NEW YEAR HONOURS
Bryce Edwards (Democracy Project): Honours for Sale?
Rob Stock (Post): New Year honours 2026: How our honours system works, in 10 pictures (paywalled)
RNZ: New Year Honours 2026 - the full list
Rob Stock (Post): New Year honours 2026: The strongest business flavour in years (paywalled)
BusinessDesk: New Year 2026 Honours: Top businesspeople recognised (paywalled)
Chris Keall (Herald): Rod Drury knighted for services to business, technology and philanthropy
Rob Stock (Post): New Year honours 2026: How $50 from his parents set Xero founder Sir Rod Drury on the path to a knighthood (paywalled)
RNZ: Xero co-founder Sir Rod Drury knighted
Tracey Roxburgh (ODT): Knighthood for Xero founder ‘humbling’
Crux: Sir Rod Drury: for services to business, tech and philanthropy
Fiona Rotherham (NBR): Xero founder and venture philanthropist Rod Drury knighted (paywalled)
Riley Kennedy (BusinessDesk): New Year 2026 Honours: Agribusiness leaders recognised (paywalled)
Andy Macdonald (BusinessDesk): James Miller recognised for corporate governance work (paywalled)
Tom Hunt (Post): ‘Plain Dorothy’ now Dame Dorothy Spotswood (paywalled)
Jaime Lyth (BusinessDesk): Rachel Taulelei made CNZM (paywalled)
Tom Raynel (Herald): Journalists Richard Harman, John Roughan, Donna Chisholm and broadcaster Leighton Smith receive gongs
RNZ: 2026 New Year Honours: Seven New Zealanders named Knights and Dames
Tom Hunt (Post): NZ’s three new Dames and four new Knights (paywalled)
Libby Kirkby-McLeod (RNZ): Recognition for Dame Coral Shaw - Teacher, lawyer, judge and head of a royal commission
Kate Green (RNZ): Wellingtonians in line for applause
Tom Hunt (Post): The good and the great of Wellington (paywalled)
Herald: Waikato leaders, farmers, volunteers recognised
Hawkes Bay Today: Former Hastings mayor Sandra Hazlehurst named ONZM
Ayla Yeoman (Bay of Plenty Times): Former Tauranga mayor Tenby Powell recognised for business and aid work
Soana Aholelei (RNZ): Eight Pasifika recipients in New Year Honours
PARLIAMENT, GOVERNMENT, YEAR IN REVIEW, YEAR AHEAD
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Working for Families at 20: Inside the creation of the biggest welfare reform of the 21st Century (paywalled)
Rob Stock (Post): 2026 will be a defining year for KiwiSaver (paywalled)
Fox Meyer (Newsroom): Greens go face-to-face against the outrage-generating machine
Tini Molyneux (Te Ao Māori News): ‘He tau nui, he tau roa’ Rawiri Waititi on the year that was
Post: How our 2025 political predictions turned out (paywalled)
David Chaston (Interest): Time to make 2026 predictions
ODT Edtorial: Holding on to hope (paywalled)
Bryan Bruce: It’s Midnight For Our Democracy - The Political Year In Review.
Henry Cooke (Post): Summer off politics: Megan Woods’ guide to books, drinks and road trips (paywalled)
Herald: Helen Clark reflects on the remarkable life of her 103-year-old father
PRIMARY AND EXTRACTIVE INDUSTRIES, ENVIRONMENT, CONSERVATION
Maxine Jacobs (Press): User pays: The hidden cost of nitrate-contaminated drinking water (paywalled)
Kate MacNamara (Herald): West Coast gold mining boom: High paid jobs surge in Reefton and Greymouth (paywalled)
Ruby Shaw (ODT): Landfill’s impact on lagoon likely ‘toxic’ (paywalled)
William Rolleston (Post): Are Kiwis finally comfortable with genetic modification? (paywalled)
RNZ: Alien invasion that could threaten NZ’s entire economy is just a plane ride away
Gerrard Eckhoff (ODT): What price preservation of endangered geckos?
LOCAL GOVERNMENT, WATER
Gary Hamilton-Irvine (Hawkes Bay Today/Herald): One Hawke’s Bay council’s debt has nearly tripled in a year – how much debt does each council have? (paywalled)
Jared McCulloch (1News): Council’s bold plans to fix Queenstown’s troubled wastewater network
Sue Teodoro (Local Democracy Reporting): Investigating a Wairarapa unitary council makes sense: Butterick
Melissa Nightingale (Herald): Corrupt ex-council manager filed late appeal to protect parole chances (paywalled)
BUSINESS, EMPLOYMENT, CONSUMER AFFAIRS
1News: ‘Out of office’: How NZ’s summer break stacks up globally
Paul McBeth: Finance company lessons still unheeded
Tom Raynel (Herald): Local firms eye 2026 growth but fear rising costs and inflation (paywalled)
Tess Brunton (RNZ): Tourism sector optimistic about next year, summer bookings positive
Susan Edmunds (RNZ): Ten businesses that didn’t survive 2025
TRADE, FOREIGN AFFAIRS, IMMIGRATION
Cameron Bagrie (BusinessDesk): Opportunities, claws and hooks in the NZ-India Free Trade Agreement (paywalled)
Johnny Blades (RNZ): Tokelauans in NZ to work more closely with communities back home
TRANSPORT, INFRASTRUCTURE
Tom Hunt (Post): Wellington transport predictions for 2025 ... how we did (paywalled)
Sam Smith (Stuff): 144-year-old heritage wall reconstructed for City Rail Link
CARTOONS