Dawn Chorus for Tuesday, January 23

TL;DR: Cabinet meets today under intense pressure from councils and the infrastructure industry to come up with alternatives to Three Waters, including demands for more funding and revenue raising tools for councils, more council borrowing and a generalised push for more water metreing and charging.

Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy and beyond at 8 am:

• The Commerce Commission launched a Fair Trading Act inquiry into allegations by Consumer NZ of misleading pricing and promotions by Woolworths and the Foodstuffs, RNZ reported yesterday.

• Speculation in financial markets is building that Australian private equity firm Anchorage Capital is set to bid for radio and outdoor ads company Mediaworks after Anchorage registered a range of potential bid names with the companies office. BusinessDesk-$$$’s Denise McNabb reports this morning.

• PM Christopher Luxon met Jacinda Ardern before Christmas to discuss her role as Aotearoa-New Zealand’s senior representative to the global initiative tackling violent extremist content online. Stuff’s Aaron Dahmen reports this morning.

• Fitch yesterday downgraded the credit rating of the nation’s largest credit union, the Hastings-based Unity Credit Union (formerly NZCU Baywide), to a single B with a negative outlook from BB after it reported a $14.4 million loss last financial year and its equity fell to $43.97 million from $60.84 million. The member-owned Unity has 45,000 members with $350 million in deposits, eight branches and 125 staff. Fitch note and Unity annual report.

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Pressure mounting for Three Waters alternatives