Media Insider podcast: Stuff's Trade Me deal - will staff share in chief executive Sinead Boucher's lucrative payday?; New NZME chair Steven Joyce opens up in first major interview
Stuff boss Sinead Boucher
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RNZ News
9 hours ago
- RNZ News
Why has trust in news fallen? The answer is more complicated than we thought
By Greg Treadwell, Merja Myllylahti of In April only one in three people said they trusted the media in general - a slight fall from last year. Photo: Supplied / Stuff / NZ Herald / Newsroom / ODT / TVNZ We live in an age of declining trust in public institutions: Parliament, the health and education systems, courts and police have all suffered over the past decade, both in New Zealand and internationally. And, of course, trust in the news has declined precipitously, according to regular surveys, including our own research. So, it might be tempting to roll declining trust in news media into this wider decline of trust in public institutions in general. But this is where our research disagrees . News isn't just another institution like the state, a corporation or a non-profit organisation. Ideally, it's the democratic expression of the public interest in these things. An institutional approach may help us explore the structural issues democracies face (for example, critiquing the nature of media ownership). But it also generalises, and risks obscuring the specifics of the trust problem public interest journalism faces. Nor does it recognise the distinctiveness of the " social contract of the press " - the necessary bond of trust between journalism and its audiences, which is key to the success of the wider social contract between the public and its institutions. Our research shows trust in news has plummeted from 58 percent of New Zealanders agreeing they can trust "most of the news most of the time" in 2020, to just 32 percent in 2025. Survey respondents tell us they perceive the news to be politically biased (both left and right), and because too much seems to be opinion masquerading as news. These seemed very different from the trust issues faced by government, business and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Declining trust in those institutions has been driven more by wars, financial crises, the rise of populism and the Covid pandemic. To differentiate journalism's trust issues, we explored whether falling trust in news was (or wasn't) linked to declines in trust in other social institutions. We looked at research from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and the global Edelman Trust Barometer , as well as our own research. We found the trajectories of trust levels for other social institutions - governments, business, NGOs - showed clear links to each other as they rose and fell, more or less in sync, over time. Trust in news, however, has been in its own lane, perhaps influenced by the others, but clearly not tethered to them. A fall in trust in government and politics, in other words, is not a predictor of a fall in trust in news. Globally, we found trust in government, business and NGOs fell and then rose, roughly together, from 2020 to 2024. While not tracking each other exactly, there's a clear grouping of data points. From 2020, trust in all of them (including media in general - television, internet, radio and movies) fell rapidly and levelled out in 2021 before rising again slightly by 2024. Trust in news itself, however, behaved in almost exactly opposite ways, rising from 2020 to 2021 before falling again and levelling out in 2023. Global trust in media, news and social institutions has dropped since the Covid-19 pandemic. Photo: The Conversation Given its impact, the global pandemic is likely a cause for these changes in 2020. However, as trust in government fell, news media - to which the public has historically turned in a crisis - actually rose. In Aotearoa New Zealand, things were very different. While it fell globally, trust in institutions in New Zealand rose from 2020, before falling in 2022. Trust in news, however, was not rising in the early days of the pandemic as it was elsewhere. It was falling. And it continued to fall steadily until 2023. (In 2024, it would fall even more dramatically, but that data was not captured by this study.) A drop in trust in the media needs to be addressed separately from the drop in trust of government and non-government institutions. Photo: The Conversation Both sets of data - global and local - show trust in news doing largely the opposite of what trust in government and other institutions has been doing, rising when they were falling and vice versa. When journalism does its job well and exposes failings in government, we would indeed expect one to rise and the other to fall. So, we can see there may well be links between changes in levels of trust. But we can also see trust levels are not responding in unison to external socio-political pressures. In focus groups, we explored if there were connections between trust in news and trust in government. Older New Zealanders who didn't trust the news told us there were institutions they mistrusted: banks, insurance companies and universities, some to very high levels, and mostly born from personal experience. But they did not particularly mistrust government as an institution. And we found no direct link between their mistrust of news and their mistrust of other social institutions. Which supports the evidence we found in the global and local trust data trends. It seems the trust problems democracies have with their news services need to be addressed on their own terms, not as part of an overall picture. This story was originally published on The Conversation.
RNZ News
10 hours ago
- RNZ News
Investors worry about political flipflopping as rents fall
Photo: RNZ Wellington has had the steepest year-on-year fall in asking rents, Trade Me says. It has released its latest rental price data, which showed nationally rents being asked on the site were down 3 percent in the year to a median $620. Wellington was down 7.7 percent, to $600 a week and Auckland 2.9 percent to $660. Nationally, the number of rental listings on Trade Me Property was up 13 percent year-on-year in July, while demand was down 19 percent. Trade Me Property spokesperson Casey Wylde said it was supply and demand that was driving down rents nationwide, and particularly in Wellington. "With more properties available, renters have a lot more leverage and landlords are having to drop prices to secure tenants." She said Wellington had a 27 percent annual increase in rental stock and a 6 percent annual drop in demand in July. In Auckland, the market had been volatile but there was a clear trend, she said. "Auckland rents are trending downwards, which is a big relief for renters in Tāmaki Makaurau who have been facing high prices for some time," said Wylde. The number of listings in Auckland was up 4 percent year-on-year in July, while demand was down 23 percent. Southland, Nelson/Tasman and Taranaki bucked the downward trend in asking rents. Earlier data from Cotality said there was pressure on rents because they were already high compared to incomes and wage growth was slowing. Stats NZ data showed an annual drop for the first time since 2009 in May. Rental yields had improved in recent years, from a trough of 2.1 percent to 3.8 percent on a national average basis. Lower interest rates also meant investors did not have to "top up" their purchases as much, if rent did not cover the cost of the home loan. But a survey this week of Auckland Property Investors Association members showed political "flipflopping" was a big concern. Eighty percent said their confidence depended on the next election outcome. General manager Sarina Gibbon said election cycles were too short for housing policy to mature and frequent shifts undermined confidence and slow investment. "A housing system that changes direction every three years isn't enough to build on. We need to stop making housing policy a party-political sport and start treating it like long-term infrastructure." She said almost 57 percent said the policy climate was unsupportive of investment. Short-term disruption is expected with large reforms, but poor communication risks alienating those whose investment is needed for supply growth. "More than half of investors surveyed think the settings are against them. Some of that is the shock of big reforms. That's fine. That's just growing pains. But if you don't explain the treatment plan or how long recovery takes, don't expect investors to keep piling money into the system." Almost half said compliance had become harder since October 2023. "The biggest barrier to adding more rentals isn't a lack of money. It is not knowing what the rules will be in two years. Capital can take risks but not guesses. If you want more homes built, give investors rules they can trust will last," Gibbon said. "Confidence is the foundation every investment rests on. Overhauls like the RMA reforms are major resets. We have to accept that some disruption is the cost of fixing deep problems. What worries investors is the risk that the next government will tear up the plans before the work is done. Housing needs policies that outlast election cycles so investors can commit with certainty." Simplicity chief economist Shamubeel Eaqub said there were likely to be wider issues at play. But said concern about political changes were likely to be part of it. "Once the flip flopping starts no one believes it will stop." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
NZ Herald
2 days ago
- NZ Herald
Chris Hipkins to speak on decision to skip Covid-19 Royal Commission inquiry public hearings
Labour leader and former Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins is to discuss his decision not to attend the second set of public hearings for the Covid-19 Royal Commission. He is set to speak to Mike Hosking on Newstalk ZB at 7.07am. You can listen live below. The hearings have been called off after key witnesses, including former Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern, refused to appear. Those witnesses, including Hipkins and former ministers Grant Robertson and Ayesha Verrall, are still co-operating with the inquiry. In June last year, a 'phase two' of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Covid-19 Lessons was established by the National-led coalition Government. It was scheduled to take place after the completion of the original inquiry set up under the previous Labour Government, which ministers have already appeared before in private. Chairman Grant Illingworth has the power to summon people to appear before the inquiry, but said he would not use it on Ardern and the other ministers as there weren't any grounds for it. 'On balance, we are of the view that a summons is undesirable, given that the former ministers continue to co-operate with the evidence-gathering of the inquiry. 'It is our opinion that the use of summonses to achieve their participation at a public hearing would be legalistic and adversarial, which our terms of reference prohibit,' Illingworth said. He said he still believed public hearings would enhance public confidence in the inquiry's processes by enabling the public to see former ministers, who have critical insights into the pandemic response, questioned in public. Hipkins, appearing on Herald NOW last month, said he had issues with the way the second phase of the Royal Commission had been set up, particularly the decision to exclude from consideration the years that NZ First was governing with Labour. 'The fact that the [Royal Commission] terms of reference specifically exclude decisions made when NZ First were part of the [Labour-led coalition] Government … I think the terms of reference have been deliberately constructed to achieve a particular outcome, particularly around providing a platform for those who have conspiracy theorist views. 'That seems to have been specifically written into the terms of reference that they get maximum airtime.' Objections of Ardern and the other ministers, published in a minute of the inquiry, included the convention that ministers and former ministers are interviewed by inquiries in private, and departing from that convention would undermine confidence. They were also concerned that the livestreaming and publication of recordings of the hearing creates a risk of those recordings being 'tampered with, manipulated or otherwise misused', a risk the inquiry 'ought to have foreseen and planned for'. Other witnesses raised concerns that providing evidence at public hearings might bring risks of abuse being directed at them and their families. Hipkins is standing firm on the witnesses' decision. 'We have shown up to the inquiry, I have shown up to the inquiry. I have been interviewed by them twice,' he told reporters yesterday. 'I have provided written evidence to the inquiry, I answered every question they had and I attended the interview they scheduled for me. 'They asked for two hours, but they ran out of questions after an hour.' Hipkins said he did not co-ordinate his approach with Ardern and would not speak on behalf of her. 'She is still a very close friend of mine. We have people representing us in common, but any suggestion we colluded with this is wrong.' 'Deserve the basic respect of accountability' National MP Chris Bishop accused Hipkins of running from his record. 'Fresh from fobbing off Treasury's report into Labour's spending, [he] is avoiding accountability by refusing to front up to the Royal Commission,' he said. 'By first dismissing Treasury's report and now refusing to front, Chris Hipkins is telling New Zealanders he does not care about the effects his decisions have had on Kiwis.' Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour said Ardern, Verrall and Hipkins' refusal to publicly appear before the commission was a change from 'invading our living rooms daily'. 'Hipkins and co loved the limelight at 1pm every day. They wielded extraordinary powers over citizens' lives, dismissing those who questioned them as uncaring. Now they're refusing to even show up, what a contrast,' he said. 'Tens of thousands of New Zealanders have already engaged with the inquiry, sharing experiences of how their lives were upended. 'They deserve the basic respect of accountability,' Seymour said.
