Prime Minister Chris Hipkins turned up the heat against National's Christopher Luxon this week. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins turned up the heat against National's Christopher Luxon this week. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Every weekday at 5am, the New Zealand Herald presents The Front Page, a daily news podcast covering the biggest stories of the day. Here’s a rundown of key stories that made headlines this week. We look into the details of why Mainzeal collapsed, celebrate the return of Fashion Week, weigh up our political options and crunch the latest climate change figures.
Politicians exchange blows
This was the week in which Prime Minister Chris Hipkins showed his teeth, accusing National, Act and NZ First of potentially forming a “coalition of fear”.
This was in response to the months-long attack from other parties that the prospect of Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori would amount to a “coalition of chaos”.
NZ Herald deputy political editor Thomas Coughlan told the Front Page podcast that no matter which way this election goes, the government will be slightly chaotic.
“A Labour-Green-Te Pāti Māori government would be chaotic in its own way. Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi have no experience of government, and they’re pretty strong on what they want their bottom lines to be – and they’re certainly not where Labour wants its bottom lines,” Coughlan said.
“They are disruptors, and I don’t mean that pejoratively. That’s just a descriptor of the fact they like to get in there and shake things up a little bit. And I think a third-term Labour doesn’t want things shaken up because they’re the thing that gets shaken up.”
On the right, Coughlan warns the prospect of New Zealand First, Act and National in an agreement would be chaotic too, given the long history of animosity between National and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters.
“A New Zealand First-National-Act government would be quite a formulation. Act and New Zealand First can’t stand each other. A lot of people in National don’t like New Zealand First. [And remember,] New Zealand First came out of the National Party and Winston Peters has had historic beef with National, which has been rumbling along for decades.”
Mainzeal's and Richina Pacific's poor communication with shareholders reflects badly on directors Jenny Shipley and Richard Yan. Photo / Greg Bowker
Mainzeal collapse
A decade of litigation concluded with a court case that will send warning signals across corporate New Zealand.
The collapse of Mainzeal and the subsequent court case served as a warning that directors, particularly those with high profiles, need to be cautious about the directorships they take on.
BusinessDesk investigations editor Victoria Young gives us the rundown on how this company collapsed and what it means for directors around New Zealand.
“Construction companies always have these razor-thin margins, working project to project. But [Mainzeal] was basically crap at forecasting. The evidence, which came out in the High Court trial in Auckland and which was accepted by the trial judge, was that Mainzeal failed to meet its budgeted earnings figures every year between 2006 and 2012.”
Warring neighbours
Pensioners Owen and Jane Hayward have refused to sell their Ōrākei home to developers Equinox Group, which wants to build 700 luxury apartments on the waterfront site. Photo / Michael Craig
Can property developers make you leave your home if they want to develop the land you’re living in?
This is the central question of our episode with senior property lawyer Jonathan Wood, who digs into the details of the dispute in Ōrākei between two pensioners and a property developer.
Wood says land ownership rights are highly protected and landowners can only be compelled to move under specific circumstances.
“There’s very little somebody can do to take your property rights away from you,” says Wood.
The most common exception to this rule, he says, is when the developer is the Crown and requires land for public works.
Listen to the full episode to hear about why these disputes often end up in New Zealand courts.
Wildfires have raged across the Northern Hemisphere. Photo / AP
Wishing for a warm, dry summer might not be the best use for your wishes.
Wildfires across the Northern Hemisphere have served as a warning that climate change risks come in different forms.
NZ Herald science writer Jamie Morton tells The Front Page podcast that the extent of global warming in recent figures is nothing short of shocking.
“July was the hottest month, not just [in] a few years or decades, but in an estimated 120,000 years,” Morton said.
“Scientists have calculated that globally, the month was about 1.5C warmer than your average July back in pre-industrial times before humans started heating up the planet.”
So what does this mean for our coming summer? And how worried should we be?
Kate Sylvester on the runway at NZ Fashion Week: Kahuria. Photo / Brendon Thorne for Getty Images for NZFW
Fashion fans were enthralled this week as the runway lit up with work from the best designers in the country.
This was the first time in four years that fashion enthusiasts were able to come together and celebrate the creativity currently being threaded together across the fashion industry.
Viva magazine managing editor Amanda Linnell tells The Front Page podcast that this year’s event was met with visceral excitement from all involved.
The impact of Covid-19 was brutal for fashion designers and anyone working in retail. The pandemic essentially condemned them to the dark, with no main annual event to showcase the creativity in fashion throughout Aotearoa.
“There’s a big investment from brands to show at Fashion Week, so it’s really wonderful that it’s happening,” Linell said.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. It is presented by Damien Venuto, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in business reporting who joined the Herald in 2017.
