NZ First leader Winston Peters has left the Cordis hotel in Auckland after a two-and-a-half-hour meeting with incoming prime minister Christopher Luxon, saying “a few more hours” were needed to finalise a coalition deal. “We’re closer to the finish line than you guys might think,” he told waiting media.

Peters said negotiations would continue over the weekend. Asked if policy disagreements between his party and National had been ironed out, Peters said “not quite”.

Incoming prime minister Christopher Luxon and a selection of National MPs are back at the Cordis in Auckland today to continue negotiations with Act and NZ First.

Luxon, arriving at the hotel with deputy leader Nicola Willis this morning, told reporters that meetings with both Act leader David Seymour and NZ First leader Winston Peters were set for today, after National’s negotiating team had met to discuss the state of play, reports the Herald. Chris Bishop, Simeon Brown and Paul Goldsmith had also been seen arriving at the Cordis.

Luxon said he was expecting negotiations to continue in Auckland to continue over the weekend. Speaking to Breakfast this morning, Seymour said they were “very, very close” to securing a deal. Leaving the hotel last night, he said the deputy prime minister role was still being discussed and a referendum on the Treaty of Waitangi was a “live possibility”. Meetings with NZ First had so far only covered policy, Luxon said yesterday, with ministerial positions not yet discussed.

In the first three days of advance voting in the Port Waikato byelection, 3,625 people cast their votes, according to the Electoral Commission. Advance voting opened on Monday, ahead of election day next Saturday, November 25.

That’s significantly more than in the early stages of the 2022 Hamilton West byelection, when 2,043 votes were cast in the first three days of the advance-voting period.

The byelection, which was triggered by the death of Act candidate Neil Christensen during the advance-voting period 0f the general election last month, will determine the 123rd and final member of the next parliament. National’s Andrew Bayly is expected to safely retain the seat.

Seven advance voting places will be open in the electorate tomorrow, which will increase to 37 on election day.

New Zealand’s exclusive economic zone, the marine territory we’re responsible for, contains approximately 2.2 billion tonnes of carbon, approximately 1% of carbon stores around the world, a new study from Niwa shows. Released yesterday, the report into the quantity of organic carbon shows that carbon stored in shallower areas of the continental shelf and around coastlines is ad risk of being released through disturbance or dredging.

Like all living things, marine species contain carbon; when they die, their bodies sink to the bottom of the sea, taking that carbon with them. If the marine sediments are disturbed, then the carbon gets mixed into the water again and can become carbon dioxide in the ocean or atmosphere. Marine sediments are among the largest stores of carbon on earth.

Bottom trawling for fishing is among the activities that can release the carbon from the sea floor. Areas around Fiordland had particularly high amounts of carbon, and trawling activities have been taking place here. The research, commissioned by the Parliamentary commissioner for the environment, will give regulators more tools to manage human activities in carbon-rich areas of ocean.

Too many New Zealanders are paying extortionate credit and contactless debit card surcharges, despite a law change a year ago aimed at bringing them down, according to Consumer NZ. The law is on track to save businesses $105 million a year and should have meant lower surcharges for customers too, RNZ reports, yet many consumers are still paying fees higher than the expected limit of 1% for contactless or 2.5% for credit cards. Consumer says many businesses are failing to pass on the full saving post law change, but Ticketek is an apparent repeat offender, with customers being hit with 3.5% credit card processing fees. Consumer says some parking apps are also reportedly charging in excess of 8%.

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