New Taxpayers Union/Curia poll out: Labour - 31.6 (-1.7) National - 30.0 (-0.2) Greens - 10.8 (+1.6) Act - 8.9 (+0.3) NZFirst - 8.3 (-1.0) TPM - 3.1 (-0.2) Centre right 61 seats to 59 Centre left Notable for Greens up, not sinking as in 1News poll

Former rate-capping Clutha Mayor Bryan Cadogan tells RNZ Midday Report that the Govt-imposed rate cap won’t work - wrong policy at the wrong time because of infrastructure demands since his caps. Says Govt’s set a trap with a ‘one dimensional answer to a complex problem.’

New poll on Labour's capital gains tax, from Horizon: 41 percent in favour (21% strongly) 39 percent opposed (25% strongly) Those 18-35, and 75 plus more oppose; other age groups more in favour. In NZ context, Labour would surely view a split result, this early, as a positive

RNZ is having a great finish to its year, with its radio audience up again -RNZ National topping 500,000 listeners in an average week, up 25,000 - Morning Report up 13k (and 8k in Auckland) to 352k - Up in Auckland all main shows - website 1.7m monthly audience - record for RNZ

when all the lawyers on your timeline go off at once

They really are going with immaculate asymmetry of tariffs, which didn't raise prices when they were imposed but will cut them when they're withdrawn.

RNZ increases its online audience again, to another record in October - nudging 1.7m unique users in the Nielsen survey. 1News - 803k (up 101k) RNZ - 1.698m (up 30k) NZH - 1.96m (up 100k) Stuff - 2.23m (down 70k)

Former Act Party President Tim Jago loses all aspects of his appeal against conviction for historical sexual offending and his sentence of 2.5 years’ jail. Three judges of Court of Appeal say the imprisonment sentence was “stern” but open to the judge and in accord with law.

Marina Hyde in the Guardian on UK leaders. Who’d fit these categories in NZ?: “We either get inadequate chancers (eg Johnson or Liz Truss) or chance inadequates (eg Theresa May, Rishi Sunak or Keir Starmer), all of whom are forever being presented as the next true hope.”

Five Eyes now Three Ayes and Two Noes

Lovely moment at the Auckland Council end-of term valedictory speeches when councillor Sharon Stewart paused to pay tribute to Herald chronicler of Auckland Simon Wilson who she announced is also retiring at year’s end. Wayne Brown: I had no idea Simon was retiring, after three years of training him

Ruth Richardson vs Nicola Willis this morning: “The Government must stop pretending that the current approach will work. The attacks on me and others who are pointing out the fiscal elephants in the room do Ms Willis, and all New Zealanders, a disservice."

Latest Taxpayers Union/Curia poll has left-bloc ahead by one seat and able to govern if election held today. Act big mover Lab - 33.8 (up 0.2) Nats - 33.1 (up 1.2) Greens - 10.7 (up 0.9) NZ First - 8.1 (up 0.3) Act - 6.7 (down 1.9) TPM - 4.3 (up 1.1). 61 seats left, 60 right

And, just like that: RNZ's radio audience has increased for the first time since 2022: RNZ National up 8000 to 475k RNZ Concert also up 8000 to 170k in the latest GfK radio survey. (RNZ has just had a highly critical report on its letting radio listenership slip)

NZME announces its 'editorial advisory board' to oversee NZ Herald editorial strategy (and second-guess issues of 'balance' and 'political leaning') - is chaired by ex Herald premium editor Miri Alexander, lawyer/Grenon man Philip Crump, ZB panellist Josie Pagani and ex Nats press sec Brent Webling.

Numbers matter: Govt: 'final settlement' for cancelling the IRex ferries from Hyundai is $144m. KiwiRail: total cost of settlement is actually $222m (incl deposit and part settlement) + Total cost of abandoned iRex is $671m (incl land-based costs, project mgmt, wind down)

Do you ever just rewatch the final lineout of the Rugby World Cup 2021, played in 2022? No? You really should. It’s one of the best moments of my life.

Latest TPU/Curia political poll calls a hung Parliament, with Labour overtaking a falling National and the coalition support parties slipping Labour - 33.6 (up 2) National - 31.8 (-2.1) Greens - 9.8 (+0.4) Act - 8.6 (-0.5) NZF - 7.8 (-2.0) TPM - 3.2 (-0.3) Left/rt 61 seats each

AI robots curating Herald site strike back in June Nielsen audience stats: Stuff 2,260,000 uniques (- 70k) Herald 1,890,000 uniques (+ 140k) RNZ 1,260,000 1News 620,000 Stuff's lead at 370k still big, but gap to Herald drops 210k. RNZ off 1.5m high earlier in '26

Latest Nielsen news site audience numbers for May, (per Stuff release) - Stuff is No 1 at 2.33 million readers with a 574k gap to NZ Herald on 1.75m. - that means the NZH fell more than 100k - and puts it in sights of third-placed RNZ, which has been in the 1.5m range of late.

Few on the partisan left acknowledge TPU/Curia, but they might steal a glance at its latest poll results: Labour 34.8 (up 1.6) National 33.5 (down 1.1) Act 9.1 (-0.4) Greens 8.3 (-0.9) NZF 6.1 (-1.3) TPM 3.3 (-0.6) Almost 35 is giddy heights for Labour.

Give that subeditor a Tesla!

Parliament's auto-captioning finally recognised Winston Peters in the manner he aspires to:

Stuff names a new MD for its soon-to-be-co-owned, No 1 news website firm Stuff Digital: Nigel Tutt, who ran its digital business a decade ago under Fairfax ownership before leading a digital experience company and Bay of Plenty economic development body.

TVNZ poll had National and Labour down 2 & 3. But centre-right ahead 63-58 in House. RNZ poll now has Nats down by 2.2 to 30, but Labour up 1 to 33 in post-Budget survey. Greens up 1.6 to 11.6. RNZ echoes TVNZ with NZF up a couple, to 9, but Act down 2.8 to 6.6. RNZ says centre-left 63-57.

Just in: Stuff sells 50% of its digital business to TradeMe - giving TradeMe Property a chance to really dominate the real estate online space. Stuff owner Sinead Boucher finally gets an equity partner - and undisclosed $ - after five years on her own. She'll chair combined board.

Bit awkward this Financial Times front page headline and story today “: ‘Scientists accuse New Zealand and Ireland of hiding livestock emissions’

1/ RNZ releases latest audience figures: RNZ National - 467,000 av week (down 22k) former clear market No 1 now 8th behind - NewstalkZB on 647,300 (180k margin over RNZ National) - Breeze, More, ZM, Edge, Rock and Mai. Morning Report down 20k to 332k (Hosking ZB is on 440k)

Stunning. May was brutal for Trump in federal court: 96% loss rate ⚖️. Even GOP-appointed judges have ruled against the admin 72% of the time. District courts are doing their job defending the Constitution. Soon the Supreme Court may be the only court unwilling to defend the rule of law.

Asked the Deepseek AI to sum up each NZ rugby team in one word:

Steve Braunias’ Secret Diary ob @newsroom.co.nz gets to the nub of things:

NZX update today on NZME: - right-ward raider Jim Grenon has come up significantly short in final board washout - Grenon won’t get his demanded chairmanship - gets 1 sole director, him, not 5 - 3/5 of old board stay - that board’s choice to be chair www.nzx.com/announcement...

Barbara Chapman to go as chair of embattled NZME with a mystery 'politically connected' figure to replace her, according to The Australian's Bridget Carter, who is exceptionally well informed. "It is now understood that Mr (Jim) Grenon will not become chairman under agreed changes"

Daily Telegraph UK economics columnist doesn't sound positive for the likes of the Mowbrays' Zuru:

Whangama-Tam

The judicial branch pushes back - Thread⬇️

Huge audience month for Stuff - up 200k readers to hit 2.34m uniques in March - comparable with an election or Rugby World Cup month - but more significantly opening a 522,000 gap over arch rival the nz herald, which dropped sharply. It's been forever since gap was so big.

TVNZ poaches Stuff’s digital chief Nadia Tolich to be its new head of news and content, joining TVNZ’s top table. Tolich is ex Newstalk ZB and leaves Stuff as its site is a stonking 520k ahead in monthly audience over rival NZ Herald.

Latest NZ car sales: Tesla down 27% from 199 - 145 in March 25 over Mar 24 Tesla off 30% year-to-date - from 378 - 264 Tesla share of BEVs (Mar 24 vs Mar 25) - Model 3 - 26.2 to 13.3% - Model Y - 15.5 to 11.1% Polestar 2, BYD Dolphin, Kia EV5 sales all up steeply March and 1Q

Full credit to 1News’ @Jess_Roden for a remarkable three nights of disclosures about the deficiencies of Nelson Hospital. Powerful reporting. Now wait for the powers-that-be to turn on all the doctors who spoke out ….

Good on the NZME board for finding some fight vs Jim Grenon's push for control with just 10 percent of the shares. His indication last week some shareholders had 'somewhat backpedalled' on him, and a 180-deg embrace of CEO Boggs had indicated a hint of weakness in his bid.

"Most people, including a lot of journalists, don’t understand what an executive order even is. It’s not a law or even a quasi-law. An executive order is really just a memo from the president to his staff..." talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/notes...

From Fox’s Chief National Security reporter. Who can’t seem to get any airtime lately. For some reason.

Things get even weirder at NZME with the board now telling the NZX that NZME has been in negotiations to buy parts of Stuff. But when the NZME board putsch emerged, Stuff called it off. Statement says the idea was to spread the NzME One Roof real estate brand to Wgtn and South Is.

Good news on the political polling front: RNZ is to pick up the ReidResearch poll previously done with Newshub until 2023 and will do around 4 surveys a year of 1000 people, starting in April.

Fantastic moment captured by Michael Dawson for Athletics NZ - sportsmanship and rare talent

Incredible polling graphic from Canada showing Liberals back from the dead www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

Greatness recognising potential greatness

Grim from the latest Westpac-McDermott Miller survey of consumer confidence in NZ: "Only two in ten men and fewer than one in ten women expect good economic times in New Zealand over the next year." That's going into an election year.