PARLIAMENT, GOVERNMENT, PUBLIC SERVICE
Lloyd Burr (Stuff): Mood of the Workforce: How workers feel about NZ’s political leaders
Justin Hu (1News): Election year starts here: what to expect from politics and the economy in 2026
Danyl McLauchlan (Listener): Between austerity and orthodoxy, NZ’s left goes quiet (paywalled)
Laura Walters (Newsroom): Lest we forget it’s election year
Ava Whitworth (Stuff): No new policy, no election date: Luxon pitches economic reform ahead of State of the Nation speech
Jamie Ensor (Herald): Christopher Luxon’s election-year opener: Prime Minister to remind New Zealanders of steady progress as Donald Trump causes turbulence overseas (paywalled)
Catherine McGregor (Spinoff): Can Luxon turn a fragile recovery into an election win?
Brent Edwards (NBR): National and Labour start planning for election year (paywalled)
Grant Duncan: NZ Labour Party: last election’s leftovers
Henry Cooke (Post): Te Pāti Māori: Rātana not the time to negotiate with Labour (paywalled)
Bryce Edwards (Democracy Project): Democracy Briefing: The Green Party’s culture war quagmire
Steven Cowan: Chloe Swarbrick’s dilemma: A socialist voice in a liberal party
Muriel Newman: State of the Nation 2026
Ian Llewellyn (BusinessDesk): Stobo investigation stalls Electricity Authority leadership plan (paywalled)
JUSTICE, CRIME, CORRECTIONS
Tim Brown (RNZ): Abuse in Care: Police prosecuted fewer than 1 in 10 referred cases
Derek Cheng (Herald): Three Strikes 2.0 was meant to put away the worst criminals. So far it has barely been used (paywalled)
Tracy Neal (Open Justice Reporting): Inside the Family Court: Do custody rulings really put kids first?
Post: Can someone tell me how I can leave a gang? (paywalled)
Catrin Owen (Stuff): Reported sexual assaults by prison officers on the rise
Jared Savage (Herald): Street price of meth dropped to new low in 2025, cocaine ‘easy’ to get according to new research by Massey University (paywalled)
RMA, FAST-TRACK, HOUSING, INFRASTRUCTURE
Andrea Vance (Post): Voters back environmental protections over fast-tracking (paywalled)
Fox Meyer (Newsroom): Govt halfway through overhaul of the RMA ‘engine room’
Thomas Manch (BusinessDesk): Suburbs the likely target as Government dials down Auckland density plans (paywalled)
Hayden Donnell (Spinoff): All the bogus reasons for National’s latest housing U-turn
Tom Hunt (Post): Tunnel vision leaves Wellington 17,400 homes short (paywalled)
Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): Regulator for council funding tool ‘risks local democracy’, officials caution
HEALTH, MANAGE MY HEALTH SCANDAL
Kate MacNamara (Herald): $2500 a day: Dunedin hospital Crown manager’s fee more than doubles from previous roles (paywalled)
ODT Editorial: Reform like pulling teeth (paywalled)
James Borrowdale (Spinoff): How we die: Inside New Zealand’s looming crisis in palliative care
Emma Ricketts (Stuff): It wasn’t us: GPs push back after Manage My Health data breach blame lingers
Deborah Morris (Post): Call for for Health NZ to break up with Manage My Health over data hack (paywalled)
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Katie Hunter (Waikato Times/Post): Trump tariff threats over Greenland could have knock-on effects for NZ (paywalled)
Lianne Dalziel (Newsroom): NZ Govt’s muted response to unlawful world events is cause for alarm
Rebekah Armstrong (Herald): When the people of Iran ask you to stand with them, this is what they mean (paywalled)
Neil Reid (Herald): Kiwi soldier loses leg, but stays on Ukraine battlefield for five days
Gaurav Sharma (RNZ): Unpacking the details of New Zealand’s free trade deal with India
Ian Powell: Bondi Beach murderous terrorism
TIM SHADBOLT
Redmer Yska (Listener): Activist, political stuntman, national treasure, Tim Shadbolt was all these and more (paywalled)
Mike White (Sunday Star Times): Laughs and lamentation: Sir Tim Shadbolt’s colourful legacy (paywalled)
Tim Scott and John Lewis (ODT): Former, current councillors dispute Sir Tim’s partner’s claims (paywalled)
ECONOMY, COST OF LIVING
Bernard Hickey (The Kākā): Primer #5 for 2026: NZ Inc chooses the status quo
Annemarie Quill (Stuff): ‘Working hard and still broke’: The reality of living on $1000 a week
Andy Macdonald (BusinessDesk): Banks see 2025 inflation at c.3.0% (paywalled)
Brent Sheather (NBR): Saving for retirement - who to believe? (paywalled)
BUSINESS
Brett Kerr-Laurie (Press/Post): Demand for law change to combat roofing sector plagued by cowboys (paywalled)
Jaime Lyth (Herald): Builders’ licences cancelled over non-compliance, fraud and crime in 2024-25 (paywalled)
Herald Editorial: How online shopping is reshaping social skills and town centres (paywalled)
TRANSPORT
Mary Argue (RNZ): An inter-island ferry route from Picton to Clifford Bay has been an idea for almost a century
Kira Carrington (Local Democracy Reporting): Tearing down old bridge doesn’t settle ferry future in Picton, opponent says
Ethan Manera (Herald): Wellington Airport didn’t evacuate when military practice bomb found in bag, worker claims safety rules ignored
EDUCATION
Imogene Bedford & Lochlan Lineham (Herald): Back to school costs: The real price of your child’s education
Philip Chandler (Mountain Scene): Parent slams son’s school over Treaty stance
John Gerritsen (RNZ): Education Ministry error almost cut 2027 school year short
Mark Sheehan: The experiences of the past shape the present
OTHER
Janet Holborow (Post): Rates capping won’t fix what’s really driving costs (paywalled)
Joel MacManus (Spinoff): The winners and losers from the first week back after the summer shutdown
K Gurunathan (Post): Why it’s time for Indian New Zealanders to Be Prepared (paywalled)
Andrew Hedgman (news.com.au/Herald): Kiwis arriving in record numbers but many caught unprepared for Aussie life
Steve Braunias (Newsroom): The secret horoscopes, part 2
David Fisher (Herald): War of the Poppies: RSA opts for British oak leaf design, RSA rebels go for the fern (paywalled)
Neil Reid (Herald): Nazis in NZ: New book details challenges Kiwi and Australian investigators faced probing war crime claims (paywalled)
Susan Edmunds (RNZ): Saveloys out, spinach in: Here’s how our spending habits have changed
Reid Basher (Post): Plenty of action on disaster risk, some of it progressive (paywalled)
Reid Basher (Post): Those who survive a big disaster remember; so should we (paywalled)
Paul Little (Listener): Te Papa has some of NZ’s greatest artworks, so why won’t our national museum let us see them?
Mike White (Sunday Star Times): The mysterious disappearance of Ruptured Duckling: How a NZ museum lost a precious piece of maritime history (paywalled)
Ani O’Brien: RNZ’s X/Grok political hit job is not a child-safety story
RNZ: Government seeks urgent advice on how to protect Auckland rockpools
Liam Rātana (Spinoff): ‘It’s been relentless’: Locals patrol Auckland rockpools to stop ‘bucket people’
Andrew Bevin (Newsroom): Influencers and images of money to be banned in online gambling adverts
CARTOONS