Matthew Hooton: Together, let's sort the six crises
Sunday, 28 June 2026
Matthew Hooton is editor-in-chief of The Post and Sunday Star-Times.
OPINION: Journalists moving into public relations or lobbying quickly lament “if only I had had known all this when I was in the media”. It’s a similar feeling moving the other way.
My first week as editor-in-chief of the Star-Times, The Post and thepost.co.nz has forced me onto a rapid learning curve. I’m in awe of the people who bring you the news, analysis, commentary, useful information and sheer entertainment all day on The Post website and in print seven days a week. I’m proud to work with them.
One of my mentors in political, journalism and life in general is the legendary TVNZ political editor Richard Harman who was honoured in the New Year honours with a ONZM, also marked by a reception this week hosted by Parliament’s Speaker, Gerry Brownlee.
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Ever since I first began a column in the mid-2000s for this very publication, Harman has rammed home to me the old adage from The Times of London in 1852: “The first duty of the press is to obtain the earliest and most correct intelligence of the events of the time, and instantly, by disclosing them, to make them the common property of the nation.”
I think that’s right. But I also see our role as providing a platform for ideas to be put forward for New Zealanders to debate what I have called the six crises that have been allowed to fester through 20 years of complacency from around 2008. These are the productivity crisis, the fiscal crisis, the entrenched-poverty crisis, the race-relations crisis, the climate adaptation crisis and the infrastructure crisis.
They are all linked, as are all the other problems we face.
Those who have read my work in other outlets in recent years will know I have become – like many of us, according to the The Post/Freshwater Strategy polls – at least a little pessimistic about our future.
But I took this job because I think that, as well as following Harman’s rule from The Times, the publications I am honoured to lead should provide a platform to debate ideas, from wherever they come, to finally get on top of each of these six crises.
Each day, our team covers key issues that are linked to these “crises” and issues facing New Zealand.
In Friday’s Post, our national affairs editor Andrea Vance brought to the public’s attention the dire state of our elite commando unit, the New Zealand Special Air Services (NZSAS).
Not only do those soldiers risk their lives on the most difficult and dangerous missions abroad in partnership with our friends and allies, they also have a crucial role in supporting the Police’s elite Armed Offenders Squad in the event of major terror attacks at home.
Vance’s work demands our military and political leaders answer questions about how or even whether the state could respond in the event of further terrorist attacks on New Zealand citizens and our friends and visitors.
That debate on the most fundamental responsibility of the state is now under way thanks to Vance’s dogged investigations and the brave sources who spoke to her.
One reason we seem unable to pay our NZSAS heroes enough to keep them in New Zealand is because of the first two of the crises: productivity and fiscal. We don’t make enough for every hour we work and we haven’t saved enough of what we have made.
What’s extraordinary, though, is that Vance’s brilliant story isn’t extraordinary. Yesterday’s Weekend Post raised important questions that must be answered by others. Senior writer Nikki Macdonald examines the extent to which Public Service Commission boss Sir Brian Roche deserves his reputation as Mr Fixit.
Today’s feature by Auckland editor Amelia Wade should prompt a much more serious debate about why some secondary schools are performing at a high-level while others in their neighbourhoods aren’t.
Wade has a second feature with Auckland reporter Stewart Sowman-Lund on Auckland’s massively over-budget and over-deadline City Rail Link project. Parliamentary reporter Nick James has revelations about the National Ticketing Solution fiasco. Both add further information to the debate over why both central and local government seem so hopeless at competently building, well, almost anything.
Also today, Auckland business editor Dita De Boni asks whether trillionaire Elon Musk and our local billionaires are quite as rich as they may seem. Former finance minister Ruth Richardson strongly critiques the National Party’s U-turn on compulsory saving. Former Labour strategist Vernon Small analyses the same historic pivot.
Yesterday chief arts correspondent André Chumko investigated what copyright reforms could mean for AI and artists' rights while today rugby writer Paul Cully critically evaluates the All Blacks’ prospects for the season.
Reading through today’s Sunday Star-Times before signing it off, I was informed, challenged and entertained by the content. I found myself nodding in agreement with some stories and feeling my blood pressure rise in disagreement with others. That’s how it should be, every Sunday. I hope it is for you today.
What do you think? Email sundayletters@stuff.co.nz. Please include your full name and address.