Breaking Views Update: Week of 7.6.26

Monday June 8, 2026 

News:
Iwi investors back digital-first healthcare for virtual doctor visits
Primary healthcare in Aotearoa is shifting for Māori whānau, with Tend Health, a digital-first provider launched in 2020 that blends online services with physical clinics, finalising a $270 million acquisition of The Doctors, a network of 65 medical clinics formerly owned by Green Cross Health.

Ian Miller: The Shocking Damage Caused by Covid Policies

The Covid lockdowns may not have been remotely effective, but at least they harmed millions of people and created long-lasting negative impacts that we’re still dealing with today.

That’s the conclusion of a massive new body of research into the nonsensical policies promoted by the public health “expert” class, promoted by their media partners, and enacted by incompetent, cowardly politicians.

Ivan Barnett: A Government That Has Turned Its Back On The Public.....

The Lone Goose, The Abandoned Flock, And A Government That Has Turned Its Back On The Public

For the first time in my lifetime, I am witnessing a Government that is distancing itself from the public, ignoring the voices of the people who elected it, and aligning itself instead with unelected iwi authorities who now hold increasing power over public assets, public services, and public decision‑making.

Just as in nature, when the lead goose breaks formation and flies away, the flock is left struggling in turbulence — directionless, unsupported, and burdened. A Prime Minister who leaves his flock to fend for themselves while he aligns with unelected interests has failed the basic duty of leadership.

Nick Clark: Why 40 years of council mergers have failed to deliver

For forty years, New Zealanders have been told that fewer councils mean better government, and for forty years, the evidence has refused to oblige.

Until 1989, New Zealand had around 850 elected local government bodies. Councils sat alongside elected water catchment boards, pest destruction boards, harbour boards, drainage boards and electricity supply boards. The democratic granularity was sometimes confusing and occasionally inefficient. It was also the deepest civic infrastructure in the country.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: A feel-good law with a global track record of failure

To most New Zealanders in 2026, slavery sounds like a relic of past centuries and faraway places. Unfortunately, it is not.

Forced labour, trafficking and debt bondage still trap millions worldwide, often in countries we trade with, from the cotton fields of Xinjiang to the fishing boats of South-East Asia.

Dr Michael Johnston: A good budget for education

Budget 2026 was not a typical election year budget. Instead of breaking out the pork barrel, Finance Minister Nicola Willis brought forward New Zealand’s projected return to surplus by a year, even if the projection rests on some bold assumptions.

Cast in that light, Vote Education did well. While the ‘fees-free’ year for tertiary students was cancelled and, like most government departments, education agencies will have to trim about 12% of their spending over four years, education as a whole came out ahead. In addition to reallocated savings, about $1 billion in new money will be spent on educational essentials over four years.

Bruce Cotterill: Why a boring Budget is exactly what New Zealand needed

It’s funny how the people who constantly take from the public purse are never happy with their lot. Meanwhile, those of us who make our own way just get on with it.

I’m a bit over the negativity. We’re becoming a country that allows the whingers and the whiners to dominate us with their grizzles and complaints.

Bob Edlin: The Press and politicians’ perks....

The Press and politicians’ perks – the spotlight goes on Brownlee while he considers the fate of Stuff journos

Checking on what’s doing in the country today, PoO spotted this on The Post website, on the top row of items on the menu under “News / Ā-motu” –

David Farrar: Nicola vs Grant

Grant Robertson’s 2023 Budget included forecasts for 2026/27. This allows us to directly compare what Grant Robertson said Labour would spend in 26/27 vs what Nicola Willis said she would spend.

Sunday June 7, 2026 

                   ⇩

Net Zero Watch Samizdat: Full steam ahead

UK

Miliband adopts target to slash emissions by 2040

Government formally tables legislation in Parliament to adopt Seventh Carbon Budget goal to reduce UK greenhouse gas emissions to 87% below 1990 levels by 2040.

Ani O'Brien: A week is a long time: 6 June 2026

King’s Honours: A rebel gets a Damehood

The King’s Birthday Honours list was released this week, recognising 178 New Zealanders. Among them were former Chief Ombudsman Sir Peter Boshier, literacy expert Sir James Chapman, journalist Barry Soper, New Zealand Initiative education researcher Michael Johnston, former Rangitoto College principal Patrick Gale, and a host of community leaders, educators, sportspeople, and volunteers.

But one recipient stood out to me in particular. Professor Elizabeth Rata has been made a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to education.

Colinxy: The Genealogy of New Zealand’s Education Decline

How a world‑class system was slowly hollowed out by ideology, bureaucracy, and bad theory

New Zealand once had one of the strongest education systems in the world. High literacy. High numeracy. High trust. Minimal bureaucracy. Teachers who taught. Students who learned. Parents who understood what schools were for.

That world is gone.

Melanie Phillips: President Trump - a second Obama?

For the Iranian regime, the purpose of negotiations is to force America to surrender

From the start of the war with Iran, it was clear that the stakes couldn’t have been higher.

If the United States and Israel were to succeed in neutralising the Iranian regime, the outcome wouldn’t just have been the removal of a monstrous threat to Israel, the Iranian people and the world.

Lindsay Mitchell: Colonisation blamed for Maori Meth use

Here is yet another example of a taxpayer-funded health professional teaching that self-destructive behaviour by Maori is the fault of colonisation: land dispossession, loss of language, attack on family structures, attack on belief systems etc.

Kerre Woodham: How can you have faith in a system in which the punishment never matches the crime?

It's just so infuriating when you see criminals who are given sentences that in no way reflect the heinous nature of their crime. It would be lovely, well not lovely, but it would be admirable to have faith in a justice system, not simply have to endure a legal system.

The Aussies know how to do it. There was a particularly ghastly pack rape of a young woman who had the misfortune to be walking home from a bus stop at the wrong place at the wrong time, and a gang of young men and one woman said, “Let's go and get ourselves a Sheila". And so this pack of homeless kids assaulted her, tortured her, gang raped her and murdered her. And they were sent to prison forever, until such time as they were physically incapacitated to no longer serve as a threat to the community or until they were dead.

Bob Edlin: There has been lots of counting the costs of opening new library....

There has been lots of counting the costs of opening new library – but has anyone counted the books?

Wellington’s newly refurbished central library has cost heaps. As well as building costs (estimated at $217.6 million in an RNZ report last September), there have been Maori blessing costs, opening ceremony costs, and the costs of “a glitzy website”.

The website, The Post reports, cost nearly $600,000, pushing the costs associated with the library opening to more than $800,000.

Guest Post: Political Advertising....

Guest Post by Lucy Rogers on Kiwiblog

The Free Palestine party shows that political advertising for parliamentary parties should not be taxpayer funded

A new political party “Palestine Free from the River to the Sea” are explicitly saying that “Our purpose in creating a party is not to seek power, but to raise awareness. If we can reach 500 members quickly we will qualify for government funding to be used in campaign advertising. Every cent will go towards supporting the cause of Palestinian liberation.” See: https://www.psna.nz/news/newsletter-no-242

David Farrar: The beat up about so called NZ freeloading

1 News reported:

US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth says New Zealand is “freeloading” off the American military because of its low level of military spending.

Multiple media have reported along these lines, but the truth is that Hegseth did not target New Zealand. It only came up because of a question by a journalist that was designed to generate a headline.

Saturday June 6, 2026 

                   ⇩