News Briefing: 1 July 2025
DEFENCE, FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Defence Force staff accepted smart watches and fishing charters from suppliers
RNZ: NZDF receives hundreds of gifts from commercial suppliers
1News: NZDF accepted nearly half-million in gifts, probe finds
Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): ‘No free lunch’ from scrapping superpowers
Herald Editorial: Balancing US alliance and global peace (paywalled)
WHĀNAU ORA
Adam Pearse & Julia Gabel (Herald): Whānau Ora reset: Minister calls for transparency as ‘electioneering’ review progresses
RNZ: Review into Whānau Ora Commissioning funding terms of reference released
Pokere Paewai (RNZ): Ngāti Toa launch new agency to distribute Whānau Ora funds
Māni Dunlop (Te Ao Māori News): New Whānau Ora agency aiming to ‘Do themselves out of a job’
WATER
Jonathan Milne (Newsroom): Faecal contamination of drinking water at 71 schools
RNZ: Risk of contamination in rural school water extremely high, report says
Matthew Littlewood (ODT): 'Embarrassing': Clutha's water breaches more than rest of NZ (paywalled)
Charlie Mitchell (Press/Post): Dozens of schools served faecally contaminated water (paywalled)
Chris Lynch: Watchdog calls for urgent improvements to drinking water in rural areas
The Standard: We Have a Human Right to Water, and to Democracy
RNZ: Wellington Water to be replaced by new stand-alone entity next year
1News: Burst drinking water pipe floods Wellington CBD street
Ellen O’Dwyer and Ruth Hill (RNZ): Burst pipe floods central Wellington street
Jamie Gray (Herald): Watercare secures $3.4b debt, separates from Auckland Council
Jamie Sinclair (Post): Watercare enters new era of financial independence (paywalled)
Brent Melville (NBR): Watercare now liquid, after $3.4b debt raise (paywalled)
PARLIAMENT, PUBLIC SERVICE
Chris Trotter (Interest): The fight for Tāmaki Makaurau
RNZ: Tangi for Te Pāti Māori MP Takutai Tarsh Kemp held today
Post: Prime Minister won’t attend Takutai Tarsh Kemp’s tangi (paywalled)
Chris Trotter: It’s the Right Time, for the Wrong Left
Rob Campbell (Newsroom): Maggie, Marx and the coalition
Dileepa Fonseka (BusinessDesk): Merger of Ministry for the Environment, Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Housing and Urban Development on the cards (paywalled)
Brent Edwards (NBR): Crown Research Institutes ready for tomorrow’s merger (paywalled)
RNZ: Healthy Homes requirements, KiwiSaver, Jobseeker, parental leave changes and more - What's changing on 1 July
REGULATORY STANDARDS BILL
Glenn McDonnell (Stuff): What the Regulatory Standards Bill does - and does not - do
Alexia Russell (RNZ): The Detail: The bill that's left people dazed, confused and angry
The Hui: Echoes of Muldoon in David Seymour’s latest political stunt
George Laking (E-Tangata): The RSB is bad for your constitution
HEALTH
RNZ: New 24/7 telehealth service comes online
Herald: New virtual GP service offering video consultations begins today
Anna Whyte (Post): The truth about GP funding ‘boost’ (paywalled)
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Post): ACC agrees to slash spending, get thousands more off benefit (paywalled)
Ruth Bonita (Newsroom): Let’s offer Seymour’s ‘fiscal heroes’ more than an early death
Craig Ashworth (Local Democracy Reporting): Pōmare power fuels stinging health blast
Annemarie Quill (Stuff): Nurse saves $60,000 having robotic hip surgery in India, says NZ’s health system ‘third world’
Rachel Helyer Donaldson (RNZ): Older dementia patients putting healthcare staff at risk, senior doctors warn
Kelly Dennett (Post): AI could soon help Medsafe, Pharmac make faster medicines decisions (paywalled)
Fiona Rotherham (NBR): Pharmac v Health NZ: the dogfight over medical device procurement (paywalled)
JUSTICE
Lillian Hanly (RNZ): PM on youth boot camps after participant withdrawn: 'I don't think we should give up'
Sam Smith (Stuff): Teen kicked out of Government’s bootcamp pilot just weeks before it ends
Adam Pearse (Herald): Teen kicked out of Govt’s bootcamp pilot after appearing in court
Hayden Donnell (Spinoff): Prominent New Zealander strikes again
Finn Blackwell (RNZ): 'Despicable and cowardly act' - harsher sentencing law for one-punch attacks welcomed
ODT Editorial: Not ducking the punches (paywalled)
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Newstalk ZB): Why does it take so long for good ideas to become law?
Katie Ham (Post): New ‘coward punch’ penalties too late for grieving parents (paywalled)
RNZ: Harsher penalties for assaults on first responders not effective deterrent - Labour
1News: Govt introducing specific criminal offence for 'coward punches'
Roger Partridge: Rule of Law – But for Whom? A Rejoinder to the New Zealand Law Society’s June 2025 Report
FAMILY VIOLENCE
Jamie Ensor (Herald): Māori advisory group ‘disappointed’ at claims by Family Violence Prevention Minister Karen Chhour
Te Aniwaniwa Paterson (Te ao Māori News): Govt didn’t drop Māori name for Te Puna Aonui, it was taken back
RNZ: New data being considered in family harm and gender based violence research
EDUCATION
Jamie Ensor (Herald): Hobson’s Pledge and Erica Stanford clash over Treaty of Waitangi clause in education legislation (paywalled)
RNZ: Daily school attendance rate at 71% on Friday, lowest figure this year
John Gerritsen (RNZ): Auckland Muslim school Al-Madinah among those hoping to become charter schools
Heather Taylor (Spinoff): A once-in-a-generation chance to transform early learning
Elodie Berthe (Post): It shouldn’t be this hard to get through the ECE door (paywalled)
John Gerritsen (RNZ): Teenagers who gain work experience at school more likely to be employed by age 20 - report
Hanna McCallum (Post): Re-thinking the future of Alternative Education
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Tim Murphy (Newsroom): From Super City to Super Council – the politicians grab back power
Katie Todd (RNZ): Concern over chemicals in mass sewage discharges into Shotover River
Mike Yardley (Press): National’s promise to champion localism has come up empty (paywalled)
Muriel Newman: The State of Local Government
Jessica Hopkins (RNZ): Anna Mowbray and Ali Williams approved to have helipad at Auckland home despite community uproar
Ken Shirley: Some Challenges for Local Government
Grant Miller (ODT): Aurora could have been sold for $1.9b: mayor (paywalled)
Timothy Welch (The Conversation): NZ cities are getting hotter: 5 things councils can do now to keep us cooler when summer comes
Matthew Rosenberg (Local Democracy Reporting): ‘Why have it there?’: Nobby Clark digs toes in over diversity data
Ruby Shaw (ODT): Councils sharing services on agenda (paywalled)
EMPLOYMENT
Craig Renney: The labour market isn't working
David Hargreaves (Interest): Latest filled jobs figures point to likely rise in unemployment
Jimmy Ellingham (RNZ): Community support workers among NZ's lowest paid
Alice Peacock (Newsroom): Five times more New Zealanders to work past age of 80 – Stats NZ
ECONOMY, COST OF LIVING
RNZ: Financial hardship cases rise
Raphael Franks (Herald): Centrix Credit Indicator reveals hardship on steady rise, more unable to pay bills
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Government tops up $75 a week flagship tax promise, now reaches ‘thousands’ more
Jonathan Mitchell (NBR): Should the RBNZ introduce a January OCR decision? (paywalled)
HOUSING
1News: Deadline passes for rental standards: What tenants and landlords need to know
Ruairi O'Shea (Consumer NZ): Home improvements: The healthy homes standards five years on
Miriam Bell (Sunday Star Times): Are landlords ready for the healthy homes deadline?
Post: Loafers Lodge property manager one of four charged with manslaughter (paywalled)
Greg Ninness (Interest): Low equity borrowing by first home buyers hit a record high in May
TRANSPORT
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Winston Peters opens the door to part-privatisation of Interislander ferries, but doesn’t want to walk through it (paywalled)
Te Aniwa Hurihanganui (1News): Māori land block spared in Northport rail link project - minister
Post: KiwiRail investigates options to boost ferry capacity (paywalled)
Shilpy Arora Gaikwad (Stuff): Council spends over $2m on seven speed bumps, then scraps one of them
ODT Editorial: Putting the skids under buses (paywalled)
Oliver Lewis (BusinessDesk): Cost of new Ōtaki to North of Levin highway climbs towards $2b (paywalled)
Emily Ireland (Local Democracy Reporting): Deputy mayor renews push for safer Remutaka route
BUSINESS
Louise Ternouth (RNZ): Revealed: How much supermarket prices have gone up since 2022
Cécile Meier (BusinessDesk): Foodstuffs serves up reuse trial with Bonson as Govt backtracks on plastic policy (paywalled)
Stewart Sowman-Lund (Post): New report calls for liquor licensing monopoly shake-up (paywalled)
Dileepa Fonseka (BusinessDesk): On the Money: China, Miles Hurrell, David Wilson, Tanya Unkovich, Nathan Guy, Air NZ CEO speculation, and more (paywalled)
David Hargreaves (Interest): ANZ Business Outlook Survey shows firms think future looks better but the present's not great
RNZ: Business confidence rises for first time in three months as firms look past tariff turmoil
Dita De Boni (Post): Recession, ‘war on woke’ fatally wound the Ākina Foundation (paywalled)
Hamish McNicol (NBR): New EY NZ boss Susan Jones pitches evolution, not revolution (paywalled)
Matthew Martin (Waikato Times): Kinleith ‘kicks out’ New Zealand’s last reel of paper (paywalled)
AI
Danyl McLauchlan (Listener): Can we contain Artificial Intelligence’s renegade powers? (paywalled)
Andrew Lensen (Post): I’m a senior lecturer in AI and these are my worries about the technology (paywalled)
BusinessDesk: Government forms AI advisory panel for public service (paywalled)
Choontae Park (ODT): NZ and ROK should work together on AI issues
Cartoons
