Breaking Views Update: Week of 1.3.26

Saturday March 7, 2026 

News:
Concerns Raised Over Plan to Remove Māori Land Court Oversight of Settlement Entities
Legal experts and Māori leaders are raising concerns about a government proposal that would remove the supervisory role of the Māori Land Court over post-settlement governance entities, warning the change could weaken accountability and access to justice for whānau and hapū.

The proposal would allow many settlement entities to opt out of key provisions of Te Ture Whenua Māori Act, shifting oversight and dispute resolution away from the Māori Land Court and into the High Court system.

NZCPR Newsletter: Analysing a Crisis

At 11.10 am on Wednesday 4 February, Wellington Water – the council-controlled organisation responsible for managing drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater services for the Greater Wellington region – announced a “significant incident” had occurred at the Moa Point Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: If not Luxon, then who?

National and its problems, right?

Twenty-eight point four percent in the polling is a significant problem for National. It seems to me they’ve got four options for how to deal with this in an election year:

1) Continue with Chris Luxon
2) Switch to Chris Bishop
3) Switch to Erica Stanford
4) Or, switch to Mark Mitchell.

Ryan Bridge: I don't mind paying the train tax

I don't mind paying the train tax in Auckland, even though I won't be using it.

Rates are going up 7.9% next year. Which let's be honest, is like Woolworths selling butter for $7.99.

It's 8%. Wayne Brown is the 8% man.

Graham Adams: Making English Official Is A Sly Winner

Winston Peters snookers the naysayers

The reaction to NZ First’s English Language Bill has ranged from intense vitriol to support with reservations but it passed its first reading in Parliament this week without any votes cast against it. It now proceeds to the Justice select committee for scrutiny before its second reading.

The Justice minister, Paul Goldsmith, has endorsed it while pointing out that making English an official language wouldn’t have been a “top priority” if it hadn’t been in his party’s coalition agreement with NZ First. He meant, of course, that National regards the bill as a waste of time.

Dr Eric Crampton, Roger Partridge: Reserve Bank drifts out of its lane again

A principal who runs a school well does not get to tell parents what to cook for dinner. The authority is real – but it is specific. It does not travel home with the children.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand seems to have the same problem – mistaking authority in one domain for authority in everything adjacent.

Peter Williams: The Curious Case of the Disappearing Male Newsreader

Where have all the young men gone?

Mark down Thursday, March 5 as an unusual evening in the long and curious history of television news in New Zealand.

“¿Qué?” you may ask, in the puzzled tone of Manuel from Fawlty Towers.

No, it wasn’t because the bulletin suddenly contained stories that might warm the heart of the Coalition government. Nor was it because the New York correspondent had miraculously overcome his daily bout of Trump Derangement Syndrome.

No, the reason was something much more subtle.

David Harvey: Unlawful

The UN Charter and the Iranian Conflict

Helen Clark and latterly Phil Goff have criticized the Government for failing to condemn the attack on Iran by the US and Israel. Ms Clark condemned the Government’s approach as servile towards the US and a disgrace.

The main argument advanced by Ms Clark is that the attacks were illegal. And she wants the Government to endorse that approach.

Chris Lynch: Government books beat forecast as deficit narrows

The Government’s latest financial statements have shown the country’s books were tracking better than forecast, even though the main operating measure remained in deficit.

Treasury released the Interim Financial Statements for the 7 months to 31 January 2026 on Thursday, comparing results against forecasts from the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update 2025.

Bob Edlin: Labour perhaps supported the English Language Bill because it could not build a strong case for scuttling it

Stuff reports –

The bill to register English as an official language of New Zealand passed its first reading on Tuesday, and there was silence from the Opposition benches when it came to the vote.

It was initially assumed Labour and the rest of the Opposition parties were against the bill, and had just forgotten to vote in opposition – but Labour, on Wednesday, confirmed to Stuff that it supports the legislation.

David Farrar: Wanting to ban billionaires from NZ

Radio NZ reports:

The second poll commissioned in February 2026 revealed that 66 percent agreed that New Zealand’s economic system was not set up to effectively to address issues like housing, healthcare and climate change.

Half of New Zealanders also agreed that billionaires shouldn’t exist while people still struggled with basic necessities like food.

Mike's Minute: Christopher Luxon vs Barbara Edmonds

Is it 1-1?

The Prime Minister dug himself a hole over Iran.

Barbara Edmonds dug herself a hole in the NZ Herald.

As far as holes go, I regard the Luxon hole as slightly less problematic, given the war is not in our direct purview and there is nothing we can do about it.

Friday March 6, 2026 

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New Zealand Taxpayers Union: National sinks to lowest-ever result under Christopher Luxon on Taxpayers’-Union Curia poll

The Taxpayers’ Union reports –

Centre-left with narrowest of lead in new Taxpayers' Union-Curia Poll 📈

Today's Taxpayers’ Union-Curia Poll sees:

Gary Judd KC: Maori seats foster self-ghettoisation

Dr Muriel Newman’s feature article for 24 February, The Future of the Maori Seats, summarises why they should have been abolished long ago. There is another reason which I don’t recall having seen: the Maori seats encourage self-ghettoisation.

I came across the terms “ghettoise” and “ghettoisation” a few days ago, in THE END OF WOKE: How the Culture War Went Too Far and What to Expect from the Counter-Revolution where Andrew Doyle writes:

Steven Gaskell: The Drone War No One Can Afford to Ignore

Shahed 136 drones streaking across the sky may look primitive compared to ballistic missiles, but they are quietly reshaping modern warfare.

Originally supplied by Iran to Russia and now mass-produced in Russia under the name Geran-2 for use in Ukraine, the Shahed-136 represents a brutal shift in battlefield economics. It is cheap, expendable, and designed not necessarily to win spectacular victories but to exhaust an opponent.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Does the Government have the political courage to scrap the Clean Car Standard?

So the latest climate drama involving this Government is that they’re being accused of lining up to scrap the Clean Car Standards altogether.

And I would say to the EV lobby group pushing this line that they may want to just settle down. Even those of us -and I’m looking straight at myself here - who want to see the standards dropped altogether do not think it’s going to happen. That would take political courage and I do not think this Government has that on a subject like this in an election year.

Ani O'Brien: The Nursing & Medical Councils make political views compulsory

Inside the ideological capture of New Zealand’s health sector

If you are a nurse in New Zealand in 2026, the Nursing Council has decided that your clinical competence is no longer enough. It wants to control your character, politics, beliefs, and how you behave when you are off the clock. In its draft Code of Conduct, the Council states that because nurses must have the trust of the public to undertake their professional role, “they must also have an appropriate standard of behaviour in their personal lives.”

Olivia Pierson: And I Ran, Iran So Faraway

From here in New Zealand, where most of the sensible ones amongst us still cherish the literal freedoms of a liberal democracy too many take for granted, including our oft-absurd leaders, wannabe leaders and ex-leaders, the news of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's death fills me with a straightforward joy.

The supreme leader who presided over Iran's brutal theocratic regime for 37 years was killed on February 28 in joint US-Israeli strikes on Tehran. Iranian state media confirmed the hit, declared 40 days of mourning, and rushed in an interim council to stop the whole thing from collapsing. This is a moment to celebrate without hesitation, pearl-clutching, or hand-wringing. A tyrant who spent decades exporting death and crushing his own people through outright murder is finally gone. Excellent riddance!

Lindsay Mitchell: Get rid of the sole parent benefit

Here's a policy for National. Or ACT.

Get rid of the sole parent benefit.

Known for decades as the DPB, the Sole Parent Support (SPS) benefit, in today's world, is an anachronism. It has lost context in modern society. Why?