HEALTH
Adam Pearse (Herald): Revealed: Leaked data show major hospitals failing emergency department wait-time targets
Torika Tokalau (Local Democracy Reporting): Proposed reforms tilt liquor licensing in favour of applicants, group says
ODT Editorial: Helping alcohol sales (paywalled)
John MacDonald (Newstalk ZB): Who says we're drinking responsibly?
Lauren Crimp (RNZ): Pinch Point: The vicious cycle of dental care
Ruth Hill (RNZ): Health NZ to employ more graduate nurses part time, cut on-job training, document reveals
Andrea Vance (Post): Ombudsman raps Health NZ over secret nurse staffing data (paywalled)
Anna Whyte (Stuff): Nurses to strike twice this week in major staffing protest
Nicholas Jones (Stuff): Top-level hospital files reveal hidden danger in unit for vulnerable babies
RNZ: Council grants consent for $300 million private surgical hospital in Wānaka
RNZ: NZ Drug Foundation concerned drug related deaths, hospitalisations will rise
ECONOMY, COST OF LIVING, BUSINESS
Verity Johnson (Stuff): National has lost the small business vote, and that’s ominous
Dileepa Fonseka (BusinessDesk): The quarter that never comes (paywalled)
RNZ: Cost of living taking toll on pensioners - retirement commissioner
Catherine McGregor (Spinoff): Why homeownership no longer guarantees a comfortable retirement
Penny Mills (RNZ): Tepid response to the government's budget investment sweetner
Alice Peacock (Newsroom): Tax backdown: Step away from the double cab ute, officials told
Andrew Barnes (Herald): Charge the ultra-rich tens of millions of dollars for a New Zealand passport (paywalled)
Rebecca Howard (BusinessDesk): Latest data firms up view the economy needs RBNZ support (paywalled)
John Drummond (ODT): Let the sun shine down on income inequality propositions
Russell Brown (Listener): Austerity measures hit Auckland hard (paywalled)
Alice Neville (Spinoff): Should we fret about public debt?
PARLIAMENT, PUBLIC SERVICE
Giles Dexter (RNZ): Labour increases lead over National on handling cost of living, Ipsos poll finds
Danyl McLauchlan (Listener): Why are our politicians fighting over issues that don’t fix the country? (paywalled)
Justin Hu (1News): Q+A: Te Pati Māori candidate says Labour by-election rival should be PM
Lillian Hanly (RNZ): 'Bro vs sis' in the Tāmaki Makaurau by-election
Joseph Los’e (Herald): Tāmaki Makaurau candidates Henare, Kaipara push for votes at flea markets
Chelsea Daniels (Herald): Front Page: Te Pāti Māori aims to unite, not divide, says co-leader
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Dr Bryce Edwards asks why the NZ Political Left are failing – here are 10 reasons
Michele Lewiston (Listener): Dame Marilyn Waring on her continued fight for equity and the parliamentary debate that made her mad as hell (paywalled)
Phil Smith (RNZ): The House: Tikanga for Parliament
HOUSING
Julia Gabel (Herald): Emergency housing grants plummet, more homeless turned away under new hard line policy (paywalled)
David Long (Stuff): ‘Foisted on us’: Residents erupt over plans for 15-storey towers
Matthew Littlewood (ODT): Student flat inspections continuing
ENERGY
David Williams (Newsroom): Inside Meridian’s powerful backroom campaign for more hydro water
Simon Wilson (Herald): Shane Jones says NZ First to debate nuclear power
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Post): Labour explores ‘thermal co’ as government cools on reform (paywalled)
Margaret Cooney (Post): What broadband can teach us about overhauling the energy market (paywalled)
Fraser Whineray (Herald): We’re headed for electricity shock: Four urgent policy fixes to insulate us (paywalled)
Alice Peacock (Newsroom): NZers borrow over $1b in ‘green loans’ for heat pumps and electric cars
Stuff: Transpower sees 19% jump in profit year on year, to $107 million
RNZ: Big loss for Meridian Energy as company hit by 'perfect storm' of low wind and drought
Tim Hunter (NBR): Meridian cites ‘uncertainty and noise’ as sector awaits Govt move (paywalled)
Reuben Tucker (Post): A sunny outlook for solar – if the conditions are right (paywalled)
David Hill (Local Democracy Reporting): North Cantabrians call for huge solar farm consent to be notified
Megan Wilson (Rotorua Daily Post): Ngā Tamariki Geothermal Station expansion: $220m project to be completed in 2026
TRANSPORT, INFRASTRUCTURE
1News: Govt announces $30m lifeline for regional flights, struggling airlines
Jamie Ensor (Herald): Government announces $30 million loans to small airlines to support regional routes, approves funding for interlining
Stuff: Regional airlines welcome $30m Government support package
RNZ: Government loans to keep small airlines afloat
Mike McRoberts (NBR): Govt commits $30m lifeline for regional air routes (paywalled)
Jonathan Milne (Newsroom): Govt acts on fears for the future of regional air routes
Alan Granville (Stuff): Regional route to be scrapped next month as costs soar for airlines
Ryan Bridge (Newstalk ZB): Air New Zealand isn't making me proud
Grant Bradley (Post): Air NZ’s billion-dollar premium push reshapes loyalty and lounges (paywalled)
Kate MacNamara (Herald): Cook Strait ferry company Ferry Holdings in the market for contractors, staff, consultants – and ferries (paywalled)
Jamie Ensor (Herald): Aucklanders’ travel times could increase sizeably by 2055 if no change made, congestion-charging legislation progresses (paywalled)
Amelia Wade (Sunday Star Times): Road-rage on the rise: Workers attacked, run over and pepper-sprayed (paywalled)
RNZ: Tauranga port boss fumes over expansion delays as net profit soars
Roeland van den Bergh (Post): NZ’s missing out on millions because wharf extension plan stymied, says Port of Tauranga (paywalled)
Garth Bray (BusinessDesk): Shane Jones offers support to get Port of Tauranga back on fast-track (paywalled)
LAW AND ORDER
Anna Whyte (Stuff): Government talks up law and order as faith from voters falls
Anna Whyte (Stuff): Government adds beat police as violent crime falls
Jamie Ensor (Herald): Crime data: Reduction in overall violent crime victims, but uptick in victims of sexual assault
RNZ: Government says it's tracking ahead of violent crime reduction target
Shilpy Arora Gaikwad (Stuff): ‘It wasn’t just the shop they robbed, it’s my mother’s spirit’: Hidden toll of retail crime
Shilpy Arora Gaikwad (Stuff): The $2.6b problem: Organised gangs drive ‘brazen and aggressive’ retail crime wave
Mary Afemata (Local Democracy Reporting): Car audio crews say they're not boy racers as crackdown looms
Sam Sherwood (RNZ): Police tight-lipped about original investigation into former deputy commissioner Jevon McSkimming
RNZ: More cops will be welcome on West Auckland beat - councillor
MEDIA
Colin Peacock (RNZ): RNZ’s high-stakes National plan
Grant Duncan: Is Radio NZ National still relevant?
Herald: NZME director Jim Grenon spends $6m buying more shares in company
Nona Pelletier (RNZ): TVNZ braces for two years of losses after posting net profit
Stuff: TVNZ makes profit of $10.7 million in 2025 financial year
Victoria Meakin (Press/Post): AI ‘is coming for your news feed’: News leaders meet in Christchurch (paywalled)
Michael Bassett: Our lack-lustre mainstream media
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
David Farrar: 2025 local govt CEO salaries
K Gurunathan (Post): Tension between councillors and staff a systemic reality (paywalled)
Brent Edwards (NBR): Rates capping ‘doesn’t work’, LGNZ president says (paywalled)
Shanti Mathias (Spinoff): Race briefing: A bumpy road ahead for the next crop of Otago Regional councillors
Grant Miller (ODT): DCC debt tipped to hit $2.3b (paywalled)
Maxine Jacobs (Press): Selwyn’s mayoral race: The incumbent, the first time councillor, and the newcomer (paywalled)
Benn Bathgate (Waikato Times): Charades and prophets, but which candidate will be ‘king’? (paywalled)
Matthew Martin (Waikato Times): The old, the new, and a wildcard too (paywalled)
Frances Chin (Post): Moturoa petition calls for heritage sign to honour rangatira (paywalled)
ENVIRONMENT, RMA, CONSERVATION
Andrew Bevin (Newsroom): US court gives Māui dolphin charity hope in fight over seafood ban
Keiller MacDuff (RNZ): Conservation groups want emergency fishing ban to save hoiho
Kira Carrington (RNZ): 'Nature takes no prisoners': The billion dollar cost of river erosion
Ric Stevens (Open Justice Reporting): High Court blocks consent for Hawke’s Bay quarry after iwi object
Mary Afemata (Local Democracy Reporting): Almost 50 sewage overflows into Auckland creek in one year
1News: Decades-long fight over sand mining ends with court appeal withdrawal
Paora Manuel (Waikato Times): Plastic wet wipes ban has ‘potential’, local MP says (paywalled)
EDUCATION
John Gerritsen (RNZ): Ministry pushes for accurate school absence reports
Emma Ricketts (Stuff): 'Dry, bland, tasteless’ - nearly 10% of free school lunches returned and thrown away
Hanna McCallum (Post): The growing cohort of kids starting school who can ‘barely string two words together’ (paywalled)
Erica Hamilton (E-Tangata): Assimilation, rebranded for 2025
Katy Jones (Nelson Mail/Post): ‘Gut wrenching’ proposal to make outdoor education a vocational subject (paywalled)
Celia Hogan (Post): Outdoor education is not optional, it’s essential (paywalled)
Samuel Sherry (Herald): NZ language learning at crisis point; call for compulsory classes
Deborah Coddington: Soft bigotry of low expectations lives on in NZ teaching
Cate Macintosh (Press): Teacher aide works 40 hours a week but still struggles to pay bills (paywalled)
Matthew Littlewood (ODT): Med school proposal ‘railroaded’ (paywalled)
Ritesh Shah (Newsroom): Is this a 1980s Apartheid moment for our universities?
Damien Grant (Stuff): Our universities are failing, and we have the grades to prove it
Katie Hunter (Post): Thousands of students, no roles: Why NZ’s future engineers risk being lost (paywalled)
SPORT
Jamie Wall (RNZ): The issues with an apology to Māori rugby players
Jamie Wall (RNZ): South Africa Rugby to apologise to Māori players excluded by apartheid
Amanda Gillies (RNZ): The Detail: From field to funeral, the hidden toll of CTE on Kiwi sports stars
Tony Smith (Sunday Star Times): How to honour Shane Christie’s legacy and confront CTE, rugby’s greatest challenge (paywalled)
ODT Editorial: Death a wake-up call for NZ Rugby (paywalled)
Lillian Hanly and Craig McCulloch (RNZ): Sport NZ urged government not to scrap transgender inclusive community sport guidelines