NZ Politics Daily: 14 January 2025
PARLIAMENT, GOVT LEGISLATION
Anna Whyte (Post): Jam-packed political start lies ahead (paywalled)
Spinoff: NZ politics in 2025: The big issues on which the year will hinge
Dave Armstrong (Post): The country has bigger fish to fry (paywalled)
Herald: David Seymour’s Treaty bill draws record response amid widespread criticism (paywalled)
Tureiti Moxon (Herald): Regulatory Standards Bill undermines Māori equity
Bryce Wilkinson (NZ Initiative): Submission: Discussion document on the proposed Regulatory Standards Bill
SOCIAL MEDIA, MISINFORMATION, FREE SPEECH
Nicholas Agar (Newsroom): Meta cannot be custodian of our national debates
Jonathan Ayling (Herald): Facebook ends fact-checking: The global debate over free speech and online misinformation
Nicole Skews-Poole & Seamus Boyer (Post): Time for public sector to step up in defence of online trust (paywalled)
ECONOMY, TAX
Kate MacNamara (Herald): Hugely complex' new global minimum tax likely to cost New Zealand more than it yields (paywalled)
Ganesh R Ahirao: The scourge of the clickbait homily - ICYMI: the government is NOT a household
Cameron Bagrie (BusinessDesk): 'I'll be back': Concerns grow about US inflation (paywalled)
Rebecca Howard (BusinessDesk): Weak NZD may curb RBNZ's appetite for Feb 50bp rate cut (paywalled)
RNZ: Growth in consumer spending at a five-year low
Aimee Shaw (Post): New Zealanders’ retail spending hits $36.3 billion in 2024 (paywalled)
Tom Raynel (Herald): Consumer spending growth stalls in 2024, December spending down (paywalled)
Gregor Thompson (BusinessDesk): Hospitality bears brunt of 2024 spending downturn, Worldline says (paywalled)
ENVIRONMENT, MINING
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): NZ’s climate credentials on the line in 2025
Patrick Phelps (Herald): Fast-track Approvals Bill clears House: Why mining expansion could benefit Māori (paywalled)
Kate Newton (RNZ): Research reveals potentially dangerous 'urban heat island’ effect in central Auckland
Chelsea Daniels (Herald): Front Page: LA fires: Expert warns climate change has ‘made it worse’, urges better planning for a warmer world
Anneke Smith (RNZ): Scientists head to Antarctica to study ocean: 'Catching glimpses of a future we really want to avoid'
Ke-Xin Li (Waikato Times): What people said about Te Awamutu’s waste-to-energy plant (paywalled)
WATER, INFRASTRUCTURE
Linda Hall (Local Democracy Reporting): Water bottlers face no summer restrictions as residents told to cut back
Keiller MacDuff (RNZ): Controversial Waimea dam more than double projected cost
RNZ: Auckland dams slightly below average, but peak demand is coming
TRANSPORT
RNZ: Desert Rd closure: Transport NZ says they will hold NZTA to two month timeframe
RNZ: Fear accidents on Desert Road detour could 'paralyse' central North Island traffic
Lucy Xia (RNZ): Auckland rail woes: 'Long periods of closure will not be required in the future'
1News: Air New Zealand named world's safest airline
HOUSING, BUILDING
Denise Piper (Northern Advocate): Kāinga Ora 50-house ‘battery hen’ development in Northland scrapped, for now
Maia Hart (Local Democracy Reporting): Consent granted for 13 sections off flood-damaged Kenepuru Road in Marlborough Sounds
Greg Ninness (Interest): New dwelling consents at a six year low in 12 months to November
Miriam Bell (Post): Building consent downturn finds its ‘floor’ (paywalled)
Tony Wall (Stuff): Failed companies behind home building firm owe about $2.5m
David Hargreaves (Interest): Nearly half the new borrowed money going on floating rates
HEALTH
Matthew Littlewood (ODT): Quality improvement cuts to ‘cost lives’ (paywalled)
Eva de Jong (Whanganui Chronicle): ‘Postcode variation’: Surveillance colonoscopies delays affecting MidCentral patients but not Whanganui
Gisborne Herald: Health NZ says Gisborne’s ED experiencing increasing trend in demand
Sally Blundell (Listener): Warming world, emerging viruses: The new health crisis facing NZ (paywalled)
Roman Travers (Newstalk ZB): It's time for our hospitals to have better security
EDUCATION, TRAINING
Kate Nicol-Williams (1News): 2025 shaping up as a big year in education
RNZ: School uniforms should be less complex to reduce cost - researcher
Maria Slade (BusinessDesk): Future of apprenticeships kicked down the road again (paywalled)
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Stephen Ward (Waikato Times): Who’ll be the next king or queen of the Hamilton city castle? (paywalled)
Stephen Ward (Waikato Times): Southgate confirms she won’t go for third term as mayor (paywalled)
Tina Law (Press): Fewer staff leave city council under new chief executive (paywalled)
BUSINESS, EMPLOYMENT
Lane Nichols (Herald): Restaurant Brands fined $30,000 for breaching foreign buyer rules in KFC land deal, Meredith Connell caught in dispute
Karyn Scherer (NBR): Microsoft accused of unfair trading in NZ (paywalled)
Marty Sharpe (Stuff): Cherry pickers living in ‘medieval conditions’, seasonal worker claims
David Hargreaves (Interest): Filled job numbers rise for first time in eight months
Herald: Summer questions: TSB Bank boss Kerry Boielle calls out ‘disproportionate regulation’ (paywalled)
Susan Edmunds (RNZ): Bank told to reimburse $30,000 after scammer impersonates staff
CHILD WELFARE
Jamie Morton (Herald): Nine in 10 Kiwi kids endure trauma by age 8 - new research
Sarah Catherall (Listener): The alarming surge in Kiwi grandparents raising young children (paywalled)
CORRECTIONS, CRIME
Tom Hunt (Post): Outside-the-wire sex offender allegedly out, about and offending in Upper Hutt (paywalled)
Melissa Nightingale (Herald): Violent prisoner had just been upgraded to maximum security before high profile escape, documents show
RNZ: Christopher Luxon to return early to attend slain police officer's funeral
OTHER
Natalia Albert: Social Cohesion in 2025: A New Zealand Perspective
Cale Silich (Herald): Tikanga questioned after three Prime Ministers muted at Dame Tariana Turia’s tangi
Thomas Manch (Post): Australian Opposition borrows National Party's 'Back on Track’ slogan (paywalled)
Jeremy Wilkinson (Open Justice Reporting): Little Justice: Neil Cameron’s battle for justice through the civil courts after rent-free debacle
Chris Keall (Herald): What the TikTok ban could look like for Americans - and Kiwis (paywalled)
Richard Davison (ODT): Death of sea lion ‘disgusting’
Cartoons
