Point of Order: New Zealand First Surge, National Regain Lead

The Taxpayers’ Union reports –

Good news for the Coalition as they extend their lead over the Centre-Left bloc this month, with National taking back the top spot from Labour in this month’s Taxpayers’ Union-Curia Poll.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 6.7.25

Friday July 11, 2025 

News:
Historic iwi agreement reshapes water use
Ngāti Kearoa-Ngāti Tuara and Rotorua Lakes Council have signed a new partnership securing 60% of Rotorua’s drinking water and the hapū’s return to ancestral land.

The agreement also includes a co-management framework for Karamū Tākina Springs.

Ani O'Brien: The Paradox of Tolerance and the Islamification of the West

We are running out of time to change course

Note: this Substack is mostly written with a New Zealand lens and a sprinkling of international stuff. For context, I was born in the UK and moved to New Zealand as a four-year-old. I still have family in London and stay pretty plugged into the politics over there. I am very concerned about several issues in my place of birth currently and will write about it from time to time. Free speech (or lack thereof), the migrant crisis, and the Islamification of Britain are top of mind.

If Karl Popper were alive today, he’d be branded an Islamophobe by the very people who claim to revere his intellectual legacy.

DTNZ: Waikato Regional Council cuts ties with LGNZ....

Waikato Regional Council cuts ties with LGNZ over cost, political leanings, and relevance

The Waikato Regional Council has voted to leave Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ), citing concerns about its cost, political orientation, and lack of relevance to regional councils.

Peter Dunne: Covid 19 inquiry

Phase Two of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the government’s response to Covid19 and its effects got underway this week, with the commencement of the hearing of public submissions.

According to the Commission chair, Grant Illingworth KC, the focus of this aspect of the inquiry is to hear from the public about their experiences, including the impacts on "social division and isolation, health and education, and business activity.” It will also " hear from experts about the key decisions and their consequences, and lessons to be learned from what happened."

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Apatheism - The Age of Civic Indifference

A book currently climbing the German bestseller charts caught my attention recently, not least because its title poses a question that seems at once paradoxical and profound. Jan Loffeld’s Wenn nichts fehlt, wo Gott fehlt (“When nothing is missing where God is missing”) examines a growing phenomenon across Western societies that transcends conventional secularisation.

Dr Michael Johnston, Bali Hague: Govt fiscal constraints are the elephant in the pay equity room

The way the government went about rolling back 33 pay equity claims lodged under the last government’s Pay Equity legislation was clumsy at best. The changes were made under urgency and applied retrospectively. It was not a good look.

Predictable howls of rage and furious accusations ensued. Critics say the government is stealing money from already-exploited women and further stoking the gender pay gap.

Bruce Cotterill: NZ urged to trim government size amid rising spending concerns

The great American economist Milton Friedman was fond of saying that “the real tax on American people is what the Government spends”.

Change the name of the country and the message rings true.

While the Prime Minister has been on the road, ”growing the economy”, the gremlins back home have been getting in the way of the story he wants to tell.

Ele Ludemann: Hard now or harder in future

Richard Prebble writes:

. . .America is heading for an economic crisis.

This crisis hasn’t been caused by one party or President. It’s been building for decades, driven by demographic change, too many promises and not enough taxpayers. . . .

JC: MMP Brought About the MP

If they can’t deal with reality then they are of little use when it comes to running the country and they are more of a hindrance than a help. We don’t need their war dance theatrics and we don’t need their insults.

One of the reasons Kiwis voted for MMP was because they felt the First Past the Post system resulted in a parliament that was not reflective of how they voted. The door was shut on the smaller parties that secured a reasonable amount of support, meaning those who voted for them were not represented. The introduction of MMP was designed to overcome this problem.

Thursday July 10, 2025 

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Heather du Plessis-Allan: What Chris Hipkins is doing to the Covid Inquiry

Let me tell you what Chris Hopkins is busy doing to the Covid Inquiry.

Let me tell you, when he says that the Covid Inquiry is providing a platform for those who have conspiracy theorist views, he is trying to undermine it, and he's doing that. So it doesn't matter what the outcome of the inquiry is, people have already written it off as a nut job investigation.

I suspect Chippy already knows that he's not going to come out of this flash. Neither is Jacinda. Neither is Ashley. Neither is Grant.

David Lillis: Bringing Back the Moa?

De-extinction Nonsense

Our mainstream media does it again! On 9 July we have more nonsense, presented as science (Burr, 2025). Apparently, Colossal Biosciences ( https://colossal.com/ ) believes that it can de-extinct the moa within the next decade and that the moa will be alive and walking by 2035.

Barrie Davis: Co-governance is Not a Democracy

There have been two related articles on Breaking Views recently: one is “Lindsay Mitchell: The Death of Personal Responsibility,” 5 July 2025 (here) and the other is by me, “Barrie Davis: Divisive Racism Propaganda,” 2 July 2025 (here). I will briefly outline each of them, but they have in common that responsibility is being moved from the individual to the State. I am wondering if this is an element of co-governance, whereby all responsibility is on the impoverished taxpayer and none on the wealthy Maori elite. Are we being made the taurekareka of the iwi chiefs?

Wendy Geus: Government gifted Covid Inquiry - Hipkins signs his political death warrant

Ardern, silent as to her attendance

So it's Brooke to the rescue once again.

Firstly, recently, Brooke van Velden pulled her pay parity bill out of her hat saving Nicola's budget. Phew!

And now, miraculously, she gives us a Covid Royal Commission of Inquiry, a gift to the Coalition, with findings to be released 2026, just before the election.

Bob Edlin: Cultural caveat to planning consent.....

Cultural caveat to planning consent: trees can’t be toppled for solar power farm without local iwi coming in to pray

Kiwiblog has steered us to some fascinating Treaty-influenced how’s-your-father and regulatory nonsense in Hawke’s Bay .

Insights From Social Media

“Read the Fine Print, Minister” – Why Seymour’s Regulatory Standards Bill Might Actually Be a Win for Democracy - Steven Mark Gaskell.

While political noise swirls around co-governance and fast-track laws, another bill — quieter but arguably more powerful — is making its way through Parliament: the Regulatory Standards Bill, spearheaded by ACT leader and Minister for Regulation David Seymour. And despite the predictable outrage from the usual suspects, this legislation could finally force our lawmakers to do something revolutionary: justify their decisions.

Matua Kahurangi: Why I think New Zealand needs its own version of Australia's 501 deportation law

As many of you know, I often write about issues that mainstream media outlets flat-out refuse to touch, particularly when it comes to immigrants, asylum seekers and foreign nationals who have committed serious and often violent crimes in New Zealand. The reason is simple - the mainstream media is too scared to say what needs to be said. Being independent means I don’t have to tiptoe around these topics or worry about what some newsroom boss thinks is “appropriate.”

Kerre Woodham: What is the Ministry of Health spending its problem gambling fund on?

27-year-old Auckland engineer Shyamal Shah has been sentenced to two years, two months imprisonment for what is believed to be one of the largest public sector thefts on record – a 17-month scheme in which he managed to swindle roughly $1 million from his employer, Watercare.

DTNZ: Israel plans to move Gaza population to single ‘humanitarian city’

The Palestinians will not be allowed to leave the camp except for “voluntarily” emigrating to other countries, Israel Katz says.

Israel is preparing to establish a so-called “humanitarian city” on the ruins of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, where the Palestinian enclave’s entire population is to be moved, the country’s defense minister, Israel Katz, has announced. Critics of the initiative promptly branded the “city” an internment camp and warned of potentially widespread human rights abuse.