Prime minister Chris Hipkins’ full statement, as shared to media, on the decision to remove Stuart Nash from cabinet:

This evening I have advised the Governor-General to dismiss Stuart Nash from all his ministerial portfolios.

Late this afternoon I was made aware by a news outlet of an email Stuart Nash sent in March 2020 to two contacts regarding a commercial rent relief package that Cabinet had considered.

In the email he sets out both his opposition to the decision Cabinet reached and the position that other Cabinet members took.

This is a clear breach of collective responsibility and Cabinet confidentiality.

Stuart Nash has fundamentally breached my trust and the trust of his Cabinet colleagues and his conduct is inexcusable.

In addition the two recipients of the email were donors; Troy Bowker and Greg Loveridge, via GRL Holdings Ltd, have both donated to Stuart Nash.

They are also commercial property owners who had an interest in the Cabinet decision.

That crosses a line that is totally unacceptable to me.

I expect Ministers to uphold the highest ethical standards and his actions raise perceptions of influence which cannot stand.

In recent weeks I have sought and been given assurances from Stuart that there were no other instances or allegations of misconduct that I should be aware of.

While Stuart was on a final warning, I want to be clear that this incident would have resulted in his dismissal in its own right. I consider the matter to be a very serious one.

Minister Megan Woods will be Acting Minister for Economic Development and Acting Minister of Forestry, and Minister David Parker will be Acting Minister for Oceans and Fisheries.

Meka Whaitiri will lead the Hawkes Bay Cyclone response on an acting basis.

Four strikes and Stuart Nash has been ousted from cabinet.

It follows revelations this evening that he shared private cabinet discussions with business leaders and criticised decisions made in a 2020 email, according to reporting by Stuff.

In the email, Nash set out his opposition to a decision cabinet had reached and the position that other cabinet members took.

Speaking on the black and white tiles at parliament, prime minister Chris Hipkins said this was a clear breach of collective responsibility and cabinet confidentiality. “Stuart Nash has fundamentally breached my trust and the trust of his Cabinet colleagues and his conduct is inexcusable,” he said.

The two recipients of the email were donors. Troy Bowker and Greg Loveridge, via GRL Holdings Ltd, had both donated to Nash. They were also commercial property owners who had an interest in the cabinet decision. “That crosses a line that is totally unacceptable to me,” Hipkins said.

The allegations were first put to the prime minister at about 5pm.

Tonight’s reporting followed Nash losing his police portfolio for breaching the cabinet manual earlier in the month for volunteering his strong opinions on judicial decisions. At least two more allegations came to light in the days, prompting the PM to push Nash to the bottom of the cabinet rankings.

Hipkins said he had sought and been given assurances from Nash in recent weeks that there were no other instances or allegations of misconduct.

“While Stuart was on a final warning, I want to be clear that this incident would have resulted in his dismissal in its own right. I consider the matter to be a very serious one,” said Hipkins.

“This is not information I had two weeks ago. If I had… my decision [two weeks ago] would have been different.”

Nash won’t ever be reinstated as a minister, said Hipkins, and there were wider issues for the Labour Party to consider. For now, Nash remained the MP for Napier.

The PM was asked whether the party had enough money to mount a byelection campaign, saying he would cross that bridge if it comes to it. National’s Christopher Luxon has launched the first push for Nash to resign from parliament entirely. This weekend marks six months until the general election. A byelection won’t be necessary if a resignation takes place after that point.

Asked whether he was angry, Hipkins simply said that his tone and the swiftness of tonight’s decision indicated his feelings on the matter. Nash put up “no defence” when told of his sacking. “I’ve worked with Stuart for a long time… I’m absolutely gutted, to be frank,” added Hipkins.

Also tonight, Newshub reported that Nash, who was until tonight the forestry minister, had received donations from companies involved in the inquiry into forestry slash on the East Coast.

Until new ministers have been appointed – likely within the next week – Megan Woods will be acting minister for economic development and acting minister of forestry and David Parker will be acting minister for oceans and fisheries.

Meka Whaitiri will lead the Hawkes Bay cyclone response on an acting basis.

The future of Stuart Nash, recently demoted to the bottom rung of cabinet, hangs in the balance following reports that he shared private cabinet discussions with business leaders and criticised decisions made in a 2020 email, according to reporting by Stuff. It follows Nash losing his police portfolio for breaching the cabinet manual by volunteering his strong opinions on judicial decisions earlier this month. Reports of further rule-breaking led to his demotion.

Cabinet discussions take place on the basis that they are strictly confidential, with decisions taken on a collective responsibility principle. A spokesperson for the prime minister, Chris Hipkins, said he was weighing up “implications of the email and will be making a decision on minister Nash’s future this evening”. A further statement is expected soon.

Aucklanders – it’s your last chance to have a say on the council’s upcoming budget.

Submissions close at 11pm tonight, after which they will be collated and considered by councillors before a final proposal’s released by the end of June.

As my colleague Tommy de Silva explained earlier this month, there’s lot at stake in this year’s budget. Cuts are proposed pretty much across the board, including in arts and culture infrastructure, climate action and early childhood education.

And according to Stuff, the level of opposition to the proposed cuts is “unprecedented” across Auckland Council’s 12 year history.

Click here to have your say

Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson should apologise to white men over the “sweeping generalisation” she made ahead of the Posie Parker counter-protest on Saturday.

That’s according to National’s leader Christopher Luxon who was questioned on the comments this morning at parliament.

Davidson was caught on camera blaming “cis white men” for violence in New Zealand, but later clarified her comments to add that violence in any community was unacceptable.

While the PM Chris Hipkins has labelled the remarks inappropriate, there’s no indication he’ll be further reprimanding his minister.

Luxon told reporters an apology was the bare minimum required. “I think the bottom line is her comments were an incredibly harmful generalisation of an entire group of people. They were wrong. They were offensive. What I haven’t heard from her or Chris Hipkins yesterday is an apology,” he said, according to Stuff.

“I just think it’s a group that she caused offence to. She made a sweeping generalisation. The comments were wrong, they were offensive. She gave a justification as to why she made them but she didn’t actually apologise.”

Act has continued to call for Davidson’s resignation, as has NZ First leader Winston Peters.

Lorde’s always been mysterious and her latest newsletter to fans does nothing to change that.

The New Zealand singer has just wrapped up her lengthy Solar Power tour in support of her third album released at the height of the delta Covid wave back in 2021.

And while reports have been circulating that Lorde’s been back in the studio and is readying for another release, it doesn’t seem like an announcement is coming anytime soon.

“So. Where to now?” she wrote in her newsletter. “[REDACTED]. I guess I’m not telling, not for a while. I’ll send you an update from time to time though, now that the laptop’s back online.”

Late last year, at the time David Farrier was readying to release his new documentary Mister Organ, broadcaster Sean Plunket started tweeting out what appeared to be court documents.

As we detailed in our extensive timeline of the Mister Organ saga, the tweets included claims that Farrier had been served with a temporary protection order. At first it wasn’t clear whether or not the documents being shared by Plunket were real. But in the days to come, Farrier would confirm he had been served via two police officers visiting his address (this happened after Plunket had mysteriously already released details of the documents online).

Farrier couldn’t say much more due to suppression orders in place by the court. But, reporting via Webworm today, further details have been revealed about how Organ, the focus of Farrier’ documentary, appeared to “weaponise and manipulate the court system” and pull in Plunket along the way.

It took until late December for the court order to be thrown out (by this time, states Farrier, legal costs had amounted to $25,000). One key detail in the court ruling noted: “there is considerable substance to the suggestions that the application was designed to impede the release of Farrier’s documentary”.

Farrier writes that he has “no doubt that Michael Organ was pulling the strings of this entire case” and that Plunket “played into the whole thing”. Plunket hasn’t said anything today but you can be certain he eventually will.*

You can read David Farrier’s full account on Webworm here.

* At 11.06am Plunket tweeted: “Thanks for confirming everything I revealed about you [Farrier] was fair and accurate.”

Prime minister Chris Hipkins’ morning media round has been largely dominated by remarks made by one of his ministers over the weekend.

Marama Davidson, who is also co-leader of the Green Party, was caught on capture at a counter-protest to anti-trans speaker Posie Parker stating: “I am the prevention violence minister, and I know who causes violence in the world, and it’s white cis men”.

She walked back those comments yesterday, adding that violence in any community was unacceptable – and it was also revealed that Hipkins’ office had urged for that clarification to be made.

Speaking to Newstalk ZB this morning, Hipkins said he believed Davidson’s office actually contacted his first. “She already contacted my office yesterday saying the video did not convey the message she wanted to convey,” he said. “Her office contacted mine. I think clearly words that she ended up using were not the message she was trying to convey.”

The pair have still not had a phone conversation, said Hipkins, instead staying in touch via text as Davidson was in the A&E. He later told Newshub’s AM he would eventually chat to her, but he believed the situation had been resolved.

On TVNZ’s Breakfast, the PM added that he did not believe bringing ethnicity into the debate was very helpful. However, the majority of domestic and sexual violence was carried out by men. ”As men, we should acknowledge that fact and we should continue to talk about that – that it’s not okay.”

Opposition parties, including Act, have continued to push for Davidson’s resignation.

It will also be a couple of months before a decision is made on what approach will be taken with Coromandel’s SH25A which has been closed since cracks appeared on January 27 in the wake of ex-Cyclone Hale. Any fix will take nine to 12 months to implement. Access in and out of the region has been severely impacted by landslides.

Media were given access to the area yesterday and RNZ’S Checkpoint has some pretty extraordinary footage of the area where roading just no longer exists. In Northland, an additional 645 slips have occurred in the region since Cyclone Gabrielle and other severe weather events this year bringing the total number of live slips in the area to 1770, impacting 30% of Northland’s roading network. The current estimate to repair and improve the network is $250m.

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Consumer NZ has warned customers to be aware of “unsubstantiated” or “misleading” eco-friendly claims made at the supermarket.

The watchdog has taken a closer look at several items including a supposedly “planet conscious” air freshener, “ocean plastic” bags and “industrial compostable” teabags.

But Gemma Rasmussen, Consumer’s head of research and advocacy, said many of the claims made had little basis.

“Often ‘green’ products are sold at a premium to conscientious shoppers, but it can be very difficult to debunk what is real, and what is spin,” said Rasmussen.

“Our investigation has not only highlighted how easy it is for manufacturers to use terms that are vague and meaningless, insinuating environmental kudos, but how easy it is for such products to be stocked on New Zealand shelves due to lack of enforcement.”

Multiple products alleging to be compostable did not meet best practice guidelines, Rasmussen added, like Proper Crisps’ packaging. If these “compostable” bags are thrown into landfill, they won’t break down any quicker than other packaging.

Consumer was now calling for an independent investigation into “greenwashing claims” across multiple industries in New Zealand and the introduction of new regulations.