LABOUR
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Labour on the cusp of making history, but tax wounds will take time to heal (paywalled)
Tim Murphy (Newsroom): Labour rubs hands together at prospect of power and focused spending (paywalled)
Tim Murphy (Newsroom): Labour contemplates the unthinkable – a one-term bounceback
Bryce Edwards (Democracy Project): Labour’s weekend reckoning on the big issues facing the party
Anneke Smith (RNZ): ‘Believe we can win’: Labour rallies party faithful
Luke Malpass (Post): Barbara Edmonds renews Labour’s script: Discipline first, promises later (paywalled)
Henry Cooke (Post): Barbara Edmonds tells Labour it ‘can’t say yes to everything’ (paywalled)
Sam Smith (Stuff): Union head tells Labour party faithful ‘the rich’ have eaten up our ‘pavlova paradise
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): ‘Mana motuhake Māori – Māori sovereignty’: Labour sets out ambitious pitch to win back Māori seats (paywalled)
Adam Pearse (Herald): Expelled Te Pāti Māori MP Tākuta Ferris urges Labour to show ‘strategic restraint’ in Māori seats to prompt overhang
Henry Cooke (Post): Tākuta Ferris calls for Māori voters to intentionally exploit electoral loophole to get rid of Government (paywalled)
Luke Malpass (Post): Hipkins confident as Labour gathers in Auckland (paywalled)
Anna Whyte (Post): Former Winston Peters staffer to lead Labour’s election year media (paywalled)
Harriet Laughton (Post): Labour’s universal free GP policy faces workforce warning (paywalled)
PARLIAMENT, GOVERNMENT
Andrea Vance (Post): The anatomy of a failed coup (paywalled)
Peter Dunne (Newsroom): Bishop takes king – or pawns in the rumour game
Steve Braunias (Newsroom): The secret diary of .. Christopher Luxon’s last seconds
Wayne Brown (Post): When the bureaucracy becomes the elite (paywalled)
Daily Blog: 1-on-1 in 10: Dr Matthew Hooton on Luxon, Willis, the Budget Blowout & 2026 Leadership Rumours
Toby Manhire (Spinoff): Could Winston Peters’ ultimate prize be on the table in 2026?
David Farrar: Could Te Pāti Māori lose two more MPs?
David Farrar: Yes to public attendance records for Parliament
Josie Pagani (Post): Dear Aunty: More advice for the news-afflicted (paywalled)
Mike Houlahan (ODT): Making sure only appropriate comments are made and heard (paywalled)
Post: Julie Anne Genter confirms plans to be first Wellington Bays MP (paywalled)
David Farrar: What should we sell
LOCAL GOVERNMENT, WATER
Fergus Campbell (Spinoff): The regional council plan asks turkeys to vote for Christmas
Press Editorial (Post): Goodbye to regional councils (paywalled)
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Herald): Good riddance to regional councillors (paywalled)
The Standard: Abolishing New Zealand’s Regional Councils
Nick Smith (Post): Local government overhaul is bold and overdue (paywalled)
Nick Leggett (Post): A wake-up call Wellington can’t afford to ignore (paywalled)
Moana Ellis (Local Democracy Reporting): Māori voice at risk under Govt’s mayoral panel plan, says Horizons Regional Council Raki Māori councillor Elijah Pue
David Hill (Local Democracy Reporting): Regional councils shoulder ‘blame’ for outdated policy, ECan chair says
RNZ: New cost-cutting measures for wastewater standards announced
Linda Hall (Local Democracy Reporting): New allowance for councillor safety – home security systems
Amelia Wade (Post): Key details missing from Auckland CBD action plan (paywalled)
Matthew Nash (Rotorua Daily Post): Te Arawa partnership sparks debate in Rotorua council meeting, as councillors’ pay revealed
Sue Teodoro (Local Democracy Reporting): ‘I feel very prepared for this place’: New Māori ward councillor puts feet under the table (paywalled)
FAST-TRACK, MINING
Kate MacNamara (Herald): Mining royalty review: Grandfathered permits costing Crown hundreds of millions of dollars (paywalled)
Mike White (Sunday Star Times): Shane Jones backs mining at ‘weapons-grade’ level, calls Sam Neill ‘anti-Kiwi’ (paywalled)
Benn Bathgate (Waikato Times/Post): High-paying mining jobs will bring more Kiwis home, Resources Minister Shane Jones says (paywalled)
ECONOMY, OCR, COST OF LIVING
Max Rashbrooke (Post): The left needs to come up with a coherent message on the economy (paywalled)
Brian Easton (Pundit): The Politics Of Different Economic Strategies
Vernon Small (Sunday Star Times): Reserve Bank an unexpected fly in the economic ointment (paywalled)
David Hargreaves (Interest): 2025: Let’s throw this one in the bin and have another go
Ross Stitt (Interest): Does Australia’s outlook warrant all the kiwi migrants?
Mandy Te (Interest): What would it take for the RBNZ to cut or hike the OCR in 2026?
Mandy Te (Interest): Finance Minister’s message to banks: ‘Pass on as much as possible’
Liam Dann (Herald): Pop the bubbly, the economic recovery is here (finally (paywalled) )
Matthew Rosenberg (Local Democracy Reporting): Plunged into poverty: Hardship rising in Southland’
CROWN-MĀORI RELATIONS, TE AO MĀORI
Laura Walters (Newsroom): Iwi chairs demand ‘reset’ in scathing letter to PM
Carwyn Jones (E-Tangata): What’s happening with the Waitangi Tribunal review?
Roimata Small (E-Tangata): On the ground in Geneva
Tuwhenuaroa Natanahira (RNZ): Māori Queen launches multi-million-dollar investment platform
Joseph Los’e (Herald): Māori Queen Te Arikinui Nga wai hono i te po attracts a new era of youth for the Kīngitanga
EDUCATION
Eva de Jong (Herald): West Auckland’s Lincoln Heights School forced to waitlist disabled students amid high demand for zone (paywalled)
Hanna McCallum (Post): The ‘safety net’ of NZ’s education system: Te Kura’s growing enrolment (paywalled)
Ben Leahy (Herald: The cost of a private school education: NZ’s most expensive & how much fees have jumped (paywalled)
Cecilia Robinson (Herald): Why NZ should pay attention to its quiet turnaround (paywalled)
TRANSPORT, INFRASTRUCTURE
Jimmy Ellingham and Louisa Cleave (RNZ): NZ Transport Agency assures Minister Chris Bishop braking system not inherently unsafe
Rod Carr (Sunday Star Times): Wheels of misfortune: The hidden poverty of owning an old car (paywalled)
RNZ: National MP Catherine Wedd leads e-scooter rules revamp
Tim Jones (Greater Auckland): New Zealand is walking again, but our streets aren’t keeping up
Chris Keall (Herald): AT moves away from electric ferries, for now, with tender for 4 new diesels (paywalled)
POLICE, JUSTICE, CRIME
Sam Sherwood (RNZ): How police discovered 30,000 ‘falsely or erroneously’ recorded breath tests
Andrea Vance (Sunday Star Times): Understaffed police station turns away teen allegedly assaulted at Auckland Grammar (paywalled)
Finn Blackwell (RNZ): Man who died after being pepper sprayed ‘deserved humanity and protection’
Andrea Vance (Post): Mother launches court challenge over fatal police shooting of Kaoss Price (paywalled)
Katie Ham (Post): The fight for 500: A police ‘recruitment crisis’ or the best year yet? (paywalled)
HEALTH
Craig McCulloch (RNZ): I Am Hope’s ministry contract for Gumboot Friday gets thumbs-up
RNZ: Doctors’ union, Health NZ keen to get back to bargaining after failed ERA bid
RNZ: Health NZ fails to get Employment Relations Authority to force senior doctors into contract amid pay dispute deadlock
Felix Walton (RNZ): Health workers’ strike: Hundreds in Auckland call for increased staffing, better pay
Pretoria Gordon (RNZ): Funding boost for stem cell cancer treatment
Mildred Armah (Stuff): ‘A goodbye just in case’: The father of five who leaves home not knowing if he’ll return
Stewart Sowman-Lund (Sunday Star Times): New youth vape data offers glimmer of hope, but advocates unconvinced (paywalled)
Kevin Norquay (Post): NZ knew how to care for the dying - then forgot: We’re back (paywalled)
Elsie Williams (Press): ‘I’m done’: Third-time rejection for graduate despite rise in number of nursing job offers (paywalled)
Fred Christensen (E-Tangata): Wegovy is here, who will have access?
FOREIGN AFFAIRS, DEFENCE, TRADE
Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): India trade deal looms as potential stumbling block for coalition
RNZ: US diplomats yet to warn NZ about immigration, as Trump demanded
Paula Penfold (Stuff): An army boss sent a d... pic in uniform. It didn’t stop him getting a top job
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Post): Z Energy won’t say if more shipments of refined Russian fuel en route to NZ (paywalled)
MEDIA
Nevil Gibson (NBR): Media matters: Rebuilding public trust
Gavin Ellis: Some welcome good news on newspaper front…not for all
Stewart Sowman-Lund (Post): Could RNZ soon become our second largest news website? (paywalled)
Shayne Currie (Herald): Simon Dallow’s final hour; Wendy Petrie’s new business; Ad agency merger; Three News changes (paywalled)
David Farrar: BSA did not talk to Crown Law
Shayne Currie (Herald): IRD faces legal threat over NBR paywall access; Three frontrunners for TVNZ Breakfast (paywalled)
SOCIAL MEDIA
Jamie Ensor (Herald): Social media ban: ‘Pretty disappointed’: Mowbray’s personal text to PM amid social media lobbying (paywalled)
Samantha Marsh, Amber Young, Claire Reid, Joanne Chu (PHCC): Problematic social media use common among NZ teens as government examines age limits
David Harvey: Social Media Access Restrictions
EMPLOYMENT, WELFARE
Fran O’Sullivan (Herald): Judith Collins’ quiet signal to Christopher Luxon on union relations (paywalled)
Damien Grant (Stuff): The Supreme Court’s Uber ruling belongs in a fantasy novel
Susan Edmunds (RNZ): Women ‘working for nothing’ from this week
Sophie Moullin (Listener): Pay men women’s rates? Now there’s an idea (paywalled)
EREBUS MEMORIAL
RNZ: Erebus victim’s daughter furious memorial will be in Christchurch instead of Auckland
Mike White (Post): The memorial that caused pain not peace (paywalled)
1News: Preferred site for long-awaited National Erebus Memorial revealed
Anna Sargent (RNZ): Location of National Erebus Memorial revealed in Christchurch
Stuff: Christchurch reserve chosen as preferred site for national Erebus memorial
Will Harvey (Press/Post): Christchurch confirmed as the new home for the National Erebus Memorial (paywalled)
OTHER
Andrea Vance (Post): The transparency project that went dark: Inside the collapse of Bryce Edwards’ Integrity Institute (paywalled)
John Bowie (LawFuel): The Incredible Shrinking Covid Inquiry (paywalled)
Virginia Fallon (Post): Andrew Hoggard vs the imaginary vegan uprising (paywalled)
Victor Walters (RNZ): Findings from first phase of Whakaari inquest ‘valuable’, but questions remain for bereaved families
David Fisher (Herald): Kim Dotcom’s home mortgaged to Bitcoin Jesus who cut $89m deal with US govt to drop tax evasion charges (paywalled)
CARTOONS