Breaking Views Update: Week of 11.1.26

Tuesday January 13, 2026 

News:
Total Immersion Learning - Orewa College
In 2026, Orewa College is proud to launch our inaugural Rumaki Reo Māori programme for Year 7 and Year 8 tauira. This Level 1 total immersion programme will see approximately 80% of learning delivered in te reo Māori, grounded in te ao Māori, mātauranga Māori, and tikanga Māori.

Graham Adams - Election 2026: Swarbrick’s plan for Green supremacy falters

When Chlöe Swarbrick became the Greens’ co-leader in March 2024, she announced that she wanted the party to go “mainstream”.

Her professed aim was to supplant the Labour Party to ultimately form “the nation’s first Green-led government”, all without compromising the movement’s core values.

Peter Bassett: Effecting Treaty principles into immigration: When Footnotes Decide the Verdict

Modern activist legal writing has a sound of its own: the rustle of footnotes doing work they were never meant to do. Elizabeth Rabiyan’s essay claiming that New Zealand immigration law has “failed to give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi” is a near-perfect specimen.

Graeme Spencer: Kawanatanga, Rangatiratanga and the Treaty

Maori radicals pin much of their argument on Hugh Kawharu’s modern reinterpretation of “tino rangatiratanga”, claiming it means self-determination or retained sovereignty — and that Māori in 1840 did not understand what they were agreeing to.

Over the past few days, with the help of AI, I [Graeme Spencer] have been examining contemporary Māori-language articles written (by Māori?) for Māori in the 1840s–1870s.

Corey Smith: China and Qatar Give Billions to US Universities – What Do They Get?

When authoritarian governments have access to American campuses.

Five hundred and twenty-seven colleges and universities have accepted foreign gifts and contracts for a total of $62.4 billion – that we know about. China has given more than $4 billion to US universities, and it’s only the fourth highest on a list displayed on the Department of Education’s new online portal. It shows how much money American universities have received from foreign gifts and contracts, part of President Donald Trump’s effort to ensure these institutions are transparent about funds from outside the country. Getting universities to disclose information, however, is the easy part.

Insights From Social Media: Trump withdraws U.S. from 66 international organizations including UN climate

Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Withdraws the United States from International Organizations that Are Contrary to the Interests of the United States

WITHDRAWING FROM INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed a Presidential Memorandum directing the withdrawal of the United States from 66 international organizations that no longer serve American interests.

DTNZ: ‘Open Electricity reforms’ aim to cut power costs for consumers

The Government has confirmed the retail electricity sector will be brought under the Customer and Product Data Act, a move it says will make it easier for households and small businesses to compare power plans and reduce electricity costs.

Energy Minister Simon Watts and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Scott Simpson said the initiative, known as Open Electricity, follows the rollout of ‘Open Banking’, with regulations for that system having come into force in December last year.

John McLean: Bullsh*t State Sponsored Arrogance

The Broadcasting Standards Authority’s war on media channel The Platform is heating up and could well explode in 2026. I’ve covered the BSA’s ideologically driven attempt to assert jurisdiction over The Platform in a previous Substack:

Professor Rod NcNaughton: NZ’s low productivity is often blamed on businesses staying small. That could be a strength in 2026

For decades, we have heard a familiar story about why New Zealand’s firms choose to stay small. Business owners prefer comfort, control and lifestyle over ambition, summed up in the old notion of the “bach, boat and BMW” being the height of aspiration.

The statistics show this pattern clearly. New Zealand’s productivity has lagged other advanced economies for years, with output per hour worked sitting below the OECD average.

Pee Kay: The Politics of Language

Rita Mae Brown, an American feminist writer is remembered as saying, “He unzipped his pants and his brains fell out.”

A more sagacious pearl of wisdom from Rita Mae was, “Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going.”

Worryingly, those last 4 words may be portentous as far as New Zealand is concerned!

Matua Kahurangi: Bikinis, Grok and the great excuse to censor X

Let’s be honest about what’s actually going on here, because the sudden moral panic from Britain, Australia and Canada reeks of bullsh*t.

We are being told that X might need to be banned, throttled or “urgently assessed” because Grok AI can be used to put politicians in bikinis. Yes, bikinis. The whākn’ horror.

Kevin: Did You Know There’s an Uprising?

The people of Iran are on the street because they want the regime gone and the momentum keeps increasing. This isn’t just a protest – it’s an uprising.

Did you know there’s an uprising in Iran? Well, unless you closely follow X, chances are you don’t. Until recently, there has been a near-total media blackout – nothing on New Zealand media and nothing on the BBC.

So why has the BBC been so quiet about this?

Monday January 12, 2026 

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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. …