If you’re popping by the live updates for your usual Monday ritual of watching Chris Hipkins’ post-cabinet press conference, or at least reading about what was announced, I have some bad news for you. As it’s the second week of the parliamentary recess period, there won’t be a post-cab today. I’m sorry, but it’s really not my fault.

Chris Hipkins will be holding media stand-ups from Europe this week, where he is due to attend a Nato conference, but these won’t be at convenient times for New Zealanders.

It’s going to be a fairly slimmed down week in #nzpol land, though there will be a smattering of announcements in the build-up to Matariki this weekend.

The government’s been urged to update our immigration laws to make so-called “dawn raids” illegal, or at least a last resort.

An independent review led by Mike Heron KC looked at current settings off the back of reports that out of hours immigration checks were still going on. The review made five recommendations including that the Immigration Act should be amended to “specify the criteria for out of hours compliance visits and whether those involving residential addresses be stopped entirely, or limited to specific situations”.

A “pause” on out of hours visits, first implemented in April this year, will continue following the release of the report.

Procedures should also be changed to reflect that out of hours visits are a “matter of last resort” and “reasonable alternatives” should first be considered, the review recommended. “Any assessment of out of hours visits should consider the impact on anyone else who may be present, in particular children, but also the elderly or other vulnerable individuals, as well as New Zealand citizens or residents,” the review said.

“Any decision to undertake an out of hours compliance visit should also include an assessment of reasonableness, proportionality and public interest.”

The head of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, Carolyn Tremain, said any legislation change would be a matter for the government – but dawn raids would only take place as a last resort.

“I do want to again acknowledge the impact the Dawn Raids of the 1970s had on the Pacific community and that the trauma from those remains today,” she said. “We accept that we should have reflected the government’s apology in our guidance sooner and are prioritising putting this right.” The government apologised to the Pacific community in 2021. The report found that no policy or law changes had been implemented following the apology.

It’s expected that immigration minister Andrew Little will provide comment on the report’s findings, and give the government’s position on it, this afternoon.

The opposition would reverse planned speed limit reductions, with a National MP calling the proposal “absolute insanity”.

Stuff reported this morning that one aspect of the government’s Road to Zero project – intended to lower our country’s road toll – would see speed limits reduced for a number of inner city streets. Work on this has been under way for sometime, though prime minister Chris Hipkins scaled back the work as part of his policy bonfire upon taking office.

However, a review of speed limits under the Land Transport Rule means changes could still take place. And in an area like Tauranga, iit could potentially see the majority of streets dropped to 30 km per hour.

National’s Sam Uffindell is the local MP for the area. He’s launched a petition against blanket speed reductions and has promised to reverse them in office. “This is being dictated to the Tauranga City Council by a Labour government which has put in place regulations requiring every single council across New Zealand to reduce most suburban roads to 30kp/h,” he said.

Act, meanwhile, has this afternoon put out a press release with a similar stance. Simon Court, the party’s transport spokesperson, said he’d ensure the proposed limits were scrapped.

“Not only would Act stop telling councils to lower speed limits, we’ll tell them to return lowered speed limits to their previous levels, where appropriate. We expect this will be the case in most situations,” he said. “The calculation will be very simple, if the reduction wasn’t justified on health and safety grounds, if there was no evidence that people faced unusual danger from cars at 50 km/h, then the speed limit must go back.”

A high profile BBC presenter has been taken off air while allegations he paid a teen for sexually explicit images are investigated.

The presenter hasn’t been named (you can read about why that is here) but is reportedly a well known host.

In a statement, the BBC said it took allegations of this nature seriously and it was working “as quickly as possible” to establish the facts.

“It is important that these matters are handled fairly and with care,” the statement read. “We have been clear that if – at any point – new information comes to light or is provided to us, this will be acted upon appropriately and actively followed up.”

The BBC confirmed it was first made aware of  complaint in May, but new allegations came to light late last week “of a different nature”.

“In addition to our own enquiries we have also been in touch with external authorities, in line with our protocols,” the broadcaster noted.

A number of presenters for the BBC have publicly denied they are the unnamed individual as speculation grows online.

If you’re a bus commuter living in Auckland you’re probably going to need to find another way to get to work this morning. Up to 700 morning trips are cancelled after operator NZ Bus announced short-notice industrial action last night. The strike is currently set to last until Thursday, though only services scheduled between 4am and 8am are affected each day.

Auckland Transport is urging bus users to check the AT mobile app or online journey planner to find out whether their service is affected and to see alternative transport options. NZ Bus operates bus services across the Auckland isthmus, though not on the North Shore. The public transport union’s president Gary Froggatt said Auckland drivers were asking to be paid the same rate of $30 an hour as drivers in Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, RNZ reports.

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New Zealand has signed a free trade agreement with the European Union overnight. It’s set to increase our exports to the EU by up to $1.8 billion per year by 2035, while day one tariff savings on New Zealand exports once the deal enters into effect early next year will be $100 million.

Prime minister Chris Hipkins witnessed the signing of the agreement in Brussels ahead of a travelling to a Nato summit in Lithuania later in the week.

He said it will be the highest immediate tariff savings of any New Zealand free trade deal – “around three times the immediate savings from the UK FTA – and includes the removal of tariffs on products like kiwifruit, Mānuka honey, fish and seafood, onions, wine and industrial products.

“When I became prime minister I said securing trade deals for our exporters would be a top priority. Between this and the UK FTA we will save around $150 million annually in tariffs on our exports as well as adding billions every year to New Zealand’s GDP,” Hipkins said.

Damien O’Connor, the trade minister, who also travelled with Hipkins to Belgium, told RNZ it was “a bloody good deal”. However, the meat industry has expressed some disappointment with the outcome for its producers. “I think people, to make them happy it’s always difficult, people always want more so we’ve got what we have now – we have to make the best of it,” said Yvan Elebaut, the Europe general manager of the Asian New Zealand Meat Company.