ELECTION 2026 AND THE PARTIES
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Herald): No, it wasn’t a rogue poll. Chris Hipkins and Labour’s trend is down (paywalled)
Farah Hancock (RNZ): National draws another $250k in large donations, while Labour banks $50k from another union
Duncan Garner (Listener): Has Labour got an election year bribe up its sleeve? (paywalled)
Jonathan Milne (Newsroom): Parties rule out deals to get Opportunity’s Qiulae Wong over the line in heartland seat
Damien Grant (Stuff): The worst economic policy since buying back BNZ was mooted
Zainab Ali (Sunday Star Times): If I were PM: A first job shouldn’t depend on luck (paywalled)
John Key (Herald): More taxes have been proposed for this election than any other. But every tax has a cost (paywalled)
Bruce Cotterill (Herald): New Zealand needs better spending, not big taxes (paywalled)
Fran O’Sullivan (Herald): Barbara Edmonds: Labour’s finance spokesperson set to take economic fight to Nicola Willis (paywalled)
Rodney Hide: Checking the fact-checkers
PARLIAMENT, GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC SERVICE
Vernon Small (Sunday Star Times): Rushed planning laws no triumph of political and legislative management (paywalled)
Andrea Vance (Sunday Star Times): The revenge of the mayors? (paywalled)
RNZ: Mistakes and lack of clear guidance led to millions being misspent, pokie trust says
Russell Palmer (RNZ): Why officials are ‘reasonably confident’ of avoiding fuel supply shocks
Kylie Klein Nixon (Sunday Star Times): Is it OK to knit in Parliament? (paywalled)
CITY RAIL LINK OPENING
Simon Wilson: Cheering the CRL: “People are living like this all round the world”
RNZ: Delays, cancellations over fire on Auckland’s City Rail Link on first day of operation
Katie Bradford (Herald): City Rail Link proves Auckland can build beyond election cycles
Timothy Welch (Sunday Star Times): CRL is here - what about the buses? (paywalled)
Imran Muhammad and Arshad Javed (Sunday Star Times): As the City Rail Link opens, will it change the way we build our cities? (paywalled)
Stewart Sowman-Lund (Sunday Star Times): How Auckland’s $5.5bn ‘train set’ finally became reality (paywalled)
Herald: Editorial – At last: the CRL is open for business (paywalled)
RNZ: Former Auckland mayor Len Brown ‘singing and dancing’ ahead of first CRL ride
HOUSING
Matthew Hooton (Sunday Star Times): How much further can we afford house prices to fall? (paywalled)
Kevin Norquay, Kelly Dennett and Wei Shao (Sunday Star Times): Kiwis asked for more affordable housing. This is what happened next (paywalled)
Peter Dunne (Newsroom): Nats’ housing offer is well and good but it needs houses
Miriam Bell (Sunday Star Times): The numbers game: Are we finally building more houses than we need? (paywalled)
Nadine Higgins (Herald): First Home Loan: Why National’s $300,000 income cap could push up house prices (paywalled)
Rob Stock (Sunday Star Times): Why home buyers sucked into the great mortgage bubble of 2020 and 2021 weren’t idiots (paywalled)
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): Again, get housing out of fast-track
Susan Edmunds (RNZ): Bank of mum and dad still helping with first homes, despite record KiwiSaver withdrawals
Kate MacNamara (Herald): Simplicity applies to use golden visa funds for build-to-rent developments (paywalled)
ODT: ‘Deceptive’ and ‘disingenuous’: application made to turn ‘affordable’ homes into visitor accommodation (paywalled)
Isaac Davison (Stuff): A pensioner left his retirement village but waited more than a year for a refund. Even his death didn’t get the money back
WINTON LAND
Bryce Edwards (Democracy Project): What the Winton Land scandal reveals about power in NZ
Jonathan Milne (Newsroom): Chris Meehan quits: ‘The recent focus on matters involving me has become a distraction’
Brent Melville (NBR): Chris Meehan resigns as director of Winton Land (paywalled)
Jaime Lyth (BusinessDesk): Chris Meehan resigns as Winton director (paywalled)
Herald: Winton Land founder Chris Meehan resigns as director
Miriam Bell (Post): Winton Land co-founder Chris Meehan quits as director; shareholders group calls it ‘positive step’ (paywalled)
The paywall now starts partway through all Democracy Project newsletters. Please take out a paid sub if you want to support this service and access the full content, including the following sections: ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE; HEALTH; EDUCATION; MEDIA, CULTURE AND SOCIAL MEDIA; THE UNTOLD STORY OF BOB JONES & THE NZ PARTY; ECONOMY AND BUSINESS; INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS; CARTOONS