The opening of New Zealand’s first Costco store has been delayed due to “Covid and weather delays”.

It had been reported the massive Westgate store, which has largely been completed, would be opened to the public later this month. However, in an email sent to members, it was confirmed plans had been put on hold.

“We are yet to be in a position to provide an exact opening date,” the message said. “We hope you are as excited as we are to open our first New Zealand warehouse.”

According to the Herald, staff shortages may also be to blame for the delay: the store has reportedly only hired 280 of the 460 staff needed to operate the 14,740 square metre warehouse.

Costco will offer membership-only shopping once doors eventually open. Membership is available, at a cost of $60, for anyone who visits a physical site near the warehouse. Costco petrol opened back in April, with prices commonly the cheapest in Auckland.

As the government maintains existing Covid-19 restrictions, another 5,939 new community cases have been confirmed.

The Ministry of Health’s daily Covid update confirmed the rolling average of new cases had once again declined. Today it’s sitting at 5,120 compared with 6,683 last Monday.

There are now a total of 1,688 deaths confirmed as attributable to Covid-19, either as the underlying cause of death or as a contributing factor. The seven-day rolling average increase in total deaths attributable to Covid-19 is now 16.

The ministry has not updated the overnight death toll at this stage.

There are 654 people in hospital with Covid-19, including 15 in intensive care. Auckland has recorded the most current hospitalisations with 80, while 65 are in Waitematā.

The government’s latest traffic light framework review has resulted in no change, with the country set to remain in the orange setting.

Covid response minister Ayesha Verrall said the existing measures had a role in reducing the number of community infections and the pressure on the hospitals.

“The health system usually sees elevated pressure through September, so we would be hoping to see some sustained reductions in both cases and hospitalisations then,” she said.

“The good news is current modelling suggests Covid-19 cases may have peaked at around 11,000 cases per day mid-July. However due to the current high levels of Covid-19 infection in the community, the corresponding burden on primary and hospital care systems, and the highest levels of mortality seen in the outbreak so far, the Covid-19 protection framework setting has been kept the same.”

The orange setting means mask wearing is required indoors in retail settings, but not for hospitality or at events like concerts. Schools are encouraged to adopt mask rules but there is no mandate.

Verrall confirmed that there will also be no change to case isolation and household contact quarantine requirements and the next review setting will be in September.

“Remaining at orange gives our health system the level of support needed to prevent a surge in demand for care,” the minister said. “Our response to omicron is moving in the right direction, but loosening settings before we are completely on top of it risk infections going up again. We just need to stay the course a little longer.”

Sam Uffindell will stay on as a National MP, but has admitted he was a “bully” during his time at school.

The new Tauranga MP has spent much of the past 24 hours fronting to media after a Stuff report that he had violently beaten a younger King’s College student during his time at the school.

Since travelling to Wellington this morning, Uffindell has met with party leadership and has just addressed a press conference at parliament. At times, he appeared emotional. “I was effectively a bully and I was a mean person… I don’t really like that person. There’ll be other people at high school that I have hurt,” he said.

He admitted hurting others both “physically and mentally”, including name calling, but said this was “by far the worst incident” he was involved with at school. “I… tackled a few people, I punched a few people… I was a bully at school,” he said.

Uffindell said the last 24 hours had been “frankly awful” but that it was “self-inflicted because it’s something I have done”.

On whether it was hypocritical for his campaign in Tauranga to have focused on law and order, Uffindell admitted it was a “bad look”. However, he said there were still serious crime issues in his electorate that he would advocate to fix.

Uffindell said he had developed empathy that he “didn’t really have” as a teenager and believed it was possible for people to change.

The MP welcomed others who may have been hurt by him as a teen to come forward.

National’s leader is standing by his embattled MP Sam Uffindell, but says the public should have been made aware of the assault claims before the Tauranga by-election.

Christopher Luxon was only made aware of the violent historic attack on a King’s College student yesterday, just a few hours before Stuff published its report in full. While the National Party had been informed of the attack during Uffindell’s selection process in Tauranga, this was not passed onto the leadership.

“It would have been good if the party had been able to inform me properly,” said Luxon, addressing a media conference this morning. The public should also have been made aware, he added. “I think the voters in Tauranga should have been informed.”

Luxon said Uffindell was genuinely remorseful and was not the same person now as he was 22 years ago. “He has my support. But clearly he needs to be able to build back trust with the voters in Tauranga.”

A video of former National MP Jami-Lee Ross being interviewed by police has played in the High Court, in an ongoing trial related to alleged donation fraud.

The interview shows Ross explaining why he recorded phone calls with then-National Party leader Simon Bridges in which a $100,000 donation is discussed.

“I recorded it for that reason because I could smell danger, political danger, but legal danger too,” Ross said. “My thoughts were this is a bit dodgy, potentially in breach of the law. I felt uncomfortable by it… I need to have some evidence if this comes back to bite the party in the backside.”

Bridges, who will be called as a witness in the trial, has denied any wrongdoing. Ross’ decision to complain to the police ultimately resulted in charges against himself, and others, being laid.

Read more from RNZ here

The prestigious school linked to the news of MP Sam Uffindell’s historic bullying has distanced itself from the furore, saying the matter was dealt with 22 years ago.

The Tauranga MP has admitted violently beating a younger student while at King’s College in the late 90s. He apologised for the attack 22 years later, in a move some have suggested could have been political motivated – though Uffindell denies this.

In a statement to Stuff, King’s College headmaster Simon Lamb confirmed the attack took place but said there was little more to add. “The college has not been involved in any follow-up activity with those involved, including the recent discussions reported in the article,” he said.

The auditor general has raised several key concerns with the government’s planned three waters reforms, including around governance and public accountability.

The proposed overhaul of our water infrastructure would see the 67 council-owned services consolidated into four entities. It’s proven especially controversial on the right of politics and a National-led government would likely repeal and replace it.

Now, the auditor general has weighed in with a widely critical statement on the Water Entities Bill – the legislation responsible for three waters.

“I am concerned that, as currently drafted in the bill, the accountability arrangements and potential governance weaknesses, combined with the diminution in independent assurance noted earlier, could have an adverse effect on public accountability, transparency, and organisational performance,” said John Ryan, in a statement reported by Business Desk.

National’s local government spokesperson Simon Watts said the auditor general’s concerns were enough to see three waters ditched entirely. “The submission delivers a damning analysis of the overlap of proposed governance structures, lack of access to information by the public to scrutinise the proposed water entities, a lack of performance measures and a lack of integration with other reforms and local planning,” Watts said.

“Labour must accept they’ve got it wrong. Three waters is not only unpopular, it is broken. The government cannot now continue to ignore the critics of their reforms, and the public.”

In a preliminary decision, the Commerce Commission has found the News Publishers Association of New Zealand (NPA) should be able to collectively bargain with Google and Meta. The decision would allow the collective to negotiate with Google and Meta on the terms and conditions of displaying their content on internet platforms operated by Google and Meta. The proposed arrangement would be for a period of 10 years.

General Manager of the NPA, Brook Cameron, said: “Today’s announcement means we are one step closer to redressing the power imbalance that exists between independent New Zealand news publishers and the digital giants, and securing fair payment for Kiwi journalism used on their platforms.”

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National’s leadership weren’t aware of MP Sam Uffindell’s teenage assault until yesterday, despite the incident being disclosed to the party itself.

It was reported yesterday that Uffindell, who is the new MP for Tauranga, had been asked to leave King’s College in the late 90s after a violent attack on a fellow student who was three years younger. Uffindell had apologised for the incident last year, but was subsequently selected to stand for parliament.

He told the party of the attack at the time he was chosen to be the Tauranga candidate.

Speaking to RNZ this morning, National deputy Nicola Willis said she and leader Christopher Luxon were first made aware yesterday afternoon.

“[The party] made the judgment that him having accounted for these actions and the fact that he was 16 at the time, has been apologetic, and been a very different person subsequently mean he should not be precluded from standing for parliament,” she said.

“That’s a party matter, that’s their judgment and where I stand on this today is that I have advised Sam that what he should do now is be completely upfront with New Zealanders about this because ultimately it is the people of New Zealand and the people of Tauranga who will be the judges on this.”

Willis said she was standing by Uffindell and believed there had to be room in parliament for people who had made serious errors in the past, but were now committed to doing good.

“If I thought that Sam was still the same man as he was when he was a 16 year old who committed this act then I don’t think there would be a place for him in parliament,” she said. “However I see that he is extremely sincere in his regret, in his genuine apology and he has been upfront about what occurred.”

Uffindell’s been on the media trail last night and this morning, and indicated to RNZ’s Guyon Espiner that while this was the most serious incident in his past, boarding houses in the 90s were “a bit of rough and tumble”. He told Today FM he wished to stay on as an MP but would have discussions with the party today.