This is edition 2026/096 of the Ten@10 newsletter.
Hi all,
This is the Ten@10, where I collate and summarise ten news items you generally won't see in the mainstream media.
Enjoy!
1. How the media have distorted the truth to target their current villain
Ani O’Brien
- 📰 Media coverage of Louise Upston's accommodation allowance has framed the issue as a unique personal scandal rather than a systemic parliamentary feature.
- 🏛️ New Zealand's Parliament is centralised in Wellington while MPs are elected nationwide, creating unavoidable duplicate housing costs for most members.
- 👥 Dozens of MPs across every party — National, Labour, Green, ACT, NZ First, and Te Pāti Māori — received accommodation support in 2025.
- 🏢 Ministers' accommodation is administered through Ministerial Services via the Department of Internal Affairs, separately from Parliamentary Service disclosures, making selective outrage easy.
- 📊 Labour MPs Arena Williams and Duncan Webb each received $37,800 in Wellington accommodation support in 2025 while owning Wellington property.
- 🔍 The full 2025 disclosures list eight ministers and the Speaker receiving accommodation allowances while owning Wellington property in some form.
- ⚖️ Pecuniary interest registers are not full financial balance sheets and do not reveal every ownership structure, cost, or legal arrangement associated with a property.
- 🔵 Ministers Mark Patterson, Paul Goldsmith, Todd McClay, Simon Court, Andrew Bayly, Judith Collins, and Melissa Lee also received allowances while owning Wellington property.
- 🔴 The article identifies the absence of reporting on Labour examples as evidence of deliberate distortion rather than incomplete journalism.
- ⚠️ Tightening eligibility rules would likely cause MPs to sell Wellington property and claim renting costs instead, potentially costing taxpayers more.
- 💰 Without accommodation support, parliamentary representation would increasingly favour the independently wealthy or those already based in Wellington.
- 🛑 The article concludes Upston has not done anything wrong or manipulated any system, and the coverage conflates political optics with corruption.
- 📰 The author argues healthy journalism should distinguish between "looks bad," "ethically questionable," "warrants reform," and "corruption" — categories the current reporting blurs.
