NZME is poised for a major leadership change after months of shareholder pressure, with former National minister Steven Joyce nominated to replace Barbara Chapman as board chair – a move seen as a response to Canadian-born investor Jim Grenon’s campaign to reform the struggling media company.
The government has passed urgent legislation dismantling New Zealand’s current pay equity regime, extinguishing 33 active claims and narrowing the scope for future ones.
Gender-based claims will still be permitted, but only in occupations that have been at least 70% female-dominated for the past decade – with stricter job comparison rules and new consideration of whether employers can afford higher wage bills.
A National Party bill to ban under-16s from using social media has met political pushback.
Introduced by MP Catherine Wedd and backed by PM Christopher Luxon, the bill would require platforms like TikTok and Instagram to verify users are over 16.
“As a dad, I feel very strongly that we need to do a lot more to keep our kids safe from harm,” Luxon said.
Immigration lawyers say New Zealand’s upgraded Active Investor Plus visa is effectively off-limits to Chinese investors due to Immigration NZ’s refusal to accept capital transfers through China’s state-sanctioned QDII programme – the primary legal route for overseas investment.
Oranga Tamariki is facing a sharp rise in serious abuse reports, with “critical” and “very urgent” cases up nearly 40 percent in the last half of 2024.
Overall, reports of concern jumped 60 percent to 55,000, driven by worsening economic conditions, including rising unemployment and material hardship.
Policy instability is becoming a serious threat to New Zealand’s long-term prosperity, argues New Zealand Initiative chair Roger Partridge.
Partridge warns that repeated U-turns on major regulations are eroding investor confidence and fuelling a homegrown version of sovereign risk – not through debt defaults or nationalisation, but via policy reversals, judicial activism, and weak protections for long-term projects.
Glenn Marshall, a survivor of historic sexual abuse at Tauranga Boys’ College, is calling on Education Minister Erica Stanford to introduce an independent complaints process for schools, arguing that school boards currently operate with “virtually no” oversight or accountability.
“At present, school boards largely operate as judge, jury, and executioner – without adequate checks and balances,” Marshall writes.
