Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

ACT's leader says the Government isn't prepared to return all Crown-owned land in Northland to its iwi.

Over the weekend, the Waitangi Tribunal provided a report on extensive Te Tiriti breaches against Ngapuhi.

It recommends the Crown apologise, return land, offer compensation and enter talks to rework our constitutional framework.

David Seymour says there've been claims on land in almost every part of the country.

"But I'm not aware of any region in New Zealand where all Crown-owned land has been returned."

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A bold new transport plan pitched as a cheaper, faster replacement for Let's Get Wellington Moving has attracted the interest of city leaders.

It features a mega-tunnel, demolition of heritage buildings, ditching Light Rail and a host of other changes.

Greg Pollock, the capital’s former public transport boss, will pitch his plan this week.

He says it's clear Wellington needs a better transport system that suits the needs of the people.

"I think for a billion dollars, we could do a huge amount improving bus lanes, electrifying the bus fleet and just doing the basics really well to work for the people in Wellington."

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Let's talk about the public service leaks against the new Government.

There's been a couple of leaks of Cabinet papers in just the first two weeks of the Government. Obviously, they're designed to hurt the new Government- and they're probably coming from within the public service.

Bless- that's got to be your first thought about this. Because obviously, whoever's doing the leaking is going out of their way to snaffle these Cabinet documents and get them leaked to the media cause they think they're on to dynamite here.

They're obviously not, these Cabinet papers are a snorefest.

The first one from Monday last week shows that the people most negatively impacted by the rollback of the fair pay agreements are women, Māori, Pasifika and young people.

Which maybe I would care about if those people were helped by the fair pay agreement. But they haven't, because there are no fair pay agreements actually in place.

And the second is that the Government has suspended the regulatory impact statements on all of the polices in the 100-day plan. Which again, I don't really care about because many of the things in the 100-play are repeals.

You don't need any paperwork to tell you the pros and cons of going back to the way it was only a few months and years ago, do you?

It's not really dynamite, either of these things.

I'm going to tell you who comes out of this badly- it's backfiring on the public service. Not the Government, the public service. 

Because these are the people who will go to great lengths to tell you that they are politically neutral and they can work for any Government.

The boss of the public servants once took me to task in a column, arguing they could be very politically neutral all the time- they're that amazing at working in the service of the country.

And yet here we are, leaking against the new Government that hasn't even had a chance yet because they've only been in for a couple of weeks.

If you don't want to take my word for it, take the word of Catherine Delore, Head of Communications at Health NZ.

She wrote on her LinkedIn page that she was 'deeply disappointed and frustrated' to read about leaks of Cabinet papers- and the suggestion that this is happening within the public service.

She also claimed leaking by public servants is a gross betrayal of trust, because they're here to serve the Government of the day and people who cannot do that should 'opt out or be cut out'.

She's bang on.

Of course, public servants have got a problem with this Government because this Government wants to cut a bunch of them out. And of course, people in the public service are going to have their own opinions, we all do. They're entitled to hold them.

And of course, importantly, there is a place for whistle-blowers. But the stuff whistle-blowers leak is momentous. The things that they expose are serious.

The impact of rolling back FPAs and not doing RIS? Bless.

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Reports suggest Eddie Jones is set for a second stint as Japan's rugby coach, six weeks after his resignation as Wallabies mentor.

Jones previously led Japan between 2012 and 2015.

Any final sign-off must come from the Japanese board, who meet on Wednesday.

Sportstalk host Jason Pine explains further.

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There is a warning that most pay rises next year are not going to keep up with the cost of living.

Global consultancy Robert Walters salary survey shows that while most bosses are planning to give pay rises, the vast majority of them will only give between one and 5% despite inflation reaching 7.5%.

Robert Walters Commercial Director Stuart Nash told Heather du Plessis Allan that businesses "simply can't afford" to pay their staff more.

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A Wellington City Councillor is bemused to have been under investigation for breaching council code.

Five City Councillors have been ordered to take lessons on the code of conduct - over leaks of a closed-door briefing on the future of the closed CBD Reading Cinemas.

They're accused of failing to keep things confidential when responding to media.

Councillor Ray Chung told Heather du Plessis Allan that he doesn't understand how he's done that.

He says all he said was Council shouldn't be going into negotiations when it has no money .. and he never mentioned the name of the cinema or where it was.

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Auckland Transport has given itself the ambitious target of fixing 550 kilometres of road this summer to try to get to the potholes before they become much worse.

Auckland Transport CEO Dean Kimpton told Heather du Plessis Allan that they are 1400 kilometres behind due to "lack of investment and wet weather but we're determined to get the roads to where they need to be".

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Finance Minister Nicola Willis has raised concerns over the escalating cost of KiwiRail's Cook Straight ferry project.

She revealed yesterday that  the potential cost to the taxpayer is now many times what the Government initially signed up to and said the situation was “deeply troubling”.

Willis told Heather du Plessis Allan that she doesn't think "the proper work was done to thoroughly understand the options and the costs".

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Two people have been found guilty of murdering Christchurch mother Angela Blackmoore 28 years ago.

Former debt collector David Hawken, 50, and ex-stripper Rebecca Wright-Meldrum, 51, were on trial in the High Court at Christchurch after denying murdering Angela Blackmoore on August 17, 1995.

In 2019, police issued a $100,000 reward for information regarding the death of Angela Blackmore which led to the confession of Jeremy Powell who was sentenced for at least 10 years in 2020 for Blackmoore's murder.

Crime Reporter Sam Sherwood told Heather Du Plessis Allan that the confession was "crucial to the crown case".

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Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has said he won't re-appoint Chief Human Rights Commissioner Paul Hunt.

Goldsmith told Heather du Plessis-Allan that he wants to see a Human Rights Commissioner "who's really focused on fundamental human rights such as free speech, freedom of expression and equal voting.

All these sorts of issues that I haven't heard quite as much as I would have liked to over the past five years."

Paul Hunt's warrant for the role currently ends in January 2024

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