Republished with Permission
Author: Bryce Edwards
FERRY REPLACEMENT ANNOUNCEMENT
Stewart Sowman-Lund (Spinoff): An 'announcement of an announcement' of two new boats
Russell Palmer (RNZ): Interislander replacement: Opposition 'astounded', 'disgusted' over 'omnishambles'
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Interislander ferry replacements: Labour slams delays after Government announces path forward
Luke Malpass (The Post): And so the ferries saga continues (paywalled)
Jack McDonald (The Post): Nicola Willis delivers a masterclass in incompetence (paywalled)
Thomas Manch (The Post): Winston Peters to determine Cook Strait ferries’ fate (paywalled)
Richard Harman (Politik): Toot, toot, here comes Winston (paywalled)
Jo Moir (RNZ): Ferry plan reveal: 'I've delivered' Finance Minister Nicola Willis declares, though details are scarce
1News: New Cook Strait ferries expected for 2029, cost not revealed
Nick James, Anneke Smith (RNZ): Coalition 'wasted a whole year' on ferries - Maritime Union
Gordon Campbell (The Scoop): On the Government’s ongoing ferries disaster
Dan Brunskill (Interest): Cook Strait ferry decision postponed to March
Thomas Manch and Tom Hunt (The Post): Government confirms it will buy new Interislander ferries (paywalled)
Georgina Campbell (Herald): Interislander ferry replacements: Government reveals it still hasn’t sorted its ship out for Cook Strait (paywalled)
Jem Traylen (BusinessDesk): Cook Strait ferry uncertainty disappoints freight operators (paywalled)
Oliver Lewis (BusinessDesk): Government sets up ferry procurer, keeps costs confidential (paywalled)
Brent Edwards (NBR): Government refuses to say how much it will spend on new ferries (paywalled)
Ian Allen (The Press): Marlborough’s mayor and port ‘pleased’ to have new ferries confirmed (paywalled)
Oliver Lewis (BusinessDesk): Arise Winston, minister of railways (paywalled)
No Right Turn: A bad joke
Andrew Gunn: Brown Disappointed His Idea For 68-km-long Ferry Rejected (paywalled)
FAST TRACK BILL
Bridie Witton (Stuff): Labour says it has lost confidence in the Speaker over fast track ruling
Herald: Labour says no confidence in Speaker Gerry Brownlee after ‘unprecedented’ decision
Anna Whyte and Tom Pullar-Strecker (The Post): Labour ‘loses confidence’ in Speaker over fast track ruling (paywalled)
Tom Pullar-Strecker (The Post): Clerk of House throws spanner at fast-track bill, but it bounces off (paywalled)
Maria Slade (BusinessDesk): Winton 'stands to gain millions': MP (paywalled)
Crux: Rod Drury: "There's a much better way to get things done." (paywalled)
Andrew Ashton (Crux): 'Censorship in the first order': Mayor blocks resident groups from QLDC public forum
PARLIAMENT, GOVERNMENT, THE YEAR IN POLITICS
Chelsea Daniels (Herald): Christopher Luxon talks foreign investment, cross-party collabs and Māori relations as he wraps 2024
Peter Dunne: Some observations on a turbulent political year
Peter Dunne (Newsroom): NZ stands uncertainly at a Christmas crossroads
Spinoff: The world in 2024, in one sentence
Jo Moir (RNZ): Chris Hipkins questions why only Māori MPs rebuked over haka
RNZ: Parliamentary petition calls for inquiry into Chinese interference
Greg Presland (The Standard): The unusual feature of Taxpayers Union’s latest Curia poll
TREATY AND RACE RELATIONS
Eva Corlett (Guardian): Māori tribes make rare plea to King Charles for intervention in New Zealand politics
1News: Iwi Chairs Forum writes to King Charles over 'grave concerns'
Te Ao Māori News: Iwi Chairs Forum asks King to intervene on ‘anti-Māori’ laws’
Roderick Mulgan (The Post): Arguing over what the Treaty meant is a roadblock to progress (paywalled)
Sam Smith (Stuff): Auckland Council votes to oppose the Treaty Principles Bill
Craig Ashworth (RNZ): Taranaki council quashes Treaty talk despite Seymour's debate call
Robert MacCulloch: State owned media anti act bias alert
MEDIA
Duncan Grieve (Spinoff): Stuff ‘consciously uncouples’ into two separate digital and print businesses
Guyon Espiner (Listener): I’ll go into the new year with a sense of survivor’s guilt (paywalled)
Liam Rātana (Spinoff): With its daily news bulletin scrapped, what’s next for Whakaata Māori?
Tom Pullar-Strecker (The Post): ‘No guarantees’ media bill will progress before end of the year, says minister (paywalled)
Paul Deegan (The Post): What journalism in NZ can learn from the Canadian experience (paywalled)
EDUCATION
RNZ (Herald): New Zealand men main reason for bad slump in literacy, numeracy test
Nic Smith (Newsroom): People can’t be measured on a balance sheet
David Farrar (Kiwiblog): They only have themselves to blame
Mary Argue (RNZ): Researchers pen scathing open letter to Minister over Marsden Fund changes
James Bentley (Herald): NCEA is a flawed system – it’s time to end this education experiment on our teenagers (paywalled)
John O’Neill (Aotearoa Education Collective): A charter school for the underprivileged denizens of the Remuera ghetto?
BANKS
Herald: Editorial: Government’s Kiwibank move a good step in the right direction (paywalled)
Rebecca Stevenson (BusinessDesk): No profit, no capital: BNZ defends record profits amid intense parliamentary scrutiny (paywalled)
Brent Edwards (NBR): Making political capital out of whacking the Aussie banks (paywalled)
Dan Brunskill (Interest): BNZ wants out of gas stations by 2030, farmer lobby group not happy
Dita De Boni (The Post): ‘I just can’t do it’: Service station owners told bank debt must go by 2030 (paywalled)
HEALTH
Barbara Fountain (NZ Doctor): Mainlining austerity
Peter Huskinson (NZ Doctor): Follow the money to see what Budget 2024 spends on health (paywalled)
Martin Johnston (NZ Doctor): A year of reforming reforms, sausage sizzles and more (paywalled)
Te Aniwaniwa Paterson (Te Ao Māori News): Health status quo must be disrupted, iwi Māori partnership board says
Ian Powell: David Farrar’s incomplete health workforce analysis
Gerrit Doppenberg (ODT): PM quiet on hospital after 10 weeks’ deliberation
Stephanie Waller, Nigel French, Jemma L. Geoghegan (The Briefing): Aotearoa’s first case of highly pathogenic avian influenza: Heightened awareness and surveillance essential for early detection
Chris Lynch: Health Minister “not convinced” over Nursing Council’s new cultural competency standards
ODT: Editorial – Getting it right in aged care (paywalled)
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Tom Hunt (The Post): Water meters in all Wellington council options on the table (paywalled)
Imogen Wells (Stuff): Wellington explores ‘Three Waters’ on its own terms - with neighbours
Alisha Evans (Herald): Tauranga iwi representatives reinstated to council committees
Bernard Orsman (Herald): Eke Panuku: Christmas party for 200 staff at Auckland Council body hours after vote on scrapping it (paywalled)
Simon Wilson (Herald): Wayne Brown’s terrible plan to abolish one of Auckland Council’s best agencies, Eke Panuku (paywalled)
Gwynn Compton (Local Aotearoa): The long read: Water reforms and the looming threat of compulsion
Herald: Kāpiti Coast project becomes iwi-led legacy for Waikanae River conservation
Grant Miller (ODT): Casting vote to progress unitary authority discussions (paywalled)
Gerrit Doppenberg (ODT): Potential conflict of interests queried
Sinead Gill (The Press): Councillor threatens to strike unless security guard is re-hired (paywalled)
ECONOMY, BUSINESS AND WORK
Phil O’Reilly (The Post): What’s needed to win in the hunt for overseas investment (paywalled)
RNZ: Military personnel leave cancelled over Christmas to cover strikes
Bryan Leyland: Our power system is in serious trouble
Robert MacCulloch: New Zealand doesn't have a problem with productivity - it just lacks investment
Robert MacCulloch: The NZ Green Investment Fund should be liquidated for losing money that could've gone into alleviating poverty
Jamie Gray (Herald): Graeme Hart exits Pactiv Evergreen for US$2.5 billion (paywalled)
Tuwhenuaroa Natanahira (RNZ): Iwi-owned seafood processing factory opens in Porirua
Alice Peacock (Newsroom): New roles a ‘Christmas miracle’ for redundancy casualties
Jamie Gray (Herald): MPI sees 7% lift in primary sector exports in 2025
Grant Bradley (Herald): Auckland Airport doesn’t know yet what led to passenger chaos, airlines respond with fury (paywalled)
Nona Pelletier (RNZ): Microsoft opens first hyperscale data centre in New Zealand
Peter Griffin (BusinessDesk): What to expect from Microsoft’s shiny new datacentre (paywalled)
Andrew Bevin (Newsroom): Cabinet approves $5m loan to support private buyer of NZ’s biggest ski field
Grant Bradley (Herald): Inside Air New Zealand’s plane of the future - batteries included (paywalled)
1News: SolarZero boss begged owners to pay employees ahead of liquidation
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND MIGRATION
Samuel Hume (Arena): Hot Air: New Zealand’s calls for a Gaza ceasefire
RNZ: Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters converge on Parliament’s lawn
Matthew Littlewood (ODT): Dismay over shelving of Israel boycott debate (paywalled)
Laura Walters (Newsroom): NZ well placed to talk turkey (and beef and lamb) with Trump – US envoy
Greg Ninness (Interest): Residence visa approval numbers up 59% compared to pre-Covid levels
Niva Chittock (RNZ): New Zealand still processing Syrian refugee applications - Immigration NZ
GREYHOUND RACING BAN
Ava Whitworth (Stuff): The future of greyhounds uncertain after racing comes to an end
RNZ: Greyhound rehoming in 20 months 'unrealistic and not achievable' – trainer
RNZ: Rehoming greyhounds to be a 'special project', Winston Peters says
Virginia Fallon (The Post): Finally, the dogs have their day (paywalled)
Lynn Charlton (The Post): As the end of greyhound racing is announced, another dog dies (paywalled)
Brent Edwards (NBR): Greyhound racing industry ‘devastated’ by decision to close it (paywalled)
LAW AND ORDER
Willow-Jean Prime (Herald): Children’s Minister Karen Chhour needs a boot up the backside for her failed boot camp programme
Charlotte Grimshaw (Listener): On NZ’s new gang-patch ban (paywalled)
Jamie Ensor (Herald): Police Minister Mark Mitchell wants to ‘just start taking’ boy racers’ cars by changing ‘Crusher Collins’ law
Sam Sherwood (Stuff): Police appeal for sightings of gunman who killed former gang president in Lower Hutt
Paula Penfold (Stuff): Vietnamese officials’ sexual assault: The precedent-setting case for extradition
Olivia Wannan, Paula Penfold (Stuff): ‘A lifetime of trauma’: Young women indecently assaulted by Vietnamese officials
GENDER PAY GAP
Bali Haque and Michael Johnston (Herald): The real reasons for the gender pay gap (paywalled)
Amanda Gillies (RNZ): Closing the gender pay gap, one disclosure at a time
Cartoons
