PM 'constructively dissatisfied' with himself

“Look, I don’t really live with regrets,” Luxon said in one of the interviews marking his first year as PM. File photo: Lynn Grieveson/TheKaka

Kia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday, November 25:

• The news: COP29 ends with a disappointingly small climate finance agreement. Health NZ declares a whooping cough epidemic as it prepares to sack public health staff.

• Scoop du jour: GPs say Health NZ is reducing its waiting lists by rejecting more referrals for procedures and tests from GPs, RNZ’s Ruth Hill reports.

• Deep-dives du jour: PM Christopher Luxon suggests in interviews this morning the Budget surplus target may slip as he focuses on jobs growth and health spending in his second year. He also says he has few regrets after one year as PM, but is ‘constructively dissatisfied’ with his own performance.

• Solutions news: A group of law firms are stepping up to give pro bono legal advice to people now unable to get legal aid. RNZ

• Editorial Opinion du jour: Sharon Murdoch’s cartoon depicting the PM as David Seymour’s roll-on deodorant stick is a doozy.

(There is more detail, analysis and links to documents below the paywall fold and in the podcast above for paying subscribers. If we get over 100 likes we’ll open it up for public reading, listening and sharing.)

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The News