It appears suggestions that the leaders of National, Act and New Zealand First would meet in person today may have been over-egged.

That’s because Winston Peters isn’t in Wellington, leaving coalition talks to continue in his absence.

Senior NZ First MP Shane Jones told reporters that work was still happening “despite the physical absence at the moment of our rangatira”.

“At the appointed hour, the man will arrive. You just have to taihoa. Taihoa. Taihoa,” he said, as 1News reported.

Jones denied that Peters’ absence was medical-related. “One shouldn’t catastrophise. These negotiations are ongoing”.

It’s possible Peters could make a last ditch trip to Wellington, potentially on horseback, or maybe he’s already there and his MPs are just being mischievous. Or maybe we’ll all be kept waiting just a little longer.

Coalition talks may be dragging on, but National’s presumptive finance minister remains confident the new government can deliver a mini-budget ahead of the summer break.

If Willis buys into my colleague Sam Brooks’ controversial view that Christmas can be celebrated at anytime, then perhaps she means the budget could take place in the new year. But as she told RNZ this morning, the plan remains to take stock of the books by the end of December.

“I’ve always put emphasis on the word ‘mini’ because we’re not talking about a budget in the sense of the one that you get in May but more an opening of the books done with the half year economic and fiscal update to see the true state of the New Zealand economy and the government’s finances,” Willis told First Up.

Christopher Luxon has made clear his intention for parliament to continue operating until a few days before Christmas, meaning the budget could be unveiled in late December.

“As an incoming government we need to respond to… challenges by making clear our legislative and policy priorities and you’ll see us introduce legislation before Christmas to respond to our economic situation to get the economy growing again, to deal with the cost of living, to ensure that we’re delivering more money into New Zealander’s back pocket,” added Willis.

While Luxon won’t be making this week’s Apec conference in San Francisco, it’s hoped coalition talks could wrap up by the end of the week or early next. Act’s David Seymour said he was open to meeting with both Luxon and New Zealand First as soon as today, though Stuff’s live blog has made it clear there might be one problem: nobody knows where Winston Peters is.

There’s some small relief for shoppers with new figures showing food prices have reduced by almost 1% month-on-month.

According to Stats NZ, while food prices were 6.3% more expensive in October 2023 than they were one year earlier, they were 0.9% down on September this year.

The annual increase was due to price rises across the five broad food categories measured by Stats NZ. Grocery prices were up 7.9%, restaurant and ready-to-eat meals up 7.7% and non-alcoholic beverages up 5.7%.

“The largest contributing food group was grocery food, mainly driven by higher prices for fresh eggs, potato crisps, and yoghurt,” said Stats NZ’s consumer prices manager James Mitchell.

But food prices had fallen across most of those same groups between September and October this year, with grocery costs falling the most – they were down 3.4%. Restaurant meals and ready-to-eat food prices were up just 0.2% over this same period.

The biggest rises over the past month were alcoholic beverages and tobacco prices, up 1.3% compared with September.

Christopher Luxon won’t be attending this week’s Apec summit in San Francisco, as coalition talks drag on.

It’s now been a month since National won the election, and 11 days since the outcome of the special votes confirmed New Zealand First would be required to prop up the next government.

The incoming prime minister had made it clear his goal was to complete coalition talks this week in time for him to attend the summit. But with reports that Act and New Zealand First were unhappy with an initial offer, that preliminary deadline won’t be met.

Both 1News and Newshub have reported that Luxon will be staying in the country this week to try and conclude negotiations.

“We’ve got issues to close out with both parties and we’re gonna work our way through that,” Luxon said.

It’s possible that Luxon could finally meet with both David Seymour and Winston Peters in person today as all three leaders are in the capital.

Visits by the Labour Inspectorate to 85 businesses around Auckland last week found “high levels of non-compliance”.

The three-day operation was carried out to identify potential migrant exploitation following formal complaints being lodged against retail and hospitality businesses.

Breaches uncovered included wages below the minimum wage rate being paid, employee holiday and leave entitlements being withheld, breaches of visa conditions and employers demanding money from employees.

Enforcement action will be taken against businesses where issues of “deliberate non-compliance and exploitative practices” were uncovered.

Between 12 and 15 infringement notices are expected to be issued which could lead to some accredited employers being placed on the standdown list.

“We take migrant exploitation seriously. This operation is a tangible example of that commitment to follow up on alleged breaches of minimum employment standards and exploitative practices,” said Simon Humphries, the inspectorate’s head of compliance and enforcement.

“The intent was to educate where possible but also to hold accountable employers who are deliberately exploiting migrants.”

The compliance operation formed part of a broader national strategy for the Labour Inspectorate to take a “graduated and proportionate approach to gaining sustained compliance by using a suite of interventions including proactive education and information-focused approach,” the inspectorate said.

“This will increase the knowledge of businesses operating in the retail and hospitality sectors on how to get employment law right, how to access help when problems arise, and improve compliance and awareness of the Labour Inspectorate.”

Act’s David Seymour has given the strongest indication yet that the leaders of all three prospective coalition partners may meet in person today.

Along with Seymour, incoming prime minister Christopher Luxon and NZ First leader Winston Peters are in Wellington today.

Until recently, Luxon was negotiating independently with Seymour and Peters. Then, late last week, Peters and Seymour met for the first time (and have since caught up a handful more times).

Speaking to reporters in Wellington, Seymour signalled talks were progressing between the three parties. “I think that’s very possible,” said Seymour when asked if all three leaders would meet today, as RNZ reported. “We’re certainly very happy to meet anyone, anytime, and we’re all in Wellington now so that’s got to make it easier. I think there may well be a meeting of three, yes.”

We’re heading into summer which means more concerts, more festivals and more live music in general.

Two new gigs have been announced this morning, in quick succession, and they couldn’t be more different.

First up: Rap performer The Kid LAROI will play Auckland’s Spark Arena on February 5, the night before Waitangi Day. “Armed with his voraciously anticipated debut studio album The First Time, which was officially unveiled last week, LAROI’s forthcoming national tour will also mark LAROI’s first-ever headline show on New Zealand soil,” said a press release to accompany the announcement.

And secondly: Tom Jones! Yes, Tom Jones and the Kid Laroi were announced on the same morning (though they’re not on the same bill, sadly).

The Welsh music legend will play one exclusive show at McLean Park in Napier on April 6. He’ll he joined by New Zealand singer Gin Wigmore and supergroup the Magnificent Seven.

The newest member of Rishi Sunak’s cabinet is someone who knows the role of prime minister very well.

David Cameron, who held the top job in the UK for six years until 2016, has been appointed as the new foreign secretary.

The surprise announcement comes as part of a broader cabinet reshuffle instigated by the sacking of high profile minister Suella Braverman.

“I’ve decided to join this team because I believe Rishi Sunak is a good prime minister doing a difficult job at a hard time,” Cameron said, as reported by the BBC. “I want to support him.”

To the good news first. State Highway 25a, the road between Kōpū and Hikuai, will reopen three months ahead of schedule on December 20. Here’s a timelapse of some of the rebuild and repair work. The critical route to towns like Whangamatā was damaged earlier this year during storms. Thames-Coromandel Mayor Len Salt said the local economy had already lost $30m since its closure.

Meanwhile, business groups in Northland have banded together to call for more urgent action on repairing roads in the region, the fastest growing in the country. If you’re considering crossing between the North and South Islands by ferry this summer, Kiwirail is reassuring travellers that it is more prepared for the upcoming high season after last summer’s issues caused significant delays. On Sunday, Interislander’s Kaiārahi ferry was damaged during berthing, leaving a 1m-long hole in the hull. RNZ has a timeline of the woes that have plagued the Cook Straight ferries this year.

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Christopher Luxon’s desire not to negotiate his coalition deal via the media may have gone unnoticed by his prospective government partners.

Leading most media outlets this morning are stories about the ongoing closed door talks between National, Act and New Zealand First. While there is a fair share of educated speculation, there is also some outright reporting – and most of it tells the same story.

Newsroom’s Jo Moir has claimed that David Seymour and Winston Peters both felt “low-balled” by National’s original offer and have teamed up Avengers-style to try and leverage more out of the incoming prime minister.

“It’s understood Peters saw an offer from National on Friday and not long after packed his bags and headed to the airport. One source told Newsroom Peters appeared to be ‘pretty offended by it’,” wrote Moir. “In the days following, Peters and Seymour have kept lines of communication open as they seek to leverage a better deal by joining forces on areas they’re aligned on.”

As has been reported over recent days, the sticking points remain around race relations and a proposed Treaty of Waitangi referendum for Act, and tax for New Zealand First. That’s what the Herald’s Claire Trevett has written this morning, taking note of Luxon’s refusal this week to confirm how tax relief would be delivered to middle and lower income New Zealand.

Writing for Stuff, Tova O’Brien has similarly claimed that National mistakenly believed its opening offer would be good enough and may allow Luxon to get to this week’s Apec summit in San Francisco.

It’s also been reported that Luxon’s political inexperience has contributed to the delay in forming a new government. “That inexperience is now being discussed – and mocked – by people around Parliament who are important enough to Luxon that he should take note,” O’Brien wrote.

Just a few weeks out from polling day, Luxon claimed during the Newshub leaders’ debate that he didn’t know Peters. One month on from the election, let’s hope that has changed.