Wellington city councillors are considering spending another $240 million on repairs to Te Ngākau Civic Square, just two weeks after committing $330m to fix the Town Hall, which is also part of the square.

The $240m spend is part of mayor Tory Whanau’s proposed budget and will be debated by councillors at the Long Term Plan meeting on Thursday.

Details of the budgeted spend provided to The Spinoff show it includes $67m for repairs to the basement underneath Civic Square connecting to the Town Hall, $52m to repair the City to Sea bridge, $103.3m for repairing the former Capital E building, which sits underneath the bridge, and $20m for investigative works.

A briefing in October said a decision on the basement repairs was “most critical because of their connection to the effective completion of the Town Hall”. A council document this week described the basement and former Capital E building as having “synergy with the Town Hall opening”.

Te Ngākau Civic Square is well-known as the starting point for most protest marches to parliament. It sits on reclaimed land and almost every building in the vicinity has faced serious earthquake issues, including the Town Hall, Central Library, Capital E and Municipal Office Buildings. The City to Sea bridge connects the square to Whairepo Lagoon.

Former prime minister Dame Jacinda Ardern is in Singapore as part of her role with Prince William’s Earthshot charity.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Ardern discussed the need for quick action on climate change. “We see there’s a growing number of individuals, private equity and so on, who are looking to climate investment,” Ardern said. “We need to be making sure we have the solutions now and that we’re investing in those solutions now. We can’t afford to wait.”

Ardern joined the board of the charity shortly after leaving office.

Meanwhile, Ardern has walked the “green carpet” at the Earthshot awards ceremony.

Five awards were handed out, with the recipients each given one million pounds to help scale up their initiatives. Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett was one of several high profile guests on hand to present the awards in Singapore.

Since leaving domestic politics, Ardern has kept a relatively low profile in New Zealand. While she briefly waded into the election campaign to endorse Chris Hipkins, she has not publicly commented on the outcome of the election nor on any of the issues being put forward by the incoming National government.

Newstalk ZB broadcaster Kate Hawkesby has announced she’ll be stepping down from her pre-breakfast show Early Edition later in the month.

Hawkesby, who is married to fellow ZB host Mike Hosking, has hosted the 5-6am show for the past six years.

According to the Herald, Hawkesby will leave thee show on November 24 but continue her Friday morning slot with Hosking. Tim Dower will take over the show until December 15. In the new year, Roman Tavers will host a week of shows followed by Hosking temporarily stepping in until a permanent replacement can be found.

A pairing from both the outgoing and incoming governments has jetted off to Rarotonga this morning to represent New Zealand at the Pacific Islands Forum.

Newly affirmed Labour deputy leader, and deputy prime minister, Carmel Sepuloni will accompany National’s Gerry Brownlee on the trip. Brownlee is expected to take on a senior role within the new National government – there have been reports of him being eyed for speaker, though he also has a track record in foreign affairs.

Reporting for the Herald, Adam Pearse wrote that Sepuloni won’t let her personal political leanings get in the way of promoting New Zealand on the world stage.

“Clearly I’m a Labour politician but at the same time, I respect the caretaker role that I’m in,” she said. “I’m not there to cast shade on the incoming National-led government because it is going to be so important that they have a good relationship with the Pacific region and I want to support that to happen.”

The pair were both briefed before the trip and Sepuloni said it was important they were on the same page. “It doesn’t mean that I won’t have constructive conversations at the table with other leaders whilst I’m in Aitutaki, but I do think that it’s important if we do pull-asides or if we do formal bilaterals that the incoming government is present for those.”

The Electoral Commission failed to meet the standard expected of it during this year’s election, according to outgoing prime minister Chris Hipkins.

It was revealed yesterday that data entry errors at three polling booths led to hundreds of votes being wrongly assigned to fringe parties. “A full check of all voting place results is being undertaken immediately to establish if there are any other transcription errors,” the commission said.

Speaking to Newstalk ZB this morning, Hipkins said the Electoral Commission only had one job – and it was a very important one. “I think it’s really important that the public and those who are seeking elected office can have absolute confidence in them dotting all the I’s and crossing all the T’s.

“I think there have been a couple of examples that we’ve seen where the Electoral Commission hasn’t met the standard that we expect of them.”

Hipkins said there was always a “post-election review” and he expected the commission to be looked at quite critically. Issues such as those identified in the past 24 hours were “unacceptable” and he said the commission needed to “do better”.

Meanwhile, Hipkins signalled that while his party was heading into the next three years with a clean slate, it was unlikely to consider working with Winston Peters again in 2026 – at least under his watch. “I don’t think that Winston Peters’ style of governing is going to lead to constructive outcomes that benefit all New Zealanders,” he said. “I won’t work with Winston Peters again. I can’t envisage it.”

Former National prime minister Jim Bolger believes there is “zero” chance of Act getting its proposed referendum on the Treaty of Waitangi.

He told RNZ he can’t see the incoming prime minister agreeing to it – and thinks that’s a good thing. “National did a lot of work and made huge progress on resolving Treaty issues,” said Bolger.

“They’re not going to tear that up because David Seymour wants to. No, it won’t and shouldn’t happen.”

Bolger remained critical of the outgoing administration’s handling of co-governance policies, but said that was separate from the suggestion of a nationwide referendum. “These are sensitive issues. If they’re going to be considered at all they have to be considered in a calm and reasonable way and referendums are not there for calm and reasonable discussion.”

He may have found an unexpected ally in the form of Labour’s Willie Jackson, who has previously suggested a referendum could lead to Springbok tour-level civil unrest. Jackson doubled down on that while speaking to reporters yesterday. “I’m just giving them a warning. I work amongst our people. I work amongst people who will go to war for this,” he said.

Act’s David Seymour said those comments were inappropriate. “When people threaten war as the alternative to that they are not being a good actor investing in the future of our country,” he told Newshub.

Christopher Luxon has so far refused to comment on whether or not a referendum will form part of the new government’s agenda. However, he has maintained that it would be “divisive” and was not National Party policy.

The End of Life Act was enacted two years ago yesterday. New research from Dr Jessica Young from Victoria University’s School of Health–Te Kura Tātai Hauora provides some insight into how those who accessed assisted dying before their deaths and their families felt about it. Young spoke to 19 people and said most patients did not anticipate how difficult it would be to choose the date and time for their death.

Those spoken to describe being extremely grateful that the service is available to them and are very grateful to the people who provide it. “Families are both relieved that their loved one is no longer suffering, but also it’s really hard to have this date hanging over your head of when you will die … it’s bittersweet,” said Young.

As The Post reports, there have been 482 assisted deaths in New Zealand since the Act was introduced to June 30, 2023.

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We could still be days away from all three prospective coalition partners – National, Act and New Zealand First – getting together in the same room.

So far, the incoming prime minister Christopher Luxon has dedicated his time, which he has broadly labelled as “relationship building”, to individual talks with each separate party.

That’s involved a tightrope walk between which party should be focused on and has involved repeated trips back and forth between Wellington and Auckland.

According to reports, National has chosen to focus its efforts this week on New Zealand First. But at the same time, leader Winston Peters has told the NBR he wouldn’t rule out walking away from a coalition if a deal can’t be reached. He was also critical of National for negotiating directly with Act and without New Zealand First, which could explain Luxon’s new found desire to spend time with Peters and his team.

Peters said it could still be two weeks away until an outcome is known, which would see the unofficial deadline of Apec, set for mid-next week, missed.

Another unofficial deadline is the constitutional “quirk” that will mean Chris Hipkins could need to be re-sworn in as prime minister. Newshub’s Jenna Lynch reported that draft plans were being drawn up to address the rule that, effectively, states that ministers lose their powers 28 days after an election unless they have been formally sworn back in as an MP.

“Should there be a delay in the return of the writ beyond Friday 10 November, and if the new government has not yet been appointed, the PM and [National leader Christopher Luxon] are able to advise the Governor-General to reappoint the incumbent administration on Saturday 11 November to operate in caretaker mode until the new government is sworn in,” a spokesperson told Newshub.