer

Samuel Colt invented the revolver and a slogan to go with it. “God created men, Col. Colt made them equal”. The revolver was ‘the great equalizer’. Anyone could learn to shoot. That levelled the playing field for those otherwise preyed upon.

You might think Colt’s slogan a relic. But there’s a modern analogue. Think about a different kind of power asymmetry. One that’s bureaucratic rather than ballistic, persistent rather than point-blank, and seemingly impossible to break.

Colinxy: When “Respect” Means “Obey the Ideology” - A Case Study in Public‑Sector Confusion

The ACT Party has released its proposed rule book for public servants. It is not complicated, nor is it radical. It is, in fact, the kind of thing most New Zealanders assume already exists:

Pee Kay: You couldn’t make this sh-t up!

You couldn’t make this sh-t up but here is a legitimate(?) New Zealand political party wanting to legislate for “personhood for whales”!!! These clowns that call themselves the Green Party are paid near $300,000 PA by you and me and this is what they give us in return!

This the same political party that one of its MP’s, when a Wellington City councillor, was the instigator of scrapping a $391 million wastewater renewal plan in favour of a $226 million cycleway network!

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Voters Hungary for change - It’s the economy, stupid

Hungary is a landlocked nation of ten million people with an economy smaller than New Zealand’s. It has no significant military, no permanent seat on the Security Council and no history of shaping international affairs.

Yet this modest Central European country has somehow become the American right’s template for reshaping the United States.

Mike Grimshaw: Is a new Centrist party possible?

Is a centrist party is possible in New Zealand politics? It’s a question that’s regularly raised because of an on-going (and often widespread) disaffection with the oppositional nature of our political system that seems to limit change.

But why doesn’t such a party arise and succeed? Can it arise Ex Nihilo: ‘out of nothing’? That is not as a breakaway from existing parties? Is the real issue the limitations of centrism itself, as – I’d suggest – a recent attempt to create such a party demonstrates.

Peter Dunne: Labour over the barrel on India free trade deal

Contrary to what many commentators are suggesting, Labour is not in the dominant position on what happens regarding the proposed free trade agreement with India. Labour is actually over a barrel on the issue.

Thanks to New Zealand First's obdurate xenophobia, based on inaccurate claims about what the agreement means for future immigration levels from India, the government lacks the numbers in Parliament to pass the relevant enabling legislation. Without New Zealand First's support, National and ACT therefore need to bring on board either Labour, the Green Party or Te Pati Māori to get the legislation through.

David Farrar: Is it a party or a family?

The Herald has documents in relation to the court case between Te Pati Maori and Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. What is fascinating is how they reveal the extent of the Tamihere family control of the party. It goes well beyond what we already knew. Here is what has been revealed:

Mike's Minute: March 6th is the start of redemption

March 6th is your day.

This is the date that the changes to foreign buyers of expensive houses comes into play.

This date, in a way, is like the LNG announcement.

Saturday February 14, 2026 

                    ⇩

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Let's talk about superannuation

Let's talk about superannuation – which I’ve noticed we are doing more and more frequently and which I think will probably become even more frequent as our population gets older over the next few years.

It's come up again because the boss of Milford Investments has given a speech warning that this talk of taking the pension age from 65 to 67 is simply not enough.

John Robertson: The Anatomy Of A Hijack

​A Manifesto Against the Tribal Enclosure of New Zealand Nursing

​New Zealand’s nursing profession is being dragged, kicking and screaming, into a state-mandated hallucination. The Nursing Council’s 2026 Draft Code of Conduct isn't a safety document; it’s a theological shakedown. It is an attempt to lobotomize the secular, scientific mind and replace it with a 19th-century tribal blueprint that has no business in a modern hospital.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 8.2.26

Saturday February 14, 2026 

News:
Cabinet removes te reo Māori name of school lunches scheme
The Government has quietly changed the name of the school lunches programme, dropping the te reo Māori title.

Cabinet papers obtained by Newstalk ZB under the Official Information Act (OIA) show that in October last year the Government agreed to update the name of the programme to “Healthy School Lunches”.

Ani O'Brien: Rot - Taxpayers are paying for special unlimited paid leave for Māori staff

Oranga Tamariki and Ministry for the Environment have race based leave entitlements

Duncan Garner kicked a hornet’s nest this week by reporting that Māori staff at Oranga Tamariki can take “discretionary” paid leave that other staff can’t, and that it’s effectively unlimited in practice.

Pee Kay: The entitlement applies to Māori staff only!

If this article by Matua Kahurangi is factual and discretionary paid cultural leave has been embedded in Oranga Tamariki’s collective contract, that should be of huge concern to all New Zealanders! Well, maybe not to some of their Maori staff.

This racially prescribed entitlement is not a thin end of the wedge, oh no, this is a huge battle-axe driven into society!

Matua Kahurangi: Te Pāti Māori’s politics of grievance delivers nothing for Māori

You may remember when I wrote about the race-based leave scandal exposed by Duncan Garner on his podcast. The thinking behind that policy was familiar: identity first, accountability later, criticism treated as hostility. The same mindset plays out every week in Parliament, most visibly through Te Pāti Māori.

Bob Edlin: PM snuffs suggestions he is imposing as gas tax....

Wow – we can only admire the energy which the PM puts into snuffing suggestions he is imposing a gas tax

US President Donald Trump is a dab hand at telling Americans down is up, war is peace and tariffs are not a tax.

It looks like our PM has gone to him for lessons.