Breaking Views Update: Week of 11.1.26

Monday January 12, 2026 

News:
Māori health org promises ‘in tatters’
The Iwi Māori Partnership Board for Te Tauihu has called the Health Select Committee’s recommendation to pass the Health Futures (Pae Ora) Amendment Bill a direct attack on Treaty rights.

Te Kāhui Hauora o Te Tauihu, the IMPB which represents the eight iwi of the top of the South Island, says the proposed changes will strip IMPBs of their core functions, undoing years of progress toward equitable health outcomes for Māori.

Net Zero Watch Samizdat: 2026 Begins with an Energy Reality Check

UK

Britain increases its reliance on natural gas

Britain’s reliance on fossil fuels has increased for the first time in four years, dealing a major blow to Ed Miliband’s hopes of decarbonising the grid by 2030. Gas-fired power plants generated 26.8pc of power in 2025, a rise of 1.1pc from the year prior, according to new figures. Claire Coutinho, the shadow energy secretary, has accused Mr Miliband of needlessly driving up bills and putting the country’s energy security at risk through his ideological approach to energy policy.

Roger Partridge: The Venezuela Precedent

There is something deeply satisfying about watching Nicolás Maduro being hauled from his palace and deposited in a Brooklyn jail cell.

The man was a monster. Under his rule, Venezuela’s economy contracted by roughly three-quarters – the largest peacetime economic collapse in the Western Hemisphere’s modern history. Nearly eight million Venezuelans fled, more than a quarter of the population he inherited. The country that once boasted Latin America’s highest living standards became a humanitarian catastrophe. In 2024, election observers believe he lost his bid for a third term by more than 30 points. He declared victory anyway.

Insights From Social Media: Yes There Is Warming?

Gravedodger writes > However I am not convinced it is all about mans involvement in environmental impacts.

In fact if man is able to become involved in what is now termed Climate Change as opposed to Global Warming and Global cooling for reasons the fear and scare tactics involved were conforming in the Ponnzi schemes to turn weather variables into something taxable, as said before why not employ the technology supposedly causing thr climate to change to relieve droughts.

Matua Kahurangi: Show us the receipts - Some MPs are burning more cash than they earn

There is a simple way to restore public confidence in how MPs spend taxpayer money. Publish fully itemised expenses, every quarter, for every MP. Line by line. No summaries. No vague categories. No hiding behind Parliamentary Service.

In New Zealand, an ordinary backbench MP earns around $168,600 a year, set by the independent Remuneration Authority. That salary is already scheduled to rise to about $181,200 this year in 2026. That is a solid income by any normal Kiwi standard. Most people earning that sort of money would be expected to manage their own travel and accommodation carefully.

Dr Bryce Edwards: The Watchdog that didn’t bark in the MisManageMyHealth scandal

In June 2025, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner received an anonymous tip. Someone alleged that Manage My Health had exposed names, emails, and passwords through its patient portal. The OPC did what it could: it advised the company to “consider” stronger protections. Six months later, hackers stole 430,000 files containing some of the most intimate health data imaginable.

Why couldn’t the watchdog do more? Because our watchdog has been muzzled, starved, and trained not to bite.

Dr Bryce Edwards: Why the MisManageMyHealth debacle was preventable

In my previous column, I argued that the Manage My Health breach revealed a hollowed-out state. But there’s something even more damning than the structural failures I outlined. This wasn’t a bolt from the blue. It was foreseeable. And it was ignored.

The most uncomfortable fact about the theft of 430,000 medical documents isn’t that hackers got in. It’s that someone tried to warn us six months earlier, and nothing meaningful was done.

David Farrar: Well done DOC

The Taxpayers’ Union released:

The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal that the Department of Conservation’s “Always Be Naturing” campaign, which will cost $2.07 million, is projected to bring in revenue and savings of $16.4 million through private-sector partnerships, donations, and value-in-kind support over the campaigns three year timeframe. …

Donald J. Boudreaux: Are Free Traders Materialistic — or Are Protectionists?

Recently on Facebook, I shared my Café Hayek post titled “Lower-Priced Goods are a Blessing, Not a Curse.” I prefaced this share with this remark: “Protectionism is the theory that 10+2=6, and 10-2=16. And protectionists proudly and tirelessly defend this theory, happy to dismiss as ‘elitists,’ ‘experts,’ or ‘globalists’ those of us who point out that 10+2=12, and that 10-2=8.”

Of course, my description of protectionism isn’t literally true. And yet it does truly capture protectionism’s essence, which is the bizarre belief that a greater abundance of goods and services made available from sources outside of a nation’s boundaries reduces the supplies of goods and services available to the people of that nation, while policies that diminish the abundance of goods and services made available from sources outside of a nation’s boundaries increase the supplies of goods and services available to the people of that nation.

Jonathan Paul: Greenland is rich in natural resources – a geologist explains why

Greenland, the largest island on Earth, possesses some of the richest stores of natural resources anywhere in the world.

These include critical raw materials – resources such as lithium and rare earth elements (REEs) that are essential for green technologies, but whose production and sustainability are highly sensitive – plus other valuable minerals and metals, and a huge volume of hydrocarbons including oil and gas.

Sunday January 11, 2026 

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Geoff Parker: He Puapua - Already in Motion

Evidence shows He Puapua is already in practice — quietly embedding ancestry-based distinctions across New Zealand’s institutions.

In the comments under my recent article “He Puapua and New Zealand 2040 - The End of Equal Citizenship”, several readers argued that He Puapua is not a distant aspiration but already being implemented across New Zealand’s institutions - quietly, incrementally, and without explicit public mandate. On close examination, they are correct: from councils to courts, professional boards to government agencies, the policies, laws, and practices outlined in He Puapua are already reshaping governance, citizenship, and the everyday operation of the state.

Ani O'Brien: A week is a long time: 10 January 2026

Global regime change to kick off 2026: Trump and the World

New Zealand might be slow out of the gate in the new year, but the United States hit 2026 like a tonne of bricks being towed by a 747.

This week was dominated by an extraordinary and dramatic military operation in Venezuela which resulted in the capture and transfer of Nicolás Maduro to US custody, with Trump declaring control over Venezuela’s governance. Click here to read what I wrote about Venezuela earlier in the week.

Elizabeth Lawrence: Trump Withdraws US From 66 International Organizations

Global left-wing agenda hardest hit.

President Donald Trump signed a memorandum on Wednesday ordering the United States’ withdrawal from more than 60 international organizations that he described as being “contrary to the interests of the United States.”

The move comes nearly one year after Trump issued Executive Order 14199 directing Secretary of State Marco Rubio to review all international intergovernmental organizations that the United States is involved in financially or otherwise “to determine which organizations, conventions, and treaties are contrary to the interests” of the US.

Dr Jake Scott: The Bear Looks East

Russia’s economic realignment leaves Europe in the cold.

As the eyes of the world watch negotiations over Kiev’s future, and the “special military operation” that was intended to last ten days nears the end of its fourth year, Russia is carefully deepening its economic ties outside of the West’s sphere of influence.

Melanie Phillips: How international law is weaponised against Israel

The rules-based global order has expired in disgrace

Another day, another libel against Israel in the name of international law.

The UN Human Rights Office has issued a report detailing what it calls Israel’s “systemic discrimination” against Palestinians in the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria, as well as eastern Jerusalem.

“This is a particularly severe form of racial discrimination and segregation that resembles the kind of apartheid system we have seen before,” declared the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk.

This is the lie constantly deployed by Israel’s enemies to demonise and destroy it.

Matua Kahurangi: Pakuranga fire, strike blame and a political cheap shot

Fire and Emergency New Zealand bosses have blamed ongoing strike action for delays responding to yesterdays blaze in Pakuranga, while the firefighters’ union has pushed back, saying FENZ was meant to have contingency plans in place. As always, when something goes wrong, fingers start pointing and responsibility gets blurred.

David Farrar: Indexing tax brackets would help more than taxpayer funded GP visits

The Taxpayers’ Union points out:

A new Taxpayers’ Union briefing paper, Robbing Peter to Pay Paul’s Doctor: Why Tax Indexing Makes More Sense, shows the tax system is quietly making cost-of-living pressures worse through “bracket creep”, pushing workers into higher tax bands simply because of inflation — the Christmas Grinch pinching a little extra from Kiwi pay packets.

Saturday January 10, 2026 

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Anglo Saxon: 2026 - New Zealand in a pivotal year - Will democracy survive another election.

In this video, Rick the Anglo Saxon delivers a New Years rant about the failing attempt to accommodate communist tribalism in a democracy, the futility of funding Ford Rangers, raising the drinking age for Maori people and special sentencing for offences involving indigenous violence.

Click to view