Ryan Bridge: My thoughts on Luxon's reshuffle

The American President's doing a live presser today on his war.

The Australian Prime Minister's just wrapped a live address to the nation on the oil shock.

And here, our Prime Minister is making his own announcement about a cabinet reshuffle.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Why did Donald Trump call this speech today?

If you were hoping Donald Trump scheduling a speech meant there would be some sort of development in the war -either the US pulling out, putting boots on the ground or opening the Strait - then, like me, you would have been disappointed.

There was no news, was there? No announcement at all. Donald Trump was simply trying to convince American voters with PR - and it’s stuff he’s said before.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 29.3.26

Friday April 3, 2026 

News:
Sydney marae build expected to begin this year
The Sydney Marae Alliance says despite pushback, progress is continuing on plans to build a marae, with about $1 million expected to be confirmed soon and construction set to begin this year.

The pūtea was announced in April last year by Labor MP Chris Bowen, who said if the Albanese Labor Government is re-elected, $1 million will be contributed to the kaupapa.

Rhys Hurley: MBIE paying staff for daily waiata sessions

Earlier this year, it was revealed that Health New Zealand was holding compulsory "Karakia" sessions during work hours. Now, our own research has uncovered something even more absurd, this time at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).

While Kiwi businesses are facing economic uncertainty, the Ministry supposedly responsible for helping businesses has been spending our money on Workplace Waiata – i.e. staff singing sessions in their Wellington offices. And this isn't just a one-off thing: At their swanky Wellington offices, MBIE were hosting 30 minute sessions every work day, every week!

Point of Order: The reshuffle

• From the Beehive –

2 April 2026

PM refreshes ministerial teamRt Hon Christopher Luxon

Prime Minister

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced a refreshed ministerial line-up to continue fixing the basics and protecting New Zealand’s future.

Bob Edlin: Report on Code of Conduct investigation costs Invercargill ratepayers $33,000......

Report on Code of Conduct investigation costs Invercargill ratepayers $33,000 – and the council rejects its findings

What (we wonder) does Cr Ian Pottinger have to say about the outcome of the $33,000+ investigation which he triggered when he lodged a Code of Conduct complaint against Invercargill’s deputy mayor.

PoO reported on Monday about the captious councillor’s latest complaint, this time concerning the robust language allegedly directed at a council staffer at a meeting he did not attend.

David Farrar: Good insights on the Medical Council

Grant Duncan writes:

Its draft “Statement on Cultural Competence and Cultural Safety” begins with the obvious – “Aotearoa New Zealand has a culturally diverse population” – but leaps ahead to assert: “Some dimensions of identity result in power and privilege whereas others result in underprivilege, which can lead to discrimination or marginalisation”. No scientific grounds are given for that statement, and anyway it’s simply ungrammatical: it uses an abstract noun – identity – as if it were a thing with “dimensions” that can “result in power”. Unfortunately, such poor writing gets a pass in some university courses.

David Farrar: Education Ministry prioritises costs over achievement

The Post reports:

New Zealand is not planning to build any new single-sex state schools, even as research suggests some students – especially girls in some settings – can do better in them.

 

The difference in outcomes is stark.

Andrew Dickens: Is it time to split electricity gentailers?

Here we are in the middle of autumn, or is it the start of another winter of discontent? Because April the 1st is the time of scheduled price increases. All sorts of things are going up. The minimum wage goes up today, putting more pressure on small businesses. Thank you very much, at a time of pressure anyway, you're going to have to spend more on your wage bill. Meanwhile, the ACC earners' levy is going up to $1.75 for every $100 you earn from today. That is up from $1.57, up 11%. So you'll be paying 11% more of your wage into ACC than you were before. That is up to a limit of $156,000 or something like that. It's going to hit us all.

Lindsay Mitchell: 'Brown Optimism'

I visited the new Wellington Library today unprepared for the towering inscription, rising through almost three stories, which has been installed on the west face.

Mike's Minute: The Govt's housing vision – a school project gone wrong

The Auckland housing number and the Government's housing vision now looks like a school project gone wrong.

Chris Bishop, by anyone's standards, is a competent, if not excellent, political operator but he appears to have come unstuck on Auckland housing.

Thursday April 2, 2026 

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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.