Midday Report Essentials for Friday 23 May 2025
money sport 20 minutes ago
In today's episode, we speak to beneficiary advocate Kay Brereton about means-testing parents of 18- and 19-year-olds on the jobseeker support benefit. We also speak with Stephanie Pow, parental leave expert, on the changes to the Best Start payments. Victoria University of Wellington's Provost, Professor Bryony James, gives her reaction to the Trump administration barring foreign students from enrolling at Harvard, and we speak to sports broadcaster Rikki Swannell about US rugby superstar Ilona Maher.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
40 minutes ago
- RNZ News
Te Tai Tokerau takes both top beef farming prizes at Ahuwhenua Trophy 2025 awards
Hūhana Lyndon, Tama Potaka and Pita Morrison on stage at the Ahuwhenua Trophy 2025 award ceremony. Photo: Tuwhenuaroa Natanahira Māori from Te Tai Tokerau were the big winners at the 2025 Ahuwhenua Trophy 2025 awards with both top prizes going to Northland farmers. The Northland-based Whangaroa Ngaiotonga Trust was awarded the 2025 Ahuwhenua Trophy for excellence in Māori sheep and beef farming, while Te Tai Tokerau farm manager Coby Warmington took out the 2025 Young Māori Farmer Award at a packed ceremony in Palmerston North on Friday. The Ahuwhenua Trophy dates back to 1933 and was established by Sir Āpirana Ngata and the Governor General at the time, Lord Charles Bledisloe. It remains one of the most prestigious and contested awards for Māori farming. At least 800 people gather for the Ahuwhenua Trophy 2025 award ceremony. Photo: Tuwhenuaroa Natanahira At least 800 people were at the event, including Te Arikinui Kuini Nga wai hono I te po, the Māori Queen, Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka and other Māori farmers and their whānau. The Whangaroa Ngaiotonga Trust's whenua is located near the east coast settlement of Whangaruru, north of Whangārei. Its cattle farm takes up about a third of the 1100 hectares of land owned by the trust. In 1952, the Department of Māori Affairs held a hui for the then-484 registered owners of the whenua. Despite only 70 being present and only 24 signing a resolution in support, the department went ahead with the consolidation of the whenua into a 'Land Development Scheme' disconnecting the people from the whenua for decades. The trust took back control of the whenua in 2020 with little-to-no farming know-how and no stock. Since then, it has transformed the whenua into a thriving bull-beef operation with around 1200 bulls. In her acceptance speech, Green MP and Whangaroa Ngaiotonga Trust co-chair Hūhana Lyndon said thanked her wider Ngāti Wai whānau and elders for their support. "Our tūpuna fought so hard to have the land returned and when you are unable to walk your whenua, when you have a tenant that would not let you on without supervision, our ability to take our land back was transformational." Ahuwhenua Trophy 2025 Award winner Pita Morrison accepting the supreme award. Photo: Tuwhenuaroa Natanahira Co-chair Pita Morrison thanked the whānau who travelled south to support the trust, and those who had passed on. "From the time of our founding tipuna, Manaia, who came to our whenua, our people have been here … if it was not for the strength that our tūpuna have given to us and our people we would not be here. "To our people that are here today, as the descendants of our old people, I thank you, mihi to you, on behalf of our trust and we are so proud to be here with you today," Morrison said. Ahuwhenua Trophy 2025 Young Māori Farmer Award winner Coby Warmington Photo: Tuwhenuaroa Natanahira It was a similar sentiment from Young Māori Famer Award winner Coby Warmington, 28, who thanked his wife Holly and his fellow finalists who he described as "obviously great farmers" but "even better people". Warmington (Te Mahurehure, Ngāpuhi) started working at Waima Topu Beef in January 2021 as a shepherd and general hand while the farm was starting a re-building phase and was promoted to farm manager only two years later, in March 2023. Each finalist received a $5000 scholarship, courtesy of Te Tumu Paeroa, The Office of the Māori Trustee, with the overall winner getting a total of $10,000. Warmington said he wanted to start implementing some of things he learned on his own farm in Waima. "I was supported by my employers to apply for the award and I just wanted to test my limits, socially. "It's been amazing, meeting all these great people and spending time with all these young Māori leaders. I'll never forget the experience." Te Tumu Paeroa lead Dr Charlotte Severne said the scholarship would likely be used to get more skills overseas. "It's for them to study and study further, that opportunity to put something into themselves. Studying is not cheap. "These ones have more qualifications than some who have entered the awards so they'll look at training offshore, maybe do a tour offshore. That's as good as any tohū, I think." Severne said. Māori development Minister Tama Potaka said whenua was an integral part of Māori identity. "For us its something that is enduring and perpetual, we won't let go of our whakapapa because it defines who we are. As a result, we do have to figure out how we use that as a foundation for our livelihoods, for jobs, for enterprise and for opportunities for our young people. "I had the great opportunity to grow up on a sheep and beef farm only 45 minutes away in a place called Rata, up Rangitīkei. We had amongst our families 150,000 to 160,000 sheep there in the 1900s. "Certainly for me it's, again, linking back to identity and whakapapa but also providing a platform for economic growth." Potaka said. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
'Kick in the guts': Government knocks back most of Christchurch council's housing plans
Christchurch mayor Phil Mauger says the government's knock-back of the council's housing plans is a "kick in the guts". Photo: RNZ/Nathan Mckinnon The mayor of Christchurch says a government knock-back on it's three year battle to create a custom carve-out of national housing intensification rules feels like a "kick in the guts", but others are welcoming the certainty of the move. On Friday, Minister for Resource Management Act Reform Chris Bishop issued a final decision on 17 of 20 recommendations the city council had referred after rejecting recommendations from an independent panel on the council's plan to shape a bespoke Christchurch response to national housing density policy). Minister Bishop rejected the bulk of the council's proposals. In 2021, the then-government released its National Policy Statement on Urban Development, a plan to ramp up housing intensification across most urban areas but focused on the five high growth centres of Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Wellington and Christchurch, amid bi-partisan support for the Resource Management (Enabling Housing Supply and Other Matters) Amendment Bill, though the National Party would later withdraw its backing . The bill contained Medium Density Residential Standards (MDRS), which detail what development can occur without the need for resource consent, public notification and consultation in the areas identified as most in need of housing intensification. Those rules were intended to apply across all residential zones in those identified cities, unless "qualifying matters" made intensification inappropriate. In 2022, the council voted to reject the standards , despite warnings a commissioner could be appointed . Instead, the council began several years of consultation, submissions and hearings on Plan Change 14 - its proposed changes to the district plan that would give effect to the Medium Density Residential Standards, but in a way it claimed better acknowledged the character and context of the city. The council temporarily halted the process following the last election, and was later granted an extension until the end of this year on some aspescts of the plan change. Minister Bishop declined a further extension request last month. The council's stance culminated in an Independent Hearing Panel (IHP), which reported back in the middle of last year. The council accepted the majority of the IHP's recommendations, which were incorporated into the district plan. But it rejected various aspects of the proposed plan, making twenty counter-recommendations that went to the Minister. The minister announced on Friday he had rejected 14 of the council's recommendations, accepted three and deferred his decision on three more. Minister for Resource Management Act Reform Chris Bishop has rejected the bulk of the council's proposals. Photo: VNP/Louis Collins The decision means some parts of the city will be zoned higher-density housing and taller buildings, while the council will not be allowed to use several different "qualifying matters" to refuse consents even in high density zones - most controversially, one that hinged on the impediment of sunlight and proposed the Garden City should get an exemption because its southern location meant sunlight angles differ. Bishop's announcement locks in changes for areas in and around the CBD, and the "town centres" of Riccarton, Hornby and Linwood, which will be zoned high density residential. Taller buildings will be allowed within 600 metres of shopping areas in some suburbs - 32m (around ten storeys high) for the Hornby shopping area, 14m for high density residential zones surrounding the shopping area, 22m (around six storeys) for Linwood's town centre, and 14m for high density residential zones around it. The council's bids to create qualifying matters on the basis of sunlight access, recession planes (a line or plane which limits how close a building can be to a property boundary), or by location - such as 'the City Spine' (major transport routes) or Riccarton Bush - also failed. Nor did the minster accept areas around Peer Street in Ilam or the Papanui War Memorial Avenues should be excluded from density rules or allowed special consideration. The council proposals the minister did accept were Local Centre Intensification Precinct - intensification around eight of the city's commercial centres, including Barrington, Prestons and Wigram; increasing the building height overlay for the former stock yards site on Deans Avenue (a prime spot adjacent to Hagley Park, currently used as car parking for the Christchurch Hospital shuttle service) to up to 36m; and allowing high density residential zoning for Milton Street (the site of the Milton St substation, which Fletchers plans to build 80 homes on). All other council alternative recommendations were rejected in favour of the hearing panel recommendations. The minister has deferred decision-making for the heritage listing for Daresbury - a historic home in Fendalton; Antonio Hall - a derelict historic home on Riccarton Rd; and Piko Character Area - a Riccarton residential neighbourhood made up of many original state houses from the 1930s - until the council decided on the underlying zoning. "In putting these decisions forward to the government, we obviously wanted to get all of our alternative recommendations approved. So to only have three of them get the tick is a kick in the guts," mayor Phil Mauger said. "This plan change has been a huge undertaking for our city, and we've said right the way through that we want to get the best outcome we possibly can. This doesn't feel like the best outcome. "To that end, we'll keep working hard as a council, and there are still major decisions yet to be made when it comes to housing density and planning across much of Christchurch, so watch this space." The decisions come into effect immediately and cannot be appealed to the Environment Court. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon New Zealand has one of the most unaffordable housing markets in the OECD. Urbanist collective Greater Ōtautahi welcomed the minister's decision. Chairperson M Grace-Stent said the decision finally brought some certainty after years of delays, decision making, submissions and hearing panels. "What we're most excited about is that Ōtautahi Christchurch is set up for the future, it has certainty around where it can grow and where it can continue to develop in the future." The decision will not mean apartment buildings spring up overnight, they said. "It's still going to be a slow developing process, just as our cities always continually change. This is just another step." The city also needed to turn its attention to improving public transport. "Ōtautahi Christchurch definitely needs a reevaluation of its transport system. We've been calling for the introduction of mass rapid transport across the city to support and facilitate the kind of growth and development that needs to happen, and to make sure that everyone has a choice about how they're getting around the city and aren't forced to just pick cars." Grace-Stent said the debate touched on ideas embedded in the national psyche about how and where New Zealanders live. They said the quarter-acre dream of a stand alone house on a large section is unsustainable and doesn't not always produce greater social outcomes. "Not everyone wants to live the exact same lifestyle - allowing more housing to be built allows people to make that choice for themselves. So if people want to be living on 1/4 acre block, they're allowed to, and if people want to be living in an apartment close to their friends and amenities and where they work, they also have that choice." They acknowledged that some medium and high density housing is not built to high standards, but said some of that was due to limitations of the current zoning process, which can mean the lowest bidder builds on these sites. "This is just the first step into assuring that everyone has a home that is liveable and that works for them, and is good quality. There also needs to be changes throughout the way that we are think about housing and building houses across the country," Grace-Stent said. The decisions, which come into effect immediately, are final and cannot be appealed to the Environment Court. The council has until the end of the year to decide on density rules for the rest of the city. It was unable to confirm by deadline how much it had spent fighting the density rules, but had budgeted for $7 million dollars between 2021 and the middle of this year. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
From bros to foes: how the unlikely Trump-Musk relationship imploded
By Nandita Bose and Jeff Mason, Reuters Donald Trump (L) and Elon Musk's unlikely political marriage exploded in a fiery public divorce on 5 June, 2025. Photo: SAUL LOEB and Jim WATSON / AFP When Donald Trump met privately with White House officials on Wednesday, there was little to suggest that the US president was close to a public break with Elon Musk, the billionaire businessman who helped him win a second term in office. Two White House officials familiar with the matter said Trump expressed confusion and frustration in the meeting about Musk's attacks on his sweeping tax and spending bill. But he held back, the officials said, because he wanted to preserve Musk's political and financial support ahead of the 2026 midterm election. By Thursday afternoon, Trump's mood had shifted. He had not spoken to Musk since the attacks began and was fuming over what one White House aide described as a "completely batshit" tirade by the Tesla CEO on X, his social media platform. On Friday, a White House official said Trump was not interested in talking to Musk and no phone call between the two men was planned for the day. Musk had blasted Trump's tax bill as fiscally reckless and a "disgusting abomination." He vowed to oppose any Republican lawmaker who supported it. The bill would fulfill many of Trump's priorities while adding, according to the Congressional Budget Office, $2.4 trillion to the $36.2-trillion US public debt. Privately, Trump had called Musk volatile. On Thursday, he told his team, it was time to take the gloves off. Sitting next to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office, Trump told reporters he was "very disappointed" in his former adviser. Musk quickly hit back on social media, and the back-and-forth devolved from there. "The easiest way to save money in our budget, billions and billions of dollars, is to terminate Elon's government subsidies and contracts," Trump posted on Truth Social, his social media site. Within minutes, Musk said it might be time to create a new political party and endorsed a post on X from Ian Miles Cheong, a prominent Musk supporter and right-wing activist, calling for Trump's impeachment. The depth of the Trump-Musk relationship at its height was unprecedented in Washington - a sitting president granting a billionaire tech CEO access and influence inside the White House and throughout his government. Musk spent nearly $300 million backing Trump's campaign and other Republicans last year. For months, Musk played both insider and disruptor - shaping policy conversations behind the scenes, amplifying Trump's agenda to millions online, and attacking the bureaucracy and federal spending through his self-styled Department of Government Efficiency. Just last week, Trump hosted a farewell for Musk and declared that "Elon is really not leaving". Now he had not only left but had turned into a top critic. Hours after Trump's Oval Office remarks, a third White House official expressed surprise at Musk's turnaround. It "caught the president and the entire West Wing off guard," she said. Musk did not respond to emails seeking comment about the downturn in relations. His super PAC spending group, America PAC, and spokeswoman Katie Miller did not respond to calls and texts requesting comment. In a statement, the White House called the breakup an "unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted". The Musk-Trump breakup sent Tesla's stock price plunging 14 percent on Thursday and drove uncertainty among Trump's allies in Congress, who are working to pass the monumental spending package that Democrats and a small number of vocal Republicans oppose. Tesla shares clawed back from steep losses on Friday. The breakup could reshape both men's futures. For Trump, losing Musk's backing threatens his growing influence among tech donors, social media audiences, and younger male voters - key groups that may now be harder to reach. It could also complicate fundraising ahead of next year's midterm elections. For Musk, the stakes are potentially even higher. The break risks intensified scrutiny of his business practices that could jeopardise government contracts and invite regulatory probes, which might threaten his companies' profits. Some of Musk's friends and associates were stunned by the fallout, with a number of them only recently expressing confidence that the partnership would endure, according to two other sources familiar with the dynamics. The split had been simmering for weeks, said the first two White House officials, but the breaking point was over personnel: Trump's decision to pull his nomination of Jared Isaacman, Musk's hand-picked candidate to be NASA administrator. "He was not happy" about Isaacman, one of the White House officials said of Musk. Isaacman, a billionaire entrepreneur and close Musk ally, was seen as key to advancing Musk's vision for space exploration and commercial space ventures. After his nomination was scuttled, Isaacman posted on X: "I am incredibly grateful to President Trump, the Senate and all those who supported me." The move was viewed within the administration as a direct snub to Musk, the two officials said, signaling a loss of political clout and deepening the rift between him and Trump's team. Before the Isaacman episode, top White House aides behind the scenes had already begun limiting Musk's influence, quietly walking back his authority over staffing and budget decisions. Trump himself reinforced that message in early March, telling his cabinet that department secretaries, not Musk, had the final say over agency operations. At the same time, Musk began to hint that his time in government would come to a close, while expressing frustration at times that he could not more aggressively cut spending. His threats and complaints about Trump's bill grew louder, but inside the White House, few believed they would seriously alter the course of the legislation - even as some worried about the fallout on the midterms from Musk's warnings to cut political spending, the first two White House officials said. Still, a fourth White House official dismissed the impact of Musk's words on the president's signature bill. "We're very confident," he said. "No one has changed their minds." But there was bafflement at the White House at how a relationship that only last week had been celebrated in the Oval Office had taken such a turn. Time will tell whether the rift can be repaired. - Reuters
