News Briefing: 21 May 2025
TE PĀTI MĀORI SUSPENSION DEBATE
RNZ: ACT asked for advice on range of punishments for Te Pāti Māori MPs - including imprisonment
Kelly Dennett (Post): ACT MP Parmjeet Parmar sought imprisonment advice for Te Pāti Māori haka (paywalled)
Russell Palmer (RNZ): Up for debate: Which party gains from haka privileges surprise?
Simon Wiison (Herald): Outrage! Te Pāti Māori, pay equity and the rules of Parliament (paywalled)
Liam Hehir (The Blue Review): Roaring about urgency, silent about authority
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Parliament’s naughtiest MPs, and how they were punished
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): MPs dig in as Parliament fails to compromise on hefty punishment for Te Pāti Māori MPs (paywalled)
Richard Harman (Politik): National’s kick for touch solves nothing (paywalled)
Laura Walters (Newsroom): Te Pāti Māori put ‘on remand’ as debate on punishment postponed
Bridie Witton (Stuff): Suspension debate hangs over Te Pāti Māori until June
1News: Debate on suspension of Te Pāti Māori MPs deferred
Julia Gabel, Adam Pearse, Jamie Ensor (Herald): Debate on Te Pāti Māori haka punishment delayed in shock Government move
Thomas Manch (Post): Government delays debate on punishing Te Pāti Māori MPs (paywalled)
Matthew Hooton (Patreon): Bouquets for Bishop and Hipkins (paywalled)
Tuwhenuaroa Natanahira (RNZ): Around 1000 protested proposed exclusion of Te Pāti Māori MPs
Whatitiri Te Wake (Te Ao Māori News): Haka filled Parliament precinct as 21-day punishment pushed out
No Right Turn: A desperate delay
David Farrar: Labour goes all in with Te Pāti Māori
RNZ: Winston Peters ejected from House before Te Pāti Māori debate
Jo Moir (RNZ): Hipkins proposes last-minute deal ahead of debate on punishment for Treaty Principles haka
RNZ: Te Pāti Māori's haka punishment labelled extreme, but Labour unlikely to filibuster
Layla Bailey-McDowell and Taiha Molyneux (RNZ): Celebration on court, censure in the House: Te Pāti Māori MPs' suspension sparks kōrero
Newsroom: In full: Collins and Hipkins on Te Pāti Māori punishment
BUDGET, TAX
Susan St John (Newsroom): Govt should defuse NZ’s social timebomb – but won’t
Herald: Digital Services Tax Bill scrapped by Revenue Minister Simon Watts after Donald Trump threatens retaliation
Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): Budget 2025: Facebook, Google escape NZ tax reform (paywalled)
Thomas Manch (Post): Budget 2025: Willis promises ‘no BS’, Luxon promises ‘relief’
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Greens try to set agenda on pre-Budget tax debate
Dan Brunskill (Interest): Labour’s is sending mixed messages about how closely it will follow the fiscal rules established during its last term in office
Tim Tenbensel (The Conversation): NZ Budget 2025: anything less than a 5% increase in health funding amounts to merely standing still
Justin Hu (1News): Budget 2025: What we already know about Govt's spending plans
Nik Dirga (RNZ): Budget Day 2025: What you need to know
John Gerritsen (RNZ): Budget: Schools expecting more support for disabled students, ECEs and universities less optimistic
Laura Walters (Newsroom): Education sector holding breath for big learning support boost
Matthew Littlewood (ODT): Budget 2025: Diversified revenue key for uni (paywalled)
Rob Stock (Post): ‘Everybody wants unicorns’: Businesses want pumping economy, tax boost - but also spending cuts (paywalled)
Tony Alexander (One Roof): What Kiwis should expect from the 'bad luck' Budget
Marama Davidson (Herald): Budget 2025: Govt spending needs to fund communities, not corporate greed (paywalled)
The Standard: What would the Greens’ inheritance/gift tax mean for farming?
Aotearoa Workers Solidarity Movement: Greenwashed Capitalism: The Limits of the Green Party’s 2025 Budget
Terry Baucher (Interest): Are clubs and societies in for a tax increase? IR's crackdown on student loan debt. A look ahead to Thursday's Budget
PARLIAMENT
Chris Trotter: The Politics of Aspersion
Richard Larson (RNZ): 30 With Guyon Espiner: Greens must reject 'tokenism' to connect with marginalised communities - Chloe Swarbrick
Mike Houlahan (ODT): No respite for the politically driven
Hayden Donnell (Spinoff): Winston Peters is right about parliament’s declining standards
Liam Hehir (The Blue Review): Turn Off The Cameras
Herald: Tonkin + Taylor confirms one of its staff disrupted Winston Peters’ train announcement
Thomas Manch (Post): Wellington firm apologises after worker heckles Winston Peters
Rachel Moore and Sam Smith (Stuff): Man who heckled Winston Peters under investigation by employer for ‘disruption caused’
RNZ: Watch: Deputy PM Winston Peters tells heckler 'naff off' following rail announcement
Lillian Hanly (RNZ): Labour's Ingrid Leary claims Casey Costello is not doing her job as Minister for Seniors
Gordon Campbell (Scoop): On NZ’s Silence Over Gaza, And Creeping Health Privatisation
HEALTH
Jude Ball, Alice Miller, Anja Mizdrak, Carmen Parata, Janet Hoek (PHCC): The rising influence of big business on policymaking: What it means for public health in NZ
Janet Hoek and Anna Graham DeMello: How did Government and Opposition MPs justify and oppose repealing the smokefree endgame measures?
Isaac Davison (Herald): Waitākere Hospital ED diverting 25 patients a day to urgent care clinics with vouchers (paywalled)
Phil Pennington (RNZ): Health staff told not to talk to each other for more than five minutes a day
Bill Hickman (RNZ): Bowel cancer sufferers, survivors protest lowering screening age at Parliament
Harriet Laughton (Post): Bowel Cancer survivors protest screening age outside Parliament (paywalled)
Herald Editorial: New Zealand can’t afford compromised bowel cancer screening (paywalled)
Katie Townsend (Stuff): Patient petitioning Parliament to improve Nelson Hospital
Amanda Gillies (RNZ): The Detail: The high cost of getting high in New Zealand
ENVIRONMENT, CONSERVATION, ANIMAL WELFARE
Keiller MacDuff (RNZ): MPI wants to increase amount of glyphosate weedkiller allowed on some crops
Sarah Curtis (Northern Advocate): MP Shane Jones defends against backlash from Northland conservationist Brad Windust over Govt’s changes to Wildlife Act
David Williams (Newsroom): Is urgent law change ‘irrelevant’? Judge isn’t so sure
Moana Ellis (Local Democracy Reporting): Fast-track fury: Councillor urges united front against Taranaki seabed mining
Tom Kay (Hawkes Bay Today/Herald): When farmers say ‘trust us’, should we believe them?
Farah Hancock and Mary Argue (RNZ):'An atrocious idea' - outcry over taxpayer-funded octopus farming research
Gianina Schwanecke (RNZ): 'Devastating': Warkworth oyster farmers fear businesses won't last the year
Jonathan Milne (Newsroom): NZ’s sewage crisis: dozens of livelihoods threatened on oyster farms
Jonathan Killick (Post): Auckland oyster farm closes due to sewage contamination
Erin Johnston (Stuff): Sewage overflows killing oyster farmer’s business
Lala Frazer (ODT): Assistance sought to save Larnach Byre
POLICE, JUSTICE, CRIME
RNZ: IT contractors jailed over $4m in kickbacks
1News: IT contractors jailed in NZ's largest private sector corruption case
Chelsea Daniels (Herald): A super injunction and criminal investigation: What next for ex-police deputy McSkimming (paywalled)
David Farrar: Who knew what and when?
Peter de Graaf (RNZ): Northland lawyer Keegan Jones named in Forbes magazine's 30 under 30 list
Mark Jennings (Newsroom): The rise and rise of class actions
PAY EQUITY
Noel O’Malley (ODT): A tale of two stories — the new Equal Pay Amendment Act
Peyton Bond and Charlotte Bruce Kells (Newsroom): The coalition Govt just doesn’t care about women
Susan Hornsby-Geluk (Post): The lessons from sport in the power of pay equity
Kelly Dennett (Post): NZ Nurses Organisation says it’s gearing up to make new pay equity claims (paywalled)
HOUSING, BUILDING INDUSTRY
Gabi Lardies (Spinoff): Can there ever be a renter’s market in a landlord’s world?
Diana Clement (One Roof): Apartment boss’ effing rage: How planning rules stuffed New Zealand’s housing market
Greg Ninness (Interest): No growth in residential rents for five consecutive quarters
Catherine McGregor (Spinoff): Housing market in holding pattern as budget day looms
Marty Verry (Herald): Green building boost could trigger $1.5b of investment (paywalled)
EDUCATION
Azaria Howell (Herald): 170 formal complaints from schools to Ministry of Education about lunches programme in first month
Rachel Moore (Stuff): 171 formal complaints about school lunch programme in first month
Jimmy Ellingham (RNZ): New payroll system causes problems at Massey University
RNZ: Over 1500 to strike over Ministry of Education's proposed pay freeze
Stuff: Ministry of Education staff to strike for first time in two decades
MEDIA
Andrea Vance (Post): NZ Herald owner outsources journo jobs to Philippines (paywalled)
Tim Murphy (Newsroom): NZME agitator wants Herald’s ‘political leaning’ measured, maybe by AI
Shayne Currie (Herald): Lawyer Linda Clark takes leave as TVNZ board member during legal action over Jevon McSkimming police case (paywalled)
1News: TVNZ director takes leave amid former top cop’s media injunction
Kate Green (RNZ): McSkimming's lawyer to take leave from role on TVNZ board of directors
BANKS, FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
Lane Nichols (Herald): TSB Bank blocks independent investigation after staff help customer send $1m to scammers
Gareth Vaughan (Interest): Consensus sought as MPs work on banking inquiry report
NBR: Podcast: Who’s playing in the financial sandbox? (paywalled)
TRANSPORT
Thomas Nash (Post): Welcome new rail funding helps address the slow down of passenger rail trips (paywalled)
Vanessa Pratley (Consumer NZ): Domestic aviation competition: 5 findings from the Commerce Commission’s assessment
RNZ: Interislander operator KiwiRail promises no 'price-gouging' when Aratere retires
Nick James (RNZ): Lobby group members raise red flags over ferry fleet's resiliency issues
Natasha Gordon (Herald): KiwiRail agrees to trim trees but won’t change train schedule after Matamata high school student’s death
RNZ: Kiwirail to remove trees, fence off Matamata railway lines decade after recommendations
TECHNOLOGY
Phil Pennington (RNZ): Technology 'creep' concerns over congestion charging cameras
Chris Keall (Herald): Callaghan Innovation lays off start-up support team, Auckland Mayor makes tech grab (paywalled)
Donna Chisholm (Listener): Why hundreds of NZ women and children could be the unwitting victims of sex offenders (paywalled)
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
'Alakihihifo Vailala (Pacific Media Network): Former Cook Islands Deputy PM calls on NZ to reclaim control over health and education
RNZ: NZ joins call for Israel to allow full resumption of aid to Gaza
ODT Editorial: Shame on you Mr Netanyahu (paywalled)
RNZ: Rocket Lab-launched satellites to help Ukraine in war against Russia
OTHER
David Hargreaves (Interest): Tower chairman says Govt 'must legislate' to put time limit on Canterbury earthquake insurance claims
Rob Stock (Post): Insurer Tower posts big jump in profit after lifting premiums, paying out less in claims (paywalled)
RNZ: Nicola Willis to turn attention to supermarket sector after Budget
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Post): Energy minister says focus now on winter 2026 after Transpower red flag (paywalled)
Shanti Mathias (Spinoff): Why the electricity balance between the North Island and South Island is shifting
Rob Campbell (Newsroom): We need venture socialists to match venture capitalists
RNZ: ’Straight-out thuggery’: President of NZ's Boxing Coaches Association calls out Dan Hooker's fighting event
RNZ: Despite being negatively affected residents say tourism is good for Mackenzie District - survey finds
Katie Wensey (Stuff): Fixing NZ’s retirement math problem
Nicola Gaston and Frederique Vanholsbeeck (Newsroom): How to grow a deep tech economy, but for real this time
Newsroom: Tom Scott farewells Bob Jones
Elle Hunt (The Guardian): Brits are shocked I’ve chosen Norwich over New Zealand – but there are reasons so many Kiwis are leaving
Cartoons
Excellent article by Simon Wilson in the NZ Herald