Dear subscribers
With the election now less than a month away, I want to start keeping you more regularly informed about the Democracy Project and the work behind these newsletters. This is the first in a series of short notes that I’ll include at the beginning of News Briefing.
I’ve been consolidating the Democracy Project’s newsletters, and things are now settled and going well. My focus is on making them as useful as possible through the election campaign and beyond: bringing together a wide range of political reporting and commentary in News Briefing, alongside my own analysis in Democracy Briefing.
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The campaign is a particularly useful time to have this coverage, but the work of scrutinising New Zealand politics will continue long after polling day.
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Kind regards
Bryce
News Briefing: 12 October 2026
ELECTION 2026: CAMPAIGN AND PARTIES
Danyl McLauchlan (Listener): Irritated voters want better ideas and genuine representation (paywalled)
Herald: Editorial – Would you have a beer with Christopher Luxon or Chris Hipkins? (paywalled)
RNZ: Election 2026 as it happened: Greens label ACT fiscal plan ‘welfare for the wealthiest’, Opportunity seeks answers over ‘assumptions’
Stuff: Tax debate vs benefit cuts as campaign reaches two week mark
Nick James (Post): Auckland dominates campaign travel as leaders chase key seats (paywalled)
Amelia Wade (Post): Mobbed at the mall: The art of the campaign walkabout (paywalled)
Anneke Smith (Post): Where’s Candace? High-profile Auckland Central candidate pulls out of debates (paywalled)
Doug Sail (Press): Keeping up appearances: MP offers to pull weeds along state highway (paywalled)
Mihingarangi Forbes: Opportunity lost?
Post: Introducing The Post’s new election policy tool (paywalled)
DEMOCRACY, ELECTORAL SYSTEM AND INTEGRITY
Chuan-Zheng Lee: You can only game the MMP system once
Elizabeth Allen: Now is the Time for the BFP
Dubby Henry (Herald): Manurewa voting scandal: Claims locals asked to hand over blank local body election ballots (paywalled)
Tim Scott (ODT): ‘It just seems a bit overkill’: More people barred from Dunedin election events (paywalled)
Gryffin Blockley (Critic): On The Voting Fence? There’s A Website For That
NATIONAL
Anna Thomas (RNZ): His greatest achievement isn’t being Prime Minister: A road trip with Christopher Luxon
Herald: Editorial – Little to be gained from National Party’s beneficiary drug test plan (paywalled)
ODT: Editorial – Random drug testing folly (paywalled)
RNZ: National would make completing Year 11 compulsory if back in power
Justin Hu (1News): 5000 students a year set to stay at school longer under National
Nick James (Post): National to keep students in school through year 11 if re-elected (paywalled)
Herald: National promises to require students to finish Year 11 before leaving school
Alice Peacock (Newsroom): Nats to scrub telexes from law, though minister isn’t sure what they are
LABOUR AND JACINDA ARDERN
Mike Houlahan (ODT): Hipkins 2.0 campaigning on his own platform (paywalled)
Justin Hu (1News): Hipkins promises end to ‘slop’ lunches, reveals 2020 tax support
RNZ: Labour says its school lunches would be made on-site, cover all 244,400 students already involved
Herald: Labour promises fresh school lunches and rural bus routes
Roeland van den Bergh (Post): Labour: Airlines ‘shouldn’t be able to use dynamic pricing to manipulate customers’ (paywalled)
Lauren Crimp (RNZ): How much difference would Labour’s airline policy really make?
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Dame Jacinda Ardern enters the election debate
Nick James (Post): Former PM Dame Jacinda Ardern reappears in the political arena, in donation email (paywalled)
Anna Whyte (Interest): Ardern returns as parties spar over wages and jobs
David Cohen (Newsroom): Book of the Week: Jacinda’s spin doctor, still spinning
Audrey Young (Herald): New book: Andrew Campbell says Dame Jacinda Ardern was left undefended against abuse (paywalled)
Justin Hu (1News): Former Ardern staffer recalls back-seat argument in new book
GREENS
Joel MacManus (Spinoff): Chlöe Swarbrick and the weight of expectations
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Green Party guarantees ‘pathway’ to job for unemployed aged 16 to 24
RNZ: Greens would establish programme to guarantee jobs for all young Kiwis
Emma Ricketts and Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Greens guarantee a pathway to work or training for 16 to 24-year olds
George Heagney (Post): Campaign trail: Green MP’s fight to bring down cost of living (paywalled)
ACT FISCAL PLAN
Russell Palmer (RNZ): ACT sets out plan to raise retirement age, cut debt, spending and disability benefits
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Act promises big public spending cuts and cuts to aid to drive debt $12.4b lower – but no income tax cuts
Nick James (Post): ACT’s fiscal plan aims to rack up bigger surpluses with sweeping cuts, hints at ‘targeted’ tax cut policy (paywalled)
Brent Edwards (NBR): The Act Party’s plan to reduce debt by $12.4b (paywalled)
Emma Ricketts (Stuff): ACT Party releases fiscal plan, pledges retirement age increase
RNZ: ‘Shovel money upwards, starve everyone else’ - ACT under fire over proposed disability benefits cuts
NZ FIRST
Richard Harman (Post): How NZ First is walking backwards into the future (paywalled)
Richard Harman (Politik): Shane Jones goes full nationalist (paywalled)
Mike Houlahan (ODT): A full house, and more, greets Winston Peters in Mosgiel (paywalled)
Mike Houlahan (ODT): Election 2026 interview: Winston Peters (paywalled)
Derek Cheng (Herald): Separating fact from fiction as Winston Peters campaigns in Dunedin (paywalled)
Jo Moir (RNZ): ‘Not as attractive as it used to be’ - Peters on living in NZ today
Stuff: Winston Peters takes aim at ‘wokeness’, Aotearoa and Māori spending
RNZ: NZ First promises to implement ‘shortage-led’ skilled work visas
Nick James (Post): NZ condemns Houthi attacks in Saudi Arabia, says Winston Peters (paywalled)
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