News Briefing: 26 May 2025
BUDGET
Jonathan Milne (Newsroom): Ministers don’t know the scale of the tax break they’ve signed up to
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Investment Boost: Govt’s ticking fiscal time bomb
Bryce Edwards (The Integrity Institute): “Investment Boost” or “Corporate Welfare”?
Fran O’Sullivan (Herald): $6.6b business tax incentive much needed but abrupt closure of pay equity door not ok (paywalled)
No Right Turn: National’s “investment boost"
Jarod Chisholm (ODT): Investment Boost should improve business confidence
Dita De Boni (Post): Christopher Luxon: I am retraining the public service (paywalled)
Thomas Manch (Post): Nicola Willis, Christopher Luxon talk up Budget at business events (paywalled)
Dileepa Fonseka (BusinessDesk): On The Money: ‘Oprah’ O’Sullivan, Jones, Luxon, and more (paywalled)
Susan Edmunds (RNZ): Greens claim $700m 'uncosted hole' in Budget
Brian Easton (Pundit): Budget 2025: Perhaps the state of the economy is not as sound as we are being told
Danyl McLauchlan (Listener): Short-term financial planning won’t settle the debt (paywalled)
Vernon Small (Sunday Star Times): A rose by any other name (paywalled)
Dileepa Fonseka (BusinessDesk): Tax promises are cheap, but the bill is coming
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Government tacks hard right in Budget and why that’s a challenge for Labour (paywalled)
Luke Malpass (Post): Winning the debt debate, but the jury is out on choices (paywalled)
Tracy Watkins (Sunday Star Times): Do conviction and politics still mix? (paywalled)
Chris Trotter (Interest): Nicola Willis’ budget played favourites – rewarding the Right’s friends at the expense of the Left’s electoral supporters
Gordon Campbell: On Budget 2025
Jamie Ensor (Herald): Labour’s Chris Hipkins denies differences with finance spokeswoman Barbara Edmonds over $13b pay equity changes
Jennifer Curtin (The Conversation): Funding growth at the expense of pay equity for women could cost National in the long run
Cameron Bagrie (BusinessDesk): The Government's Bunny Budget (paywalled)
Ben Thomas (Post): Keeping the dollars in hand as they become more elusive (paywalled)
Good Ideas: “Austerity” or “overspending”? The truth behind yesterday’s Budget (paywalled)
Damien Grant (Stuff): Willis Budget merely minding the social welfare state
Catherine McGregor (Spinoff): Budget 2025: A fiscal ‘time bomb’ and a ‘disrespectful’ blue dress
Donal Curtain: Too slow? I don't think so
Emma Ricketts (Stuff): The everyday New Zealanders who will lose out on Budget 2025
Fox Meyer (Newsroom): School lunches joined atop Budget’s fiscal cliffs
Brent Edwards (NBR): Differing views on the Budget and its impact on productivity (paywalled)
Rachel Helyer Donaldson (RNZ): Budget 2025 decisions 'strange and unnecessary' - Labour leader
Verity Johnson (Stuff): ‘Running the country like a household’ is a political con
Jamie Nokise (Post): Volatile coalition partners paint National as sensible family member (paywalled)
Steven Cowan: The George Orwell budget
Roeland van den Bergh (Post): Budget 2025: What’s stopping a young person from moving to Australia?
Dan Brunskill (Interest): Budget 2025 passes the ‘taxi driver test’ but doesn’t raise wages
Tom Day (1News): Analysis: Was Nicola Willis' no BS Budget 'cruel and mean'?
Shane Te Pou (Herald): Budget 2025 the ‘buy your ticket to Australia’ Budget (paywalled)
Hayden Wilson (Herald): A pass mark, with reservations (paywalled)
Steve Braunias (Newsroom): The secret diary of .. the Budget
Andrew Gunn (Press/Post): All your Budget questions answered (paywalled)
Chris Trotter (ODT): We were born to run outside to escape from Highway 29 (paywalled)
Jamie Ensor (Herald): Te Pāti Māori co-leaders Rawiri Waititi, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer miss key Budget 2025 debate, speeches
Victor Billot (Newsroom): An Ode for .. Nicola ‘No BS’ Willis
Tyson Beckett (Herald): Finance Minister Nicola Willis criticised for wearing UK dress on Budget day
Adam Pearse (Herald): Male National MPs conduct outfit checks in support of Nicola Willis
Tobias Macintosh (Stuff): 'It’s not the 1950s': Chris Bishop defends Nicola Willis’ Budget Day outfit amid criticism
Stuff: Five of your top Budget questions with Nicola Willis
KIWISAVER
Zane Small (Stuff): Government warned KiwiSaver changes could result in lower pay rises
Rob Stock (Post): Employers will exploit new KiwiSaver 'loophole', economist says (paywalled)
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Nicola Willis stands by KiwiSaver changes, dismissing critique it will hamper pay rises
Alice Peacock (Newsroom): Providers say KiwiSaver ‘switcheroo’ will hit low-income workers and women hardest
Aaron Gilbert (The Conversation): KiwiSaver at a crossroads: Budget another missed opportunity to fix NZ's underperforming retirement scheme
Susan Edmunds (RNZ): High earners can't get KiwiSaver credit - but they can get the pension
Liam Dann (Herald): Kiwis need to save their way out of this financial hole (paywalled)
Herald Editorial: Government’s KiwiSaver changes don’t go far enough (paywalled)
Susan Edmunds (RNZ): People leaving relationships being kept out of the property market, financial coach says
Anan Zaki (RNZ): Sole trader feels 'ripped off' by government's KiwiSaver cuts
Michael Daly (Stuff): How KiwiSaver changes will affect what you pay into the scheme
REGULATORY STANDARDS BILL
Melanie Nelson: Reading Between the Lines: RSB First Reading
Roger Partridge: A Straightforward Guide to the Regulatory Standards Bill (And How Asking Ministers to Justify Laws Became a Neoliberal Conspiracy)
Sam Smith and Joel Maxwell (Stuff): Government’s controversial Regulatory Standards Bill passes first reading
RNZ: Regulatory Standards Bill passes first reading
ACT
Adam Pearse (Herald): Act leader David Seymour invited to Oxford Union debate about ‘stolen land’ and illegal immigration (paywalled)
Joseph Los’e (Herald): Māori will have nothing to fear from me when I’m Deputy Prime Minister
Mihingarangi Forbes (RNZ): Mata: ACT: The Foreign Influences That Have Shaped David Seymour's Political Agenda, and What It Means for Aotearoa
Aaron Smale (Listener): A government crusade against data, equity and basic fairness (paywalled)
PARLIAMENT, WEEK IN POLITICS, DEMOCRACY
Charlie Mitchell (Press/Post): The great property divide inside Parliament (paywalled)
James Kierstead and Geoff Neal (Newsroom): Politicians are disconnected from the people they represent
Helmut Modlik (Post): Representative democracy is failing us - we can lead the search for a new way (paywalled)
Soumya Bhamidipati (RNZ): Labour accuses govt of trying to avoid scrutiny by passing bill under urgency
Anton Matthews (E-Tangata): Permitting the haka when it suits — not when it matters
Catherine Delahunty (E-Tangata): Parliament privileges one culture (and it’s not Māori)
Liam Hehir (The Blue Review): Not How, But Why
Brian Tweed (E-Tangata): Is our government racist?
Bruce Cotterill (Herald): Low standards in Parliament mirror societal decline (paywalled)
Rebekah Graham (E-Tangata): When women in power get hurt feelings
Richard Harman (Politik): Maybe it’s time for a second chamber (paywalled)
Matthew Littlewood (ODT): South Island grand committee proposed (paywalled)
Brent Edwards (NBR): Pay equity, the Budget, Te Pāti Māori punishment, heckling Peters
Jonathan Killick (Post): Inside National’s party conference: Four-year terms, MMP and a Defence crush
Duncan Garner (Listener): Should you get sacked for giving lip to a govt minister in the street? (paywalled)
Varsha Anjali (Herald): Trailer released for documentary about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern
Caroline Williams (Stuff): Trailer for new Jacinda Ardern doco features home videos filmed by Clarke Gayford
WELFARE, FAMILIES
Lillian Hanly (RNZ): New 'non-financial' benefit sanctions begin today
Lauren Crimp (RNZ): Jobseeker sanctions: 'Forcing people to volunteer is a contradiction in terms'
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): New community work sanction kicks in for beneficiaries
Ruby Shaw (ODT): Benefit sanctions ‘creating barriers’ for the vulnerable (paywalled)
Adam Pearse (Herald): Minister defends money management and community work benefit sanctions coming into force
Adam Pearse (Herald): Social Development Minister Louise Upston wary of detailing possible exceptions to 18-19yo benefit cuts
Joel Maxwell (Stuff): Why a ‘punitive’ youth focus in the Budget makes Māori uneasy
Louise Ternouth (RNZ): The teenagers feeling ignored by government's decisions
ENERGY
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Gas industry could get far more than $200m if deals keep flowing – Jones
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Post): $200m earmarked for new gas fields could be increased (paywalled)
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Could new Government gas money put New Zealand trade at risk?
Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): OMV, Todd assets look ripe for Govt gas discovery support
Ian Llewellyn (BusinessDesk): Energy problems: The world is watching – Transpower CEO James Kilty (paywalled)
HOUSING
Bernard Orsman (Herald): Former Kāinga Ora boss Andrew McKenzie behind Parnell redevelopment for affordable housing (paywalled)
Anne Gibson (Herald): $75.5m Crown underwrite on two Auckland and one Wellington apartment projects (paywalled)
Susan Edmunds (RNZ): Some landlords, tenants unaware of Healthy Homes standards despite looming deadline
Herald Editorial: Checks on substandard rentals long overdue (paywalled)
Matthew Littlewood (ODT): ‘Majority’ of student flats had issues (paywalled)
Mike Jones (Newsroom): Too much of a good thing? Looking into housing supply
Savannah Brown (Post): Allowing a Māori solution to the Māori housing crisis
Susan Edmunds (RNZ): Developers with properties in tough market turn to renters
Miriam Bell (Post): By the numbers: Here’s where the rental market is at (paywalled)
Miriam Bell (Post): Property, construction sectors didn’t get lollies in Budget 2025, but praise it anyhow (paywalled)
Amy Williams (RNZ): New Auckland CBD building height allowances too short, housing group says
HEALTH
Michael Morrah (Herald): More than 1500 patients treated in corridors at Middlemore ED in a month amid staff shortages
ODT Editorial: Questions remain on hospital capacity
Matthew Littlewood (ODT): Further cuts slammed
Matthew Littlewood (ODT): Bed cuts in new Dunedin hospital revealed
Hamish McNeilly (Stuff): New Dunedin Hospital configuration revealed
John Lewis (ODT): Govt allegedly favoured industry over health
John Lewis (ODT): Tobacco industry playbook mirrored: research (paywalled)
Danica MacLean (Herald): Thousands of children waiting months for dental surgery
Anusha Bradley (RNZ): Health NZ's elective surgery plan sees training shortfall warning
Ruth Hill (RNZ): Budget 2025 leaves blood cancer patients behind
RNZ: Diabetics could be at risk with new 12-month prescriptions
Paula Penfold (Stuff): ‘So broken’: Secret recordings reveal frank confessions from mental health staff
Paula Penfold (Stuff): The ‘damning’ feedback ACC bosses don’t want you to see
Nikki Macdonald (Post): First do no harm: soaring claims for treatment injuries (paywalled)
TARGETED BUDGET FUNDING FOR MĀORI
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Tama Potaka rejects David Seymour’s claim that targeted Māori funding is ‘racist’
1News: Māori leaders give disappointed reaction to 'yeah-nah' Budget
Liam Rātana (Spinoff): New funding headlines mask deeper cuts to Māori programmes
LOCAL GOVERNMENT, WATER
Alexia Russell (RNZ): The Detail: Local councils and the battle for money (paywalled)
David Hill (Local Democracy Reporting): The rules when running for local government
Herald Editorial: Council rates are the tax we love to hate (paywalled)
Simon Wilson (Herald): ‘You’ll be surprised’: D-Day for Desley Simpson is drawing near
David Long (Stuff): By the numbers: Auckland’s financial problems getting worse
Hayden Donnell (Spinoff): Auckland Council keeps trying to sabotage its own multibillion-dollar rail upgrade
Erin Johnston (Stuff): Growing pains: The town expanding so fast its infrastructure can’t keep up
Emma Ricketts (Stuff): Where Wellington City Council found savings
Rachel Helyer Donaldson (RNZ): Begonia House reprieve celebrated by Friends of the Wellington Botanic Gardens
Tom Hunt (Post): Wellington City's 'record' pipe investment falls well short of neighbours (paywalled)
Emily Ireland (Local Democracy Reporting): Council taking back capital projects from Wellington Water
Zita Campbell (Local Democracy Reporting): Large majority of Gisborne residents want local control of water services
Toby Adams (Sunday Star Times): Candidates Corner: Amalgamation risks severing local democracy (paywalled)
Nick Smith (Sunday Star Times): Candidates Corner: The Nelson-Tasman case for a council merger (paywalled)
Moana Ellis (Local Democracy Reporting): Taumarunui rail yard ready for economic rebirth
Adam Burns (RNZ): Delayed Parakiore Recreation and Sport Centre expected to cost $500 million