Duncan Garner: Voting And Speaking Rights Given To Unelected Iwi Up North

Duncan dives into a major shift happening right now in the Far North District Council. They have held an extraordinary meeting to give full voting and speaking rights to unelected iwi and hapu members. We look at what this means for local democracy and whether shared governance works when there is no shared electoral accountability to the ratepayers.

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Roger Partridge: Why Courts Cannot Determine the Scope of Their Own Authority

Critics of judicial overreach face an odd challenge. The most sophisticated response is not to defend the decisions – it is to deny that constitutional limits exist at all. If courts made the rules, the argument runs, courts can remake them. Last month’s column, An Inheritance Worth Defending, drew that response, among others.

Four arguments recur. On the surface they are distinct – one concerns the foundations of parliamentary sovereignty, one the proper limits of common law development, one a comparison with Australian constitutional law, and one concerns the lessons to be drawn from two landmark cases on judicial review and constitutional supremacy.

David Farrar: I was hoping Winston was pledging his own money

NZ First announced:

New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters has today announced a campaign commitment to fund an extra $15 million for the Christ Church Cathedral to get the rebuild moving.

I was hoping Winston meant he would put in $15 million personally but instead he means he wants taxpayers from Hamilton, Te Kuiti, New Plymouth and Hastings to fund it.

Mike's Minute: Do we complain about public service pay too much?

One of the easiest games in town is currently being played in Wellington.

The water company has a new Māori name, and they are going to start sending out specific water bills to everyone, which upon first blush, if you have never got a water bill before, seems a lot. The average will be about $2,500.

But then the upside is it's good to know what things actually cost, as opposed to having it all hidden away in a mass bill called "rates" where you have no idea what's what.

Dr Bryce Edwards: Democracy Briefing - Paying Robbie Williams to sing is the new corporate welfare

The Government is spending tens of millions helping international concert promoters bring acts to New Zealand that, in many cases, look like they would have come anyway. The process is closed. Ministers pick the winners. The sums are hidden behind claims of commercial sensitivity. And the economics used to justify it have started to fall apart on inspection.

Welcome to the $70 million Major Events and Tourism Package — the latest frontier of corporate welfare in New Zealand, brought to you by a coalition of parties that built their brands on opposing exactly this kind of thing.

David Harvey: Do Not Speak to Me of Rules

The title for this article is derived from this brief clip from David Lean’s “Bridge on the River Kwai” (1957)

This article addresses some current issues. It takes as a general context what is understood by the Rules Based Order. It briefly describes what is understood by this term, how it has operated and some of the challenges that it has faced.

The Rules Based Order is invoked from time to time when convenient and often in circumstances when by its invocation its flaws and weaknesses are made clear.

Andrew Moran: The World Is Begging for America’s Oil

The Strait of Hormuz has been effectively closed for seven weeks. Tanker traffic has cratered, regional production has plummeted by the most on record, and global energy prices have rocketed. In the United States, businesses are paying higher input costs, and consumers feel like it’s 2022 again. But the broader US economy could be relatively unscathed by the war in Iran as the world rushes to buy America’s oil, providing a cushion for growth prospects.

Colinxy: Did Māori Invent Trench Warfare?

A popular claim, one promoted most prominently by Professor James Belich, whom John Campbell once introduced as “Our National Treasure”, is that Māori not only invented trench warfare but that their innovations directly influenced British military doctrine in the First World War. Belich’s early work goes further than celebrating Māori ingenuity: it explicitly implies a causal line from nineteenth‑century pā fortifications to the trench systems of the Western Front.

It’s a striking narrative. It is also historically indefensible.

David Farrar: Are Labour trying to throw the seat to Te Pati Maori?

Radio NZ reported:

Labour has selected the former Auckland councillor and mayoral candidate Kerrin Leoni to contest the Tāmaki Makaurau seat.

The Auckland electorate is currently held by Te Pāti Māori’s Oriini Kaipara – who bested Labour’s Peeni Henare in last year’s by-election.

Wednesday April 15, 2026 

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Ryan Bridge: Religious leaders' messages work better without politics

Trump's at war with the Pope again, this time over Iran. Last time it was over Gaza.

Usually the pontiff is a bit more low-key, just praying and kissing babies and cruising round in the white robe in the Pope-mobile, like Batman but less cool.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 12.4.26

Wednesday April 15, 2026 

News:
No 'peace of mind' until managed retreat from vulnerable areas - iwi leader
The deputy prime minister says it is up to local communities, not necessarily the government, to decide whether they need to relocate as climate change worsens.

And a local iwi leader agrees, saying it will take a "whole of community approach" to make the hard calls required to create "peace of mind".

Bob Edlin: When safety notices are ignored, councils might turn to rahui.....

When safety notices are ignored, councils might turn to rahui – or maybe risk-takers should be told not to bother with an SOS

Tauranga city authorities might be musing on whether they should have tried a rahui to keep people off Mount Maunganui beach and Moturiki Island at the weekend

Brendan O'Neill: The glorious Irish revolt against globalist insanity

There’s nothing like a drivers’ revolt to tease out the classism of the new elites. Then Canadian PM Justin Trudeau invoked the wartime Emergencies Act against truckers who had the temerity to agitate against Covid-19 vaccine mandates. European farmers who rose up against an eco-hike in fuel taxes were furiously denounced as ‘far right’ by the gated ponces who rule over them. And now in Ireland, the cossetted moralists of Dublin 4 have been roused into a frenzy of anti-worker bigotry by that most awful of sights: farmers, truckers, cabbies and others protesting over soaring fuel prices.

David Farrar: Labour shoots itself again

Do you remember Chris Hipkins complaining National hadn’t consulted Labour over NCEA changes, and then it transpired their spokesperson had turned down multiple offers from the Minister to brief her.

Well they’ve done it again. Chris Bishop writes:

David Farrar: Exporters call for India FTA support

The Herald reports:

Some of New Zealand’s top exporters and business associations have signed an open letter calling on all political parties to back New Zealand’s free trade agreement with India. …

The open letter, organised by BusinessNZ, was signed by 28 exporters and industry associations, such as Federated Farmers, Zespri, Seafood New Zealand and Beef + Lamb New Zealand.

Mike's Minute: We need to take a good, hard look at ourselves

I'm an AvGeek. I like plane and travel videos and one of the regulars I watch is a guy called Nonstop Dan.

He's American and has just been here giving the world the predictable view of the place.

He can't believe how amazing it is, he can't believe how remote it is, and he is thinking of moving here.

Dave Patterson: Big Risks, Big Rewards for Trump’s Strait of Hormuz Blockade

When the talks between the US and Iran failed, the Trump administration took direct action. The United States Navy will establish a traditional blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, preventing transit into or out of the waterway. Historically, blockades are seldom used, since they require a significant number of naval resources to be effective. When they are used successfully, however, they make a difference. “Throughout the history of warfare and into the present, blockading continues to prove itself one of the most effective ways of pressuring an enemy,” observed Army Major Joshua Howard in his monograph, From Napoleon to Netanyahu: Blockading Through Two Centuries.

American Blockade – A Rare But Effective Choice

Bruce Cotterill: Oil crisis - Why New Zealand needs a ‘kamikaze Cabinet’ to fix the economy

We’re getting ourselves quite worked up about oil prices. And it’s probably fair.

Despite three decades of climate mumbo jumbo warning us that we need to abandon fossil fuels for the sake of the planet, the events of the last few weeks have highlighted that we’ve made little such progress and we are still heavily reliant on the black stuff.

Bob Edlin: Tensions over co-governance spread from Far North to Hastings....

Tensions over co-governance spread from Far North to Hastings – but Simon says he sees no cause to intervene

A headline on the OneNews website suggests Simon Watts might be earning his keep – at last – on the wretched issue of elected councillors sharing their powers with unelected iwi appointees.

It says: Local Government Minister puts scrutiny on Far North District Council.

That’s his response – presumably – to a councillor in the Far North hoping to put him on the spot by calling for his intervention.

But he’s not ready to intervene. For now, he has delegated the exercise of his authority to departmental minions: