Winston taunts Luxon: 'I made him PM'

“I made him the Prime Minister”, said Winston Peters, leaning into his “kingmaker” role. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The Kākā

Long stories shortest in Aotearoa’s political economy this morning:

• Winston Peters believes he made Christopher Luxon PM and therefore didn’t have to tell him about sacking Phil Goff, which Luxon is fine with.

• Goff was sacked after merely suggesting Donald Trump doesn’t know history, which surprised European leaders, who are now saying much worse in public.

• A right-wing Canadian billionaire has launched a hostile bid to run NZ Herald and NewstalkZB.

• Building sector output fell 6.4% in 2024 from 2023, Stats NZ reports¹, confirming the ongoing slump in housing and infrastructure work since the election.

• Chris Hipkins will deliver his state of the nation address today and reshuffle his caucus slightly to elevate Carmel Sepuloni to be Labour’s Auckland spokesperson.

• David Seymour’s cut-price Compass lunch programme faces a nationwide safety investigation after a lunch gave a student in Gisborne second-degree burns.²

(There is more detail, analysis and links to documents below the paywall fold and in the video and podcast above for paying subscribers. If we get over 100 likes from paying subscribers we’ll open it up for public reading, listening and sharing, although we’d love it if you subscribed to support our ability to make this journalism public. Remember all students and teachers who sign up for the free version with their .ac.nz and .school.nz email accounts are automatically upgraded to the paid version for free. Also, here’s a couple of special offers: $3/month or $30/year for under 30s & $6.50/month or $65/year for over 65s who rent.)

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