PARLIAMENT, GOVERNMENT, PUBLIC SERVICE
Luke Malpass (Sunday Star Times): Christopher Luxon’s biggest turnaround job: the 2026 National Party (paywalled)
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): National MPs’ angst over housing crash as Christopher Luxon and Chris Hipkins mull reshuffles (paywalled)
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Nicola Willis’ 2026 Budget plans: Undo Labour’s health reforms and sell assets – but which ones? (paywalled)
Andrea Vance (Post): Voters open to asset sales, but only under strict conditions (paywalled)
Gareth Vaughan (Interest): Will this election year be dominated by the economy, or could international events take centre stage?
Vernon Small (Sunday Star Times): The strange logic of the 2026 election (paywalled)
Tracy Watkins (Sunday Star Times): Luxon’s moment: Why this week could define the election (paywalled)
Bryce Edwards (Democracy Project): Democracy Briefing: Have the Greens lost their mojo?
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Can the woke screw up Election 2026 for the Political Left (again?)
Rawiri Taonui: Te Pāti Māori and the bullying allegations
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Sunday Star Times): From commentator to Labour candidate: Craig Renney spells out a big-state vision (paywalled)
Craig Kapitan (Herald): Ex-Māori Party candidate Kelvin Martin revealed as Auckland paedophile handed rare prison term
Sam Stubbs (Sunday Star Times): Why Inland Revenue deserves our praise - yes, really (paywalled)
HOUSING
Anneke Smith (RNZ): Auckland councillors in the dark over government’s housing intensification rethink
Amelia Wade (Post): $13m and counting: Auckland ratepayers pay for housing policy churn (paywalled)
Bernard Orsman (Herald): Christopher Luxon poised to water down Auckland housing intensification plan
Greg Presland (The Standard): Luxon’s utu
Amelia Wade (Post): The end of the city edge: Rural-urban boundaries face the axe (paywalled)
Chelsea Daniels (Herald): Front Page: How new RMA laws change granny flats and consents
Ayla Yeoman (Local Democracy Reporting): Tauranga businesses grappling with increase in homeless
Sophie Trigger (1News): Wellington rental market recovery expected – 16% increase in demand (paywalled)
Deborah Morris (Post): The power shift in Wellington’s rental market (paywalled)
Fiona Ellis (Waikato Times/Post): Tainui drops 1200-home Ruakura development bid (paywalled)
Ben Tomsett (Herald): Queenstown housing boom leaves rentals lagging as homes sit empty or move to Airbnb (paywalled)
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Barbara Dreaver (1News): Peters’ Pacific kiss-and-make-up trip vital as tensions rise
Anneke Smith (RNZ): Winston Peters off to Kiribati year after being snubbed
Ben Thomas (Post): President Trump and the dilemma that dare not speak his name (paywalled)
Fran O’Sullivan (Herald): Bravo Reserve Bank Governor Anna Breman, but where’s Christopher Luxon as Donald Trump wreaks havoc? (paywalled)
James Nokise (Post): Can we stick up for ourselves if you-know-who turns hostile? (paywalled)
Damien Grant (Stuff): Rules based order is no more, NZ has a choice to make
The Standard: Our Quiet Tyranny
1News: NZ closes embassy in Iran, evacuates staff as threat escalates
RNZ: New Zealand vacates embassy in Iran as threat of violence escalates
Cate Macintosh (Press/Post): Iranian Kiwis call for expulsion of ambassador (paywalled)
Brian Easton: Trading with India
Audrey Young (Herald): Winston Peters’ global gifts: From Mongolian horse to Hillary-signed note (paywalled)
David Fisher (Herald): Declassified: NZSIS spies release Rainbow Warrior documents, including David Lange’s secret wish (paywalled)
MANAGE MY HEALTH SCANDAL
Chris Keall (Herald): Five ways the ManageMyHealth cyber attack could have been avoided (paywalled)
Kim Baker Wilson (RNZ): Cyber-security expert launches petition to Parliament calling for harsher penalties for privacy breaches
HEALTH
Jessica Roden (1News): Health NZ data gap in true scale of declined specialist appointments
Harriet Laughton (Post): Nurse who left NZ for Australia says understaffing risked lives (paywalled)
Giles Dexter (RNZ): IT issue means Hutt Hospital nurses underpaid says Union
Nicholas Jones (Stuff): Private care helped Ali through the loss of her first baby. Now a change limits that option
Nikki Macdonald (Post): Rheumatic fever surges, new prevention method stalled (paywalled)
Pretoria Gordon (RNZ): Pharmac seeking clinical advice on funding Wegovy weight loss medication
JUSTICE, CORRECTIONS
Joseph Los’e (Herald): Cost of incarceration: Corrections report reveals $201,408 to keep a sentenced inmate behind bars (paywalled)
RNZ: Judge accused of verbally abusing NZ First leader Winston Peters to face conduct panel
Jake Kenny (Stuff): The secrecy shrouded case of a public figure accused of sexual assault
Sam Sherwood (RNZ): Corrections to trial ‘hospital hub’, current model of hospital escorts ‘no longer fit-for-purpose’
ENVIRONMENT, PRIMARY AND EXTRACTIVE INDUSTRIES, CONSERVATION
Kate Newton (RNZ): First offshore oil and gas exploration permit since ban under official consideration
Sarah Curtis (Herald): Shane Jones plans bycatch rule shake-up to cut costs for deepwater fishers
Marty Sharpe (Stuff): Forestry group urges Government to remove legal accountability for slash
Jonathan Killick (Post): Dead in its tracks: Has closure of the Waitākere’s solved Kauri dieback? (paywalled)
Sue Teodoro (Local Democracy Reporting): Water storage Wairarapa’s ‘critical strategic issue’
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Andrea Vance (Sunday Star Times): Voters back rates cap – but fear essential services will pay the price (paywalled)
Wayne Brown (Sunday Star Times): This is the year Auckland takes back control (paywalled)
Zita Campbell (Local Democracy Reporting): Rehette Stoltz on Gisborne council staffing, RMA reforms and 2026 plan
ODT Editorial: The price of democracy (paywalled)
Julie Asher (ODT): Councillor expresses concern over review cost (paywalled)
TIM SHADBOLT FUNERAL
RNZ: Mourners gather to remember Sir Tim Shadbolt at funeral
Katie Todd (RNZ): Sir Tim Shadbolt remembered as ‘absolutely extraordinary’ by family in public service
Ben Tomsett (Herald): Sir Tim Shadbolt farewelled in fiery, heartfelt service at packed theatre
Matthew Rosenberg (Local Democracy Reporting): ‘The ultimate people person’: Sir Tim Shadbolt remembered
BUSINESS, EMPLOYMENT
Blayne Slabbert (Press/Post): The unpaid shift: How customers are doing the work of staff (paywalled)
BusinessDesk: MP proposes bill to reform NZ employment mediation (paywalled)
ECONOMY, COST OF LIVING
Gareth Vaughan (Interest): Electricity and gas prices jump, food price growth slows, Statistics NZ says. Did inflation end 2025 above 3%?
Susan Edmunds (RNZ): White bread price up 60 percent - here’s how much more expensive food got last year
Stuff: Food prices rise 4 per cent in 2025, driven by grocery and meat costs
Tom Raynel (Herald): Food prices drop for fourth month while electricity and gas costs surge
Jamie Gray (Herald): Manufacturing activity surges to 4-year high, pointing to stronger GDP growth
POLICE
Paula Penfold (Stuff): Police rewrite rules on foreign government access following Stuff investigation
Michael Morrah (Herald): Far North police pitch roles to waitlisted recruits in South Island (paywalled)
Katie Ham (Post): Meet the ‘mid-life crisis’ cops joining the thin blue line later in life (paywalled)
BRIAN TAMAKI PROTEST
Herald: Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki continues plans for major protest in downtown Auckland
David Fisher (Herald): Auckland Harbour Bridge protest promoted by Brian Tamaki blocked by NZTA over safety risk
Sam Smith (Stuff): NZTA, police block Brian Tamaki’s plans to march across Auckland’s Harbour Bridge
RNZ: March planned across Auckland Harbour Bridge has permit declined