Barrie Davis: From Consultancy to Co-governance

At the 2023 election many New Zealanders voted for the present Coalition in the expectation that would result in the removal of the maorification of our constitution. Is the Coalition meeting that expectation? Given the results, how should we now approach the next election?

Judy Gill: The New Zealand Anglican Church - Ethnic Division, Gender Politics, Social Justice Language, and the Politics of Identity

Last month, members of Te Pīhopatanga o Aotearoa (the Māori Anglican Church) attended the installation in London of Sarah Mullally, the first woman to become Archbishop of Canterbury in the office’s 1,400-year history.[1] In Te Ao Māori News, Archbishop Don Tamihere (no relation to John Tamihere or David Tamihere) described the occasion as one in which a “Three Tikanga Church” could rightly rejoice, and he framed that response in terms of justice, equity, colonial history, and culturally grounded expressions of faith.[1]

Ryan Bridge: This war in Iran has been a total balls-up from Trump.

Lets' talk about the elephant in the room, this war in Iran has been a total balls-up from Trump.

He's cried wolf three times on his ultimatums.

He's said one thing and then in the next breath said exactly the opposite.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Do we think Trump will go through with the Iran threats?

Midday tomorrow - our time. That is the deadline Donald Trump has given Iran.

Now, if your reaction is something along the lines of not really caring because Donald Trump has set plenty of deadlines before and then walked away from them, that’s fair enough. All of that is true.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 5.4.26

Wednesday April 8, 2026 

News:
Applications open for tangata whenua board vacancies at Council Controlled Organisations
People with the ability to represent and articulate tangata whenua perspectives and views, and have strong local tangata whenua relationships, are invited to apply for upcoming vacancies on two TCC CCO boards.

Mayor Mahé Drysdale says the roles are an important opportunity to strengthen governance and ensure tangata whenua perspectives help shape decision making.

Pee Kay: This is a social and financial fraud of massive proportions…

It was no surprise to see the “usual suspects” swiftly turn to their harmonised friends in the MSM to condemn the coalition governments, 2025 announced, review of the Waitangi Tribunal.

“This review is not about efficiency or clarity, it is about control.”

“For nearly 50 years, the Waitangi Tribunal has played a vital role in advancing justice for Māori.”

Colinxy: The Failure of the New Zealand Right - Why National Keeps Losing Even When It Wins

For decades, the New Zealand Right has been trapped in a strange political purgatory: it wins elections, but it never governs. It occupies the Treasury benches, but it never wields power. It campaigns as a counter‑force to the Left, but once in office, it behaves like a timid caretaker for the very institutions that oppose it.

National’s problem is not electoral. It is philosophical, cultural, and moral. It is a party that has forgotten what it is for — and worse, a party that is terrified of remembering.

Mike's Minute: Trump's way or the UN way?

So what is the alternative to what Trump has done in Iran?

The answer was discussed at a meeting over the weekend.

The British appeared to host it. 40 countries took part, including ours, and they were talking about what you might remember is the “global rules-based approach”.

That broadly was the way things were done pre-Trump.

JC: How Low Do National Wish to Go

The poll numbers are not kind to National or Luxon. Why? The answer is simple. National is not kind to its voter base. Can we identify the problem? Yes: it stems from the leadership of the party’s parliamentary team – Christopher Luxon, Nicola Willis and Chris Bishop. These three are driving the party down a road paved with ‘politically correct’ bitumen. Bitumen is a raw and sticky binding agent, now preferred to tarseal in the paving of roads, and National is using a political equivalent when it comes to matters of climate change and race relations. They are binding themselves to these issues in a ‘sticky’ manner that is very much at odds with their voter base.

Steve Gibson: Why Councils Need to Live Within Their Means

Across New Zealand, councils are drifting away from a simple principle that every household understands. You cannot spend more than you earn and expect it to end well. In Hastings, where I serve as a councillor, we are seeing this play out in real time.

Our council has approved a draft annual plan with a 9.1 per cent increase in spending. That is roughly three times inflation. At the same time, ratepayers are being asked to accept higher rates while the council borrows $4.8 million just to fund day-to-day operations.

DTNZ: Wayne Brown to scrap council meeting lunches

Auckland’s mayor has ordered an end to ratepayer-funded lunches at full council meetings after scrutiny of a catering bill that reached $1.4 million in the past year and nearly $5 million over four years, though meeting lunches themselves accounted for a relatively small portion of that total.

Centrist: The kids are alright – but the system still isn’t

First, the good news

Despite showing a sharp drop in serious youth offending and improvements across several frontline indicators, the report appears to have attracted little, if any, attention from RNZ or the wider New Zealand mainstream media.

Read straight, the latest annual report on the Child and Youth Strategy shows that, across several frontline indicators, New Zealand children and young people are doing better.

David Farrar: Fitch says we need fiscal consolidation

Fitch Ratings released:

Fitch Ratings has revised the Outlook on New Zealand’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to Negative from Stable and affirmed the IDR at ‘AA+’.

The Outlook revision reflects our view that a substantial debt reduction is becoming more difficult to envisage, as fiscal consolidation has been delayed in the past few years. The general government debt-GDP ratio has increased substantially over the past six years as the economy has been buffeted by a number of shocks.

Tuesday April 7, 2026 

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Ryan Bridge: Should we be preparing to go to war?

An interesting article in the Herald yesterday about army training at Waiouru.

The troops are singing from the same song sheet as Winston and Judith in terms of how threatening the world is at the moment.

Taxpayers' Union-Curia Poll - April 2026

Here are the headline results for April's Taxpayers’ Union – Curia Poll:

Dr Michael John Schmidt: Pragmatic Water Management

In my previous article “WCC’s Actions Are a National Moral Hazard”, the objection to transferring water assets was framed in moral and ethical terms: councils hold critical infrastructure in trust for the public, and irreversible transfers undermine trusteeship and create moral hazards by allowing responsibility to be exported rather than exercised.

Colinxy: The Lie of “Endless Growth”

Why Marxists Keep Repeating It — and Why It’s Nonsense

One of the most persistent talking points in Marxist circles — and among their fellow‑travellers in academia, activism, and the bureaucratic class — is the claim that capitalism supposedly promises “endless growth.” According to this myth, economists and capitalists are engaged in a kind of metaphysical delusion, imagining that markets will expand forever until the planet melts, the seas boil, and Jeff Bezos personally blocks out the sun.

It’s a neat story. It’s also completely false.

Peter Dunne: No-frills leadership

Christopher Luxon's mentor Sir John Key quickly and successfully transitioned from international businessman to national political leader when he became Prime Minister. Luxon, on the other hand, is still struggling to do so. And nor is it clear that he even wants to.

Key's smooth transition occurred because he was both driven, and a sponge for new knowledge. He knew what he wanted to achieve, and was always eager to learn the best political ways of doing so.

Dr Eric Crampton: If free parking is a problem, the solution is obvious: Put a price on it

It’s hard to compete with free. Who wants to pay for something if you can get it for nothing?

Unfortunately, sometimes free comes at others’ expense, as it can with on-street parking. Better council parking management, including pricing, would encourage better decisions.