Briefly for all subscribers for at 7 am on Tuesday, July 15, the key scoops, breaking news, deep-dives, editorials, analysis and other news links in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate today are:

* The services sector joined the manufacturing sector in contracting in June, a new BusinessNZ-BNZ survey found yesterday. BNZ downgraded its Q2 GDP forecast to a contraction after the surveys. Stats NZ also reported yesterday another 0.2% fall in total spending with electronic cards in June, which means retail sales have fallen 7.5% in inflation-adjusted terms in the last two years. See more below in Charts and Docs of the day, and in the podcast above.

* Perhaps ironically, Singapore reported better-than-expected GDP growth in the June quarter yesterday, after its Government expanded construction spending on housing. The Government has slashed spending on new housing in the last 18 months. See more below in Docs of the day.

* As BNZ Economist Doug Steel wrote yesterday in the Quote of the Day: “The timeline for New Zealand’s long-awaited economic recovery just keeps getting pushed further and further out.”

* Today’s scoop of the day is from Cécile Meier, who reports for BusinessDesk-$ this morning that the School Lunch Collective has started using a 25% cheaper offal mince blend for school lunches, without telling anyone. See more below in my Top Scoops of the morning.

* Jessica Roden also had the scoop last night for 1News on Nelson Hospital creating ghost appointments to meet a Government target to reduce waiting times. See more in Top Six Pick ‘n’ Mix below.

* Today’s good news story is from Eloise Gibson at RNZ on the surging use of bicycles. See more below in Top Goods News of the day.

Paying subscribers hear more detail, analysis and commentary in the podcast above and get the links and sourcing below the paywall, along with my full Picks ‘n’ Mixes for this morning. I’ll open it up for all to read, listen and share if paying subscribers give it more than 100 likes.

My Top Six Pick ’n’ Mix for Tuesday, July 15

* Investigation by Cécile Meier for BusinessDesk-$: From prime to offal: Cheap cuts in school lunches

* Investigation by Guyon Espiner for RNZ: Alcohol guidelines outdated and 'understate risks', update halted after lobbyists complained

* Scoop by Jessica Roden for 1News: Nelson Hospital accused of making 'ghost' appointments for patients.

* Rowan Quinn for RNZ: Auckland EDs overloaded, patients diverted to clinics

* Evie Richardson for RNZ’s Checkpoint: 'Real strain': Student nurses, midwives on workload, financial pressure

* Laura Walters for Newsroom Pro-$ (free from tomorrow): Scrapping census could compromise infrastructure planning

The best of the rest

Scoops and breaking news here and overseas this morning

* Thomas Manch for The Post-$: PM’s department confirms job losses

* Thomas Coughlan for NZ Herald-$: Minister considers compensation for Bitcoin ATM ban

* Sam Sachdeva for Newsroom: NZ to block corporate lawsuit rights in Asia trade deal

* Tim Murphy for Newsroom: RNZ reviving a national news wire as it aims to be journalism’s cornerstone

* Kate Macintosh for The Post-$: 2300 Ministry of Education learning support staff to strike. Intervention teachers, psychologists and child safety staff will be among those walking off the job over a pay and conditions offer they say is “miserly” and does not address their concerns.

* RNZ: Auckland not keeping up with international standards in key areas - report

Politics & geopolitics

* RNZ: 'Won't be able to keep bailing out': Luxon on future floods

* Scoop by Eloise Gibson for RNZ: Space Minister Judith Collins goes to ground over NZ's first space mission

* RNZ: Aussie police recruiters say they're just making sure Kiwis know their options

* RNZ: Tāmaki Makaurau by-election to be held in September

* Lyric Waiwiri-Smith for The Spinoff: 30 things I learned from 30 hours of Regulatory Standards Bill hearings. Even our politicians forget to turn the mute button off/on. It’s not just you.

* RNZ: Ray Chung's 'vile' email condemned across the political spectrum

Economy, business & tech

* Rob Stock for The Post-$: People oppose law change to protect ANZ and ASB: Poll. The majority oppose the Government’s retrospective law change to limit compensation the banks would pay in a court case, claims a poll by Curia.

* David Hargreaves for Interest: 'Timeline for NZ's recovery just keeps getting pushed further out'

* Dita de Boni for The Post-$: Golden visa money may outpace the investment options in NZ

* Nichole Lewis for Stuff: Should KiwiSaver be opened to investment property?

Column by Brian Easton for Interest: Is progress progressive?

* Greg Ninness for Interest: National median rent declines after almost 18 months of stagnation

Housing, transport, infrastructure & councils

* Oliver Lewis for BusinessDesk-$: NZ lags behind Australia on freight strategy

* Robin Martin for RNZ: 'Totally unfair': New Plymouth residents on proposed water charge changes

* Connor Sharp for GreaterAuckland’s substack: Project K is gonna be OK. It's Groundhog Day, but in a good way: the recommended plans for the area around the Mercury Lane CRL station are almost entirely a return to the original goals of the project: to create people-friendly spaces and reduce or indeed remove rat-running through the area.

* Shilpy Arora Gaikwad for Stuff: Lost income, missed meetings, late pickups: The toll of this ‘endless’ waterworks project

* Op-Ed by Vic Uni’s Dr Emina Kristina Petrović for Newsroom: Should the building industry keep using this controversial material?

* Justin Wong for The Post-$: Wellington councils deliver election-year warning on costs and rates. Hutt Valley, Porirua and Kāpiti councils give notice before the election that rising costs, ageing infrastructure and years of underinvestment mean tough choices lie ahead.

Health

* Louisa Steyl for Southland Times-$: Resident doctor fears health staff will ‘pour out to Australia’. Space constraints in Southland Hospital’s emergency department are forcing staff to take “borderline dangerous” measures to keep patients flowing, a doctor says.

* Thomas Coughlan for NZ Herald: Health NZ hires thousands more nurses and hundreds more doctors – is it enough?

* RNZ: Hospice cuts patient numbers: 'We are so desperately sorry for the unavoidable suffering'

* RNZ: Care home residents subjected to violence, intimidatory acts

* 3News via Stuff: Watch: NZ's drinking guidelines underestimate health risks, alcohol expert says

* Op-Ed by Curtin Uni’s Nicole Lee and Sydney Uni’s Katinka van de Ven for The Conversation: Even a day off alcohol makes a difference – our timeline maps the health benefits when you stop drinking

Poverty, living costs, work, education & crime

* Tuwhenuaroa Natanahira for RNZ: Probe into police use of 'alternative action' for youth offenders

* Russell Palmer for RNZ: A 'disaster for regional New Zealand' - union slams disestablishment of Te Pūkenga

* Deep-dive by Amelia Wade for The Post-$: Is 50 the new 60? Older workers battle algorithms to get CVs seen

* NZ Herald: HelloFresh pleads guilty after ‘subscription traps’ tricked customers

* Stuff: Former tax agent sentenced for $95k Covid loan fraud

* Editorial for ODT-$: Home and away as Australia beckons

Climate, water, land, air and environment

* Catherine Hubbard for The Press-$: Motueka orchardist begs for immediate action from politicians

* Nina Hindmarsh for the Nelson Mail-$: Biblical flooding leaves Dovedale cut off

* Brett Kerr Laurie for The Press-$: The cleanup after the worst flood in living memory'

* Op-Ed by Mike Joy, Marnie Prickett, Marie Doole and Simon Hales for Public Health Communication Centre: Government cannot achieve “enduring freshwater policy” by siding with narrow commercial interests

* Delphine Herbert for RNZ: The harrowing moment a Moteuka farmer's wife got swept away in floodwaters

* Op-Ed by Copenhagen Uni’s Klaus Bruhn Jensen and Semahat Ece Elbeyi Can you trust climate information? How and why powerful players are misleading the public

Good news & solutions

* Eloise Gibson for RNZ: More city cyclists get on their bikes - but there is untapped demand for more

* Rob Stock for The Post-$: Flood-resistant Auckland stilt houses win architecture prize. Hundreds of homes were red-stickered after the 2023 Auckland flooding - now four students have come up with a winning idea for housing that will survive a deluge.

* NZ Herald: The Kiwibank chair who is also a priest: ‘There’s more to life than the corporate world’

* Northern Advocate: The Good Drop: Warehouse, Salvation Army team up for textile recycling

* Susan Edmunds for RNZ: A radical tax plan to avoid an economic 'car crash'

* RNZ: Electrick Kiwi seeks solar deals'

Docs of the day

* BusinessNZ-BNZ: Survey of Services sector in June

* Stats NZ: Electronic card transactions: June 2025

* Committee for Auckland’s State of the City report for 2025 published this morning.

Cartoon: ‘Who, me?’

Timeline cleansing nature pic

Ka kite ano

Bernard

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