Breaking Views Update: Week of 21.6.26

Sunday June 21, 2026 

News:
Māori Health Providers Reject Funding Deal Over Te Tiriti Concerns
Two Māori health providers have voted against a proposed primary healthcare funding package, arguing it weakens Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations and fails to adequately address Māori health inequities.

Te Whare o Rehua and Tarawera Medical Centre say they could not support the package because it does not provide sufficient recognition of the Crown’s responsibilities to Māori within the health system.

Gary Judd KC: Inflation - the struggle for simplicity

Why the Reserve Bank must distinguish monetary inflation from supply shocks

This morning I heard Auckland Chamber of Commerce chief executive Simon Bridges describing the dire state of the Auckland economy. He put part of the blame on the Reserve Bank’s signal that interest rates may need to rise in response to increasing prices. His point was that the immediate cause of the latest price pressure was not excessive domestic demand, but a spike in fuel prices caused by disruption to Middle East oil supplies.

Ani O'Brien: A week is a long time: 20 June 2026

Labour’s plan for “FREE” everything, paid for by one extra tax

Labour has had a busy time announcing policies (finally). Last week was the public transport fare cap of $20 a week in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, and $10 elsewhere. Labour costed it at $65 million a year, but the numbers immediately began to wobble. Economists Sam Warburton and Brad Olsen put the more realistic figure somewhere between $91-112 million.

Joshua Riley: India Free Trade Agreement - What They Didn't Tell You

Five days after the parliamentary majority for ratification was already locked in, New Zealand released the full text of its Free Trade Agreement with India.

Read it. Because what it says is not what you were told.

Melanie Phillips: Trump’s surrender

Something darker is at work here than just a concern over rising fuel prices

Does Donald Trump actually understand what he’s done?

Responding to critics of his agreement with Iran, the US president called them “fools” and either “jealous or bad people” because “the stock market just hit A RECORD HIGH, and oil prices are tumbling down.”

So the economy is all that matters in a struggle to neutralise a fanatical Islamic revolutionary regime that puts its weapons where its mouth is when it screams “Death to America”?

Guest Post: Molesworth Station

Guest Post by Gravedodger on No Minister

A reasoned argument from one who understands how to relieve Pamu of Our Largest Station, Molesworth.

At present Pamu the current “Woke” iteration of the Government Lands and Survey farming department actual farming the vast estates still in Crown ownership returning often paltry returns when compared to private enterprise farming opperations is about to announce the future ownership and management strategy for the 500, 000 acre high country station on the southern boundary of Marlborough that was abandoned to the Crown due largely to rabbits and poor prices c1930s then added to with parts of St Helens after three farms were created on the Hanmer Plains for returned soldiers in 1949 and Tarndale Station also abandoned as run country.

Colinxy: Profit vs. Plunder - The Two Economic Moralities

Two Ways of Seeing the World

Every political ideology rests on an implicit theory of how wealth comes into existence. Strip away the slogans, the moralising, the academic jargon, and you find only two fundamental worldviews:

David Farrar: A doctor speaks out

A reader comments:

The RNZCGP is outdoing them and GP’s are sick and tired of it to the back teeth.1/4 of my CME is about “Cultural Safety and Equity.

25% of my continuous medical education is spent on this. Every 3 years the same stuff! Over and over again! Why not just once.

Mike's Minute: Labour's "splash the cash" mentality will solve nothing

What is the matter with Labour? They are giving me free doctor’s visits – I don’t want them or need them.

Now they are giving me free prescriptions… it’s tens of millions of dollars we don’t have, handed out to people who don’t need it. Some people need it – give it to them.

You are literally wasting money giving these things to anyone on a half-decent salary.

Saturday June 20, 2026 

                   ⇩

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Unsurprisingly, Wayne Brown might be a bully

I’m going to make a prediction that I’m fairly certain is going to bear out: no one is going to be shocked by reading in the Herald that Wayne Brown might be a bully.

This has kicked off again this week with a complaint from a new Auckland councillor, Bo Burns, that Auckland Council is so dysfunctional she has packed up and walked out of meetings twice because of behaviour she considered unacceptable. Then, the Herald dropped a much bigger piece expanding on all of this, featuring the accounts of multiple councillors who also complain and who then hone in on the mayor in particular.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 14.6.26

Saturday June 20, 2026 

News:
Next steps for pathway programmes supporting young Māori players
New Zealand Rugby (NZR) has today confirmed the next steps for its Māori U18 Ngā Whatukura and U18 Mareikura programmes, strengthening development pathways for young Māori players and emerging talent across the game.

Geoff Parker: Luxon's Silence On The Treaty Debate Is Becoming Deafening

I have been talking to iwi leaders ... for the past 12 months.

— Christopher Luxon, April 2025

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon's latest meeting with iwi leaders raises an important question: who exactly is he governing for?

No reasonable New Zealander would object to the Prime Minister meeting Māori leaders. In a democratic country, governments should engage with all sectors of society. Farmers, business owners, unions, community groups, churches, environmental organisations and iwi all have a right to be heard.

The problem is not that Luxon met with iwi leaders.

David Harvey: The Regulator's Reflex

Why the State's worldwide hunger to govern internet platforms should worry us more than the platforms themselves

There is a revealing little scene in this week’s New Zealand political news. The Media Minister, Paul Goldsmith, told a select committee that he goes on phoning the chairs of the public broadcasters at “random times” to see what is going on, keeps no notes, makes no recording, carries — in his own phrase — no “little notebook,” and assumes the chairs keep no record either.

Peter Dunne: Yes Minister

Our system of government has been built on the partnership between Ministers and their public service officials to implement the government’s policies. Inevitably, that requires a high level of mutual confidence and trust.

The system further assumes that officials, whatever their personal political allegiances, will work impartially with Ministers to achieve those goals. Ministers have the right to expect the professional loyalty and genuine effort of their officials, and officials should expect to receive the support of their Ministers in return.

Kerre Woodham: Who's got it right when it comes to work ethics?

Work ethics – where do we stand on those? Is it a generational thing? Do you continue to soldier on despite Covid changing the way we see coming to work while sick? Do you still soldier on? Do you pause and take a break if you can feel a sniffle coming on because you want to A) ensure you don't infect your colleagues and B) ensure that you've got the best possible chance of getting better by staying home? Is it a generational thing or just an individual thing?

Bob Edlin: Hooton shows his editing skills on Page 2 of The Post...

Hooton shows his editing skills on Page 2 of The Post – and the words “NZ Herald” are among the excisions

PoO is wondering about the fate that might befall the Stuff website staffer who posted news of two editorial appointments at The Post. Whoever it was might have provided readers with more information than presumably was intended by newly appointed editor-in-chief Matthew Hooton.

Both The Post print version (on Page 2) and website (here) have recorded the appointments of Henry Cooke as The Post’s political editor and Amelia Wade as Auckland editor.

David Farrar: Meet the Greens – Agriculture

The second Greens policy I am looking at is Agriculture. They key aspects are:

Dr Don Brash: Your career or your opinions — New Zealand is making you choose

The following extract is written in Don's capacity as Hobson's Pledge trustee

For years, Hobson's Pledge has been raising the alarm about professional regulators being weaponised against people who simply express differing opinions.

It is not illegal, for example, to call for the Waitangi Tribunal to be wrapped up or Māori electorates to be abolished, but posting such opinions could currently get one in trouble with their profession’s regulator.

Lindsay Mitchell: Sound decision from Becroft

In August last year, on the issue of banned gang patches, I wrote:

In what appears to be a first, District court judge Lance Rowe has decided to return a patch to its convicted wearer.

He came to the decision using the concept of tikanga or kinship. The court reporter detailing this decision says it "may yet be appealed by the police."

In a sound judgement High court justice Andrew Becroft has decided that gang patches cannot be returned.

Stuff reports this morning: