A candid – but now-deleted – statement on Today FM’s Facebook page appeared to confirm the end of the Mediaworks talk station.

A message from the head of the digital team blamed the “harsh reality of cold corporate decisions” for the sudden closure of the radio station.

“As I type this, David, Duncan Garner’s producer is crying in my arms as the harsh reality of cold corporate decisions set in,” the statement read.

“Like David, many of our team feel like they have failed you. But, I can confidently say that they have done something like no one else has in the media space. We were robbed. You were robbed.”

It continued: “I wanted to let you all know that every single person here, whose eyes are red and sore, only wanted to do the best they could. Love us or hate us, we fought for you and your stories.”

The statement was also shared to Twitter, before it was deleted a few minutes later. Today FM’s Twitter account has since been locked and the station’s Facebook account has now vanished.

Today FM’s website still maintains that a full update will be provided at 5pm, though it is now past that deadline. Shortly after the hour, a message was broadcast on Today FM stating: “This station is no longer Today FM”. It also revealed that a new radio station will take Today FM’s frequency from next month.

The closure of Today FM was first divulged during a bombshell live broadcast this morning, when breakfast host Tova O’Brien told listeners: “We’re being pulled off-air right now. Without even being given a chance.”

Staff at the station told The Spinoff that the news came as a shock and left them in limbo. One of the network’s high profile hosts told The Spinoff they’d been promised a “five-year runway” for the station, while a producer said that there was some “disbelief” at Today FM being pulled off air ahead of the October election.

The fate of Mediaworks’ talk station Today FM is due in under 10 minutes time.

A banner on the station’s website states that a full update will be revealed at 5pm. What that update is, or whether it will be delivered by the radio, is still unclear – though it’s understood that Today FM won’t be returning to the air in its current form.

The Spinoff has been told that while the station’s newsroom is expected back at work tomorrow, that’s only in order to supply news bulletins to other Mediaworks’ stations. High profile hosts like Tova O’Brien and Duncan Garner aren’t likely to step foot into the Today FM studio again.

O’Brien has shared her first words since a dramatic broadcast this morning, tweeting that she is “devastated”. Alongside some of her broadcasting colleagues, O’Brien spent today at a pub near the Mediaworks offices.

An overseas traveller to New Zealand died from rabies last week – but the public is being told there’s no risk of further spread.

It’s New Zealand’s first confirmed case of the disease, contracted overseas and then diagnosed on our shores.

Director of public health Dr Nick Jones said person to person transmission of rabies is extremely rare – almost unknown – so there is no risk to members of the public.

“Travellers should be aware, however, that there are thousands of rabies cases reported in humans around the world each year, including a number of countries in our part of the world,” Jones said.

A banner on Today FM’s website has signalled an update on the at-risk news network will come at 5pm.

All signs point to a full station closure – meaning this morning’s bombshell broadcast featuring Tova O’Brien and Duncan Garner may be the final minutes of Today FM.

Here is how it all went down.

The 2020 email that saw Stuart Nash sacked from cabinet had been identified, and deemed out of scope, despite directly requesting communications between Nash and a list of donors, the prime minister’s office has now acknowledged. The request was discussed with staff in the prime minister’s office on three occasions.

Two staff members in the prime minister’s office, Holly Donald, who is deputy chief of staff, and another unnamed senior adviser, were made aware of the 2021 OIA, which was not escalated to the former prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, or her then chief of staff Raj Nahna, according to a PMO statement. Both have apologised for an “error of judgement in not recognising the significance of the email and escalating it at the time”.

“This is not acceptable and Stuart Nash’s email should have been raised with the prime minister at the time,” said Hipkins in a statement. “I have made it very clear that staff that I expect matters like this to be escalated to me. I have accepted the apology of the staff involved and believe this was an oversight. Staff in the Prime Minister’s Office deal with large volumes of information every day and errors of judgment do occur. However I’ve made my expectation clear and don’t expect such an error to occur again.”

He added: “Regardless, the onus was on Stuart Nash to review his correspondence and identify this email himself. I asked him on two occasions to provide an assurance there were no further actions I should be aware of where he may have breached the Cabinet Manual. He had the responsibility to alert me to this email and did not. I have already removed Stuart Nash from Cabinet and stripped him of his ministerial portfolios, and asked the Cabinet Office to undertake a review of his correspondence with donors to check there are no other instances like this. I await the outcome of that review.”

The OIA was appealed to the ombudsman but subsequently dropped as the requester, Pete McKenzie for Newsroom, decided not to pursue it.

Nash was sacked from cabinet this week after reports that in 2020 the then minister had breached confidentiality and collective responsibility rules by emailing two of his donors information about cabinet discussions on commercial rent relief during Covid, as well as expressing his own opposition to the decision.

Chris Hipkins subsequently told parliament that the email in question had been sighted by the PM’s office, though neither by him, his predecessor, nor their chiefs of staff. National leader Christopher Luxon accused Hipkins’ office of a “cover-up”.

The prime minister’s office provided the following timeline:

2020

3 June Cabinet Committee agrees to amend the Property Law Act to include an implied clause into leases, with criteria include businesses having 20 or fewer FTE per lease site. Also agreed to government support for arbitration.

4 June PR from Minister Little announcing the Government will temporarily amend the Property Law Act to insert a clause in commercial leases requiring a fair reduction in rent, and $40m support for arbitration

5 June Stuart Nash sends email to Greg Loveridge and Troy Bowker

30 June Property Law Act changes do not proceed after NZ First withdraws support. $40 million in arbitration still proceeds.

2021

8 June Stuart Nash’s office receives an OIA asking for all written correspondence between himself and a list of individuals. This is discussed with staff in the Prime Minister’s Office on three occasions.

30 July Stuart Nash’s office emails the deputy Chief of Staff Holly Donald and a senior advisor with the emails found in relation to the request noting that in their view they were out of scope as they weren’t received by Stuart Nash in his capacity as Minister. This includes the email of 5 June 2020. The Prime Minister’s Office did not reply.

27 Sept Cabinet agrees to a Bill amending the Property Law Act

28 Sept PR from Ministers Faafoi and Williams announcing changes to the Property Law Act to help those affected by Covid-19 restrictions

2 Nov The Covid-19 Response (Management Measures) Legislation Bill received Royal Assent, This includes changes to the Property Law Act.

2022

1 March Stuart Nash receives a letter from the Ombudsman regarding an investigation into his response to the 8 92021 OIA.

17 March Stuart Nash’s office drafts a response to the Ombudsman and shares it with the Prime Minister’s Office. This did not include a copy of the 5 June 2020 email but did include a reference to withholding documents under s9(2)(j). The Prime Minister’s Office did not reply.

29 March Stuart Nash replies to the Ombudsman including a redacted version of the 5 June 2020 email. Includes an explanation that the email was in his capacity as a Labour Member of Parliament rather than in his capacity as Minister.

30 March Office of the Ombudsman responds to Nash’s office, acknowledging receipt of his response.

25 May Office of the Ombudsman emails Stuart Nash’s office saying they would not be pursuing the complaint and the investigation was closed.

Five new Waitematā Harbour crossing “scenarios” have been unveiled this morning, with the government touting them in a press release as “congestion busting” – and committing to begin construction this decade.

The options include tunnelled light rail and roading connections, a second bridge, or some sort of combination of the two.

Speaking at an event in downtown Auckland, transport minister Michael Wood said it was ensuring an “unclogged, connected and future proofed” transport network for Auckland.

“The additional Waitematā Harbour connections, for which construction will begin in 2029, will providing a future proofed solution for people wanting to travel across Te Waitematā be it by car, bus, light rail, walking, cycling, or truck as fast as possible,” he said.

“Each scenario includes a new walking and cycling link across Te Waitematā, a new light rail link that will connect to Auckland light rail in the city centre, and will build generations of resilience into state highway one for private vehicles and freight.”

A new rapid transit connection from the city centre to the North Shore will fully integrate with other projects including light rail, said Wood, and rapid transit to the north west will allow people to travel “seamlessly” across Auckland.

A final option, based on feedback from Aucklanders, will be unveiled in June.

A couple of days ago, BusinessDesk’s Oliver Lewis wrote (paywalled) that if previous scoping exercises are anything to go by, the second Auckland harbour crossing will be a tunnel. That’s also what the NZ Herald’s Thomas Coughlan reports is likely this morning with the news that prime minister Chris Hipkins and minister for transport Michael Wood will today announce that work on the second harbour bridge crossing will be fast-tracked and begin during this decade.

Coughlan writes Hipkins will also announce the five options for the new crossing and the way they will link up with the government’s other key Auckland infrastructure project: Auckland light rail.

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An inquiry into the communications by disgraced former minister Stuart Nash will only look at any contact he’d made with “any declared donor”.

It was announced yesterday in the wake of the Nash’s dismissal from cabinet, with prime minister Chris Hipkins saying the Napier MP will fully cooperate with the investigation.

But National’s leader wants it to go even further. Christopher Luxon has called for a broader inquiry that will take into account any and all communications from Nash. “If I was Chris Hipkins, I would want a full inquiry into all of his communications with a whole range of people and his portfolio,” he said yesterday afternoon.

Later, as RNZ’s Anneke Smith reported, he decried a cover-up after it was revealed that the office of former prime minister Jacinda Ardern was aware of the leaked email that led to Nash’s downfall. “What’s going on inside the prime minister’s office?” he queried. “How does a prime minister and Stuart Nash’s office have this information and actually not have it divulged?”

On Newstalk ZB’s Early Edition today, a former Labour Party staffer Kaine Thompson said they hoped the review wouldn’t dredge up anything new. “You would hope and you would expect this is the end of it,” he said. “Stuart Nash hasn’t ever come across to me as particularly someone who is nefarious or malicious, but he’s made a couple of mistakes here.”

Nash has so far ruled out an early resignation from parliament – partly due to the disruption of a byelection in an area still grappling with the Cyclone Gabrielle clean-up. But also, it’s feasible that National could pick up the seat off the back of the Nash scandal.

It’s been speculated, including last night by Newshub’s Jenna Lynch, that he will see out the rest of his term and then quit politics come the October election.