PREFU AND THE GOVERNMENT’S BOOKS
Jo Moir (RNZ): What the government’s $4b surplus means for the election
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Time for Champagne, Lindauer or Tui? - Treasury lifts lid on ‘yeah right’ recovery (paywalled)
Toby Manhire (Spinoff): The pre-election books have been opened. Do they bring cause to cheer?
Jenée Tibshraeny (Herald): Govt’s books improve with return to surplus a year early, but Treasury warns ageing population threatens finances
Cushla Norman (1News): Better picture for Govt books, not a ‘green light’ to spend - Willis
Emma Ricketts (Stuff): Less debt, bigger surplus coming in pre-election fiscal update
Craig McCulloch (RNZ): Treasury gives Willis pre-election boost as surplus forecast improves
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Recovery slows and economic risks loom in pre-election forecasts
Corin Dann (RNZ): Treasury growth forecasts largely unchanged - house prices weaker
Corin Dann (RNZ): Will rosier government books catch the eye of global ratings agencies?
Jamie Gray (Herald): NZ Treasury sends bond market a positive surprise with reduced borrowing plan (paywalled)
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Nicola Willis says surplus must come before tax cuts – and has a message for her opponents (paywalled)
Henry Cooke (Post): Nicola Willis’ PREFU good news forecast has an MMP problem (paywalled)
Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): Willis delivers a ‘stay the course’ Prefu (paywalled)
Cameron Bagrie (BusinessDesk): Fixing the books relies on six critical assumptions (paywalled)
Jamie Ensor (Herald): House price growth forecasts slashed significantly - is Labour’s Capital Gains Tax in danger?
Anneke Smith (Post): Opposition parties say the public has paid the price for brighter books (paywalled)
Herald: Act leader David Seymour says Prefu numbers ‘hopeful’ but more needs to be done
Richard Harman: Gone by Christmas? (paywalled)
Brent Edwards (NBR): Labour and Greens promise to release their fiscal plans soon (paywalled)
Rebecca Howard (BusinessDesk): Treasury forecasts wider $4.02b surplus by June 2029 (paywalled)
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Post): The Government’s books are looking better, but the economic outlook — not so much (paywalled)
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Post): Treasury brightens forecasts - but they don’t account for recent global downturn (paywalled)
Liam Dann (Herald): Inside Economics: ‘An aspirational quality’ - can we trust Treasury forecasts? ...plus, oil shock round two (paywalled)
Herald: Is the NZ economy really getting better, or is it just better than expected? - The Front Page
Anneke Smith (Post): Housing market slowdown appears baked in, Treasury pre-election forecast shows (paywalled)
OPPORTUNITY PARTY BOTTOM LINES
Katie Bradford (Herald): Opportunity Party releases its five bottom lines – with two key policies missing
Adam Pearse (Herald): Labour welcomes Opportunity bottom lines, National ignores them
Jonathan Milne (Newsroom): Opportunity reaches deep with new bottom line to phase out bottom-trawling
Ella Somers (Interest): Opportunity announces its ‘non-negotiable’ bottom lines
Ella Somers (Interest): ‘We need an independent watchdog with teeth’
Stewart Sowman-Lund (Post): Opportunity leaves tax plan off coalition bottom lines (paywalled)
RNZ: Health, supermarkets and political lobbying among Opportunity Party’s bottom lines
Sam Smith (Stuff): Opportunity announces bottom lines hoping to appeal to both Labour and National
1News: No land tax or ‘citizens’ income’ in Opportunity’s bottom lines
The Post: Editorial – A land tax is no fringe idea (paywalled)
No Right Turn: Bottom lines
Ani O’Brien: Could Opportunity really work with the Right?
ELECTION 2026
Justin Hu (1News): Poll: Both Luxon, Hipkins’ approval ratings down ahead of election\
Jenna Lynch (Stuff): All eyes on minors as Labour and National faceplant out of the starting blocks
Henry Cooke (Post): NZ First seriously pushing an election-skewing overhang would make it far more likely (paywalled)
1News: Surging Greens ‘not here to play silly buggers’, eye portfolios
Stuff: Swarbrick says finance portfolio for voters to decide, not Hipkins
Stan Ellis (Stuff): No, Swarbrick wouldn’t be finance minister, Hipkins says
Harriet Laughton (Post): Chris Hipkins sets own bottom line against minor-party veto power (paywalled)
Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): Greens’ shoots grow as major parties continue slide
Adrian Beaumont (The Conversation): NZ election poll watch: minor parties gain as Labour and National slide
Paula Penfold (Stuff): A National Party member was told the campaign launch was full - but hundreds of seats were empty
Steven Cowan: The Greens don’t owe Labour any favours
Kerre Woodham (Newstalk ZB): Strategic voting – is it really a clever decision?
Alice Peacock (Newsroom): Capital gains tax a ‘complete waste of time’ as revenue tool – Deloitte tax partner
Tom Peters (World Socialist Website): New Zealand election: Labour’s phony “principled” foreign policy
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Flip Forecaster: No way to power without Opportunity... unless
Toby Manhire (Spinoff): Why Mt Albert is shaping up as the most exciting battle of election 2026
Felix Walton (RNZ): Auckland’s seat of Maungakiekie has never been a safe bet
Nick James (Post): Christopher Luxon in his happy place - just outside of Wellington (paywalled)
Jenée Tibshraeny (Herald): National softens its language on lifting Super eligibility age, saying political consensus is needed, but missing (paywalled)
Herald: Editorial – Election attack slogans, like taxes, are inevitable but have they ever been more misleading? (paywalled)
Shayne Currie (Herald): This National Party billboard has drawn more than a dozen formal complaints – why advertising watchdog says it’s OK (paywalled)
Kirsten Wise (Herald): The missing piece of NZ’s political puzzle is risk (paywalled)
Cate Macintosh (Press): New Zealand on track for lowest youth vote ever (paywalled)
Giles Dexter (RNZ): Electoral Commission wants number of youth enrolled to vote ‘to be a lot higher’
RNZ: ‘Best thing we can do is show up and vote’: Students urge peers to have their say
Virginia Fallon (Post): ‘I’d love to have a trapdoor’: The art of moderating a political debate (paywalled)
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