Breaking Views Update: Week of 29.3.26

Thursday April 2, 2026 

News:
Backcountry to be turned into historic reserve
Work has started on a management plan for the new culturally significant stewardship land area, Tarahanga e Toru Historic Reserve.

The 181,000ha reserve includes three main pounamu trails that were vital for Poutini Ngāi Tahu and incorporates much of the Hokitika backcountry.

Clive Bibby: “We don’t know how lucky we are”

In modern democratic societies where economies either steadily grow or collapse under debt, it is noticeable that a few key domestic factors repeatedly feature in the outcome.

And perhaps, on examination, it is no surprise to find that little old New Zealand is blessed more than most other comparable states in the number of natural resources we have at our disposal. The problem is (in Fred Dagg’s assessment) “We don’t know how lucky we are.”

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: It's a tone-deaf move from Fire and Emergency NZ

I’d like to know how you feel about the firefighters and their strike because I’ve gone from soft support a few weeks ago to very hard support today.

What’s tipped me over the edge is this kerfuffle around board pay. Frankly, it’s one of the most tone-deaf things I’ve seen in a very long time.

Ryan Bridge: Bureaucrats shouldn't get work from home flexibility

Remember the outrage over bureaucrats working for home, even though Covid was a distant memory?

The Government came in and said they should all pack their lunch and go back to work. Problem is, this isn't happening.

David Farrar: Abolish the BSA

The Broadcasting Standards Authority announced:

The Broadcasting Standards Authority has confirmed it has jurisdiction to consider a complaint about content transmitted by an online broadcaster.

In a decision published today, the Authority determined it can accept, and is required to consider under the Broadcasting Act, complaints about The Platform’s Live Talkback programme, because the programme meets the Act’s definition of ‘broadcasting’.

DTNZ: Tamihere murder convictions quashed after 36 years

David Tamihere’s convictions for the 1989 murders of Swedish backpackers Urban Höglin and Heidi Paakkonen have been overturned by the Supreme Court, which ruled his original 1990 trial was fundamentally unfair due to perjured evidence and major changes in the Crown’s case.

David Harvey: Walking Backwards Into the Future

Against Retrospective Thinking

There is a striking similarity between two traditions of temporal thought that, on first encounter, appear to belong to entirely different intellectual worlds.

The Western media theorist Marshall McLuhan observed that human beings move into the future facing backwards — interpreting novelty through inherited frameworks, making sense of the unprecedented by analogy with the familiar.

Mark Angelides: Has the Iran Endgame Begun?

Beyond the partisan punditry, for President Donald Trump, the war in Iran appears to be coming to a conclusion. It may yet turn out to be not the type of conclusion he and his administration had envisioned when the first strikes were launched on February 28, but with just several weeks to go before Congress has to step in and either declare or demur, everything is now focused on the exit strategy.

Kerre Woodham: It's the economy, stupid

"It's the economy, stupid," is a catchphrase that means the primary concern of American voters is the state of the American economy and how that economy affects their personal finances. It was a phrase coined by a strategist in Bill Clinton's successful presidential campaign, and it's pretty much what Christopher Luxon campaigned on in 2023.

Bob Edlin: Putting English ahead of te reo on names of public agencies is a challenge....

Govt can be quick to pass new laws but putting English ahead of te reo on names of public agencies is a challenge

My email in-tray today included a newsletter from the source pictured above which – when opened – was found to be Land Information New Zealand (LINZ),

That’s the government agency which manages land titles, surveying, crown property, and topographic/hydrographic information.

David Farrar: Why reducing demand now won’t help

I’ve seen a lot of people on the left demanding that NZ implement petrol rationing immediately, to prepare for when the supply to NZ of petrol and diesel reduces. They are trying to portray the Government as not doing enough, so presumably they can claim that when rationing does occur, it could have been avoided by acting earlier.

They are wrong, because they overlook a vital fact – our in country storage capacity. It is estimated our in country capacity is around 28 days worth of petrol. We currently have 27.9 days according to MBIE.

Mike's Minute: NZ look like the adults in the room re our fuel response

From our "don’t waste a crisis" file, is it possible this Government's handling thus far of oil events might well see them rewarded with an increased level of support as the election draws closer?

The initial reaction when the war broke out and oil went up was twofold.

Wednesday April 1, 2026 

                    ⇩

Roy Morgan: Support for National-led Government and Labour-led Opposition now tied

Roy Morgan’s New Zealand Poll for March 2026 shows the National-led Government (National, ACT & NZ First) on 47.5%, down 1% point and effectively tied with the Labour-Greens-Te Pāti Māori Parliamentary Opposition on 48%, up 1% point, the latest Roy Morgan New Zealand Poll finds.

Dr Will Jones: “Go Get Your Own Oil,” Trump Tells Starmer

Donald Trump dramatically told Keir Starmer to “go get your own oil” as the US President washed his hands of the Middle East crisis and Europe’s fuel supplies dry up and costs soar. The Mail has more.

NZCPR Newsletter: A Wake-Up Call

New Zealanders are now confronting the most serious energy and fuel pressures in a generation. Diesel prices have surged to record levels, truck stops in several regions have already run dry, and questions are increasingly being raised about whether national fuel supplies will hold. Fertiliser importers are warning of tightening global markets, supply chains are under strain, and the latest price spikes are already feeding directly into the cost of living and inflation.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: There's more at stake here than Tamihere’s guilt or innocence

So David Tamihere has finally got what he’s been fighting for for decades. The Supreme Court has quashed his convictions for murdering the two Swedish backpackers all those years ago.

Now this doesn’t mean a retrial will necessarily happen. That’s up to the Crown, which must decide whether it wants to pursue the charges again.

Dr Bryce Edwards: Democracy Briefing - The Energy insurance that NZ never bought

Arguments about the current energy crisis have shifted. It is no longer just about what ministers are doing now. It is also about what they chose not to do when they had the chance.

This morning brought the clearest accountability journalism to this debate. Kate MacNamara in the Herald and Edward Miller in The Post both zero in on the same issue: New Zealand was left more exposed than it needed to be, and ministers were warned about the country’s lack of fuel reserves.

John McLean: Woke Entrenchment

Mechanisms of ideological Identitarian societal capture…complete with a case study

I’ve written screeds on how Woke/Critical Social Justice/Identitarianism/Neo-Marxism/Post-Modernism – call “it” what you will - has been entrenched in New Zealand society.

Bruce Cotterill: AI revolution is coming for service jobs....

AI revolution is coming for service jobs: How work will change by 2030

There are plenty of things distracting us at the moment. With an election looming, another war in the Middle East, swollen oil prices and concerns about supply, and the risk of a return to recession as a result.

Amidst the madness we’ve stopped talking about the fact that we are about to experience the biggest change to our way of life, probably in our lifetimes.