The year in five news events
The stories that permeated across the last 12 months.
Mōrena, and welcome to The Bulletin for Thursday, December 19.
In today’s edition: Parliament has come to a close for another year, Petone won’t be renamed Pito One, and One NZ finally launches satellite texting. But first, a look back at five of the top stories of 2024.
Welcome to the second to last Bulletin for 2024. Today, we’re going to flick back through some of the biggest headlines of the year as I arbitrarily pluck out five defining news moments from the past 12 months. Plus: I’ll neatly wrap up some of The Spinoff’s best end-of-year content that we’ve been publishing over the past couple of weeks.
Resignation of Golriz Ghahraman kicks off a challenging year for the Greens
The news cycle kicked into gear earlier than usual back in the second week of January with bombshell reports, first by Newstalk ZB, that Green MP Golriz Ghahraman had been accused of shoplifting. Ghahraman stood aside from her portfolios initially, before resigning from parliament a few days later. “Obviously parliament is a stressful place for anybody, but Golriz herself has been subject to pretty much continuous threats of sexual violence, physical violence and death threats, and that has added a higher level of stress,” said then-Greens co-leader James Shaw in explaining Ghahraman’s behaviour. Ghahraman was convicted of four counts of shoplifting in June.
While the Greens have largely maintained their support, according to polling, across the year, the Ghahraman incident was but the first in what Chlöe Swarbrick has since admitted was a tough 12 months. Shaw resigned from parliament, Julie Anne Genter was referred to parliament’s privileges committee, Darleen Tana was ousted over migrant exploitation allegations, co-leader Marama Davidson underwent cancer treatment and, in February, the tragic loss of Fa’anānā Efeso Collins.
Public sector job cuts tick up and up and up
According to RNZ’s running tally, close to 10,000 public sector roles have been cut since the coalition government took office little over a year ago. It has been one of the running themes of this year, following on from National’s campaign while in opposition to cut “back-office expenditure” and bring the public sector workforce back to pre-Covid levels.
We learnt this week that further cuts are likely on the way in the new year.
A heart wrenching Royal Commission report
There have been two Royal Commissions of Inquiry deliver reports this year – one in response to abuse in state care and one examining the country’s Covid-19 response. The former was established back in 2018, running through until mid-2024. I recommend spending some time, if you haven’t already, with The Spinoff’s Quarter Million series – substantive reporting on the inquiry and the horrific stories behind it.
The Royal Commission’s final report, explained The Spinoff’s Lyric Waiwiri-Smith, contained 138 recommendations across its 3,000 pages. An apology was finally delivered to survivors last month while plans for redress continue. Just yesterday, as reported here by Stuff, it was announced that Lake Alice survivors will receive at least $150,000 in compensation.
A minister under fire
Another running theme this year, and something we’ve talked about on several occasions in The Bulletin, has been the aftermath of the government’s unexpected decision to wind back smokefree laws implemented by the Labour government. It’s meant that pretty much everyone who even passingly glanced at the news this year will now know the name Casey Costello, the New Zealand First minister tasked with overseeing the controversial changes. The first term MP became the subject of intense scrutiny from the media and the opposition, largely due to extensive reporting from RNZ’s Guyon Espiner. That reporting revealed that changes to the tax take on certain tobacco products would largely benefit one of the largest cigarette manufacturers, while documents from Costello’s office appeared to show the minister claiming nicotine was “as harmful” as caffeine.
The drama ramped up in October when NZ First leader Winston Peters publicly named a Ministry of Health staffer that had been working in Costello’s office, revealing she was the sister-in-law of Labour’s health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall and suggesting that’s how documents were leaked. As the Herald’s Jamie Ensor reported yesterday, there remains no evidence of this and emails confirm Verrall’s relative disclosed her conflict of interest on at least four occasions.
The treaty principles bill casts a long shadow
One of the biggest news stories of this year is still making headlines and will undoubtedly draw a lot of attention in the early parts of 2025. That is, of course, Act’s treaty principles bill – the doomed piece of proposed legislation that, while endorsed by all government parties during its first reading in parliament, is set to be turfed out in a few months time. Thousands converged on parliament last month in opposition to the bill, though its architect David Seymour remains staunchly in defence.
It was a requirement of the coalition agreement that the government support the bill at first reading. As The Spinoff’s Toby Manhire wrote recently, prime minister Christopher Luxon’s language around the bill has evolved since the election – moving from passive disagreement to passionate disapproval. The bill will be subject to a standard six month select committee process, meaning it’s all but certain to overshadow Waitangi commemorations in February.
More reading
Over the past couple of weeks, The Spinoff has published a range of recaps and reviews of some of the biggest moments of the year as we race towards Christmas.
Join me tomorrow for the final Bulletin of the year as we dive back into the newsletter archives and try to come to some sort of hopeful conclusion to what’s been a tough and busy 12 months.
An update on the response to our open letter
It’s been a fortnight since we published our open letter outlining our current reality.
We revealed that only 2% of our audience support us financially and shared the real need to double the number of members who support us with monthly or annual payments. As of today, we are over one third of the way towards that target.
The response to our letter has been encouraging. Thank you to all our existing members who responded by donating or increasing their contributions. We’re grateful to all who also decided to sign up again. Welcome to our new members. We’re delighted to have you.
We still have a way to go, but the support has made us as determined as ever to get there. Please continue to spread the word and share the letter. You can also gift someone a membership for Christmas or donate as an organisation or company.
If you haven't yet, please become a member or donate today.
Parliament wraps with parting shots
Yesterday marked the end of another year in parliament. As is tradition, the final adjournment debate in the house was marked with humour, reported the Herald’s Thomas Coughlan. If Labour was in charge of the North Pole, said PM Christopher Luxon, “the elves would charge consultants fees, the sleigh would cost $4 billion and the reindeer would be working from home”. There was also some friendly fire, with Luxon saying the Act Party’s secret Santa was a disaster because “they wouldn’t stop taking credit for each present” (Act’s David Seymour hit back saying pass the parcel was impossible with National because the pink parcels were always covered in blue wrapping paper).
Green co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick opted for no jokes in her speech, instead attacking the government and paying tribute to her co-leader Marama Davidson, currently away from parliament with cancer, and MP Efeso Collins and Kiingi Tuheitia who both passed away this year.
Meanwhile, the government is touting a productive year with leader of the house Chris Bishop sharing the following statistics for 2024:
93 first readings (83 government, one local, and nine members’ bills);
60 bills reported back from select committee (47 government, one private, and 12 members’ bills);
60 third readings (52 government, one private, and seven members’ bills);
1,795 papers have been presented to the house by ministers;
77 question times during which ministers have answered 933 oral questions and thousands more supplementary questions; and
As of yesterday morning, ministers have been asked 87,147 written parliamentary questions.
Parliament returns for its 2025 season in late January.
Best of 2024: The Dilworth/Auckland Grammar saga proves we take rugby way too seriously
As we race towards the end of the year, it’s time to take a look back at some of the biggest and best Spinoff stories from 2024. This morning: Liam Rātana on school rugby. First published on July 2.
There are only 10 minutes left in the game. The Dilworth first XV is leading Auckland Grammar by just three points, fighting desperately to hold on for the school’s first ever Auckland 1A first XV win over their wealthy nemesis from down the road. With every second that passes, belief grows that the impossible might just be possible. Finally, the hooter blows and the referee calls full time. David has toppled Goliath. Despite being described as the upset of the season, the win will soon be shrouded in controversy.
Get the best of the Spinoff this year sent to you over summer
Sign up for The Spinoff Daily to receive our twice-weekly summer digest. Sent to you at the leisurely time of 10am on Tuesdays and Fridays over the summer break, you can enjoy a handpicked selection of the best of The Spinoff this year. perfect for beach, bach, backyard or travel reading.
Click and Collect
The Lower Hutt suburb of Petone is keeping its name and will not be renamed Pito One.
Attorney-general Judith Collins is “really disgusted” with the behaviour of a district court judge who confronted NZ First MPs at a private event.
NZ rescue crews head to quake-hit Vanuatu as the search for survivors continues.
One NZ finally launches satellite texting. The Spinoff’s Duncan Greive looked at what this might mean in an in-depth feature earlier this month.
Opposition parties move towards “formalising” collaboration in an effort to oust the coalition after a single term.
A good column by Peter Griffin on why New Zealand is lagging behind with tech regulation, but you’ll need a BusinessDesk sub (paywalled).
We’ve talked a bit this year about Mike King and his rise to become the country’s most powerful mental health campaigner (here’s Madeleine Chapman on the subject in October). Writing for Webworm, Jess McAllen compellingly dives into King’s empire.
Guest writer Gráinne Patterson explains how to not hug people you don’t want to hug this holiday season. The Spinoff shares its favourite music of 2024. Rebekah Jaung reflects on watching Korea’s political turmoil from afar. Joel MacManus investigates what happened to Queenstown’s iconic ‘No left turn except access to KFC’ road sign.
That’s it for another day. Thanks for reading and see you back here tomorrow for the final time in 2024.
Want to get in touch? Join the conversation in the Substack comments section below or via email at thebulletin@thespinoff.co.nz if you have any feedback on today’s top stories (or anything else in the news).
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Rightly there has been outrage about the Treaty Principles Bill but little has been written about its twin the Regulations bill. This bill specifically excludes Te Tiriti from any consideration and attempts to embed the libertatian (ACT) principles of indivual and property rights above those of community and environment. This needs urgent reporting as will be as damaging as the Treaty Principles bill and submission close mid Jan.
Correction needed to "A minister under fire", "while documents from Costello’s office appeared to show the minister claiming nicotine was “as harmful” as tobacco." replace "tobacco" with "caffeine".