For those of you wondering where the typical Monday Covid stat release is, you’re a day early. Due to Wellington Anniversary Day, the Ministry of Health has held off publishing the weekly Covid numbers.

They should be released tomorrow at the usual time of 1pm.

Last week saw close to 20,000 new cases reported in the community, as the current wave of infections continues to decline.

Some major (to some of you, anyway) news that understandably got buried during the flurry at the end of last week: M3GAN will officially have a sequel.

The comedy-horror film was helmed by New Zealand’s own Gerard Johnstone, with local young actress Amie Donald in the starring role as killer doll M3GAN. Since opening a couple of weeks back, the film has picked up excellent reviews and become the first box office hit of 2023. It’s so far made more than $124 million USD on a budget of just $12m.

There’s no word yet on whether Johnstone will return to direct M3GAN 2.0, which currently has a 2025 release date planned.

Chris Hipkins has revealed he had a bit of forewarning that the prime minister was considering her future.

It came as a shock to many when Jacinda Ardern announced she would be stepping down as PM on Thursday last week. While she formally told her caucus earlier that day, Hipkins, who will be sworn in as successor on Wednesday, told Today FM that he had an inkling.

“We did have a conversation just before Christmas about the fact that she was going to take some time over the summer holidays just to think about, as she said, whether she had enough in the tank to keep on going,” Hipkins said.

The incoming prime minister was unanimously backed for the role by his caucus, with Carmel Sepuloni filling the position of deputy.

National party leader Christopher Luxon responded to the news of Labour’s leadership change by saying that the new prime minister has been part of a government which has not delivered. Speaking to media yesterday, Luxon said he sent his congratulations to the new PM by text. “There is not change, it is just more of the same and that’s because it’s essentially the same team,” he said.

Te Pāti Māori responded to the news by saying “The Labour Party passed on a tangata whenua prime minister and a tangata whenua deputy prime minister. They are telling Māori that, despite having the largest Māori caucus ever in government, we still are not good enough.”

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Chris Hipkins as doubled down on his intentions to rein in government projects and “run a ruler” over the work programme.

It’s the day after Hipkins was officially voted in as Labour Party leader and presumptive prime minister. He’ll officially be sworn in on Wednesday, following attendance – alongside Jacinda Ardern – at Rātana commemorations tomorrow.

On the morning media round today, Hipkins remained reticent to comment on prospective policy – but committed to trimming the policy fat. “A lot has changed in the last year, so we do need to run the ruler over the government’s work program,” he told RNZ.

That included controversial policies around co-governance and three waters, which Hipkins acknowledged the government could have done a better job explaining. “I’m not going to get into a generalised set of rules around this because it’s different in different circumstances. New Zealanders want to understand what we’re doing and I don’t think we’ve necessarily explained enough about what we’re doing because a lot of concerns I hear comes from a position of fear,” he said.

“When it comes to three waters we have a massive challenge in New Zealand. We’ve got between $130 to $180 billion worth of investment required in our water assets over the next 30 years or so.”

Hipkins said the cost of living remained his biggest priority, and told Newshub’s AM that he was always looking at ways to make the tax system fairer. “If you work hard, you should be able to get ahead,” he said, admitting there are currently people working multiple jobs, contributing a lot to the tax system, and struggling to get ahead.

Asked when we will learn of the government’s updated work programme, Hipkins suggested it would be within the next few weeks. We’ll be making haste,” he said.

And for more on Hipkins’ whirlwind first day as PM-to-be, here’s The Spinoff’s Toby Manhire.