Breaking Views Update: Week of 30.8.26

Saturday September 5, 2026 

News:
ACT pledges to stop millions being spent on roadside public art
The ACT Party will stop motorists' money from being spent on roadside sculptures, art, and monuments in a new transport infrastructure policy announced on Friday.

He listed several examples of public art that he claimed illustrated a “prioritisation problem,” including the $630,599 spent on the Te Manu Rangimaarie sculpture at the Piarere roundabout, $810,000 spent on the Te Waka sculpture on the Waikato Expressway and $3.7 million for 35 pou and two taonga artworks on Te Ara Tupua walk and cycleway between Wellington and Lower Hutt.

Gary Judd KC: Mumbo-jumbo and all that

The Mullahs of Mumbo-jumbo advance the cause of racist superiority

The New Zealand Law Society (NZLS), in partnership with its provider of continuing education is advertising “Tikanga and the law”. Interestingly enough, in a Freudian slip, the advertisement betrays the reality, that tikanga is not law. It says, “hear firsthand perspectives from those working at the intersection of tikanga and the law.”

The advertisement treats tikanga as something distinct from law while promoting its use in lawyers’ professional and ethical decision-making. It forms part of a wider NZLS programme that risks turning ideological precepts into professional obligations.

Gary Judd KC: Judicial Power, Democratic Accountability, and the Smith Case

The Climate Change Response (Tort Liability) Amendment Bill received its third reading on 18 August and has now passed into law. It amends the Climate Change Response Act 2002 to bar tort liability for emissions‑related climate change effects, including for cases already before the courts. This directly affects the Smith v Fonterra litigation, preventing the tort claims from proceeding. A Law Association submission when the Bill was before the Select Committee was critical of some aspects of the Bill. That submission was subjected to careful examination by Peter Watts KC in an article published in the Association’s LawNews.

Guest Post: An Urgent Matter of National Significance

Guest post by William Chambers on No Minister

Maori favouritism (racial division) has reached the point of being a form of apartheid in New Zealand. The fact being, there are hundreds of preferential “provisions” along with 96 Acts of Parliament exclusively benefitting those of Maori heritage.

This racist situation has eventuated through what could be described as deceitful manipulation of pertinent information. Which only an insignificant percentage of us are fully aware of. So, we are vainly trying to get the truth out there through Forums, Blog Sites and emails to each other.

Gary Judd KC: More Misconduct by Stuart Nash

Realpolitik in operation: Nash ceases to be NZF candidate

My article of May 26, 2026, Stuart Nash, Cabinet Confidentiality, and Winston Peters’ Standards Has Misconduct Stopped Mattering: or is it another case of amnesia? ended this way:

Graham Adams: India’s view of ‘indigenous’ rattles Māori advisers

A month before 2023’s election, Winston Peters ignited a brush fire in the media after he told a campaign meeting in Nelson that Māori were not indigenous to New Zealand.

His reasoning was simple: “We come from Hawai-iki. Where's our Hawai-iki? We think it is in the Cook Islands. We think it’s in Rarotonga... but we’re not from here.”

He noted that his tribe Ngāti Wai “came to Aotearoa about 900 years ago or longer”.

Mary-Louise Kearney: Is UNDRIP enforceable under the law of a sovereign state?

Is UNDRIP - technically an aspirational non - legally binding UN mechanism - actually enforceable in national law? If so, why do politicians say the opposite? Are they seeking to allay citizens’ concerns? Or are they disregarding the reality of legislative processes?

Gary Judd KC: Inflation - the struggle for simplicity

Why the Reserve Bank must distinguish monetary inflation from supply shocks

This morning I heard Auckland Chamber of Commerce chief executive Simon Bridges describing the dire state of the Auckland economy. He put part of the blame on the Reserve Bank’s signal that interest rates may need to rise in response to increasing prices. His point was that the immediate cause of the latest price pressure was not excessive domestic demand, but a spike in fuel prices caused by disruption to Middle East oil supplies.

Joshua Riley: India Free Trade Agreement - What They Didn't Tell You

Five days after the parliamentary majority for ratification was already locked in, New Zealand released the full text of its Free Trade Agreement with India.

Read it. Because what it says is not what you were told.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 7.6.26

Saturday June 13, 2026 

News:
United for Kauri: Major Funding Boost Backs Iwi-Led Protection in Te Tai Tokerau
A significant investment in the future of Northland’s iconic kauri forests has been announced, with Foundation North committing more than $1.2 million to support iwi-led protection efforts across Te Tai Tokerau.

Gary Judd KC: The Issue Raised by the Army Orders

Army Orders and the State’s Duty of Neutrality

This morning The Law Association of New Zealand’s LawNews published an earlier version of the following article, prompted by Alex Penk’s How Army orders sparked debate on religious freedom protections under BORA published by LawNews last Thursday. I commend Penk’s article to you, as it contains more about what the Army has been up.

The Army orders raise a serious issue under s13 of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act because they appear to require personnel to engage with, or at least affirm the significance of, a particular religious or cosmological framework under threat of discipline.

Graham Adams: Is UNDRIP really an easy win for Winston?

With National widely regarded as falling somewhere between half-hearted and hopeless on rolling back co-governance, its coalition partners are in fierce competition for voters who object to Maorification and reject any interpretation of the Treaty that implies a partnership between the Crown and iwi.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 31.5.26

Saturday June 6, 2026 

News:
Iwi owing DOC $2m in campground revenue welcomes external review
A North Island iwi estimated to owe the Department of Conversation (DOC) nearly $2m in campground revenue says it welcomes an external review.

RNZ revealed last week that DOC had launched an external investigation following concerns regarding relationships with iwi and processes such as procurement and debt management.

John Raine: Our Culture - Can National Learn from Australia or the UK in Election Year?

The British Labour Party reacted with disbelief to the massive voter shift to the Reform Party in the early May Local Council elections, but the Labour response has been an astonishing doubling down on the existing policy positions (“we need to tell our story better”) that alienated their traditional voter base.

Gary Judd KC: Inclusion of UNDRIP in India FreeTrade Agreement

Oral submissions to the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee

This morning I made oral submissions. I had 5 minutes to support my own submission (Part 1). I received instructions from Hobsons Pledge and had 10 minutes to present on its behalf (Part 2). Below are the notes I used. There were no questions after Part 1, but there were questions after Part 2 from the chairman National MP Tim van de Molen, and from ACT MP Laura McClure.

Dame Professor Elizabeth Rata: New Zealand's Public Culture

What is it to be a New Zealander? Who do we believe ourselves to be?

New Zealand has a public culture grounded in Enlightenment principles of universalism, secularism, freedom, and individualism. The exclusivity of ethnicity is rejected for this inclusive New Zealand identity.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 24.5.26

Saturday May 30, 2026 

News:
Iwi leaders furious about Budget 2026, call it ‘economic apartheid’
Representatives of the Iwi Leaders Forum arrived at Parliament furious about the Government’s Budget, accusing it of creating an “economic apartheid”.

On Thursday, Finance Minister Nicola Willis handed down her third Budget. It was delivered amid a backdrop of significant economic uncertainty, with clear issues at home and abroad.

Gary Judd KC: India FTA - The Sting Beneath the Sting

Cabinet Said Stop. The India FTA Says Go

In The Sting in the India Trade Deal A Constitutional Trojan Horse: advancing change through political stealth, I examined the inclusion of clause 13.2.2a in the India FTA. That clause states:

Gary Judd KC: Stuart Nash, Cabinet Confidentiality, and Winston Peters’ Standards

Has Misconduct Stopped Mattering: or is it another case of amnesia?

Lord Peter Mandelson, former UK Cabinet Minister and dismissed UK Ambassador to Washington DC, and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former Prince Andrew and sometime UK trade envoy, were both arrested earlier this year on suspicion of committing the offence of misconduct in public office. Both have been released on bail. Neither has yet been charged. Neither may be charged. The common feature of the charges is the alleged sharing of sensitive government information they received in official capacities.

The UK Law Commission in making recommendations for law reform in this area, described the offence:

Graham Adams: Why was UNDRIP ‘affirmed’ in the India FTA?

Exactly how a clause “affirming” the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples found its way into the India-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement is still unclear but the question is not going to go away any time soon.

In fact, it is turning into a whodunnit as political sleuths try to figure out when the clause was introduced, who put it there, and who wanted it included. They have been forced to try to join the dots and speculate due to the government’s inability — or unwillingness — to offer a convincing explanation.