Bryan Leyland & John Raine: The Energy Storage Elephant

Christopher Luxon announced the LNG Storage Terminal plan on 9th February 2026. By 28th February, the USA and Israel had attacked Iran, and we were forcefully reminded that New Zealand’s is one of the most vulnerable advanced economies to oil supply disruption. We are geographically isolated, fully import‑dependent for refined fuels, and exposed to geopolitical upheaval and chokepoints like the Strait of Hormuz.

John Raine: Drive Climate Change Policy with Evidence not Alarmism

The Challenge of Opening Closed Minds

The media and many politicians worldwide continue to push a narrative of impending climate catastrophe. Whether or not you are a climate change pessimist, we live on a gradually warming planet and will need to adapt to this. Ongoing wide-ranging, balanced critical analysis is needed of the long-term history of Earth's climate, scientific models, current evidence, and underlying political and economic motivations driving the climate debate. This article addresses only limited recent evidence and analysis which indicates that climate change is real but does not pose an existential threat.

Professor John Raine: Waipapa Taumata Rau University Course Now Optional for Some – Don’t Take a Victory Lap Yet

Exemptions to the Ruling

On October 15th 2025, the University of Auckland Council voted to make its compulsory Waipapa Taumata Rau (WTR) paper optional. Act Party MP, Parmjeet Parmar, said, “This is an enormous victory for student choice over ideology”, and “The compulsory nature of this course was always about pushing Treaty ideology onto students, with no regard for their interests.”

John Raine & Bryan Leyland: A Realistic Energy Future

The 23rd July 2025 USA Department of Energy (DoE) Report, “A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate” [1], authored by five eminent scientists, brought some balance back into the climate change debate, and outrage from many in the climate science community. The report exposed significant alarmism in the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) statements on anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) and climate change, projected temperature rise and extreme weather events. The DoE report is against apocalyptic projections, far more moderate in its findings, and underlines the fact that science is NEVER settled. In a recent article [2], it was noted that:

Professor John Raine: Balancing the climate narrative - The science is not settled

The 23rd July 2025 USA Department of Energy (DoE) Report, “A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate” [1], authored by five eminent scientists, at last brings some balance back into official statements on climate change and humankind’s contribution to this. The USA DoE Report reviews the science around how anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas emissions have affected, or will affect, climate in the USA, extreme weather events, and selected metrics of societal wellbeing.

John Raine: Holy Water

As the coalition Government reviews Te Mana o Te Wai policy, it must come down on the side of both science and common sense. We must not move to a future where Iwi authorities have an exclusive co-governance role, with the additional costs, cultural impositions and rent seeking this involves. Public concern and anger over future water management in New Zealand are running hot across the country.