Breaking Views Update: Week of 22.3.26

Saturday March 28, 2026 

News:
Gisborne $29.7m recovery funding bid awaits Government decision
Gisborne leaders are awaiting the Government’s response to a $29.7 million funding bid for a joint agency/iwi-led recovery plan after January’s severe weather event.

The letter was co-signed by representatives from Te Runanganui O Ngāti Porou (Tronp), the council and the region’s economic development and tourism agency, Trust Tairāwhiti.

David Harvey: Justice Should Be Seen By All

Why New Zealand's Courts Were Wrong to Abandon X

The courts and Parliament’s support services have quietly moved their social media presence to Bluesky — and in doing so, have made a political statement they had no business making.

The Rule of Law is not a bureaucratic abstraction. It is the foundational promise that the law applies equally to all, that decisions made in the name of the public are accessible to the public, and that no one — not even the state — is above accountability. Central to that promise is something deceptively simple: people must be able to find the law.

JC: Winston up to His Old Tricks

Winston is doing himself no favours by playing silly games.

So Winston is, once again, back to his old tricks of playing the joker in the pack, the wild card if you like. Winston is a bright cookie (and probably the best foreign minister this country has ever had) but has a mischievous streak and that engaging smile he so often beguiles us with. According to the Centrist, he will only not go with Labour if Hipkins is leader, because Hipkins lied to him. This is the Winston we are most familiar with. I would remind the elderly gentleman that a leopard doesn’t change its spots.

David Farrar: Labour’s fuel crisis policy is silence

The Herald reports:

Labour leader Chris Hipkins isn’t providing an alternative plan of action to help struggling New Zealanders facing pain at the pump and the threat of rising prices elsewhere.

Asked repeatedly what alternatives Labour could suggest, Hipkins said the onus to present ideas was on the current Government.

Mike's Minute: The war week four and what we've learnt

I think we have a couple of emerging themes as we come to the end of week four of Operation Epic Fury.

If you follow Australia as closely as I do, you will, like me, have been filled with a sense of pride or surprise that we are out doing them in adultness.

Ani O'Brien: Slashing taxes won’t fix the Fuel Shock, targeted measures the right move

The Fuel Shock explained: what’s actually going on
The Government has announced a $50 per week support package for working families in response to the fuel price surge that has resulted from the Iran conflict. Around 143,000 households will receive the payment through a boost to the in-work tax credit, with eligibility expanded to a further 14,000 families. It will cost up to $373 million if it runs for the full year. It will run for up to a year or until the price of petrol goes below $3/litre for four consecutive weeks.

Kerre Woodham: The Fisheries Amendment Bill – time to go back to the drawing board?

I doubt there'll be many people out on the water —certainly not in the upper North Island on the East Coast— but the next time you go out, let me know what the catch is like. The Government's done a U-turn on minimum size limits for commercial fishers, but that's not enough for fishing advocacy groups. They want the Government to kill the Fisheries Amendment Bill entirely. They say it's not doing enough to protect our fish stocks. Meanwhile, Seafood New Zealand says it's ironic that the change has resulted in an outcome that's not great for the environment and doesn't provide the incentive to avoid catching small fish. So when the advocacy groups and the commercial fishers are not happy, you'd have to wonder at the point of the bill.

Chris Lynch: Canterbury Basin bid signals renewed push for oil and gas exploration

A new application to prospect for oil and gas off the Canterbury coast has triggered a competitive process, with the Government saying it reflects growing confidence in the sector.

New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals has opened a three month process after receiving an application from CBX Energy Limited to explore frontier acreage in the offshore Canterbury Basin.

David Farrar: Timely, targeted and temporary

I was at a forum on Tuesday where the Reserve Bank Governor was asked about the role of fiscal policy in responding to the increase in prices caused by the Iran war. She said that any assistance should be timely, targeted and temporary.

I agree, and this is of course in great contrast to what the last Government did with the Covid-19 response where the spent a shocking $30 billion of Covid-19 response funds on stuff that had nothing to do with Covid-19.

Friday March 27, 2026 

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Michael Laws: Why The New Water Entities Are A Financial Disaster

Michael Laws talks about Why the new water entities are a financial disaster about to seriously impact your wallet, on The Platform

Click to view

Ryan Bridge: Once again Trump rains on the parade of our economic recovery

For the second year in a row, Donald Trump has rained on the parade of our economic recovery.

The economists this week have been beavering away, updating the economic forecasts.

We'll kiss goodbye to up to a third of our growth for the year. What was 3% is now 2%.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: I'm surprised the police allowed the Tom Phillips documentary to happen

My overriding reaction to news that a Tom Phillips documentary is being made for Netflix is surprise.

I’m surprised that the police are still allowing this to happen - especially now that it’s confirmed the documentary will appear on a platform as globally dominant as Netflix.

Ryan Bridge: Why's the world so hectic at the moment?

Everyone keeps asking why the world feels so hectic at the moment.

If life were a movie, they'd call it One Battle After Another.

Winston Peters, Judith Collins, and their counterparts in Europe and elsewhere all agree we’re living in the most dangerous era since the World Wars.

Mike's Minute: Are EVs having their moment?

I note the whinging has started from EV owners as their fixed price deals for recharging their Nissan Leafs at home come to an end.

Some claim the new deals will be 50% higher. How can you possibly be surprised?

Did you think you would get away with it forever?

Ani O'Brien: The truth about TOP

TOP isn’t above Left and Right. It’s just the Left in better packaging.

Every election cycle, like clockwork, Opportunity (TOP) reappears. It refreshes its branding, gets a new leader, rolls out a new slate of candidates, and the media, just as predictably, froths over them. Since Gareth Morgan founded the party in 2016, this has become a familiar ritual in New Zealand politics.

Colinxy: The Political Cruelty of Kindness - How Sentiment Became a Soft Authoritarianism

Jacinda Ardern’s political brand was built on a single, endlessly repeated injunction: “Be kind.” It was the slogan that launched a thousand puff‑pieces, the mantra that turned a mid‑tier Labour politician into a global celebrity, and the emotional adhesive that held together the most intrusive, divisive, and centralising government in modern New Zealand history.

But kindness, when wielded as a political doctrine, is not kindness at all. It is sentimentality weaponised— a velvet‑textured form of coercion that punishes dissent while congratulating itself for its gentleness.

Andrew Moran: Poland — The Very Model of a Modern Major Economy

From communist hellscape to free market symbol.

Borscht. Knife in the Water. Frédéric Chopin. Among the world’s 20 largest economies? Poland is famous for many contributions to humanity, but being a major economy may not be on everyone’s Bingo card. However, the Polish economic environment has evolved substantially since the post-communist ruins of decades ago, transitioning from Marx to markets. What happened?

Roger Partridge: The Alternative Was Not Nothing

This essay forms part of a longer series on Donald Trump’s second presidency – examining the erosion of constitutional constraints at home and the consequences for American power abroad.

Peter Smith asks a fair question. In Trump and the Paradox of American Power, I wrote that I had long favoured taking out Iran’s nuclear facilities – but not like this. Peter wants to know what “not like this” means. What was the alternative? He deserves a straight answer.

Kerre Woodham: The fuel relief package is simply a morale booster

So help is on the way from the Government, as expected. The announcement came around 12:30pm yesterday. Thought it might be too late, because according to Donald Trump, “me and the Ayatollah are going to be controlling the Straits of Hormuz”. Be open very soon, he says. Well, that's good, isn't it? But in the meantime, while we wait for that to eventuate, Donald Trump and the Ayatollah cutting the ribbon over the Straits of Hormuz, 140,000 New Zealand families with kids will receive an extra $50 per week through the boost in the in-work tax credit.