This week on Gone by Lunchtime: Chris Hipkins rules out a capital gains or wealth tax, the Greens reveal their plan to restore stolen Māori land, while National’s new KiwiSaver policy fails to impress voters.

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The National Party isn’t celebrating the easing of inflation, with finance spokesperson Nicola Willis claiming the government has failed to rein in the growing cost of living.

Annual inflation eased today, dropping to 6% – slightly above forecasts from the four main banks but below the 6.1% predicted by the Reserve Bank.

Willis said that while global inflation was “coming off the boil”, New Zealand’s was still “piping hot”.

“In the last week, we have seen Canada’s inflation rate fall to 2.8%, and the United States’ fall to 3%. Australia’s inflation is also lower that ours, at 5.6%,” said Willis. “New Zealand is now entering its third year of out-of-control inflation – the longest period of high inflation since the early 1990s.”

 On Twitter, Interest.co.nz’s Dan Brunskill noted that Willis’ claims about Australia’s inflation may not technically be correct. “Australia will report its quarterly inflation data next week. Westpac Bank forecasts it will show annual inflation at 6.3%, with prices rising 1.1% in those three months,” he said.

“The confusion is that Australia reports monthly inflation ‘indicators’, but NZ doesn’t. Willis (and others) have cited the annual inflation rate in Australia as being 5.6% in May. Which is true, but not directly comparable to NZ’s June quarterly figure.”

Meanwhile, the government has touted today’s inflation statistics as a sign its actions were working. “This is encouraging news with inflation continuing to head in the right direction at the same time Kiwis are in work in record numbers. Inflation is still too high and we are committed to helping bring down the cost of living and supporting those doing it tough,” finance minister Grant Robertson said.

The third tranche of the government’s youth crime policy package has been announced and ram raiders are squarely in the sights of prime minister Chris Hipkins.

He’s announced a new offence that will see ram raid offending carry with it a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. “This new offence sends a strong signal that the significant harm caused by ram raids won’t be tolerated,” said Hipkins.

Meanwhile, younger children, aged 12 and 13-years-old, who carry out ram raids will be charged in the Youth Court, giving police and Oranga Tamariki more options to deal with child offenders. “Currently, existing offences such as burglary can cover ram raids. However, this doesn’t always address the gaps we are seeing in the system, relating to repeat child offenders, whose age and offending doesn’t meet the criteria for the Youth Court,” said Hipkins.

“At a practical level, it means 12 and 13 year olds can be charged in the Youth Court, giving police the ability to apply for bail conditions or for the offenders to be held in the custody of Oranga Tamariki.”

Justice minister Kiri Allan said that the new tools would plug a gap in the law that had seen children and young people missing out on responses with the “right level of immediacy, intensity, or duration to address their needs and the underlying factors that contribute to offending”.

She added: “While children and young people who commit these crimes must be held to account, the evidence is also clear that intervening early and intensively is the best way to break the cycle and prevent further victimisation.”

More to come.

Award winning journalist Tova O’Brien has announced her next move after the sudden closure of Today FM earlier in the year.

It’s been announced O’Brien will join Stuff’s digital team as chief political correspondent ahead of the October election.

“I’m thrilled to be joining the brilliant, hard-working team at Stuff. I’ve been missing journalism and politics so much and can’t wait to get cracking into an already banger election campaign,” said O’Brien.

O’Brien was the host of Today FM’s breakfast show from the launch of the talk network in 2022 through until it was pulled off the air in March. Since then, she’s kept a low profile and avoided social media.

Stuff’s digital managing director Nadia Tolich said O’Brien was already at work on her first politics project for the platform. “As chief political correspondent, Tova will deliver more of her exceptional journalism. No stranger to the bullpen of politics, she will shine a light on political, economic and policy issues and events that impact everyday Kiwis. This is particularly important given it is election year.”

Annual inflation has eased back to 6% in the 12 months to June, largely in line with predictions.

The big four banks were forecasting that inflation would have fallen to 5.9% in the latest quarterly update, while the Reserve Bank had anticipated 6.1%.

The latest increase follows a larger 6.7% rise in the 12 months to March, though down on the peak of 7.2% at this time last year.

“Prices are still increasing at rates not seen since the 1990s but are rising at a lower rate than the last few quarters,” Stats NZ’s Nicola Growden said.

Food was the largest contributor to the June inflation rate, due to rising prices for vegetables, ready-to-eat food, and dairy products like milk and cheese.

This is the last inflation update before October’s election.

Prominent New Zealand-born UK journalist Dan Wootton is facing accusations he offered colleagues thousands of pounds for sexual material while using a pseudonym.

The allegations were first reported yesterday in online publication the Byline Times and further claims have since been printed by the Guardian. Wootton denied the allegations overnight in a lengthy video segment on his self-titled programme, a clip of which has since been shared to Twitter.

Wootton, currently a host on the UK network GB News and a columnist for the MailOnline, is well known in the UK as a showbiz journalist. He came to prominence at Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid News of the World, which closed down in 2011 after the phone-hacking scandal. He moved to the Sun in 2013, eventually becoming executive editor, and left the tabloid in 2021.

According to the Byline Times investigation, which has been labelled the “first part” of a three-year investigation, Wootton used fake online identities to “trick and bribe” men into providing sexual material of themselves. One identity he allegedly used was called “Martin Branning”, a made-up show business agent. Under this name, Wootton has been accused of offering as much as £30,000 to colleagues of his at the Sun newspaper, along with others, for sexual images or videos.

Byline Times has published details from several reported victims of Wootton’s behaviour.

The claims first circled on social media last week while Wootton was visiting his parents in Wellington, where he started his career at The Dominion Post. Wootton’s ex-partner Alex Truby, who is also quoted extensively in the Byline Times report, recently shared a series of claims to his Twitter account. Those claims include that, while flat-sitting for Wootton in 2013, he found a padlocked bag that contained an external hard drive with a secretly filmed video of an employee of the Sun engaged in sexual activity with their partner.

According to the Guardian, the publishers of the Sun and the MailOnline are looking into the allegations.

In Wootton’s filmed response, the broadcaster criticised social media users for participating in a pile-on. “These past few days I have been the target of a smear campaign by nefarious players with an axe to grind,” he said. “Notably by an ex-partner… who I was previously abused by and who has been on a campaign to destroy my life.” Wootton said the ex-partner had “created an untrue story about me” and accused them of working with an organisation “intent on closing down this channel [GB News].” (Truby has denied this today on Twitter).

Wootton has been a polarising figure in British media for a number of years. He broke the story of “Megxit” – when Prince Harry and Meghan Markle chose to leave the UK – and was subsequently embroiled in a legal dispute with the royals. Wootton also faced libel proceedings after labelling actor Johnny Depp a “wife beater”. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Wootton was criticised by some for his stance on lockdowns and vaccinations.

Homeowners in the North Island displaced by this year’s severe weather events have been thrown a lifeline by the government.

A new interim payment will be available from the start of September to help bridge the gap once insurance payments for temporary accommodation run out.

It’ll be paid weekly at 100% of the average rent price in the recipients’ region.

Carmel Sepuloni, the minister for social development, said there was need to provide certainty for those unable to return to their homes.

“After picking up the Auckland portfolio, I prioritised visiting areas impacted by the extreme weather events. Having talked informally to many residents, it’s clear that they need and deserve certainty so that they can plan, recover, and get back to a sense of normality,” she said.

“The government has prioritised setting up this payment now, as payments from insurers for temporary accommodation start to run out and the future for some people’s homes remain uncertain.”

If a longer-term solution was needed, Sepuloni said there was already work under way to determine what this might look like.

Stats NZ will release inflation figures today, the last before the election. As Stuff’s Tom Pullar-Strecker reports, the big four banks are all forecasting that annual inflation will have fallen to 5.9% when it reports the June quarter figure today. The Reserve Bank (RBNZ) is forecasting 6.1%. Once again, eyes will be on the all-important non-tradable (domestic) inflation figure.

Interest.co.nz’s David Hargreaves reports that Westpac economists are sticking to their view that the RBNZ will increase the Official Cash Rate again next month although they say today’s figures and next month’s labour force figures will likely inform that decision.

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