News Briefing Top 10 for 25 October 2026
1. Katie Harris and David Fisher (Herald): The Chief of Defence, the alleged affair and the letter he read before he quit – the inside story of the women who shook up our military (paywalled)
Days before Air Marshal Tony Davies resigned as Chief of Defence Force, 26-year RNZAF veteran Kate Staunton wrote to him about his alleged 2006 relationship with a junior woman he commanded at 40 Squadron, the Herald’s Katie Harris and David Fisher reveal. The woman confirms the letter’s account that she was investigated and later left the service. Staunton says NZDF also failed to act on her 2019 fraternisation complaint, though the pair involved deny any breach. Defence Minister Paul Goldsmith calls it an “integrity matter”.
2. Jenna Lynch (Stuff): Resurfaced photo of Luxon latest in tit-for-tat gang members saga
Mongrel Mob life member Harry Tam has posted a photo of Christopher Luxon with Black Power members at Parliament’s abuse-in-care apology, the latest tit-for-tat move, Stuff’s Jenna Lynch reports. Stuff also obtained a photo of National minister Tama Potaka with patched Mongrel Mob members at the January 2024 Hui ā-motu; Potaka says one was a school mate. Luxon, who said on Friday “I am not tolerant of gangs at all”, admitted he had not spoken to Potaka about it. Labour wants the same standard applied.
3. Vernon Small (Sunday Star Times): The disturbing sense this year’s election might be illegitimate (paywalled)
In 40 years of covering elections, Vernon Small writes, this is the first time he has had a “disturbing sense that the outcome might be illegitimate”. The former Labour advisor blames two developments, neither illegal: closing enrolment two weeks before polling day, which he says will hit young voters assumed to favour the left, and blatant gaming of the MMP overhang. He argues Te Pāti Māori’s overhang would be limited to seven seats, but split-voting by some on the right could push it to a dozen or more.
4. Matthew Hooton and Julie Jacobson (Sunday Star Times): Will the ‘bureaucratic priesthood’ let the next government deliver its promises? (paywalled)
About 20% of policy advisers and their managers apparently aren’t prepared to accept voters’ verdict or the coalition deals that follow, according to an unpublished New Zealand Initiative study seen by the Sunday Star Times’ Matthew Hooton and Julie Jacobson (which will be released tomorrow afternoon). The think tank’s survey of 718 officials, run by Curia, which also works for the Taxpayers’ Union and National, found only 60% agreed ministers should decide policy. The Public Service Commission says the real test is conduct, not personal views, and former ministers offer advice on delivering reforms.
5. Joel Kulasingham (Herald): Hundreds of thousands of Kiwis still not enrolled to vote ahead of enrolment deadline
As at October 23, 307,991 eligible voters were still not enrolled, 43% of them aged 18-24, the Herald’s Joel Kulasingham reports from Electoral Commission figures. Only 69.9% of young people were enrolled, about seven percentage points below 2023, and overall enrolment was 92.2% against 94.7% last election. Under December’s law change, enrolment closes at midnight on Sunday. Chris Hipkins calls it “the most draconian restriction to people’s right to enrol to vote that we have ever seen”, while Christopher Luxon says it will cut special-vote counting.
6. Andrea Vance (Sunday Star Times): The trouble with telling voters to be thankful (paywalled)
Annual inflation has eased to 3.7%, but rates rose 6.2% and electricity 9.3%, and banks expect a rebound to between 4.5% and 4.7%, the Sunday Star Times’ Andrea Vance writes. A Post/Freshwater Strategy poll finds only 25% expect their household finances to improve, Labour leads by 19 points on easing the cost of living, and just 35% pick National’s economic plan against 33.8% for Labour. She argues Luxon talks up numbers but tells strugglers how to feel, as when he told a dairy farmer to “be thankful for something”.
7. Herald: Editorial – White-collar crime and gangs: Do we have a moral blind spot over crime? (paywalled)
Fewer than 1% of the roughly 1000 white-collar crime complaints the Serious Fraud Office receives each year end in prosecution, though such crime costs about $10 billion a year against $1.4b-$2.2b for gang crime, a Herald editorial says. It asks whether New Zealand has a moral blind spot over crime, arguing the week’s gang focus distracted from serious issues. It condemns gang violence but notes the Royal Commission found 80-90% of men in Māori gangs had been boys in state-funded care.
8. Jonathan Killick (Sunday Star Times): Two political careers on the line in Mt Albert’s four-way fight (paywalled)
Opportunity leader Qiulae Wong confirms that working with Winston Peters could be a deal breaker, telling the Sunday Star Times’ Jonathan Killick: “We don’t want to be swallowing a bunch of dead rats - we’d rather walk away.” In Mt Albert, National’s Melissa Lee, who lost by 18 votes in 2023, and Labour’s Helen White are both fighting for survival given their list rankings. Killick reports Lee neither lives nor has an office in the electorate, and Wong now puts a land tax 10 to 15 years away.
9. Heather du Plessis-Allan (Herald): Te Pāti Māori’s Oriini Kaipara has done more to help the Coalition than any other MP (paywalled)
Te Pāti Māori MP Oriini Kaipara has done more than any other politician to help re-elect the coalition, argues the Herald’s Heather du Plessis-Allan, by entangling the Greens, her own party and Labour in the Mongrel Mob saga in just over a week. She says the Kerrin Leoni revelations made Chris Hipkins “look like a liar”, and suggests it is probably not a coincidence that National now has its first five-point lead over Labour in the 1News-Verian poll, though one poll is not a trend.
10. Jamie Ensor (Herald): National planned social media ban event month before Cabinet approval, amid Act, NZ First opposition (paywalled)
Christopher Luxon’s and Erica Stanford’s offices were planning a Grand Hall event to announce National’s under-16 social media ban more than a month before Cabinet approved the bill, and while Act and NZ First publicly opposed it, the Herald’s Jamie Ensor reveals from emails released under the Official Information Act. A July 23 email from Luxon’s office already set the August 24 announcement, with B416 campaigners on the guest list. Stanford says the event was about online harms and could have gone ahead without the announcement had Cabinet not agreed.
Below the paywall are 28 more synopses and 25 further links. They cover the fallout from Kerrin Leoni’s resignation and the gang-photo row, Aaron Smale on the state’s role in creating gangs, whether Erica Stanford could end up as prime minister, profiles of Christopher Luxon and Chris Hipkins, the Epsom, Mt Roskill, Tāmaki and Auckland Central races, the Greens’ surge in the Māori electorates, homeless voters and the enrolment deadline, Te Pāti Māori’s referral to Police, the grey vote, and the tangled web of New Zealand’s news media. And today’s cartoons.
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