BUDGET 2026 AND PUBLIC SERVICE OVERHAUL
Damien Grant (Stuff): Nicola Willis talks fiscal discipline — then Winston Peters enters the chat
Vernon Small (Sunday Star Times): Fiscal mining: The coalition’s multibillion-dollar trap for Labour (paywalled)
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Herald): Nicola Willis tried desperately to avoid Ruth Richardson comparisons but now is closer than ever (paywalled)
Claire Robinson: A new plan for Aotearoa: The speech Nicola Willis should have given
Fran O’Sullivan (Herald): Nicola Willis wants to cut the public service but what about shrinking Cabinet too? (paywalled)
Julie Jacobson (Sunday Star Times): Death by 8700 cuts: Can Wellington survive the great public service cull? (paywalled)
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Sunday Star Times): Could public service cuts be part of a hard-fought Coalition bargain? (paywalled)
Bruce Cotterill (Herald): AI must simplify, not complicate, our way of life (paywalled)
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): The public service cut is to be admired
Penny Smith (RNZ): Nicola Willis’ plan to slash public sector takes Wellington Mayor Andrew Little by surprise
RNZ: Minister of Defence Chris Penk announces $1.6b investment for ageing maritime fleet and drones
Stuff: Defence to get $1.5 billion boost in Budget 2026, set to deliver two types of sea drone
Emma Ricketts (Stuff): Last resort social welfare payment set for cut, saving nearly $200m over four years, but critic calls it ‘nasty’
HOUSING AND PROPERTY
Luke Malpass (Sunday Star Times): Social housing reform is always going to be uncomfortable (paywalled)
Susan Edmunds (RNZ): Is 30 percent of income on rent fair?
RNZ: Labour criticise government changes to Temporary Additional Support
Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): National’s social housing shift sparks warnings from sector
Annemarie Quill (Stuff): We bought at market peak, now we live in a motorhome: The suburbs where home values have crashed the most
Vanessa Williams (Sunday Star Times): Moving past the boom: What the new normal looks like in New Zealand’s property market (paywalled)
Rob Stock (Sunday Star Times): Treading Water: Why UK-style info packs for would-be homebuyers are fast becoming standard (paywalled)
Oliver Hartwich (NZ Initiative): A warning from NZ on housing tax changes
Anastasia Manza (Te Ao Māori News): Tahua 2026: Māori housing fears grow ahead of Budget 2026
PARLIAMENT, ELECTION AND GOVERNMENT
Jamie Ensor (Herald): Premier House upgrades cost more than $1 million over two years as ‘critical remedial work’ continues
Adam Pearse (Herald): Good politics v Good Govt: Inside Cabinet minister Casey Costello’s office (paywalled)
Andrea Vance (Sunday Star Times): Temu policy: bold promises but the devil is in the detail (paywalled)
Louis Collins (RNZ): Government members’ bills: Politics in the biscuit tin
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