Ani O'Brien: A week is a long time: 6 December 2025

Two stories the NZ media decided not to touch this week

The first came from an NZ Herald article originally (credit where its due) but then the real story that should have been investigated from it has been ignored entirely. That is that, as far as I can see, the Labour Party has breached Advertising Standards Authority regulations, the Electoral Act, and social media platform rules. They are paying influencer Jordan Rivers a salary to work in Chris Hipkins’ office and he is posting hundreds upon hundreds of undeclared aggressively political and often attack-ad-style posts and videos on social media. He has 200,000 followers on TikTok alone. It is Dirty Politics 2.0 and I wrote about it earlier this week.

Jordan Rivers. Instagram.

The political story of the week wasn’t broken by the gallery, but by unionist Matt McCarten casually dropping a live grenade on Cameron Slater’s Good Oil podcast. McCarten laid out a devastating series of allegations against Willie Jackson, accusing him of using his political clout to shield his wife, Tania Rangiheuea, after an independent review found serious bullying by her as CEO of Manukau Urban Māori Authority (MUMA). McCarten claims Jackson personally threatened the MUMA chair with loss of a $70,000 stipend, then orchestrated his removal and hand-picked new board members comprising Labour activists and his own staff. When union organisers tried to support staff and reopen collective bargaining, Jackson allegedly issued trespass notices, blocking every union rep from MUMA sites. McCarten insists this isn’t some petty grudge against his life-long friend. He is reluctantly blowing the whistle on top-level abuse of power, cronyism and anti-union-action by one of Labour’s most senior MPs who is a former Employment Minister. The fact that staff were reportedly silenced, the chair muzzled with High Court threats, and Labour party leadership apparently sat on this information, despite being informed in September, makes this a serious internal scandal. Radio silence from the mainstream media.

Labour MP Willie Jackson. (Source: 1News)

The most important, unmissable, most-heavily covered news story of the week

The most “urgent” national crisis this week, if you believe the press gallery, was a manufactured mouldy school-lunch drama. At the centre of it all is Haeata Community Campus principal Peggy Burrows, who has spent the week doing media spots insisting, among other things, that the Government essentially poisoned her students, that the school “can’t reheat food,” but that the Government should let her use the school’s fully equipped industrial kitchen instead of the lunch-programme provider Compass Group. We are meant to believe that her media attack on the programme has nothing to do with her wanting to get rid of it.

What actually happened? Students were served visibly mouldy school lunches. The meals had been provided through the Government’s Ka Ora, Ka Ako school lunch programme, with Compass Group as the contracted supplier. Burrows went to the media and screamed bloody murder.

New Zealand Food Safety and MPI have now issued multiple statements confirming the school, not Compass Group nor the Government nor David Seymour in a balaclava, mishandled the food that appears to have sat unrefrigerated from Thursday to Monday.

David Seymour responded to the attack calling Burrows a “media frequent flyer,” and he was being generous. This is the same Peggy Burrows who was previously sacked from Rangiora High School after a string of controversies and allegations about her conduct; a history the press seems oddly reluctant to revisit while she delivers emotional monologues about being “hurt” by Seymour’s comments.

Click to view - Managing Director of Compass Group posted this on LinkedIn

Coster quits before he’s sacked and everyone’s internet history is getting examined

After weeks of speculation about just how much of our hard-earned taxes Andrew Coster was going to hoover up while on “leave,” the inevitable finally happened and Coster resigned from the Social Investment Agency. This followed the damning IPCA report on the McSkimming scandal. Read my three part report on it here [1] [2] [3].

And just to put a full-stop on Coster’s career obituary, Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche publicly declared Coster would have been sacked anyway if he hadn’t resigned. If only he had just done that before Coster was given three months pay and the opportunity to slink off.

It’s extraordinary, really. A scandal that began with one deputy commissioner has now toppled a former commissioner, restructured the hierarchy of NZ Police, triggered audits, and exposed a toxic culture inside the Police.

And we’re possibly not done yet. Police leadership also announced an internal audit of every senior officer’s internet usage, presumably to check that McSkimming was the only predator in the executive. Let’s hope that is the case. It’s less “trust and confidence” and more “please hold while we check everyone’s search history for landmines.”

The NZ Herald also interviewed Ms Z, the woman at the centre of the allegations against former Deputy Police Commissioner Jevon McSkimming, this week. She described the grooming, exploitation, and years of institutional indifference.

The Rates Cap: A good policy… arriving fashionably late

The Government finally confirmed its long-signalled cap on councils raising rates, a move that should in theory protect households from the eye-watering increases councils have been slapping on ratepayers in recent years.

I was just about ready to take my hat off to Local Government Minister Simon Watts but then I saw that the cap is being delayed until 2029! This gives councils four full years to go on a pre-cap bender and hike rates even harder to pad their budgets while they still can. It’ll be the fiscal equivalent of loading up before the bar tab runs out.

Predictably, the professional local-government lot is outraged. They argue the cap will “undermine democracy,” “punish growth,” and “cripple infrastructure”. Various spokespeople have claimed it will be the end of library books, access to swimming pools, and rubbish collection. All the stuff they know Kiwis might be concerned about. In actuality, the Government and ratepayers would prefer they cut out the stupid spending on stuff like the estimated $21-$42 million Wellington Council wastes annually because of poor contract oversight, lack of competitive tendering, and failure to track the majority of external contracts. Wellington Council also spent $560,000 just to install a two-storey bike rack near its headquarters and $2.3 million on a light-up toilet block. This year, Tauranga Council spent $67,739 on a decorative painting project for a single bus stop and $5 million on a “destination playground”.

How you gonna pay for that, Labour?

Labour has started making some big, headline-friendly promises. Chris Hipkins has, for example, confirmed they intend to reinstate the old “pay-equity” regime. That would wipe out nearly $13 billion from their budget.

Chris Hipkins Photo: ROBERT KITCHIN / THE POST

If someone, perhaps a journalist, were to ask how he plans to pay for it, Hipkins would have to find an answer. He would have to take that $13 billion from somewhere else. Health? Education? Corrections?

For now, his funding “plan” seems to rest on future revenue from a proposed very narrow Capital Gains Tax. But he has already spent that income on the three tax-funded GP visits he has promised everyone.

Labour needs to explain if it is preparing serious, realistic budgets or political wish-lists. Because it is easy to promise things in opposition to make the current government look bad, but they need to prove that they won’t do another KiwiBuild or light rail to Auckland Airport. Jacinda Ardern famously promised to rid New Zealand of homeless in her first four weeks as Prime Minister and then homelessness got worse… Labour were punished at the last election for over-promising and under-delivering and should know better.

An uphill battle for Nicola Willis

It’s been a bruising week for Finance Minister Nicola Willis and it isn’t likely to get easier any time soon. She is under pressure on every flank: Labour, the media, Treasury, and now, according to Matthew Hooton, even the Taxpayers’ Union.

Things got fierce in the Finance and Expenditure Committee, where Labour’s finance MPs (Edmonds, Russell, and Woods), clearly chomping at the bit to land hits on the minister, lobbed increasingly snarky questions and remarks at Willis. She stayed admirably calm while Labour’s front bench trio descended into petty theatrics. Willis quipped to media that everyone is “a bit tired, a bit ratty.” Tova O’Brien was less generous calling the Labour team “more crack-pot than crack team.”

Then came the actual bad news: with the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) around the corner, the government’s books are worse than expected. Treasury confirmed tax revenue is falling further and faster than forecast, unemployment is up, and growth remains flat. It is clear Willis will be fronting a bleak fiscal position with very limited political moves.

Next, if we are to believe Matthew Hooton, and that is always a gamble, the Taxpayers’ Union are gearing up to attack her tax, spending, and debt record. Hooton certainly hams it up a bit, but he is right that NZTU have been faced with a tricky choice to make… Either operate to their core principles and call out a Finance Minister who is “taxing, spending, and borrowing more than Grant Robertson” or pretend not to notice because they are usually on the same side.

Willis’ allies say the problem starts and ends with Luxon and she’s been forced to execute a programme she didn’t design. Her critics counter that strong Finance Ministers drive the fiscal agenda like Richardson did under Bolger. And it just so happens that Ruth Richardson is the current Chair of the Taxpayers’ Union. Nothing like having the maestro mark your homework to really pile on the pressure.

Willis is caught in a vice with a very, very challenging fiscal outlook, an Opposition that smells blood, and pressure mounting from disappointed and frustrated allies. The next Taxpayers-Curia poll and HYEFU will be very interesting.

The New Zealand Vet Council is barking mad

The New Zealand Vet Council has officially lost the plot. This week it slapped Dr Leo Molloy (yes, the same Leo who owns Headquarters Bar and causes a bother on TikTok) with a censure and a $23,000 penalty for displaying behaviour that was not “vet-like” by breaching a name suppression order protecting Grace Millane’s killer, something that has absolutely nothing to do with veterinary practice. It is mad for many reasons including that Molloy had already received his punishment for the breach through the courts and hadn’t practiced as a vet for more than a decade. The Free Speech Union is sending letters to the Vet Council.

Mariameno Kap-Kingi takes John Tamihere to the (colonial) High Court

Yesterday, the High Court ordered Te Pāti Māori to reinstate expelled MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi at least temporarily. Justice Paul Radich found there were “serious questions” about whether the party acted lawfully or even followed its own constitution when it threw her out. The court noted that the supposed justification for her expulsion, an alleged overspend of electorate funds, appears to have been based on incorrect information as Parliamentary Service has since confirmed she was, in fact, $1 under budget.

Because her expulsion stripped her of email access, databases, and the ability to serve her constituents, the court has said she must be restored until a full judicial review can be heard in February. Crucially, this ruling means she can now attend and vote at Te Pāti Māori’s AGM. Heading into it, the atmosphere is likely to be combustible and the leadership must now defend both its authority and its competence.

Chart of the week:

“New Zealand exported $111B of goods and services in the year to September, up $12B (12%) on last year” - Charted Daily.

Click to view

X Post of the week:

The mysterious SuitandTie9999 points out that the media are mighty selective about which polls they put on the front pages.

Click to view

In short - other stuff that happened:

• 🇬🇧 The Labour Government in the UK is doing away with jury trials for cases with potential sentences of less than three years. Lord Toby Young said: “David Lammy’s plans amount to the biggest assault on our liberty in 800 years.”

• Hamilton woman Kate Gough (37) avoids prison after sexually assaulting teen boy after a judge ruled jail would cause “disproportionate hardship”. The Judge said “none of us are perfect” about the fact that Gough took a while to take responsibility for her actions.

• Emergency services rushed to a Christchurch daycare after a corrosive sterilising chemical was mistakenly used instead of dishwashing liquid and on a slip-and-slide, causing chemical burns to five children and two staff. One child was initially in serious condition but all have since been discharged from hospital.

• One New Zealand has been fined a record $1.1 million after repeated failures in its 111 emergency calling system left vulnerable customers unable to reach help.

• Bay of Plenty locals have embraced a new nickname, “Boppers”, after a social media joke by MP Tom Rutherford went viral.

• 🇨🇦 Prominent writer of ‘The Inconvenient Indian,’ Thomas King, who built a career on claiming Cherokee ancestry has admitted he does, in fact, not have any native ancestry.

• 🇧🇷 A 19 year old Brazilian died after climbing into a zoo’s lion enclosure, where he was fatally attacked. A government statement said his actions may have been a “possible suicide attempt” as he had been under the care of the state and was mentally ill.

• A second teenager (also 17) has been charged with murdering American doctoral student Kyle Whorrall (33), who was attacked at a bus stop in St Johns. Police say further arrests have not been ruled out as the investigation continues.

• 🇬🇧 Oxford has unveiled its 2025 Word of the Year: “Rage baiting” which is a manipulative tactic used to elicit outrage from their viewers. It’s two words…

• Financial Markets Authority chair Craig Stobo has temporarily stepped aside after MBIE launched an investigation into complaints about his conduct. The nature of the concerns has not yet been disclosed.

• 🇦🇺 A mother is taking legal action against the South Australian government over claims her 14 year old daughter was exposed to a school presentation normalising bestiality and incest.

• Former police officer Shalom Vai Aleni (23) who accessed the police intelligence for a Comancheros associate has been sentenced to community service. Judge Pecotic granted her discounts which resulted in a five-month prison sentence, which was converted into 60 hours of community service.

• The Auditor-General has confirmed that I Am Hope’s government contract is being managed properly. Mike King welcomed the finding but lashed out at Labour MP for what he perceives as an obsession to take I Am Hope down.

• 🇬🇧 Girl Guiding UK finally reluctantly announced they will no longer be including boys. Journalist James Essess said: “After years of allowing boys to share toilets and campsites with girls, Girl Guiding has finally been forced to respect biological reality.”

• 🇬🇧 The Jaguar Land Rover design chief behind ‘woke’ electric car campaign has been ‘axed from company’. Autocar claims he was “terminated with immediate effect” earlier this week having been with the company since 2004.

• Alister Thorby, a former DHB Covid logistics lead, has admitted stealing $1.8 million through fraudulent contracts and inflated invoices. He has been sentenced to two years and eight months in prison.

• 🇷🇺 Russia is prepared to go to war with Europe, says Putin. That’s it in short…

• Infuriating the Greens, Nicola Willis has confirmed the Government will not spend $10-20 billion on overseas carbon offsets if New Zealand falls short of its Paris Agreement emissions target. Instead, New Zealand will focus on domestic action to cut net emissions 51–55% below 2005 levels by 2035.

• 🇦🇺 A $100 million Darwin hotel development has been cancelled by its Singapore-based developer after Aboriginal elders argued it would overlook a sacred site home to a tawny owl.

• Serial sex offender Johnathan Tamihana (33) has had a rare sentence of preventative detention imposed on him. This means he will remain in prison indefinitely unless his risk to the public has been reduced.

• 🇦🇺 Former NRL prop Josh McGuire has been charged with two offences, including one of common assault. The charges relate to the alleged strangulation of a five-year-old child.

Stuff I found interesting this week:

The New Zealand housing market remains in limbo. On a national level, prices have been largely flat through 2025. In Auckland, however, home values are still almost 23% below the 2021 peak with recent data showing nearly one in five Auckland houses sold in 2025 went for less than purchase price. You, dear reader, might think this is terrible news. As a millennial still working toward owning my own home, I do not.

Sam Smith from Stuff wrote a piece this week about the a generational and ideological split among Kiwis when it comes to housing. On one side are the property owners and investors, many of them older or already settled, who hope house prices go back up. On the other side are the young renters, first-home buyers, and lower-income households. Those of us for whom rising prices mean complete market exclusion, crushing mortgage deposits, and impossible rent-to-income ratios.

Smith writes that inside the National Party this chasm over housing is also playing out. On one side you have Christopher Luxon, the custodian of traditional Party orthodoxy, insisting he wants to see “modest” and “consistent” increases in house prices. On the other side sits Chris Bishop, representing a younger faction of the party that openly acknowledges house prices are still too high and need to come down if ordinary New Zealanders are ever going to own homes.

Economist Shamubeel Eaqub spoke to Smith and argues that Bishop’s stance reflects a new generation in the caucus that understands the party cannot survive politically if it keeps defending unaffordable house prices. Luxon’s rhetoric may appease National’s traditional base, but Bishop is speaking to the voters National needs next, the ones locked out of the market.

Smith’s article is worth a read because this is a core divergence of paths for National in terms of the direction for 2026 and beyond.

My second recommended article this week is this report from Good Oil (the same platform that brought the Matt McCarten story this week). It begins:

A leaked document from within the Ministry of Health exposes deep connections between former Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall and academics at Otago University’s ASPIRE Aotearoa research centre, raising serious questions about conflicts of interest in tobacco policy.

Verrall, a former senior lecturer at Otago Wellington, fast-tracked world-first legislation mandating very low nicotine content (VLNC) cigarettes, a product that retains all the deadly chemicals in burned tobacco while stripping out nicotine, the non-harmful addictive element. This policy mirrored ASPIRE’s advocacy, funded by millions in taxpayer dollars, and would have handed a near-monopoly to 22nd Century Group, the only major producer of these genetically modified cigarettes…

Ani O'Brien comes from a digital marketing background, she has been heavily involved in women's rights advocacy and is a founding council member of the Free Speech Union. This article was originally published on Ani's Substack Site and is published here with kind permission.