NZ Politics Daily: 3 January 2025

PARLIAMENT, 2024 IN REVIEW, 2025 PREDICTIONS
Alexander Gillespie (The Conversation): NZ report card 2024: How the country fared in 25 key global and domestic rankings
Post: The Post's political predictions for 2025 (paywalled)
Spinoff: Ten wild political predictions for 2025
Brent Edwards (NBR): The coalition is delivering worse outcomes (paywalled)
Brent Edwards (NBR): Te Pāti Māori pushes the potential of the Māori economy (paywalled)
Mike McRoberts (NBR): How Māori faced a challenging 2024 (paywalled)
Greg Presland (The Standard): 2024 in review
Herald Editorial: A new year and the opportunities of 2025 (paywalled)
Grant Duncan: Centre-left governments fall like dominoes. Welcome to 2025
Thomas Manch (Post): Summer off politics: Kieran McAnulty will be playing cricket and golf (paywalled)
Thomas Manch (Post): Summer off from politics: Ginny Andersen heads north (paywalled)
Anna Whyte (Post): Summer off politics: Willow-Jean Prime takes a staycation (paywalled)
Debbie Jamieson (The Press): The power of the provinces – a prime ministerial contribution (paywalled)
Harriette Boucher (Post): The Art of Parliament: Pucará bull (paywalled)

HEALTH
Libby Wilson (Waikato Times): Waikato Hospital sends $33.4m in surgery to private providers (paywalled)
RNZ: 'Crazy' - advocates question government's vaping plan
RNZ: Vaping kits to be made free for smokers to help them quit
David Farrar: Year 10 students smoking and vaping less
Rachel Thomas (Post): The health promises the Government kept, and didn’t, in 2024 (paywalled)
Rachel Thomas (Post): First look at Hutt Valley’s new mental health facility but hurdle remains (paywalled)
ODT Editorial: Big thinking needed on obesity (paywalled)
Christina Persico (RNZ): Aotearoa's role in Pacific mental health statistics
Gary Moller: The Evolution and Decline of New Zealand's Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC)

PRIMARY INDUSTRIES, ANIMAL WELFARE
RNZ: Merino company says it will probe sheep cruelty claims
Grant Miller (ODT): Animal rights group’s footage a ‘hit job’
RNZ: Investigations launched after PETA cruelty allegations
Grant Miller (ODT): Bull put down after injury at Te Anau Rodeo
RNZ: Vertical farm that received public funding goes into voluntary administration
RNZ: Only a little slash on the Gisborne's northern beaches - council

LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Tina Law (Press): Christchurch residents owe $1m in unpaid water charges (paywalled)
Julie Asher (ODT): Water reforms require decisions
Ke-Xin Li (Waikato Times): Has Hamilton City Council’s $60k water campaign paid off? (paywalled)
George Heagney (Manawatū Standard): Tararua District Council considers asset sales
Stephen Ward (Waikato Times): More council staff on the naughty step (paywalled)
Tom Hunt (The Post): Five Wellington City Council myths and misconceptions (paywalled)
Tom Hunt (The Post): No permission sought as artist paints over his own Ian Curtis mural (paywalled)
Zita Campbell (Local Democracy Reporting): Gisborne deputy mayor Josh Wharehinga won’t seek re-election after 11 years in local government
Libby Kirkby-McLeod (RNZ): Olympian-turned-mayor Mahé Drysdale reflects on first few months on the job
Sam Broughton (Post): What we want from the Government is partnership (paywalled)
Sarah Sinclair (Herald): The deal to solve Auckland’s infrastructure crisis (paywalled)
Laura Smith (Local Democracy Reporting): ‘Brave in challenging times’: Rotorua mayor, councillors share their views on 2024

FOREIGN AFFAIRS, DEFENCE
Matthew Hooton (Herald): Fiscal policy will push New Zealand back to China (paywalled)
Dileepa Fonseka (BusinessDesk): ‘Not immune’: What the US Treasury hack means for New Zealand (paywalled)
Phoebe Utteridge (Stuff): Divers begin removing fuel and other pollutants from sunken Navy ship Manawanui
Joe Hendren: Banning Israel from tennis tournaments should not even be a line call

TREATY OF WAITANGI
Hilary Calvert (ODT): Constitutional law: it is all the rage (paywalled)
Don Brash: Time to submit on the Treaty Principles Bill running out
Tina Ngata: Protecting Indigenous Treaties and Ending Colonialism everywhere – the International Dimensions of Te Tiriti o Waitangi
Phoebe Utteridge (Stuff): Security insisted man take off his Toitū Te Tiriti shirt at ASB Classic. They later called it a ‘miscommunication

HOUSING
Don Brash: House prices in 2025 - up for down?
1News: Property values drop for ninth month in the past 10 - CoreLogic
Susan Edmunds (RNZ): What's ahead for the property market in 2025?

TRANSPORT
Herald Editorial: Can Winston Peters really find a ‘better’ ferry solution by March? (paywalled)
Oliver Lewis (BusinessDesk): Turns out motorists would rather not pay tolls (paywalled)
Jonathan Mitchell (NBR): Clean-ish cars, new highways, EV blues and tolls (paywalled)
1News: Provisional 2024 NZ road toll lowest in more than a decade
Frances Chin (Post): Road toll dips below 300 for first time in decade (paywalled)
Stuff: With the holiday period drawing to a close, the road toll stands at 11
Nick Truebridge (Stuff): 'I am scared': Auckland bus driver feels unsafe, data reveals number of physical attacks

ECONOMY EMPLOYMENT
Liam Dann (Herald): NZ’s top economists pick the three big issues for New Zealand in 2025 (paywalled)
Kate MacNamara (Herald): Many Kiwis working past usual retirement age for both financial and wellbeing reasons (paywalled)
Amy Williams (RNZ): Top tips for landing a job in tight labour market

BUSINESS
Susan Edmunds (RNZ): The businesses that didn't make it through 2024
Victoria Young (BusinessDesk): Editor’s note – 2024 in review (paywalled)
BusinessDesk: BlackRock writes down fund after SolarZero collapse

JUSTICE, CORRECTIONS
Nick Truebridge (Stuff): Police intel shows how Kiwi kids are being recruited into gangs
RNZ: Youths on roof 'not a protest' - Children's Minister Karen Chhour
RNZ: All youths come down from roof of justice facility
Shannon Pitman (Open Justice Reporting): Growing backlog of judge-alone trials causing concern among lawyers and frustrated defendants

MEDIA
Shayne Currie (Herald): Media Insider: Five for 2025 - Media leaders on the year ahead (paywalled)
Stuff: Journalist Tova O’Brien gives birth to baby girl 10 weeks premature

TARIANA TURIA
RNZ: Dame Tariana Turia suffers a stroke, surrounded by family
Shilpy Arora (Stuff): Dame Tariana Turia suffers stroke; whānau thank people for love and prayers
Whatitiri Te Wake (Te Ao Māori News):“She is still with us” Kahurangi Tariana Turia suffers stroke
Herald: Te Pāti Māori co-founder Dame Tariana Turia suffers stroke, ‘hasn’t been given much time’

OTHER
Steve Kilgallon (Stuff): Gambler’s death sparked a law change. So why have there been no prosecutions?
Benn Bathgate (Waikato Times/Post): Forget the 501s: New data reveals who New Zealand is booting out and why (paywalled)
David Williams (Newsroom): DoC’s big donation drive gets mixed reviews
Anna Leask (Herald): Faith-based abuse survivor and advocate rejects King’s Service Medal, blasts Government on treatment of victims
Tim Brown (RNZ): Survivors of abuse in care recognised in New Year Honours list
RNZ: Obituary: Former Race Relations Conciliator Wally Hirsh dies
RNZ: Kāpiti and Mana Islands return to Ngāti Toa
Susan Edmunds (RNZ): Her KiwiSaver balance is $15,000, his $120,000: Women face motherhood penalty - how to avoid it
Lois Williams (Local Democracy Reporting): West Coast better prepped than ever before for the big one
RNZ: Police given wider anti-gang powers as woman's death investigated
Mike Mather (Waikato Times): Cops using anti-gang law in Ngaruawahia homicide case (paywalled)
Herald Editorial: Notre-Dame’s rebuild highlights the shame of Christchurch’s still quake-stricken cathedral (paywalled)
Harriet Laughton (Post): Move over Generation Alpha, Generation Beta is here (paywalled)

Cartoons

Vernon - The Post 3 January 2025

Hubbard - The Post 1 January 2025

Emmerson - NZ Herald 3 January 2025