CYBER SECURITY
Kim Baker Wilson and Ruth Hill (RNZ): Manage My Health data breach ransom deadline arrives
Tom Hunt and Jonathan Killick (Post): Will Manage My Health hacker release confidential patient data today? (paywalled)
Steve Hepburn (ODT): Health data hack: Breach ‘complete failure’ (paywalled)
RNZ: Government orders review into ManageMyHealth data breach
Karanama Ruru (Stuff): Government launch review of ManageMyHealth cyber security breach
Jenée Tibshraeny (Herald): ManageMyHealth data breach: Health Minister Simeon Brown expects rapid patient notification
Jenée Tibshraeny (Herald): ManageMyHealth informing GP clinics affected by cyber attack before contacting individuals later this week
1News: High Court grants injunction over ManageMyHealth cyber breach
Russell Palmer (RNZ): ManageMyHealth hack: New Zealand’s worst cybersecurity incidents
RNZ: Stuff files court injunction over Neighbourly data breach on dark web
Post: Cybersecurity expert raises concerns over Neighbourly data breach (paywalled)
VENEZUELA, FOREIGN AFFAIRS, TRADE
Robert G. Patman (The Conversation): As Trump rewrites the rules in Venezuela, NZ faces a foreign policy reckoning
Erin Johnson (Stuff): US strike on Venezuela has ‘big implications’ for NZ - professor
Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): Whiplash and war shape NZ’s foreign policy
RNZ: US attack on Venezuela clearly illegal under UN charter - Helen Clark
Gordon Campbell: On The US Attack On Venezuela
Rebecca Howard (BusinessDesk): India-NZ FTA represents a blue sky opportunity for a2 Milk (paywalled)
PARLIAMENT, GOVERNMENT, YEAR AHEAD
Bryce Edwards (Democracy Project): Get ready for “Prime Minister Winston Peters”
Bernard Hickey (The Kākā): Primer #1 for 2026: A political economy in stall mode
Brent Edwards (NBR): New policies paying off for Labour as it faces an election year (paywalled)
Harriet Laughton (Post): Summer off politics: Cushla Tangaere-Manuel talks hāngī and mimosas (paywalled)
LOCAL GOVERNMENT, WATER
Andrew Little (Newsroom): Reports of the capital city’s death are greatly exaggerated
Herald Editorial: Wellington may not be dead but it has lost much of its status as a city (paywalled)
Grant Miller (ODT): More spending not a guarantee of council seats for election tickets (paywalled)
Sue Teodoro (Local Democracy Reporting): Rates cap may force councils to hike user-pay fees – Masterton mayor
Felix Walton (RNZ): Hobson Bay residents fed up with sewage overflows
Mike Yardley (Press): Christchurch’s $360m heritage funding crunch (paywalled)
HOUSING, HOUSE PRICES
Benn Bathgate (Waikato Times/Post): Kāinga Ora kicked out more ‘disruptive’ tenants in 2025 than previous four years (paywalled)
Carly Gooch (Press): Makeshift red zone camp a safe haven for dozens amid growing homeless problem (paywalled)
Chris Ross, Tom Peters (World Socialists): Homelessness worsens in New Zealand
Dita de Boni (Post): No more saying ‘no’ to pets in rentals - without good reason (paywalled)
Liz McDonald (Press): New aerial maps reveal extent of Christchurch housing growth (paywalled)
Katie Todd (RNZ): One in five home-buyers in Queenstown are first-timers, despite soaring property prices
Keiller MacDuff (RNZ): 2026 ‘the year of rebuilding confidence’ in housing market, economist predicts
Stuff: NZ house prices fell in 2025 but one city hit new peaks
Rob Stock (Post): NZ property prices: Wellington, Auckland plunge from 2022 peak (paywalled)
Jamie Gray (Herald): Cotality: House prices flat in 2025 but forecast to rise 5% in 2026 (paywalled)
Maria Slade (BusinessDesk): Auckland, Wellington poorest property market performers in 2025 (paywalled)
Susan Edmunds (RNZ): What will happen to house prices in 2026?
Ben Leahy (Herald): NZ and Auckland house prices: What can we expect from the market in 2026?
ECONOMY, COST OF LIVING, INEQUALITY
1News: Govt’s new year changes: How they’ll affect your wallet
Susan Edmunds (RNZ): ‘It can’t be worse, right?’: What’s ahead for the economy in 2026
Liam Dann (Herald): NZ’s top economists pick the big issues for New Zealand in 2026 (paywalled)
Brian Easton: Summer thoughts
Jonathan Mitchell (NBR): The long path to a neutral interest rate (paywalled)
Blayne Slabbert (Press): What 2026 will bring for the South Island economy - and your wallet (paywalled)
Melissa Nightingale (Herald): Controversial pension deduction law saves Government half a billion dollars each year
HEALTH, DISABILITY
Lauren Crimp (RNZ): No doctors overnight in Wellington urgent care clinic
Derek Cheng (Herald): Majority of NZ drug and alcohol users experience no negative effects, study shows (paywalled)
Megan Wilson (Rotorua Daily Post): Dentist costs: Whakatāne resident joins advocacy calls for free universal care
Amelia Wade (Post): Census shake-up raises fears disabled people will slip through data gaps (paywalled)
Ryan Boswell (1News): ‘It’s a dilemma’: Alarming rise in attacks on St John staff
RNZ: Study on NZ-born Pasifika shows cultural obligations leading to burnout
Nicky Pellegrino (Listener): Stitched up? Why the risks of offshore weight loss surgery are troubling NZ doctors (paywalled)
AI
Andrea Vance (Post): AI in government? Just two ministers say they use it (paywalled)
Janet Wilson (Post): Moving to the next phase of living in an AI world: disenchantment (paywalled)
Aimee Shaw (Post): AI trends we’ll see play out in 2026 (paywalled)
ENERGY
Felix Walton (RNZ): What to expect from power prices in the coming year
Ian Llewellyn (BusinessDesk): Gentailers push back over Electricity Authority’s ‘level playing field’ (paywalled)
Brooke Black (Timaru Herald/Press): ‘It was after my time’: Former CEO speaks about Alpine Energy overcharge error (paywalled)
Charlie Mitchell (Press/Post): Major wind farm revived after 20-year delay (paywalled)
PRIMARY AND EXTRACTIVE INDUSTRIES
ODT Editorial: Minding the sheep (paywalled)
Steve Hepburn (ODT): Mine application timeframe to be discussed (paywalled)
Kelvin Wickham (Sunday Star Times): Make hay while the sun shines: NZ agriculture’s 2026 outlook (paywalled)
MEDIA
Shayne Currie (Herald): Media Insider: 26 predictions for New Zealand media in 2026 (and how our 2025 predictions fared) (paywalled)
Stewart Sowman-Lund (Post): Good news: Reflections from media that thrived - or survived - in 2025 (paywalled)
Charlie Mitchell (Press/Post): ‘A bloody fantastic life’: Garrick Tremain dies at 84 (paywalled)
BUSINESS, CONSUMER AFFAIRS
Herald: Simon Bridges – ‘Supercharging’ into 2026 ... and what to read this summer – Summer Questions (paywalled)
Dave Armstrong (Post): What big corporates could learn from the little guy (paywalled)
Katie Todd (RNZ): Caution advised as some third party travel booking services ‘price gouging’ customers
OTHER
Benn Bathgate (Waikato Times/Post): Time for big plan to curb child abuse, campaigner says (paywalled)
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Is the .nz domain about to be censored? Inside the battle that took over ‘a group of geeks’
Ruth Nicol (Listener): No Plan B? What’s at risk if the internet breaks (paywalled)
Tom Rose (Herald): Christmas holiday road toll halves again to seven deaths but police say ‘still too many’
Liam Hehir (The Blue Review): Simeon Brown is due an apology
Mike White (Post): Trades Hall bombing: Did police get it terribly wrong and target an innocent man? (paywalled)
Damien Venuto (Stuff): If you spot this CEO and former National MP giving stock tips online, don’t believe what you see
Herald: Professional money launderer must forfeit more than half a million to Crown
Anne Gibson (Herald): Construction boom: 20 big projects set to reshape Auckland and beyond in 2026 (paywalled)
Nick Leggett (Herald): We can build big, so why has New Zealand’s pipeline run dry? (paywalled)
Pretoria Gordon (RNZ): Māori recognised for 2026 in New Year Honours list
Wei Shao (Press): ‘We can’t wait’: Calls grow to save Akaroa from intensifying climate change (paywalled)
Will Harvie (Press): Lizard rules add big bills to major Canterbury developments (paywalled)
Cate Macintosh (Press): Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu’s first CEO Sidney Ashton dies (paywalled)
Jonathan Killick (Post): How a small Kiwi mill town is becoming ‘great again’, partly thanks to Trump (paywalled)
Fiona Ellis (Waikato Times): The making of a med school: What’s next after breakthrough year (paywalled)
Andy Brew (Press/Post): Daytime delights to quiet nights - the unique rhythm of life in New Zealand (paywalled)
CARTOONS