1. Politics: Most developed economies exempt retirement savings schemes from their taxation systems because they want their citizens to work, become wealthy and invest in their own economies. Because Kiwisaver is taxed, New Zealand is an outlier – something Danyl McLauchlan points out in his weekly column.
2. Crime: Former PM Rob Muldoon helped solve one of New Zealand’s most shocking crimes, by taking to the police a man who reckoned a drunken acquaintance confessed to him that he’d done the infamous Bassett Rd machine-gun murders. It’s 63 years ago today that the bodies of Kevin James Speight and George Frederick Walker were discovered, shot to death, in the Remuera house. Greg Dixon explores the motives behind the crime.
3. Health: The term calenture describes an inflammatory fever, accompanied by delirium, and was said to be common on long sea voyages. But by the 20th century, the medical journals fall silent on the effects of calenture. Matt Vance explores why here.
4. International politics: Since 2021, the German government has consisted of the Social Democrats, the Greens and the much smaller neoliberal Free Democrats. The head of the latter, Christian Lindner, was Germany’s finance minister – but was sacked by Chanellor Olaf Scholz following disagreements about government funding cuts and borrowing. It means an early general election for Germans who go to the polls in February. You can read more here.
5. Law & society: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Act leader David Seymour are yet to dismiss outright the idea of following Australia’s lead and banning social media access for children under 16. Read why retired district court judge David Harvey thinks such a ban is wrong.
6. Life: In the United States, 13 states have criminalised sexual relationships between priests and parishioners to whom they are providing pastoral care, in the same way that sexual relationships between doctors or therapists and their patients are often prohibited. Given sexual misconduct at the highest levels of the NZ Catholic Church, do we need a similar law here?
7. Health: Oat milk also contains phytates from the oats, which impairs the absorption of iron, zinc, magnesium and calcium. Nutritionist Jennifer Bowden points this out in her column, looking at whether people with high cholesterol can drink oat milk.
8. New Zealand: Nearly 2500 people have applied for a doctor-assisted death since our End of Life Choice Act took effect in November, 2021 and by September, 970 people had died this way. This statistic featured in a story on the 11 words we need to say before we die.
9. Entertainment: The embryologist nurse Jean Purdy, whose work was pivotal to the development of in vitro fertilisation, was unable to have children of her own because of severe endometriosis. Purdy is portrayed by New Zealander Thomasin McKenzie in the film Joy, reviewed here.
10. Books: Some of the best books written are – as always – for kids. In her annual roundup of best kids’ books, Ann Packer has reviewed 50 of them here.
