LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Bryce Edwards (The Integrity Institute): The Local government rejection election
Amelia Wade (Post): Local government’s SOS: We need the orange man and his dog to improve dire turnout (paywalled)
Hayden Donnell (Spinoff): Winners, losers, big losers and gigantic losers from the 2025 local elections
Catherine McGregor (Spinoff): Disastrous election turnout leaves few clues about national mood
Ryan Bridge (Newstalk ZB): The silence was deafening in our local elections
Francesca Rudkin (Newstalk ZB): How do we get good candidates and voters engaged in local body elections?
Amelia Wade (Post): Why David Seymour is pleased more ACT candidates didn’t win council seats (paywalled)
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): ‘Honestly, I don’t know if Māori will be elected’, says councillor, after Māori wards result
Daniel Perese (Te Ao Māori News): Majority of New Zealand says no to Māori Wards
Tim Murphy (Newsroom): Standoff over candidate’s protest at ‘late’ votes sparks police complaint
Greg Presland (The Standard): The 2025 Local Government Election results
K Gurunathan (Post): What Saturday’s election winners should expect next (paywalled)
LOCAL GOVERNMENT - AUCKLAND
Amelia Wade (Post): Crime, business and social support: Auckland’s wish-list for Wayne (paywalled)
Bernard Orsman (Herald): Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown outlines goals before Christmas break, focusing on Auckland Transport and tech
Bernard Orsman (Herald): Simon Bridges shuts down talk of future Auckland mayoralty plans
LOCAL GOVERNMENT - WELLINGTON
Joel MacManus (Spinoff): Key takeaways from Wellington’s red wave local election
Tom Hunt (Post): Wellington mayor Andrew Little has work cut out, political diplomacy to be tested (paywalled)
Ethan Manera (Herald): How Ray Chung’s once-promising mayoral bid collapsed in a landslide defeat (paywalled)
Tom Hunt (Post): Just 126 votes between calm seas and turmoil for Wellington council (paywalled)
Tom Hunt (Post): ‘A surreal 24 hours’: New faces for both Hutt Valley councils (paywalled)
LOCAL GOVERNMENT - NORTH ISLAND
Peter de Graaf (RNZ): Deputy Jonathan Larsen, iwi leader Snow Tane battle for Kaipara mayoralty
Benn Bathgate (Waikato Times): New city mayor to take scalpel to spending, but promises no slash ‘n’ burn (paywalled)
Waikato Times: Putāruru wastewater upgrade project reveals need for whole new plant (paywalled)
Matthew Nash (Local Democracy Reporting): Rotorua council elections: Tania Tapsell wins by landslide, welcomes fresh faces to council
Craig Ashworth (Local Democracy Reporting): Māori wards, candidates voted down across Taranaki
RNZ: Napier mayoral race: Richard McGrath ousts Kirsten Wise
RNZ: Wendy Schollum claims Hastings mayoralty with 3000 votes left to count
Linda Hall (Local Democracy Reporting): Hawke’s Bay Regional Council election results: Restanding councillors keep their seats
Emily Ireland (Local Democracy Reporting): South Wairarapa council adopts annual report
LOCAL GOVERNMENT - CHRISTCHURCH
Tina Law (Press): Phil Mauger’s second term: ‘Attack debt’, tinker with rubbish collection, likely give up on ripping up cycleway (paywalled)
Tina Law and Sinead Gill (Press): The ‘compromise council’: Power of the incumbent shines through in Christchurch (paywalled)
LOCAL GOVERNMENT - DUNEDIN
Grant Miller (ODT): ‘It’s me’: Barker takes mayoralty
Grant Miller (ODT): Radich ‘all cleared out’ from office of mayor (paywalled)
Ruby Shaw (ODT): Surprise, disappointment as incumbents unseated (paywalled)
Ruby Shaw (ODT): Newcomers win seats across all of city’s bodies (paywalled)
LOCAL GOVERNMENT - SOUTH ISLAND
Sinead Gill (Press): Environment Canterbury shake-up: ‘Not there to tickle spiders’ (paywalled)
David Hill (Local Democracy Reporting): Hurunui’s mayor had already won, but that didn’t stop the nerves
David Hill (Local Democracy Reporting): Gordon wins third term in Waimakariri
Sinead Gill and Dominic Harris (Press): Selwyn’s new mayor to ‘rip the lid off’ council spending plans (paywalled)
Katie Todd (RNZ): Waitaki elects Melanie Tavendale as first woman to hold mayoralty
Lois Williams (Local Democracy Reporting): Jacquie Grant, 82, leads Westland mayoral race by narrow margin
Crux: John Glover: Crown Observer to look at sewage crisis, Lakeview, Road to Nowhere
Katie Todd (RNZ): New Queenstown mayor: It’s ‘getting our own house in order’
Grant Miler (ODT): Interim results show swing to right
CLIMATE CHANGE, ENVIRONMENT, PRIMARY INDUSTRIES
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Farmers off the hook on climate means rest of us pick up the slack
Anneke Smith (RNZ): Government ‘missed opportunity’ to price methane - climate scientist
RNZ: Government lowers methane target, rules out methane taxes
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Government almost halves methane reduction target, farmers celebrate
Dan Brunskill (Interest): ‘Paris is next’: Coalition cuts methane reduction target, exempts farmers from taxes
RNZ: Global leaders, scientists gather for New Zealand’s largest ever climate event in Christchurch
Tina Morrison (Newsroom): ‘Suboptimal management’ nearly bankrupted animal disease watchdog
Andrew Bevin (Newsroom): Council to notify massive Coromandel bottom trawl ban, picking fight with Govt
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Post): Grass-fed or greenwashed? MPI standard under scrutiny (paywalled)
Monique Steele (RNZ): Climate change effects expected to hurt farm viability in next decade, study finds
NBR: Climate shocks for farms becoming more common, research warns (paywalled)
Cushla Loomb (Herald): Climate adaptation: What we can learn from our Pacific Island neighbours (paywalled)
Tom Raynel (Herald): Cherri Global collapse: Govt revealed as biggest external creditor (paywalled)
Brent Sheather (NBR): How New Zealand exported both logs and jobs (paywalled)
PARLIAMENT, GOVERNMENT
Danyl McLauchlan (Listener): PM Christopher Luxon seemingly transmutes political gold into sh*t (paywalled)
Verity Johnson (Stuff): Christopher Luxon, like a modern day Marie Antoinette
Duncan Garner (Listener): Timid and weak govt is handing the election to ‘do nothing and say nothing’ Labour (paywalled)
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Each call to the Road Cone Tipline leads to fewer than one cone being removed
Laura Walters (Newsroom): Likely changes to compensation clause in Regulatory Standards Bill
Jamie Ensor (Herald): David Seymour’s Regulatory Standards Bill reported back by select committee, Opposition criticises ‘egregious failure’
Grant Duncan: Te Pāti Māori: can they land the waka?
Kerre Woodham (Newstalk ZB): Te Pāti Māori and their continued breaches of protocol
Julie Jacobson (Post): Coffin in National Library plan canned after last-minute objection (paywalled)
Katie Harris (Herald): Shane Jones’ son Penetaui Kleskovic eyes national politics with New Zealand First
ASSET SALES, ECONOMY, INEQUALITY
Craig Renney: The Bill English Trick
Rob Stock (Post): What do rich people know that poor people don’t? (paywalled)
Dileepa Fonseka (BusinessDesk): When the Hopium wears off (paywalled)
HEALTH
Nicholas Jones (Stuff): ‘Missed care and outright neglect’: The ‘crisis’ in our aged care homes revealed
Sarah Dalton (Herald): New Zealanders’ health is getting worse and it’s costing us billions each year (paywalled)
Lisa Davies (1News): Meningitis Foundation sounds alarm after recent deaths in NZ
ODT: Call to fund meningitis vaccines
Phil Pennington (RNZ): Starship Hospital nurses, doctors boycotted managers over bullying allegations
Ian Powell: Corporate ownership of general practices extends power into Primary Care Organisations
Herald Editorial: Government shouldn’t fund ‘less-bad’ addictions to quit smoking (paywalled)
RNZ: Rheumatology patients suffer significant pain without enough staff - professor
Sam Sherwood (RNZ): ‘Waste of a life’: Riley Brown died from meal with peanut traces at mental health facility
RNZ: New endometriosis treatment for now available - but there’s a catch
Paula Penfold (Stuff): ‘We were sitting in hell’: The parents who gave birth knowing their baby had died - and the help they never they got
RNZ: Government commits to Bill allowing three-day postnatal stay
Joanne Naish (Press): ‘I’m a nurse’ not a non-earner: Call for ACC to back patients injured in care (paywalled)
Allan Pollard (Post): Striking the right balance with changes to liquor controls (paywalled)
Isaac Davison (Stuff): A rest home, a cluster of illness, and questions about a mother’s death
RNZ: Extended prescriptions may force some pharmacies to close, industry group warns
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Post): Fresh $1.5 billion deficit leaves ACC $13.8b in the red (paywalled)
Torika Tokalau (Local Democracy Reporting): ‘Protect our families’: Pacific leaders issue measles warning
Alan Perrott (NZ Doctor): Review clears Pasifika Medical Association – but damage done, says president (paywalled)
Gary Hamilton-Irvine (Hawkes Bay Today/Herald): Hawke’s Bay’s new hospice reaches milestone with plans lodged (paywalled)
Jenni Mortimer (Herald): How can New Zealanders get mental health support and how much does it cost?
ENERGY
Sam Stubbs (Sunday Star Times): The Government should have switched on proper energy reform (paywalled)
RNZ: Call for power companies to make it easier to switch and choose plans
Ian Llewellyn (BusinessDesk): Regulator proposes changes to confusing and difficult to compare electricity bills (paywalled)
Barry Barton (The Conversation): Why does NZ’s new energy plan sideline renewables and ignore progress made already?
Nona Pelletier (RNZ): Electricity Authority wants wind, solar export limits to be doubled to 10kW
Ian Llewellyn (BusinessDesk): Home truths on gas supply from Amy Adams, Gas Industry Co chair (paywalled)
HOUSING
Ryan Boswell (1News): Retirement Commissioner worried more older people will end up homeless
Victoria Crockford (Post): Homeless women and the law of unintended consequences (paywalled)
Rami Alrudaini (Post): Building the Auckland CBD we all deserve (paywalled)
Ben Tomsett (Herald): Dunedin millionaire Roger Fewtrell building homes to help first‑home buyers get ahead (paywalled)
Harriet Laughton (Post): Te Toi Mahana unveils 10-year plan for 500 new homes (paywalled)