News Briefing: 8 July 2025
PARLIAMENT, PUBLIC SECTOR
Peter Adams (Newsroom): Alcohol lobbying is a wild west of influence
Kate MacNamara (Herald): Lease termination for unused Three Waters Auckland office costs taxpayers $2.2m (paywalled)
NataliIS THATa Albert: Winston Peters and the Myth of MMP’s Stability
Good Ideas: Is the Taxpayers’ Union right about Whānau Ora transparency? (paywalled)
Anna Whyte (Post): Large changes signalled for Ministry of Social Development (paywalled)
Māni Dunlop (Te Ao Māori News): Oriini Kaipara seeking Māori Party candidacy for Tāmaki Makaurau Electorate
Lillian Hanly (RNZ): Former broadcaster Oriini Kaipara puts name forward for Te Pāti Māori's Tāmaki Makaurau candidate
Karanama Ruru (Stuff): Oriini Kaipara first to join race to represent Te Pāti Māori in Tāmaki Makaurau by-election
BANKS, MONEY LAUNDERING
Lillian Hanly (RNZ): Are NZ banks being taxed properly?
Jamie Ensor (Herald): Bank tax settings: David Seymour says banks are ‘fairly taxed’, expects Nicola Willis’ work will find same (paywalled)
Tom Pullar-Strecker and Rob Stock (Post): Government plays down request for advice on tax banks pay (paywalled)
Dan Brunskill (Interest): Nicola Willis takes confidential advice on bank tax
Jamie Ensor (Herald): Finance Minister Nicola Willis eyeing tax settings for banking sector ahead of potential election-year changes (paywalled)
Kerre Woodham (Newstalk ZB): Are the banks paying their fair share of tax?
1News: Changes to make it easier to open a bank account for kids
RNZ: Acting Prime Minister David Seymour on changes to anti-money laundering act
Dileepa Fonseka (BusinessDesk): Critic says Government showing signs of ‘missing the point’ on AML/CFT reform (paywalled)
Miriam Bell and Dita De Boni (Post): ‘Dirty money criminals’ no more - managing property through a trust gets easier (paywalled)
Matt Nippert (Herald): New Zealand company linked to $113m UK tax money-laundering probe (paywalled)
Lane Nichols (Herald): Auckland man loses $11.5k in account transfer error, wages five-year legal battle to identify wrongful recipient (paywalled)
REGULATORY STANDARDS BILL
Jamie Ensor (Herald): Regulatory Standards Bill: Opponents lash David Seymour’s legislation at select committee
RNZ: Opponents of Regulatory Standards Bill dominate first morning of hearings
Lyric Waiwiri-Smith (Spinoff): Regulatory Standards Bill hearing, day one: Former PM says ‘no chance’ of bill working
Māni Dunlop (Te Ao Māori News): ‘Throw it in the Bin’ Legal experts and iwi leaders reject Regulatory Standards Bill
RNZ: Regulatory Standards Bill: Unions, former MPs, lawyers and retired judge to submit
Brent Edwards (NBR): Regulatory Standards Bill called ‘fundamentally objectionable’ (paywalled)
LOCAL GOVERNMENT, WATER
Joel MacManus (Spinoff): Windbag: Metro Water to the rescue
Simon Wilson (Herald): Auckland Council reform: Council boss explains the new set-up (paywalled)
RNZ: Auckland Council reveals new proposal for Takapuna Golf Course
Jonathan Killick (Post): Popular Auckland golf course to close as council ploughs ahead with wetland (paywalled)
Oliver Lewis (BusinessDesk): Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger opposes selling any stake in Lyttelton Port Company (paywalled)
Sinead Gill (Press): Mistaken mayor backs central city shuttle study (paywalled)
Matthew Martin (Waikato Times): Cap Attack: Mayors reject controversial rates freeze idea (paywalled)
MĀORI-CROWN RELATIONS, RESOURCE OWNERSHIP
1News: Q+A: 'Constitutional adventurism' in Treaty settlement sovereignty clause - minister
Aaron Smale (Listener): Shane Jones’s achievements don’t match his rhetoric (paywalled)
Ben Thomas (Post): Shane Jones’ drive-by on Ngāpuhi Treaty talks piles on the complexity (paywalled)
Hira Nathan (E-Tangata): Back to the bad old days
Anne Gibson (Herald): Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei wins Environment Court appeal: Dominance over land, water around Westhaven Marina recognised
Andrew Gunn (Press/Post): One man confronts the nightmares of Māori privilege (paywalled)
MEDIA, OPEN LETTERS
Gavin Ellis: Numbers, damned numbers…and the smell of gaslighting
Shayne Currie (Herald): TVNZ launching independent review to check its news for balance and bias (paywalled)
Colin Peacock (RNZ): Mediawatch: Awkward opinions test broadcasters' backbone
Mark Jennings (Newsroom): ThreeNews keeps on keeping on
Tim Murphy (Newsroom): A limit at last on how unreasonable public agencies can be with media
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Post): TVNZ expects $49m ‘underlying loss’ next year after brief respite
Denise McNabb (BusinessDesk): TVNZ targets one million digital viewers logged in by 2030 (paywalled)
Hayden Donnell (Spinoff): An open letter to Jacinda Ardern on open letters to Jacinda Ardern
Ian Taylor (Newsroom): Open letter to Steve Braunias
Keith Lynch (Stuff): I thought I’d explain Stuff’s stance on Opinion pieces
Stuff: Stuff apologises to Action for Smokefree 2025 (ASH) & Ben Youdan
FAMILY BOOST SCHEME
Craig Renney: FamilyBoost for some more than others
Catherine McGregor (Spinoff): More money for childcare – but parents remain tied up in red tape
1News: Boost to Govt's flagship childcare rebates after uptake issues
RNZ: FamilyBoost payment increased, income limit raised
Julia Gabel (Herald): FamilyBoost: Government tweaking flagship tax policy, changes to impact ‘tens of thousands’
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Here’s how much you could get from the Government’s Family Boost change
Kelly Dennett (Post): Nicola Willis announces FamilyBoost changes (paywalled)
ECONOMY, COST OF LIVING
Vernon Small (Sunday Star Times): Government has worsened cost of living for Kiwis, more than it’s reduced it (paywalled)
Dileepa Fonseka (BusinessDesk): Hopium is not a strategy (paywalled)
Dan Brunskill (Interest): Households are holding back spending as wage growth slows, prices keep climbing, and net wealth stalls
Mandy Te (Interest): Early KiwiSaver withdrawals hit new monthly record high in May
David Hargreaves (Interest): Official Cash Rate - time for a pause for thought?
David Hargreaves (Interest): Views diverge on what should happen with the Official Cash Rate in future
Gyles Beckford (RNZ): Will there be another cut in the OCR this week?
POLICE
Katie Ham (Post): Fifteen police officers on suspension from duty on full pay (paywalled)
Sam Sherwood (RNZ): Review after Jevon McSkimming case finds urgent need to change police internet rules
Katie Ham (Stuff): Damning report slams police tech oversight after deputy commissioner resignation
Herald: Police release IT rapid review after Jevon McSkimming ‘objectionable material’ allegations
LAW AND ORDER
Chris Trotter (Interest): Maintaining discipline
Mike Yardley (Press): Police must lean in to new retail crime penalties (paywalled)
Mark Knoff-Thomas (Post): Crackdown on retail crime is a welcome dose of reality (paywalled)
John MacDonald (Newstalk ZB): Detaining young shoplifters is a dangerous idea
COVID-19
Isaac Davison: Covid-19 Inquiry: Families and businesses detail crippling losses, lost schooling and farewelling dying family
Lucy Xia (RNZ): Covid-19 Inquiry: Business leaders detail struggle with vaccine mandates and finances
Ryan Bridge (Newstalk ZB): Jacinda needs to face the Covid inquiry music
ENVIRONMENT, CONSERVATION
Glenn Banks (The Conversation): The hard questions NZ must ask about the claimed economic benefits of fast-track mining projects
No Right Turn: Another attack on the rule of law
Moana Ellis (Local Democracy Reporting): Wanganui-Manawatu Sea Fishing Club leader raises alarm over seabed mining project
Daniel Perese (Te Ao Māori News): Matariki mā Puanga: Looking Back at the Tarawera Sewerage Standoff
FOREIGN AFFAIRS, DEFENCE, SPACE
Robert Patman (Spinoff): Appeasing Trump in the Middle East is not cost-free for New Zealand
RNZ: China rejects 'false narratives' on Pacific military base claims
Stewart Sowman-Lund (Post): Revealed: Wayne Brown’s cheeky texts after Phil Goff sacking (paywalled)
Caleb Fotheringham (RNZ): NZDF not considering recruiting personnel from Pacific nations
RNZ: NZDF Hercules not needed to assist NZers stranded in Iran and Israel
ODT Editorial: NZ heads to infinity and beyond (paywalled)
RNZ: Why NZ's first space unit was named after a WW2 squadron
Jonathan Killick (Sunday Star Times): Should NZ have looked ‘under the hood’ of $29m satellite? (paywalled)
HEALTH
RNZ: Health NZ board re-established by government
Mary Argue and Bill Hickman (RNZ): Staff beg Health NZ not to swap Wellington Hospital maternity, gynecology beds for ED patients
RNZ: Gynaecological cancer patients forced to travel from Wellington to Christchurch for surgery
Rafaella Melo (Hawkes Bay Today/Herald): More than 900 Hawke’s Bay’s women waiting for specialist gynaecology care (paywalled)
Anna Whyte (Post): Workers push back against maternity ward cut proposal (paywalled)
Mildred Armah (Stuff): Marae visits highlight urgent need for dementia support in remote Māori communities
Tracy Neal (Herald): Auckland man died after ambulance delay, coroner concerned by ‘serious, compounding mistakes’
EDUCATION
Cécile Meier (BusinessDesk): Ministry, Compass scrub school lunch ‘greenwashing’ recycling claims (paywalled)
Cate Macintosh (Press/Post): ‘Serious concerns’: Officials urged school lunch firms be dumped before $170m deal (paywalled)
John Gerritsen (RNZ): Free lunches feeding children in need, say ECEs
Cate Macintosh (Press/Post): $8 million ECE food programme feeding 8000 kids (paywalled)
SUPERANNUATION, RETIREMENT
John Gascoigne (Herald): How superannuation can remain affordable and sustainable (paywalled)
Luke Malpass (Sunday Star Times): The coming NZ Super crunch (paywalled)
Tracy Watkins (Post): Will NZ sink under the weight of pension costs? (paywalled)
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): Your retirement savings are in your own hands
Julie Jacobson (Post): Unable to move on from retirement village, couple front foots $195k care bill (paywalled)
Maddy Croad (Press/Post): The ‘permanents’: Meet the pensioners retiring in holiday parks (paywalled)
BUSINESS
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Sunday Star Times): It may be time to consider ‘unbundling’ some supermarket shelves (paywalled)
Hamish McNicol and Calida Stuart-Menteath (NBR): This is why nobody trusts supermarkets (paywalled)
Kate Harvey (Consumer NZ): Is unit pricing helping us save?
Nona Pelletier (RNZ): Businesses warned as IRD cracks down
Dileepa Fonseka (BusinessDesk): On the Money: Peter Beck, Wayne Brown, Fonterra smoke signals, Rakon, Fletcher Building and more (paywalled)