Mauger versus Meates sounds like a chapter out of Roald Dahl and the local body elections in the city are proving more of a page-turner than contests in most of the country with a week and a bit to go.

This evening’s vote tally from Wellington records 9.9% of the eligible received, a smidge under last year’s 10% at the same point. Tamaki Makaurau, too, is closing in on the same stage in 2019, at 11.8% to the previous 12.8%. But the garden city Ōtautahi is thumping its chest with 19.7% of votes received, compared with 15.5% at this stage in 2019. That’s tracking to beat the 41.1% turnout at the last election.

In Invercargill, 20.3% of the vote has landed, compared with 23.7% last time; in Dunedin it's 13.2% compared with 15.8% from 2019, and in Nelson 15.3%, four points down on 19.3% three years ago.

As Rent Week continues, the image of the day gets bleaker and bleaker.

All week as part of Rent Week we’ve been running a series called Cursed Rentals of New Zealand featuring places you have to see to believe. Today’s instalment is called Bed, Bath and Beyond, and that’s where we got our image of the day today: the world’s worst bedroom with ensuite. Love the tiling work, love the papered over windows, just an incredibly grim feeling all round.

This week is New Zealand Chinese Language Week. Like many other language weeks, it serves as a celebration of a language spoken in Aotearoa. Unlike others, it has become a topic of debate due to its focus on Mandarin in particular rather than the diversity of Chinese languages spoken throughout the country.

In this piece from earlier this year, Naomii Seah speaks to Te Papa curator Grace Gassin about the ongoing project Chinese Languages in Aotearoa, which “aims to highlight the myriad cultures and nationalities that comprise the Chinese New Zealand identity through a focus on language”.

This from Gassin is particularly relevant this week: “There is an official New Zealand Chinese language week, but it’s quite different in that way from the other language weeks as it tends to have more of a focus on China-New-Zealand relations. It’s quite squarely focused on standardised Mandarin, because that is the official language of China and is dominant globally. I really think that Mandarin is a great language, and a really diverse language, but I also think that there does need to be more respect and resourcing for other languages too. Cantonese, for instance, was until relatively recently the dominant Chinese language in New Zealand. And there is still a very sizeable Cantonese-speaking community here.”

It took three years off but Auckland’s Laneway music festival has made a storming comeback, this morning selling every ticket possible in a matter of hours. It’s the fastest the long-running Australasian festival has ever sold out in Aotearoa.

Held on Auckland Anniversary Day each year, next year’s January 30 event is set to be headlined by Phoebe Bridgers, Haim, Turnstile and Slowthai, with a line-up of local support acts.

The festival, which began in Melbourne in 2005 and expanded to New Zealand in 2010, has taken the past three years off due to closed borders and Covid concerns. Fans clearly haven’t forgotten about it, with all 13,000 tickets sold in its Tuesday pre-sale, and this morning’s general release.

Executive producer Julian Carswell couldn’t be happier. “We’re so happy that Laneway hasn’t been forgotten by Aotearoa music fans during our time away,” he said in a statement. “Absence really does make the heart grow fonder.”

It’s shaping up as a busy summer festival season with Northern Bass, Bay Dreams  and Rhythm & Vines all reporting strong ticket sales. Just this morning, a new festival called Beach Break was announced with Shapeshifter headlining dates in Whangamatā on January 28 and Nelson on February 5.

Rumours are also rife that Beyonce will soon announce shows here as part of a planned world tour.

A new study from the Police national youth team has found that 95% of 63 young people involved in ram raids were linked to a family harm event before first coming to police attention as a suspect or offender. Family harm is defined as any violent act inflicted by one family member on another. The sample of 63 young people was drawn from those involved in ram-raids in Christchurch, the Bay of Plenty, Auckland, and Waikato in the year to May 2022.

Minister for the prevention of family and sexual violence, Marama Davidson, said it doesn’t surprise her that the trauma and violence have such an impact, leading to many children committing future crimes. National’s justice spokesperson Paul Goldsmith maintains there needs to be harsher consequences for youths involved in serious crimes like ram-raids.

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Vodafone NZ will soon become One New Zealand, dropping the “Vodaf” part of their name in favour of new brand and simplified new logo.

The familiar red and white logo will soon be ditched for a green circle.

But it’s not so much the logo copping criticism, but the new name. If you Google search “One New Zealand”, the second link that pops up is for a group that is “concerned about increasing privilege being given to one race of people over all other races”.

The group’s website (which is clearly out of date, referencing prime minister John Key) also claims New Zealand’s “part-Māori” population now “enjoys privileges which by-pass democratic principles of one nation in law”.

In a tweet, Vodafone boss Jason Paris defended the name change and said it was about inclusiveness – not division. “One NZ stands for the best of NZ (diversity, inclusion, trust, innovation etc),” he said.

He later added: “Ultimately we won’t be judged on the name but the actions we take. That’s our focus.”

Paris told Business Desk reporter Ben Moore that he had not been aware of the potential racist links with the One NZ name before the brand overhaul was announced yesterday.

Since yesterday, sponsored Google ads for the real One NZ have started popping up on searches.