Net Zero Watch Samizdat: Defiant Miliband Doubles Down

UK

Miliband: I need to go further and faster

Ed Miliband rejected warnings he is going “too far and too fast” and instead vowed to speed up the construction of renewables across the country. This will include a “massive” expansion of net zero infrastructure on the public estate, as well as allowing large electricity substations to be built without planning applications.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 26.4.26

Sunday April 26, 2026 

News:
Under-threat council looks to advance iwi deals
Taranaki Regional Council is to consider pushing ahead on seven agreements with iwi despite the council's days being numbered under local government reforms.

On Tuesday TRC's powerful Policy and Planning Committee will decide how to boost mana whenua engagement in the council's work.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: The Wellington State Sector Chiefs Who Undermine Their Ministers & Democracy

On The Platform, Michael Laws chats to NZ Initiative’s Dr Oliver Hartwich on the Wellington state sector chiefs who undermine their Ministers and democracy.

Click to view

Ani O'Brien: A week is a long time: 25 April 2026

Lest we forget 🇳🇿 🇦🇺

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

Nats versus the Media: Luxon draws a line

Rodney Hide: The Maori Electorates - Racist Relic That Must Go

The Maori electorates are a 19th-century anachronism that should have been abolished twice—first when universal suffrage arrived in 1893, and again when MMP was adopted in 1996. They are racist by design, divisive by operation, and the breeding ground for the ethnic grievance industry now dominating our politics.

Created in 1867 as a temporary bridge for Maori men excluded by the property qualification, the seats lost all justification the moment every adult New Zealander gained the vote on equal terms.

Melanie Phillips: The dawn of a new world order

An increasingly hostile American public has little idea of the necessity and importance of the war against Iran

Most people in America are against the war with Iran, as they are in Britain, too.

Very few, however, actually understand why this war is as necessary as it is unavoidably complex.

Kerre Woodham: Investing in young Kiwis' ability to grow their wealth seems like a good plan

I like David Seymour's idea of teaching children the basics of money management by giving them $500 each. He floated the idea during a speech at a business event in Christchurch. The way it would work: the roughly 60,000 Year 11 s in this country would be given $500 in a controlled investment account with a structured pathway into real investing, possibly supported by investment platforms Sharesies or Blackbull. In term one, they choose a term deposit, a safe investment, but one that introduces the basic idea of storing capital so it can be used by someone else to produce, earning a return for the investor. In term two, they invest in a managed fund. This introduces the idea of risk. In term three, they invest in New Zealand equities, which introduces the idea of companies, and in term four, they're able to invest in assets from around the world, and all of a sudden, they learn about exchange rates and how much they matter.

Bob Edlin: Fast-track is hastening infrastructural work.....

Fast-track is hastening infrastructural work but (when it comes to te reo) it is keeping snail pace with Te Kāwanatanga

It is called Fast-track and it is in the business of providing a permanent approvals regime for a range of infrastructure, housing and development projects with significant regional or national benefits.

David Farrar: Disgusting racism

RNZ reports:

Auckland mayor Wayne Brown referred to an RNZ staff member of Indian descent as “a Muslim terrorist” and commented on his beard as the man escorted him into the building for an interview.

Brown said the comments were a “fumbled attempt at humour”.

David Farrar: Winston rules out Labour

This is significant, with Peters ruling out Labour, not just Hipkins. It reinforces the only route to power for Labour is with Te Pati Maori.

Saturday April 25, 2026 

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Breaking Views Update: Week of 19.4.26

Saturday April 25, 2026 

News:
Govt risks another colossal hīkoi if it weakens Treaty obligations
1News Māori Affairs Correspondent Te Aniwa Hurihanganui explains why the Government’s plan to weaken legal obligations to the Treaty of Waitangi could become as controversial as the Treaty Principles Bill.

Rumblings of discontent

DTNZ: Lest We Forget - ANZAC Day 2026

Each year on ANZAC Day New Zealanders and Australians pause to remember those who served and sacrificed in war, conflict, and peacekeeping missions.

Marked on April 25, the day commemorates the landing of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACs) at Gallipoli in 1915—an event that, despite its hardship and loss, became central to the identity of both nations.

Colinxy: The New Zealand Mounted Rifles - The Forgotten ANZAC Elite

Some New Zealand schoolchildren can recite Gallipoli like scripture. They can tell you about the cliffs, the trenches, the futility, the sacrifice, the mythology. What they cannot tell you, because the curriculum barely mentions it, is that our most consistently successful soldiers of the First World War weren’t on the Dardanelles at all.

They were on horseback in the Sinai, Palestine, and the Jordan Valley.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: 'You can’t hate what Jacinda did and then love what Chris Luxon has done'

Good on Chris Luxon for ditching his regular spot on Breakfast. That’s from Tina.

I disagree with Tina. I don’t think Chris Luxon should have given up on Breakfast the way he has, pulling out of his weekly slot. I mean, obviously it’s his prerogative to do it.

Ryan Bridge: The path to improving financial literacy

I see ACT is flying a kite on free money for school kids.

Which sounds odd given the party's aversion to free lunches.

Seymour's talking about giving each Year 11 student, 5th form, $500 each to invest. It'd cost $30 million a year and could be funded via the KiwiSaver subsidy.

Clive Bibby: All the world’s a stage and men and women merely players

No matter how many times I read Shakespeare’s plays, I marvel at his ability to offer us mere mortals advice that remains timeless in its application to the human condition.

The above opening line taken from “As you like it” is particularly apt in a modern Society riven with conflict and collateral damage from self-serving economic management strategies that have shown little concern for the innocents caught up in situations not of their own making.

David Harvey: "It is better to be king of your silence than a slave of your words,"

Judge Ema Aitken and the Architecture of Greek Tragedy

Introduction

Greek tragedy, at its most essential, is not simply a story of suffering. It is a story of a particular kind of suffering — one that arises from the collision between a person of considerable stature and a fatal internal flaw that they either cannot see or cannot resist.

The great Aristotelian conception of tragedy requires a protagonist of high social standing, an hamartia or fatal error, the arousal of hubris — that peculiar Greek sin of overweening pride and presumption — and ultimately a nemesis or divine retribution that brings the figure low, often in proportion to the heights from which they fell.

Peter Dunne: Winston Peters' savvy

Labour's decision to support the free trade agreement with India should have surprised nobody. It was always going to be the outcome, with the outstanding question being just when Labour would announce its support for the deal. As this column noted in early February, from the outset Labour has been effectively over a barrel on the issue.

Roger Partridge: The hidden reason houses cost too much

New Zealand’s housing crisis has causes everyone recognises – RMA restrictions, building consent delays, infrastructure that cannot keep pace with growth and building costs. All are real. But there is a deeper problem almost nobody mentions: for councils, population growth is an unwelcome burden.

Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour signalled last week that the 28 May Budget may finally begin to fix that. Speaking on Herald NOW, he indicated that councils may receive a share of GST from housing construction activity. It is a policy the New Zealand Initiative has been advocating for more than a decade. If it happens, the effects on housing supply and housing affordability will be profound.