An Auckland mental health programme catering for people with long-standing or chronic problems will shut down. A year’s-long battle over whether a group of elite athletes can collectively bargain has ended, after the Court of Appeal rejected an appeal bid from a union representing the country’s top rowers and cyclists. The number of benefit sanctions has increased by 27 percent compared to last year. The government has unveiled a new public research organisation focused on “supercharging” the country’s economy through advanced technology.
Union coverage
- PSA: Auckland mental health facility Segar House to close
- TAC: Court rejects athlete union’s bid to appeal employment ruling
- TEU: Govt’s $100m polytech property sell-off a ‘one-shot deal’
Employment
- Number of benefit sanctions increase, over 80k people find work, new figures show
- New code of conduct coming for public service (paywall)
- Work, Interrupted: Ikea’s 20,000-plus applicants for 500 jobs (paywall)
- Wellington Live owner told to pay former worker almost $30k (paywall)
Politics
- Over 130 new classrooms for Auckland schools
- New Crown agency to take over $30b school property portfolio (paywall)
- New Institute for Advanced Technology announced by government
- NZ campaign Make It 16 renews call to lower voting age after UK’s announcement
- ‘Councils have lacked fiscal discipline’ Local Government Minister says
- The House: Parliamentary agency resources under pressure
Te Ao Māori
Economics
- New Zealand reaches deal with Canada in long-running dairy trade dispute
- Infometrics doubles New Zealand’s 2026 growth forecast
- Electricity Authority set to make connections to national grid easier, faster
- Supermarkets aren’t moving fast enough to lower dairy prices, says Federated Farmers dairy chair
- Cybersecurity bosses are growing increasingly worried about AI attacks and misuse