NZ FIRST
Lyric Waiwiri-Smith (Spinoff): Nationalist with a capital W: Winston Peters sets out NZ First’s plan to win 2026
Mandy Te (Interest): NZ First wants to split power gentailers into separate generators and retailers
RNZ: Winston Peters announces proposal to overhaul energy sector in State of the Nation speech
Adam Pearse (Herald): Winston Peters’ newest candidate makes a stuttering start but could solve NZ First’s dilemma (paywalled)
Adam Pearse (Herald): Winston Peters’ State of the Nation: Former National minister Alfred Ngaro to stand for NZ First
Stuff: Peters unveils power shake-up in speech hitting out at ‘woke agenda’ and ‘weirdos with purple hair’
Jonathan Mitchell (NBR): Peters says NZ First would split power companies up (paywalled)
GOVERNMENT, PARLIAMENT AND ELECTION
Jamie Ensor (Herald): Politicians find it ‘difficult to assess’ what Ministry for Ethnic Communities achieving, encourage better performance reporting (paywalled)
Phil Pennington (RNZ): Government data being held by ‘unvetted third parties’ - Treasury report
Grant Duncan: Private lives of public figures: when the personal becomes political
Claire Robinson: ACT came to government to shrink the state. Instead it shrank National’s polling
Louis Collins (RNZ): What to expect when you’re expecting an election
Henry Cooke (Post): Agenda: Fuel crisis deepens as Government moves to twice weekly updates (paywalled)
FUEL AND ECONOMIC IMPACT OF IRAN WAR
Danyl McLauchlan (Listener): Fossil fools: On the coalition’s petrol problem (paywalled)
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Green Party suggests axing infrastructure projects, mainly in Auckland, to make public transport free for three months
RNZ: Fuel price strains send public transport numbers skyrocketing
Verity Johnson (Stuff): This feels like March 2020 all over again
Jesse Mulligan: Soooooooo-lar Power
RNZ: Seven weeks worth of fuel stocks in NZ - Finance Minister Nicola Willis
Laura Frykberg (Stuff): Nicola Willis says we have enough fuel for now, economists are sceptical it will stay that way
Herald: Finance Minister Nicola Willis says seven weeks worth of fuel in New Zealand storage but ‘we are not relaxed’
André Chumko (Post): Iran war: Government leans on seven-week fuel buffer as AA urges restraint (paywalled)
Grant Bradley (Post): The 12-hour jet fuel warning that could ground New Zealand (paywalled)
Keiller MacDuff (RNZ): Misinformation being spread on fuel price app, but intentions unclear
Catherine Masters (One Roof): ‘Nasty’ fuel shocks and deserted open homes: What escalating Iran war means for NZ house prices
Jenée Tibshraeny (Herald): Middle East conflict puts upward pressure on mortgage rates, for now (paywalled)
Idea: How to protect the poorest during a fuel crisis (paywalled)
EVS
Keiller MacDuff (RNZ): $50m plan to double the number of public EV chargers
Stuff: Government-backed investment set to double number of public EV chargers across country
Post: Government loans and private investment to add another 2500 EV chargers across NZ, doubling network
Mandy Te (Interest): Government, Meridian Energy and ChargeNet to more than double EV chargers across New Zealand
THE PRESS SOUTH ISLAND POWER LIST 2026
Bryce Edwards (Democracy Project): Who really runs the South Island?
Philip Matthews (Press): The Press Power List names the South Island’s most influential individual (paywalled)
Philip Matthews (Press): The Press Power List 2026: Whose power has increased, who has lost their way? (paywalled)
Liz McDonald (Press): Richard Peebles crawled out of a collapsed building, then helped rebuild the city around it (paywalled)
Philip Matthews (Press): New names in politics, the arts, technology: The Press Power List’s Ones to Watch (paywalled)
HEALTH
Fox Meyer (Newsroom): Health NZ downplays security flaw found in its vaunted AI chatbot
Ian Powell: Ethics of conviction and ethics of responsibility in health systems
Gill South (Stuff): To pay or self-insure? The painful private healthcare conundrum hitting Kiwis
Michael Morrah (Herald): Specialist mental health team excluded from decisions on shared prison cells for mentally ill prisoners
Fiona Ellis (Post): Struggle to see specialist: Majority of cardiology referrals declined (paywalled)
Andrea Vance (Post): Principals ‘deeply alarmed’ as school nurses could be slashed by half (paywalled)
Curtis Walker (Waikato Times): A plan ignored: How New Zealand failed its kidney patients (paywalled)
Susan Edmunds (RNZ): 4.5 or two-star water? Health labels confuse
Alice Peacock (Newsroom): Pharmac owes it to taxpayers to fund weight loss drugs – Novo Nordisk boss
HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS
1News: Two million homes? Visiting planner weighs in on Auckland housing debate
Jonathan Killick (Post): ‘This is damning’: Auckland councillor releases PC120 feedback report (paywalled)
Fiona Terry (Listener): Title fights: What owners wished they knew before buying into apartments and townhouses (paywalled)
Charlotte Mulder (1News): West Coast town’s housing stock at breaking point amid mining boom
Nadine Higgins (Herald): Why a Kiwi investor is choosing to rent instead of buying
Critic: Tamatha Paul talks housing
MEDIA
Stewart Sowman-Lund (Post): Metro magazine ends print run to focus on digital future (paywalled)
Charlotte Glennie (Listener): ‘Covering a natural disaster is very different to witnessing horror that’s deliberately inflicted’ (paywalled)
Jean Balchin (ODT): Student mag fundamental to uni community (paywalled)
Ani O’Brien: The sudden discovery of restraint and empathy in journalism
ECONOMY
Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): Wake up New Zealand: The panda wants a cuddle (paywalled)
Rebecca Howard (BusinessDesk): RBNZ Governor Anna Breman’s speech pivots to focus on Middle East war (paywalled)
Chris Keall (Herald): Halter tipped for raise at $3.3 billion valuation, Kiwi fund details huge gains (paywalled)
Geerten Lengkeek (Post): Fonterra’s real turnaround was productivity (paywalled)
Mark Lister (Herald): Election 2026 and your portfolio: Why investors should stick to the plan (paywalled)
Aimee Shaw (Post): Hollowed Out: Global tech giant Tata Consultancy Services denies wiping out NZ jobs (paywalled)
Susan Edmunds (RNZ): KiwiSaver members get human rights warning
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS; DEFENCE
1News: ‘Extreme risk’: Retired general’s warning about NZDF amid Iran conflict
Steven Cowan: The New Zealand Government has capitulated to Trump
Graye Shattky (ODT): New Zealand in this changing world — a trusted partner (paywalled)
CARTOONS