Damien Grant: The tax lesson that starts with a surf trip....

....and ends with a warning for Labour

Who is Ceteris Paribus? Sounds like a Roman general who came to a sticky end fighting Asterix in the backwoods of Gaul. Sadly not. That is as fun as this column gets.

Let me paint you a picture; you painting a fence for $300 a day. It isn’t much but it is honest work. Enough to pay the rent, Netflix and a few beers come Friday.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 30.8.26

Monday August 31, 2026 

News:
A century without a marae, Te Kawerau-a-Maki granted $2.2m to kickstart
Auckland’s last remaining iwi without a marae is a step closer to a century old dream of rebuilding their home on their ancestral land in West Auckland.

Auckland Council has granted Te Kawerau ā Maki $2.2 million towards the first stage of building Te Henga Marae, set for the coast of Bethell’s Beach (Te Henga), alike the old pā site that once stood in the area.

Joanne Nova: China is building Ultra super critical coal fired power plants in just three years…

The speed of construction would blow a Western political mind

China pumped out 78GW of coal fired plants last year, which got me wondering why there was such a boom, especially since the current Chinese coal plants are only working at a bit over half their real capacity.

Andi Cocroft: Carbon Credits or Productive Landscapes?

The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment has reignited an important discussion about the future of New Zealand’s landscapes. His latest report argues that forestry should gradually be removed from the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), or at least its role significantly restricted, because the current system is encouraging carbon offsetting rather than reducing emissions at their source.

The recommendation will inevitably be viewed through the lens of climate policy, but there is a broader question that deserves equal attention.

Colinxy: Shooting the Messenger

An old fallacy in politics, dressed up as modern discourse

One of the most reliable indicators that someone has run out of arguments is when they stop attacking the point and start attacking the person making it. The logical fallacy is ancient — shooting the messenger — and it is often paired with its close cousin, poisoning the well. Together, they form the perfect shield for people who cannot, or will not, engage with ideas.

Net Zero Watch Samizdat: Summer is over. Now energy reality bites.

UK

British Gas boss warns of gas storage shortage

The boss of British Gas’s owner has warned the UK is facing the risk of gas shortages this winter as stockpiles fall. “We have almost no gas in storage in the UK for the coming winter, and this is a huge concern as energy security is national security.” The low storage levels leave Britain more open to paying higher prices for shipments of energy.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Balancing the books is only half the job

Over the past couple of weeks, the two major parties have told us about their fiscal policies. Both promise to return the budget to surplus before the end of the decade.

National aims to bring down government spending to 30% of GDP, while Labour wants to stabilise it around 33% of GDP. National has pledged not to introduce any new taxes, while Labour is campaigning on a new capital gains tax.

Dr Bryce Wilkinson: Rates caps are not ratepayer empowerment

No competent physician would prescribe a remedy for a symptom before determining its cause.

Local Government Minister Simon Watts wants to cap council rates increases at 2 to 4 percent. Why? Because, ratepayers have been hit with "steep and unexpected" rises that add to cost of living pressure.

That describes a symptom. It is not a diagnosis.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: A bad tax is not a down payment on a good one

On Monday evening, I sat on a panel at Foxglove on Queens Wharf in Wellington, where I was expected to play the neoliberal villain.

The Institute for Democratic and Economic Analysis is a think tank devoted to fighting poverty and political exclusion. It launched a new report on capital gains taxes, including the one Labour has proposed, and invited me to be one of the discussants.

A centre-left think tank, a Wellington audience and a Labour tax policy sounded like a home game for the tax. And I was presumably cast to declare that a capital gains tax would wreck the economy.

However, the evening did not follow that script.

Dr Eric Crampton: Protecting the children

This week, the government introduced legislation intended to protect youths from online harms.

If the Bill passes, covered social media platforms will be required to take ‘reasonable steps’ to stop under-16s from having accounts. Platforms that do not do enough will risk large fines. And Kiwis of every age could be blocked from accessing sites that fail to comply.

Bob Edlin: TOP is guided by developmental science on youthful criminality....

....but how is young adult voting behaviour affected?

Chris Lynch’s Christchurch Newsroom earlier this month reported that the Opportunity Party has scrubbed the age of 25 from a policy proposing a major expansion of New Zealand’s youth justice system.

Sunday August 30, 2026 

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Insights From Social Media: $2.2Million From The Maori Outcomes Gravy Train

Steven Mark Gaskell writes: Auckland Council is handing out up to $2.2 million to Te Kawerau ā Maki to help get a new marae project off the ground. The money comes from the council’s Tahua Huanga Ora Māori Outcomes Fund, which was set up under the 2018–2028 budget with $150 million allocated over ten years for Māori wellbeing and identity projects.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: If you want to cut taxes, accept the bad roads

Now listen, if you're one of the people celebrating Chris Hipkins for promising to cancel fuel tax rises if he wins the election, can I just warn you about the implications of him doing that?

And to be fair, it's not just him, okay?

Ani O'Brien: A week is a long time: 29 August 2026

Election 2026: The Great New Zealand Tax-Off

Christopher Luxon has promised “no new taxes” if National is returned to government. This makes a hell of a lot of sense given the opposition parties appear to be trying to outdo each other with the amount of new taxes they are announcing. Except Labour who swear they will not adopt these “bottom lines” of their coalition partners.

Gary Judd KC: Mumbo-jumbo and all that

The Mullahs of Mumbo-jumbo advance the cause of racist superiority

The New Zealand Law Society (NZLS), in partnership with its provider of continuing education is advertising “Tikanga and the law”. Interestingly enough, in a Freudian slip, the advertisement betrays the reality, that tikanga is not law. It says, “hear firsthand perspectives from those working at the intersection of tikanga and the law.”

The advertisement treats tikanga as something distinct from law while promoting its use in lawyers’ professional and ethical decision-making. It forms part of a wider NZLS programme that risks turning ideological precepts into professional obligations.

Graham Adams: Māori gods rule the CRL underworld

Anyone reading the headlines last month announcing that Auckland’s underground City Rail Link had been “blessed” would not have needed to read the accompanying article to guess that it wasn’t Catholic or Anglican bishops conducting the ritual.

It was, of course, mana whenua, who performed a formal dawn mahi ōkawa (blessing) of the new CRL stations.

The purpose of the blessing — led by Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei and supported by seven other local clans — was allegedly to “provide important tikanga and cultural safety ahead of upcoming ‘First Look’ public open day events and the commencement of passenger services”.

Barry Strauss: Was the Trojan Horse a War Crime?

The modern heart of the filmed Odyssey is a transgression and its consequences. But how did the ancients see the epic ruse?

Christopher Nolan’s hit movie The Odyssey is entertaining, but it’s not Homer. It has as much to do with Homer Simpson or Homer Price as it does with the Greek bard. The film is neither a documentary nor a simple retelling. It is, rather, a riff on the work of the great epic poet, the way John Coltrane’s jazz version of “My Favorite Things” riffs on The Sound of Music’s Broadway original. Some of the story told in the film isn’t even in Homer but comes from other ancient writings, notably Virgil’s Aeneid, a Latin epic. That’s showbiz.

Roger Partridge: The Discovery of the Good Life

A Case for Liberalism from What We Cannot Know

Vera Rubin spent her career measuring the rotation of galaxies. When she began, the major observatories were closed to women. She pushed her way in anyway. In 1965, she became the first woman permitted to use the telescope at Palomar. By the 1970s, she had produced evidence that there is far more matter in the universe than we can see – the dark matter problem now central to physics. She lived a life no woman of her grandmother’s generation could have foreseen.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Spurred by heat from Trump, Iceland votes on reopening frozen EU talks

I have always liked Iceland. My first visit was on a cruise ship in the mid-1990s. Reykjavík felt like a town that had grown from a fishing village, and the country behind was mostly empty.

A few years later, I returned for a proper holiday. It confirmed that earlier impression and added more peculiar observations like tiny but ridiculously priced hotel rooms or spotting puffin on the menu of a restaurant in the capital. In the end, I passed on that and had the most expensive pizza in my life instead.