Alex Braae 
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: New child poverty statistics show little change yet, Greenpeace call for fishing policy review over donations, and a focus on Covid-19 effects on forestry. New figures were released yesterday on one of the most important issues facing the country – how many children grow up in … Read more
Last week Nick Loosley, founder of food waste and food poverty charity Everybody Eats, was named the 2020 Kiwibank New Zealand Local Hero of the Year. He talked to Alex Braae about how a more sustainable approach to our food system can help feed those in need. There’s a theme of reconnection that runs through … Read more
The dreaded pea weevil is no more in the Wairarapa, after a successful eradication effort. So why does this matter? OK, what on earth is a pea weevil? It’s a type of leaf beetle, so not actually a weevil after all, but the name is the name. Basically it gets into pea plants while they’re … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Creative accounting around the ETS explored, Ardern goes to ground on Peters, and ACT criticised for keeping donation from extremist. Often when reporting on technical and thorny pieces of legislation, it helps to have a specialist reporter looking into it. Stuff’s Charlie Mitchell has come out with … Read more
Simon Bridges reckons those on the average wage shouldn’t be hit by a 33-cents-in-the-dollar tax. And they’re not. Not even close. Alex Braae explains. It takes an incredible political talent to announce that you disagree with a policy setting, and have that critique be so powerful that it retroactively becomes government policy. National leader Simon … Read more
Across the prime minister’s Monday morning broadcast interviews, there was one overwhelming theme: the behaviour of NZ First and Winston Peters, who happens also to be the deputy prime minister. With turmoil engulfing government coalition partner NZ First and deputy PM Winston Peters, the logical next person to ask for a view was Jacinda Ardern. … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Bridges gives signal of tax cuts, police under pressure over family violence problem, and condemnation rains down over Peters scandal. Expect plenty of news today about National’s economic manifesto to take into the next election. From Simon Bridges’ appearance on Q+A yesterday (welcome back to that show) it … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Deputy PM both admits and denies involvement in smear on journos, new poll shows National have the numbers, and dozens of Te Kuiti sawmill jobs gone. NZ First leader Winston Peters has admitted and also denied involvement in a hit job against journalists pursuing the … Read more
Minerals giant Rio Tinto has once again provoked the fury of the government over their operations down in Southland. So what’s going on, and why are people so angry? What’s all this then? This story is all about dross. Not the dross that gets put out by global corporations as PR when they find themselves … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Parliament is back for another fraught year, bad weather news likely to continue, and Winston Peters goes live. After taking a day to mark the life of former PM Mike Moore, Parliament began in earnest yesterday. As is customary, the party leaders each start the year … Read more
Political donations are back in the news in a big way, and many feel that the system needs a complete overhaul. So how might that work? Here’s a collection of perspectives. When news broke this morning on Radio NZ that the racing industry had donated heavily (and anonymously) to NZ First, the response fell into … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Coronavirus fears loom over OCR announcement, Salvation Army release annual SOTN report, and the PM does actually trust her deputy PM. Will the coronavirus have an effect on the Reserve Bank’s interest rates announcement today? There’s been a fair bit of speculation in the past week … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: NZ First Foundation referred to police, major campaign launched to close measles immunity gap, and emissions forecast rises again. The story around donations to the NZ First Foundation has become a lot more serious, and both the police and Serious Fraud Office will be involved. It … Read more
Increasingly large swathes of the country are getting bone dry, and it’s starting to cause serious problems. In today’s cheat sheet, Alex Braae looks into how bad the North Island drought is getting. What’s all this then? If you live in Auckland or further north, have you noticed how it hasn’t really rained all that … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: New poll sets scene for election year, scale of public support for Weta Group revealed, and Phil Goff’s emails for sale. Each poll is just one snapshot, but this particular one is very interesting. The Newshub Reid Research poll has Labour and the Greens with a collective two-seat … Read more
The controversy around the unexpected (but ‘pre-planned’) mid-season break for Black Caps coach Gary Stead left countless cricket fans feeling they were being taken for suckers. And no wonder: it’s only reasonable to be suspicious of what sports administrators tell us, writes Alex Braae. In the English Premier League, there’s a phrase that inevitably causes … Read more
Labour’s rising star has decided that he won’t run again in his electorate, and will instead go list-only at the next election. So what will it mean for Kris Faafoi’s burgeoning role in government? And who might step up in the Mana electorate? Only a select few get the privilege of going list-only. When one … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Long cleanup looms after Mataura floods, anger inside and outside of RNZ at major proposed changes, and quarantine in effect for Wuhan returnees. The evacuation warnings for several flooded-out South Island towns have mostly been lifted. But there will be a long cleanup ahead for the … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Politicians take limelight at Waitangi, Auckland Lantern Festival cancelled, and each end of the country facing contrasting extreme weather. Ceremonies at Waitangi started yesterday, ahead of the day itself tomorrow. So far, the coverage has been dominated by grandstanding. Stuff’s Thomas Coughlan was there, and has an account … Read more
In an MMP election that could come down to a few percentage points of wasted vote, two parties on National’s right flank are going toe to toe. Alex Braae reports. In throwing one right wing party a lifeline, National might have just sounded the death knell for another. When Simon Bridges announced that he would … Read more
The first phase of New Zealand’s ultrafast broadband rollout came to a close at the end of 2019. Alex Braae takes a look back at the decade-long project that was UFB1. The thing about having an extremely fast internet connection is that it doesn’t take long to completely take it for granted. A perfect example … Read more
New developments have emerged this morning around donations to the New Zealand First Foundation. So, what do they show, and will it matter? What’s all this then? It was revealed by Radio NZ this morning that donations made to the NZ First Foundation came from some of New Zealand’s wealthiest and most powerful people. That … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: First ever deployment of new Metservice warning, NZ First Foundation donor identities revealed, and economic fallout from virus spreads. Increasingly serious weather has been hammering the West Coast and Fiordland, causing major problems for several towns. A state of emergency has been declared in Fiordland, reports Stuff. Metservice … Read more
Alex Braae heads to North Harbour Stadium to watch the Auckland baseball team play a crunch game before a wild, Baby Shark-chanting crowd. By rights, the Auckland Tuatara shouldn’t be a big deal. They’ve been around just two years, playing a sport that almost nobody in New Zealand bothers with, in a competition largely unheralded … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Former PM Mike Moore mourned, travel ban put in place in attempt to prevent Coronavirus, and Greens break government ranks over transport spending. Former PM Mike Moore has passed away at the age of 71, a few days after his birthday. A wide range of tributes … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Concerns grow in the public media merger information void, costs of school return being counted, and a charter flight arranged for Wuhan evacuations. A plan is in the works to transform state broadcasting in New Zealand, with some form of merger between TVNZ and Radio … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Business groups welcome big infrastructure spend, four charged by SFO in relation to election donations, and Pacific countries act against coronavirus. So, the massive infrastructure package has been announced. Here’s the top lines of the announcement in the form of a cheat sheet, and Stuff has a breakdown of … Read more
A massive, whopping, ridiculous amount of money has been announced by the government today for infrastructure upgrades. So, what’s in the package? What’s all this then? $12 billion bucks, that’s what this is. Or at least, $7 billion in today’s announcements, out of a wider $12 billion package. The government has taken a giant swing … Read more
Today the government unveiled the essentials of its massive $12 billion infrastructure spend. Alex Braae went along to the announcement. Here he assesses what’s being targeted, and what’s at stake. With a supergroup of eight ministers in the room, the leading figures in the government presented the image that they hope will be a defining … Read more