News Briefing: 17 June 2026

IMMIGRATION NZ TECHNOLOGY SCANDAL
Lauren Crimp (RNZ): Heads could roll at Immigration NZ as Public Service Commissioner investigates integrity
Adam Pearse (Herald): ‘Furious’ minister reveals officials misled her, knowingly avoided Cabinet over ‘doomed’ immigration project, millions wasted
Craig McCulloch (RNZ): Immigration officials ‘deliberately withheld’ information on failed technology upgrade
Emma Ricketts (Stuff): Immigration minister ‘furious’ at being ‘misled’ over $33m border project that delivered nothing in seven years
Adam Pearse (Herald): Staff dismissals likely for public servants implicated in immigration project scandal – Public Service Commissioner
Dileepa Fonseka (BusinessDesk): Inside the Immigration NZ $33.4m IT biometric upgrade with NEC that became a case study in failure (paywalled)
Amelia Wade (Post): Watchdog to investigate after $33m immigration tech project collapses, delivering nothing (paywalled)
Gill Bonnett (RNZ): Immigration project wasted millions, finances remain unclear|
RNZ: Scrutiny week brings Immigration NZ’s integrity failings into focus, will it be the only agency?
Anna Whyte (Interest): Probe underway into ‘trifecta of terrible things’, transport funding overhaul and free maternity scans promised
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Newstalk ZB): Don’t trifle with Erica Stanford

PARLIAMENT, ELECTION AND GOVERNMENT
Bryce Edwards (Democracy Project): The $129 billion political class
Susan Edmunds (RNZ): ‘A profoundly unusual job’: How do MPs’ perks compare?
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Green Party surge in new poll puts left bloc ahead of coalition
Henry Cooke (Post): New poll has Labour in Government - and Opportunity closer to 5% (paywalled)
Michael Swanson: National and the 2026 Election
Jamie Ensor (Herald): Labour ‘confident’ in capital gains tax revenue, won’t say what it’ll do if it makes less than expected (paywalled)
Jane Yee (Herald): Could an independent parliamentary budget office make policy costs clearer?
Liam Hehir (The Blue Review): Simeon Brown and the Mission Creep Problem
Jenna Lynch (Stuff): Social media ban law a couple of weeks away, but ACT and NZ First not quite on board yet
Paul James (Herald): In defence of the DIA managing NZ’s age verification plans
Lillian Hanly (RNZ): Children’s Minister Karen Chhour won’t say how many still in government’s bootcamps
Kate Langdon (Spinoff): Remember back when you were proud to be a New Zealander?
Māni Dunlop and Lineni Tuitupou (Te Ao News): Goldsmith rejects claims Crown-Māori relations are worsening and describes them as in ‘good-shape’
Fox Meyer (Newsroom): NZ First offers gene tech carrot to sceptical voters
Fox Meyer (Newsroom): Jones wants to strip fast-track powers from environmental regulator

PUBLIC SECTOR
Henry Cooke (Post): Is a public sector this bad at big complicated things really going to thrive with AI? (paywalled)
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Post): Goldsmith defends undocumented conversations with Crown board chairs (paywalled)
Ian Llewellyn (BusinessDesk): Business of Government: Public service numbers up, Naidoo outrage and more (paywalled)
Brent Edwards (NBR): David Seymour extolls virtues of Ministry for Regulation (paywalled)
Susan Hornsby-Geluk (Post): The balancing act when public servants want to become politicians (paywalled)
Elspeth McLean (ODT): There is more to solving OIA issues than using AI (paywalled)
Māni Dunlop and Lineni Tuitupou (Te Ao Māori News): ‘How many whānau are waiting?’ MPs press officials on Whānau Ora demand and success measures

TRANSPORT AND INFRASTRUCTURE
Russell Palmer (RNZ): 30-year ‘Infrastructure Plan’ backed by Parliament
Thomas Manch (BusinessDesk): Government accepts Infrastructure Commissioner’s national plan recommendations (paywalled)
Nick James (Post): Government backs review into under-pressure transport funding in infrastructure plan (paywalled)
Nick James (Post): Risk emergency fund to fix roads could run dry after another major event (paywalled)
Amanda Gillies (RNZ): The political battle over Labour’s transport policy
Timothy Welch (The Conversation): Cheaper fares won’t fix NZ’s public transport woes – and neither will a few extra buses
Sammy Carter (RNZ): Residents question why Eastbourne ferry included in Labour’s transport cap
Hayden Donnell (Spinoff): Simeon Brown deemed speed limit cuts ‘anti-car ideology’ – a new analysis shows they saved lives
Darren Davis: Trains to Tauranga: What needs to happen?

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