News Briefing: 20 February 2025

MANUREWA MARAE INQUIRY
Bryce Edwards (The Integrity Institute): Manurewa Marae and the Integrity crisis at the heart of NZ democracy
Anna Whyte (Post): ‘All options on the table’ over Electoral Commission probe (paywalled)
Kelly Dennett (Post): Manurewa Marae inquiry: Former chief statistician says copying of census forms of ‘phenomenal concern’ (paywalled)
RNZ: Manurewa Marae inquiry: Waipareira Trust targeted for being Māori - Tamihere
Andrea Vance (Stuff): Manurewa Marae inquiry: John Tamihere admits census forms were photocopied
Andrea Vance (Post): Census forms found at marae in 2024 (paywalled)
Daniel Perese, Toni Molyneux and Maioha Panapa (Te Ao Māori News): ‘It was a witch hunt’ - Tamihere on the Manurewa Marae inquiry
Thomas Manch (Post): Te Pāti Māori claims Manurewa Marae inquiry ‘hatch job’ (paywalled)
Barry Soper (Herald): Manurewa Marae inquiry is in everyone’s interest
The Facts: Massive 323 Manurewa Marae margin in tight 42 vote win
Robert MacCulloch: How Former PM Hipkins Mislead Five Million Kiwis & Betrayed their Trust in Government

PARLIAMENT, ELECTORAL COMMISSION, PUBLIC SECTOR
Tom Day (1News): Whistleblower doubts commission has enough IT staff to run an election
Alice Peacock (Newsroom): Electoral Commission’s preparedness in doubt after IT staff exodus
Julia Gabel & Jamie Ensor (Herald): David Seymour distances himself from Winston Peters’ comments on Green MP; Greens say PM complicit
Giles Dexter (RNZ): Winston Peters, Shane Jones again attack migrant Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March
Lyric Waiwiri-Smith (Spinoff): Echo Chamber: Beware! The immigrant Marxists have invaded parliament!
Jack McDonald (Post): Positive opposition prospects, if egos can be shelved (paywalled)
Louis Collins (RNZ): Party MPs' first look at member's bills this year
David Farrar: Taxpayers funding lobby group
Jo Moir (RNZ): Public agencies 'finding it unaffordable to increase pay ranges'
Michael Reddell: Really?
Spinoff: Gone By Lunchtime Podcast: David Seymour and his Prince Hal epoch

FOREIGN AFFAIRS, TRADE, DEFENCE
Richard Prebble (Herald): The Cook Islands/China strategic partnership is a huge diplomatic failure (paywalled)
Richard Harman (Politik): Peters’ developing Pacific crisis (paywalled)
Thomas Manch (Post): New Zealand wants to rewrite Cook Islands relationship (paywalled)
Jonathan Milne (Newsroom): Cook Islands is gonna need a bigger boat – two of them
Nicholas Khoo (Post): Hard lessons in defence for Europe - and New Zealand (paywalled)
Grace Tinetali-Fiavaai (RNZ): Samoan district affected by Manawanui disaster continues to smell 'oil and diesel odours'
Tenby Powell (Herald): Russia-Ukraine war: After three years of fighting, the world - and NZ - must not forget Ukraine’s plight
Andrew Gunn: Putting New Zealand Off The Map

ECONOMY, OCR
Craig Renney: Banking On The Future
Bernard Hickey (The Kākā): ‘Dear New Zealanders, your victory is pyrrhic’
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Here’s the good news - and reasons to be cautious - about the economy
Robert MacCulloch: A Comment on Chief Crazy Horse Reserve Bank of NZ's Official Cash Rate Cut Today
Luke Malpass (Post): RBNZ delivers the Government a cost of living gift (paywalled)
Liam Dann (Herald): OCR call: Reserve Bank on track for ‘more cuts sooner’ but reduces forecast for house prices (paywalled)
Sanda Arambepola (Stuff): Five key takeaways from Reserve Bank’s latest OCR decision
Bryce Wilkinson (Herald): Bureaucracy is strangling NZ’s potential for growth (paywalled)
Miriam Bell (Post): OCR call a ‘big injection’ for housing market (paywalled)
Susan Edmunds (RNZ): All major banks cut interest rates after official cash rate drops
1News: All major banks make cuts to some home loans in wake of OCR fall
RNZ: Reserve Bank cuts OCR by 50 basis points to 3.75%
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Post): RBNZ delivers 0.5% interest rate cut, more on the table (paywalled)
Sapeer Mayron (Post): OCR cut a relief for buyers and sellers (paywalled)
Rebecca Howard (BusinessDesk): RBNZ plans more cuts sooner rather than later (paywalled)

EMPLOYMENT
Cristóbal Castro Barrientos (The Conversation): Economic ‘green shoots’ and lower interest rates disguise worrying trends in NZ’s job market
Anneke Smith (RNZ): Coalition defends return of pay cuts for partial strikes
Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): Personal grievance shake-up risks ‘unjust’ outcomes – officials

MEDIA, ONLINE SAFETY
Colin Peacock and Hayden Donnell (RNZ): NZME plans new video channel amid news cuts
Natalie Akoorie and Hayden Donnell (RNZ): High-profile journalists to go as NZME announces 30 job cuts
Shayne Currie (Herald): Media Insider: NZME confirms plans to cut NZ Herald newsroom roles, launch new video brand (paywalled)
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Post): NZME confirms journalism jobs cut (paywalled)
Guyon Espiner (RNZ): Netsafe's tech ties spark calls for independent regulator
David Harvey: Regulatory Overreach
Robert McCulloch: A Plea to the Leaders of National, ACT and NZ First: Shaft the Main Stream Media & give most of your interviews to Podcasters, Bloggers (yes us) & Alternative Platforms.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Herald Editorial: Has Wayne Brown done enough to win another term as Auckland mayor? (paywalled)
David Long (Stuff): Wayne Brown in talks to bring America's Cup back to Auckland, but says bed night levy needed
David Long (Stuff): Wayne Brown reveals why he's standing for Auckland mayor again
Bernard Orsman (Herald): Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown announces plans for a second term
RNZ: Auckland mayor Wayne Brown launches re-election campaign
Stewart Sowman-Lund (Post): Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown confirms re-election bid (paywalled)
Alka Prasad (Post): Auckland Council waiting on Govt to fix $7m events budget hole (paywalled)
Finn Blackwell (RNZ): Copper plaque thieves costing Aucklanders - deputy mayor
Grant Miller (ODT): Secret DCC report on financial claims (paywalled)
Emma Ricketts (Stuff): Innovation and leaders that listen in vision for Wellington’s future
Ethan Griffiths (Herald): James Cameron calls for more investment in Wellington’s film industry, criticises ‘nightmare’ parking
Craig Ashworth (Local Democracy Reporting): Taranaki council vows to promote Māori wards
Adam Burns (RNZ): Christchurch councillors back recommendation to keep water services under total council control
Keiller MacDuff (RNZ): Canterbury residents take water battle to council, claim sewage is seeping into their wells
Samantha Gee (RNZ): Nelson Council spends nearly $10 million on slip-damaged home buyouts
Lois Williams (Local Democracy Reporting): West Coast Regional Council debt soars as big flood projects shape up

TREATY PRINCIPLES BILL, TE AO MĀORI
Laura Walters (Newsroom): Extra Treaty Principles Bill staffing costs Parliament more than $270k
Sam Smith (Stuff): National Iwi Chairs Forum calls on UN to scrutinise ‘threats to indigenous rights’ in New Zealand
Craig Ashworth (RNZ): Council pledges Treaty law apology after brutal history lesson
Maioha Panapa (Te Ao Māori News): “There is no Māori privilege,” Co-Chair of Kura Kaupapa Māori Council tells select committee

HEALTH
RNZ: Health NZ under scrutiny by new government unit, open for four month
RNZ: New Health NZ unit to 'drive greater accountability' - minister
Rachel Thomas (Post): New taskforce sharpens focus on Health NZ and its commissioner (paywalled)
Jimmy Ellingham (RNZ): 'It's been left so long without treatment' - gastro delays at public hospitals
ODT Editorial: Mental health priorities (paywalled)
Maddy Croad (Press): Calls for government to fund health checks for Kiwis with intellectual disabilities (paywalled)
Matthew Littlewood (Local Democracy Reporting): Commissioner plan to help with patient rights
Patrice Dougan (NZ Doctor): Transgender care: Doctors receive letters ‘warning’ of legal action (paywalled)

POLICE
Sam Sherwood (Stuff): Fewer police officers in New Zealand, with only nine months to meet target of 500 more
Katie Ham (Post): Aussie police set to return to NZ after ‘strong interest’ from Kiwi cops (paywalled)
Lucy Rogers (Kiwiblog): Ignore the rumours: the IPCA are awesome

PRIMARY INDUSTRIES
Lillian Hanly (RNZ): High court rules 2023 Minister's decision on crayfish catch limits "unlawful"
Greg Hurrell (BusinessDesk): Westpac looks seaward to boost NZ's economy (paywalled)
Gianina Schwanecke (RNZ): Farmer confidence grows to highest level in nearly a decade
David Hargreaves (Interest): Farmer confidence hits a 10-year high
Herald: Federated Farmers’ latest Farm Confidence Survey reveals highest level in over a decade

ENVIRONMENT, GE, WATER
Amanda Gillies (RNZ): The Detail: The 'bulldozer' of a bill set to change gene editing laws
Eric Frykberg (Interest): Agriculture sector lobby groups want trade risks considered in GE Bill assessment
Peter Griffin (BusinessDesk): GE guinea pig? We should be so lucky (paywalled)
Mary Argue (RNZ): New Zealand's glaciers have shrunk by 29% since 2000
Pascale Lubbe, Michael Knapp and Nic Rawlence (The Conversation): Loss of forests brought new birds to NZ during the last Ice Age – we’re witnessing a similar process now
Kate Green (RNZ): Public interest in buying station with precious wetland near Wellington
David Williams (Newsroom): Tribe backs contamination charges to improve lake, court told

BANKS
Rob Stock (Post): Reserve Bank has given NZ ‘the stability of the graveyard’, banking inquiry told (paywalled)
Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): Officials MIA on banking competition, critics tell inquiry (paywalled)
Dan Brunskill (Interest): RBNZ’s Adrian Orr is ‘punishing rural NZ’, Fed Farmers says
Rob Stock (Post): ‘Get Adrian Orr to stop punishing rural New Zealand’, Federated Farmers tells MPs (paywalled)

TRANSPORT
Nick James (RNZ): Transmission Gully: NZTA spent $600k on legal battle
Lloyd Burr (Stuff): Why is Tauranga the home of toll roads? And is your city next?
Andrea Fox (Herald): New port in Manukau Harbour ‘technically’ possible but many red flags (paywalled)

BUSINESS
Phil Pennington (RNZ): Rocket Lab 'ready to serve' Pentagon
David Chaplin (BusinessDesk): Breaking the fourth wall: how politics is trumping investments (paywalled)
Peter Newport (Crux): Chinese government linked Queenstown development in liquidation

CHILD WELFARE, STATE CARE OF CHILDREN
Chelsea Daniels (Herald): Front Page: Children’s Minister Karen Chhour calls child violence ‘national shame’ as cases rise
RNZ: Abuse survivors and their supporters protest for ACC eligibility change
RNZ: $2 million to honour unmarked graves of state children
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): New fund to remember victims of state abuse buried in unmarked graves

ENERGY
John Duffy (Post): The electricity market is failing consumers - here’s how we can fix it (paywalled)
RNZ: Energy Crisis: Simon Bridges calls for 'one stop shop' for regulation
Dita De Boni (Post): Meridian bid to acquire NZ Windfarms will not spark ComCom probe (paywalled)

IMMIGRATION, CITIZENSHIP
Gill Bonnett (RNZ): Citizenship law under fire as children discover they are overstayers
Christina Persico and Susana Suisuiki (RNZ): Fijian teen faces deportation from NZ due to education needs
Herald Editorial: Alarming numbers of young Kiwis are heading abroad – will they ever come home? (Paywalled)

EDUCATION
Fox Meyer (Newsroom): Compass awarded multimillion-dollar lunch deal despite controversial history
Paula Penfold (Stuff): When ‘halal friendly’ school lunches come with ham
RNZ: Homeschool enrolments still high after rapid rise

HOUSING
Anne Gibson (Herald): Crown forced to buy 109 new Auckland, Wellington KiwiBuild homes: trying to sell $77.3m of properties (paywalled)
Tom Hunt (Post): More than 8500 new homes in Wellington fast-track plan (paywalled)
Greg Ninness (Interest): Sales up but house prices tumbled in January - REINZ

REGULATORY STANDARDS BILL
David Harvey: The Regulatory Standards Bill Proposals - Part 2
David Harvey (Listener): Law & society: Dial down rhetoric and ramp up reasoning on Regulatory Standards Bill (paywalled)

TOURISM
Dileepa Fonseka (BusinessDesk): From world leader to falling behind, NZ’s tourism industry struggles to keep up (paywalled)
Area Mahdawi (Guardian): New Zealand’s tourism campaign is not the world’s worst – and I should know

DESTINY CHURCH
Virginia Fallon (Post): Let’s all call Destiny what it really is (paywalled)
Verity Johnson (Stuff): The Destiny’s Church haka isn’t a Māori thing, it’s a d...head thing

KIWISAVER, SUPERANNUATION
Ranjana Gupta (The Conversation): With billions in ‘profit’ exempt from tax, changes to NZ’s charity rules are long overdue
Alka Prasad (Stuff): Young people on back foot in retirement path - and retirement saving
Susan Edmunds (RNZ): Sir Ian Taylor asks: Do you really need your pension?
Alka Prasad (Post): How the young are paying for super - and how superannuitants can give back (paywalled)
Alka Prasad (Sunday Star Times): ‘We don’t see them’: Sir Ian Taylor on sharing NZ Super to help Aotearoa’s forgotten moko (paywalled)
Esther Taunton (Stuff): Do you know where your KiwiSaver funds are invested?

OTHER
Greg Presland (The Standard): About Karen Chhour’s youth offending claims
Thomas Mead (1News): NZ a 'soft target' for scammers, researcher Jarrod Gilbert says
Doug Laing (Hawkes Bay Today): Hawke’s Bay: One conviction so far after claim of ‘network of corruption’ of gaming funds
Kate Green (RNZ): Posties defy PO box order from NZ Post
Brianna McIlraith (Stuff): NZ Post staff offered voluntary redundancy or reduced hours
Tracy Neal (Open Justice Reporting): Nelson Tenths case: Māori land claim leader Rore Stafford seeks Supreme Court hearing to expedite justice
1News: Auckland man used emigrants' names to claim $23,600 of Covid relief
Tom Raynel (Herald): Man gets home detention for falsely claiming Covid relief money - twice
Catherine Murupaenga-Ikenn (Spinoff): Legal personhood for Taranaki: transformative or tokenistic?
Steve Braunias (Herald): Liz Gunn, free at last, the law is an ass (paywalled)
David Farrar: Liz Gunn wins
Emily Makere Broadmore (Post): The high cost of ‘AI hesitation’ (paywalled)
Good Ideas: The new frontier of democracy? A Treaty-based citizens’ assembly (paywalled)

Cartoons

Hubbard - The Post 20 February 2025

Body - NZ Herald 20 February 2025

Cook - The Post 18 February 2025