Here’s a look at the lay of the polling land, including tonight’s new 1News Kantar Public poll that had National and Act out in front.

A post-budget slump for the government would see National and Act able to govern, according to a new 1News Kantar Public poll.

The new poll has National up three points to 37%, compared with Labour down one to 35%.

Act is steady on 11%, while recent ructions in the Greens have seen the party fall by four points down to 7%. New Zealand First is on 3%, not enough to make it back to parliament, while Te Pāti Māori drops one point following the recent headlines over Meka Whaitiri to 2%.

Converted into seats in parliament, National would pull in 47 seats. Add in Act’s 15 and that’s 62 – enough to form a government without the need for a kingmaker.

Labour has 46 seats, which wouldn’t be enough even with the Greens’ nine and Te Pāti Māori’s three – a total of 58.

Taking a look at the preferred prime minister stakes and current PM Chris Hipkins has dipped by two to 25%, which is still ahead – though not too decisively – of Christopher Luxon, who is up one to 18%. David Seymour is on 7% and Winston Peters is on 2%.

A post-budget bump is less common than you may expect. RNZ’s Craig McCulloch showed that, in recent years, most budgets have seen the governing party take a hit – with the exception of in 2020 during the middle of the first Covid-19 wave.

Wellingtonians should be on high alert after a recent death from meningococcal disease in the capital.

Te Whatu Ora said symptoms, which include a fever, vomiting and muscle pain, typically develop very quickly over a few hours, but in some cases may develop more slowly over several days. A person with meningococcal disease may only have some of the symptoms and the symptoms don’t develop in any particular order.

Common symptoms of meningitis (which is different to meningococcal disease, but caused by the same bacteria) include a headache, a stiff neck, sensitivity to bright light and drowsiness or confusion.

A red or purple rash is common, but it doesn’t always happen. One or two spots can appear anywhere on the body then many more appear looking like rash or bruises, the health agency said.

It’s been revealed the now-convicted rapists responsible for repeated drink spiking and assaults at Christchurch’s Mama Hooch bar worked at the venue.

Name suppression has dropped today, meaning media have been able to report further details about the men accused of, and found guilty of, a string of offences.

It’s been revealed the pair – brother Danny Jaz, 40, and Roberto Jaz, 38 – were convicted on 68 of the 113 charges they faced after choosing to be tried by a judge rather than a jury. They were found guilty of effectively running a drink spiking ring at the bar, which involved preying on patrons they had chosen to target.

Jaz was the bar manager between 2015 and 2018. Roberto would help behind the bar, but also worked at a nearby restaurant. Between the pair, 20 women were attacked and assaulted.

In 2018, Jaz told Stuff, as a spokesperson for the bar: “If we caught [those responsible], God help them” and if it was a staff member “I’d break their hands and hand them over to the police”.

We weren’t in court for the trial and as such I’d encourage you to read the excellent reporting from those who were, such as by  1News’ Thomas Mead and Stuff’s Blair Ensor and Jake Kenny.

We’re being spoiled for polls at the moment (it is an election year after all). TVNZ will tonight deliver its post-budget poll, showing whether the lack of frills last week paid off for the government.

It comes after a recent Newshub poll (just ahead of budget day) that showed a tight race between the two major parties. On those numbers, Te Pāti Māori would have had the deciding call – effectively meaning a Labour-led government would be able to secure power.

That’s a result which has been seen across a number of recent surveys, though the results have been fluctuating all year. In short: nobody really has any clue what will happen on October 14.

But what I do know is you should be tuning into TVNZ1 at 6pm.

The government launched a campaign yesterday in conjunction with a range of other agencies to encourage people to “find money in weird places”. The campaign includes tips like taking five minute showers and setting your heat pump to a maximum of 21 degrees. Am getting notes of the 2008 coalition government and showerheads. The attempts back then by the Labour-led government to regulate how much water came out of showers were labelled nanny state policies and Phil Goff admitted they were a mistake in 2009 after he took over as Labour leader.

On the face of it, they’re not bad tips. They’re just very basic and people might be forgiven for not wanting to hear them from the government, during a cost of living crisis, on the same day as an OCR rate hike. The approach has been roundly criticised by National, the Greens, Act, a former advisor to the Labour party and anti-poverty advocates. Pop culture fans will enjoy Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March’s response. Newshub’s Jamie Ensor has all the reactions.

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Some in the early childhood sector have hit back at the government’s budget announcement to extend the 20 hours free early childhood education to two-year-olds.

As Stuff reported, the head of Te Rito Maioha Early Childhood Education said the policy was unveiled without consultation and could prompt the closure of some centres. That’s because the proposed 20 hours would be funded at a ratio of one teacher to 10 students, but many centres operated at a lower ratio.

Speaking to RNZ, National’s deputy leader Nicola Willis said it was a vote of no confidence in the government’s policy. “It shows us that while it may have been a good soundbite on budget day, they hadn’t worked through the details, they hadn’t consulted with the sector… and none of the slogans really count for much if centre’s can’t deliver this policy.”

Willis added that she had been told of at least one centre that was planning to close its doors if the policy wasn’t rejigged. “I think the government is in a situation where either they are going to have to increase the funding dramatically… or they’re going to have to sit down with the sector and work out a practical compromise.”