News Briefing: 4 March 2025
WELLINGTON WATER, INFRASTRUCTURE
Bryce Edwards (The Integrity Institute): Wellington Water – A Case Study in Infrastructure Failure and Incompetence
Andrea Vance (Post): Why ratepayers are paying the price for Wellington Water failings (paywalled)
Tom Hunt (Post): Reports light a bomb under Wellington Water, city and region (paywalled)
Andrea Vance (Post): Wellington Water financial controls ‘insufficient, informal, unreliable’ (paywalled)
RNZ: Wellington Water chairman mulls resigning after damning report
RNZ: Wellington Water report: Urgent meeting to be held this morning
Emma Ricketts (Stuff): Wellington Water still after more money, despite damning reports
Andrea Vance (Post): Money down the drain: Scathing Wellington Water report explained (paywalled)
Tom Hunt (Post): Call for Nick Leggett to resign after scathing Wellington Water report (paywalled)
Tom Hunt (Post): Prime Minister labels Wellington Water a ‘basket case’ (paywalled)
Georgina Campbell (Herald): Call for Wellington Water chairman Nick Leggett to resign (paywalled)
Bill Hickman (RNZ): Cost of unplanned water pipe repairs in the Wellington region three times higher than in other regions
Nick James (RNZ): Wellington Water report reveals alleged theft, structural and contractor issues
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Garth Bray (BusinessDesk): Infrastructure tax breaks top wishlist for Corporate Taxpayers Group (paywalled)
Oliver Lewis (BusinessDesk): Prison, roading project among limited pool of 'short-term' PPPs for investors (paywalled)
Oliver Lewis (BusinessDesk): Wellington, Marlborough ports working with Government on Cook Strait ferries
Oliver Lewis (BusinessDesk): Connecting Northport to the rail network still years away (paywalled)
Mike Dinsdale (Northern Age): Ngāpuhi part of group wanting to own Northland’s deep-water port
GOVERNMENT, PARLIAMENT, FOUR-YEAR PARLIAMENTARY TERM PROPOSAL
Russell Palmer (RNZ): Police warn Te Pāti Māori over financial audit delay
Graham Adams (The Centrist): Tamihere’s woes
Chris Trotter (Interest): Never getting to 'yes'
Dave Armstrong (Post): Learning the leadership ropes and the dreaded ‘s’ word (paywalled)
Derek Cheng (Herald): Officials slam Act’s four-year term proposal: ‘Risks undermining the legitimacy of Parliament’ (paywalled)
Natalia Albert: The Four-Year Myth and How it Relates to Andrew Bayly Appalling Behavior
Michael Reddell: Or not
HEALTH, DISABILITY, COVID-19
Russell Palmer (RNZ): 'It's not a way to run a health service' - the cost of health redundancies
Catherine McGregor (Spinoff): Will telehealth solve the GP crisis?
Rachel Thomas and Liz McDonald (Post): The devil is in the detail’ - cautious optimism over Simeon Brown’s telehealth ‘solution’ (paywalled)
Rob Campbell (Herald): Additional funding for healthcare welcomed but structural issues remain
1News: GP boost: Govt reveals plans for 100 new doctors, $285m 'uplift'
Julia Gabel (Herald): Funding boost for health, ‘game-changing’ 24/7 digital appointment service to make it easier to see GP
Anna Whyte and Rachel Thomas (Post): Simeon Brown announces telehealth ‘solution’ for GP access (paywalled)
NZ Doctor: Minister announces primary care package with strings attached (paywalled)
Jimmy Ellingham (RNZ): 'That could have saved my life' - plea to lower bowel screening age
Rachel Thomas (Post): Health minister, Opposition open to depoliticising health (paywalled)
Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): Care sector faces debt, cuts after wage funding halted
Lucy Cooper (Wairarapa Times-Age): When will ACC pay for your hip replacement?
Matthew Littlewood (ODT): Health star system having ‘mixed effects’
Laine Priestley (ODT): Artworks removed from hospital
Liam Rātana (Spinoff): The genetic gamble: Having children when you carry a hereditary condition
Julie Jacobson (Post): ‘Weird’ lengths to keep Covid at bay are worth it for doctor (paywalled)
Julie Jacobson (Post): Covid aftermath still a long, exhausting haul (paywalled)
Rodney Hide: Fight! Fight! Fight!
SCHOOL LUNCHES, EDUCATION
Keiller MacDuff (RNZ): 'Collective nightmare': School lunches with melted plastic investigated
Amy Ridout (Stuff): Children eat melted plastic in ‘appalling’ school lunch
Cécile Meier (BusinessDesk): 'Manufacturing shortfall' forces school lunch supplier to outsource 40% of meals (paywalled)
RNZ: 'Sad, very sad': Lunch with Crunch founder Claire Kelly on the school lunch programme
Herald Editorial: Act leader David Seymour has a knack of delivering a good message the wrong way (paywalled)
Herald: School lunches: Leftover offerings appear at community food pantry
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RNZ: ACT accuses principals of 'lowering expectations' after call to scrap new NCEA tests
John Gerritsen (RNZ): School attendance shows early signs of improvement
David Farrar: The out of control Wakatipu High School
Miriam Bell (Post): Trades split on Govt’s work-based training proposals (paywalled)
ABUSE IN CARE, CHILD WELFARE
Derek Cheng (Herald): Revealed: The Royal Commission into abuse in care recommendation that the Government has quietly rejected (paywalled)
RNZ: Fears children will be harmed as Oranga Tamariki staff grapple with overwhelming workloads
Edward Gay (Stuff): 'It felt meaningless': Survivor underwhelmed by Dilworth School apology for historic abuse
Herald: ‘Betrayed your trust’: Dilworth School apologises for decades of abuse
AJ Hendry: Child Homelessness and a care system funded to fail
FOREIGN AFFAIRS, DEFENCE
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Christopher Luxon says he trusts Donald Trump, but how close should NZ be to the USA?
Jamie Ensor (Herald): Christopher Luxon trusts Donald Trump, believes United States still ‘reliable’ after Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy blow-up
Shanti Mathias (Spinoff): New Zealand’s contribution to Ukraine – by the numbers
ODT Editorial: A turning point in history? (paywalled)
Greg Presland (The Standard): Helen Clark’s nuanced take on world events
John Braddock (World Socialists): Continuing hysteria in NZ over Cook Islands’ deal with China
Josh Wineera (Post): After China’s flexing, the next steps for NZ defence (paywalled)
Tim Hurdle (Post): Send the Army to Auckland to boost the military (paywalled)
MEDIA
Tim Murphy (Newsroom): The Herald gets a new tone, and a wealthy alt-media investor
Mountain Tui: Canadian billionaire linked to right wing websites buys a near 10% of NZME shares
Farah Hancock (RNZ): Canadian billionaire Jim Grenon tight-lipped on NZME share purchase
Nicholas Pointon (NBR): NZME says it’s had no interaction with new investor (paywalled)
Shayne Currie (Herald): Media Insider: Canadian billionaire James Grenon takes substantial stake in NZ Herald publisher and Newstalk ZB owner NZME (paywalled)
RNZ: Canadian private equity billionaire takes stake in NZME
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Andrea Vance (Post): Labour re-opens nominations for mayor (paywalled)
Harriet Laughton (Post): Making Wellington a safer place for a $40 million price tag
Olivia Wannan (Stuff): Is this the beginning of the end for Wellington rates pain?
Joel MacManus (Spinoff): Windbag: Why reviewing the Glenmore St cycleway isn’t such a bad idea
Ethan Manera (Herald): Wellington City Council to remove unauthorised transgender flag pedestrian crossing
Jem Traylen (BusinessDesk): Central government policy churn drags down local government credit ratings (paywalled)
Grant Miller (ODT): Short-term pain likely result of in-house water delivery (paywalled)
Grant Miller (ODT): Water bills set to double — ‘they ain’t paying enough’ (paywalled)
Richard Davison (ODT): Criticism after water outages (paywalled)
Alisha Evans (Local Democracy Reporting): Tauranga Māori ward byelection: Five candidates stand for Te Awanui seat
TRANSPORT
Hayden Donnell (Spinoff): Huge win: I can finally go back to hooning past schools at dangerous speeds
Timothy Welch (The Conversation): False economies: the evidence shows higher speed limits don’t make financial sense
Alice Neville (Spinoff): The local Auckland streets where speed limits are rising, at a cost of $8.8m
Jimmy Ellingham (RNZ): Speed limit change 'not justified' - retirement village residents
Mike Dinsdale (Northern Age): Speed limits on three Far North state highway spots under review
Phil Pennington (RNZ): Motorists to face two agencies tracking their speed
Sam Smith (Stuff): Bluebridge ferry not sailing for second day, leaving passengers in the lurch
RNZ: Freight downturn eats into KiwiRail's half-year earnings
Hamish McNeilly (Stuff): Bus safety campaign paused after complaints over teen’s clothing
Jazlyn Whales (RNZ): 'Way too many cones': Roadworks create confusion at licence testing
ENERGY
Thomas Couthlan (Herald): Company seeks funding to build Trans-Tasman power cable
Felix Walton (RNZ): Deep sea power cable across the Tasman designed to trade surplus electricity
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Post): $12 billion trans-Tasman power cable no pipe dream, solar firm says (paywalled)
Brent Edwards (NBR): Ambitious bid to create a single trans-Tasman electricity market (paywalled)
Ian Llewellyn (BusinessDesk): Bold or bonkers: A $12b plan to build a transtasman electricity cable (paywalled)
Mike Yardley (Press): Get ahead of looming power price hikes before it’s too late (paywalled)
Rafaella Melo (Hawkes Bay Today/Herald): Brace for April power hikes: Hastings woman says 31% increase in daily charge is ‘immoral’ (paywalled)
No Right Turn: An inappropriate candidate
Krystal Gibbens (RNZ): Council accused of 'unsafe and rushed decision making' over power lines
CITIZEN’S ARREST POWERS, CRIME, JUSTICE
Amanda Gilles (RNZ): The Detail: Citizen's arrest laws raise red flags for experts
Phil Pennington (RNZ): Police use number-plate spotting systems more often
Melissa Nightingale & Sophie Trigger (Herald): Name suppression changes: Concern giving sex offence victims ‘veto’ on decisions could be ‘dangerous’ (paywalled)
Carrie Leonetti (Herald): Stalking to become illegal: Why the Government’s bill could make matters worse (paywalled)
Katie Ham (Post): Father of Helen Meads brings select committee hearing stalking bill to tears (paywalled)
Brodie Stone & Denise Piper (Northern Advocate): Court appearance of green fairy Paul ‘Gandalf’ Smith attracts protest, defiance
Eva Corlett (Guardian): ‘Gandalf’ accused of selling illegal medicinal cannabis in New Zealand
Sunny Kaushal (Post): Why we need to overhaul the law to tackle retail crime (paywalled)
David Harvey (Listener): The shame game: The legal lines of public humiliation (paywalled)
ECONOMY, COST OF LIVING
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Post): Reserve Bank: tinkering with our rules won’t do much to revive investment (paywalled)
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Post): Central bank confident it can ride out near-term bump in inflation (paywalled)
Rebecca Howard (BusinessDesk): NZ economic recovery: signs of life but pulse still weak
Nona Pelletier (RNZ): Mortgage arrears at an eight-year high - Centrix
David Hargreaves (Interest): Non-performing housing loans rise sharply
NBR: Mortgage arrears hit eight-year high, liquidations surge 38% (paywalled)
Cameron Smith (Herald): Mortgage arrears hit an eight-year high despite falling interest rates (paywalled)
Roeland van den Bergh (Post): Payments arrears spike over the holiday season (paywalled)
POVERTY, INEQUALITY
Bruce Munro (ODT): Poor excuses for poverty (paywalled)
Ian Taylor (ODT): A debate our MPs should have
Tom Eley (SunLive): Ōtūmoetai Social Supermarket empowers its community
PRIMARY AND EXTRACTIVE INDUSTRIES
Kate McVicar (NBR): Govt to invest $11.7m in NZ King Salmon partnership (paywalled)
Roeland van den Bergh (Post): $29m pumped into NZ Salmon farming development (paywalled)
Gianina Schwanecke (RNZ): Pāmu reports half-year net profit of $62 million
NBR: Landcorp optimistic as livestock gains boost half-year result (paywalled)
BUSINESS, EMPLOYMENT
David Farrar: $50 million of taxpayer money on a ski field
Tom Raynel (Herald): Online supermarket Paddock to Pantry expands amid grocery duopoly (paywalled)
Hamish McNicol and Calida Stuart-Menteath (NBR): Scott Simpson’s first oder of business (paywalled)
RNZ: Consumer confidence survey steady in February
Brianna McIlraith (Stuff): How New Zealand and Australia job markets compare
ENVIRONMENT, CONSERVATION, FRESHWATER
Rachel Helyer Donaldson (RNZ): Australia releases coordinates to Greenpeace after New Zealand government refuses
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Air pollution regulations delayed two years
David Williams (Newsroom): Farming lobby raises doubts over nitrate harm
Mary Argue (RNZ): Restore Passenger Rail protester denies actions were dangerous
Pat Baskett (Newsroom): Govt needs to show its calculations on carbon capture
David Dempsey and Andrew La Croix (The Conversation): Leakage is a risk with carbon storage projects – NZ’s new framework must be clear on how to deal with this liability
EXTREME WEATHER
Marty Sharpe (Stuff): Council’s failure to maintain dams before flooding lambasted in scathing Ombudsman report
Alexa Cook (RNZ): Cyclone Gabrielle: Lack of decisions could see Wairoa lose multi-million flood protection funding
Linda Hall (Local Democracy Reporting): Wairoa flood spillway: Wāhine set to lose land says ‘save the drama’ for Shortland St
RNZ: Insurance Council survey finds 46 percent want more extreme weather protection from government
TREATY
Julia Gabel (Herald): Treaty Principles Bill submissions wrap up with Tāme Iti; Act leader David Seymour, select committee chairman James Meager reflect
Lyric Waiwiri-Smith (Spinoff): Treaty principles bill hearings, day 12: The end of the road – or is it?
Don Brash: From the internet to medicines, nothing in New Zealand is safe from Treaty mania
Moana Ellis (Local Democracy Reporting): Three central North Island iwi to witness ‘critical moment’ of Treaty settlement
RETIREMENT VILLAGE SECTOR
Janine Starks (Post): Tips about the retirement village sector for a new minister (paywalled)
RNZ: Retirement village operator Summerset considers rejecting referrals from public health system
Anne Gibson (Herald): Aged care bombshell: Summerset Group may ban non-residents entering its hospitals (paywalled)
Jenny Ruth: Summerset is effectively now the leading retirement village operator by value (paywalled)
OTHER
Michael Morrah (Herald): Greyhound racing industry in New Zealand plans legal challenge and PR campaign against racing ban (paywalled)
Kate Green (RNZ): Activists scale Christchurch building in protest of weapons company establishing in NZ
Eloise Gibson (RNZ): Lack of transparency over $29m MethaneSAT government satellite, astronomers say
Hamish McNeilly (Stuff): Funding of Dunedin casino’s charitable trust under spotlight
Lane Nichols (Herald): ANZ blocks Banking Ombudsman from investigating $1m fraud
David Farrar: Actually all churches should lose their charitable status
Christina Persico (RNZ): More than 800 Samoans receive NZ citizenship
Sian Cain (Guardian): James Cameron says US under Trump is ‘horrifying’ as he becomes New Zealand citizen
Catrin Owen (Stuff): Whakaari White Island owners successfully appeal conviction
Natalie Akoorie (RNZ): Owners of Whakaari/White Island have company's conviction quashed
Chelsea Daniels (Herald): Front Page: NZ meth use hits record high as prices drop, wastewater testing reveals
Andrew Bevin (Newsroom): Aussie patients offered dubious cannabis grown by liquidated Chch firm
Matthew Littlewood (ODT): Opposition to DropKicks’ bar licence application dismissed (paywalled)
Shannon Pitman (Open Justice Reporting): Alleged visa scam leads to jailtime for Vietnamese cannabis workers
Davina Zimmer (RNZ): The Detail: Wellington Indian Association turns 100, as a new book promises to lift the lid on the community
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