AM Edition: Here are the top 10 politics articles on LiveNews.co.nz for June 23, 2026 – Full Text
1. Government takes next step to correct historic wrong
June 22, 2026
Source: New Zealand Government
Te Here ā Nuku (Nelson Tenths) Bill is being introduced to Parliament today, the final step in returning approx. 3000 hectares of land at the top of the South Island to its rightful owners, confirmed Attorney General Chris Bishop and Conservation Minister Tama Potaka.
“The passing of the Bill into law is an important step in concluding a historic trust law issue dating back to the 1840s,” says Mr Bishop.
“In 2024 the High Court agreed the Crown did not own the land in question, rather it had been holding it on Trust for the original owners. This Bill allows title to be raised for the rightful owners.
“Last December, the Crown reached a Resolution Agreement with the landowners’ representatives, Te Here-ā-Nuku Trust, confirming the return of the land in question.
“Te Here ā Nuku (Nelson Tenths) Bill helps implement that agreement, by enabling the legal transfer of the agreed land from the Crown to Te Here-ā-Nuku Trust.”
Most of the affected land is currently being used by the Department of Conservation in the Nelson, Golden Bay and Tasman Bay area.
“To minimise the impact on current land users, the Resolution Agreement allows the Crown to lease back some of the private land currently being used for important public purposes,” says Conservation Minister Tama Potaka.
“Arrangements have been made for continued public use of key areas, such as the coast track along the Abel Tasman Great Walk, and public reserves at key sites, like Tōtaranui and Kaiteretere.
“The Bill also officially corrects the spelling of the name of Kaiteriteri to Kaiteretere (the correct, historic name used by the original landowners).”
“The Bill’s passage is an important step in righting a historic wrong. It is very different from a Treaty settlement, which would settle historical claims concerning breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi and its principles. This is a trust law matter, where private land is being returned to its rightful and legal owners,” says Mr Bishop.
“The Government is pleased to resolve this unique private law case and correct an injustice that has been running for more than 180 years.”
Original source: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/06/22/government-takes-next-step-to-correct-historic-wrong/
Back to index · Read original article
2. Disabled leadership capability backed
June 22, 2026
Source: New Zealand Government
A range of disability community organisations have been awarded funding to strengthen their governance capability by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha.
Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the investment will back disabled people to lead and increase their involvement in decision-making that affects them.
“This will help grow leadership capability and strengthen governance within community organisations led by disabled people and their advocates. It also supports improved engagement between disability communities and government agencies.
“By investing directly into the community, Whaikaha is helping build long-term capability to help disabled people and organisations take a leading role in shaping policy and services.”
The funding – totalling $1.7 million – is divided into three categories:
- Disabled People’s Organisations;
- Community Capability; and
- New Zealand Sign Language.
Louise Upston says the investment reaches a wide range of community groups, including those which have been historically underrepresented in decision-making.
“Supporting disabled people and the organisations that represent them helps us meet our global obligations to uphold the rights of people with disabilities, as well as backing the community to live full and dignified lives contributing to their community, society and the economy,” Louise Upston says.
Note to editor:
A full list of successful applicants, and a breakdown of the funding allocation for each category, is available here on the Whaikaha website.
Original source: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/06/22/disabled-leadership-capability-backed/
Back to index · Read original article
3. Federated Farmers – Plan Change 1 threatens Waikato farming future
June 22, 2026
Source: Federated Farmers
Back to index · Read original article
4. Policy – Green’s tax policy will help level playing field for ordinary Kiwis, local businesses – Better Taxes
June 22, 2026
The Better Taxes for a Better Future campaign welcomes the Green Party’s tax policy announcements released earlier today is an important step towards rebalancing New Zealand’s tax system: to close the gaps in tax on big corporates; to tax wealth, not just hard work; and to generate the revenue we need to fund the things that matter.
“Right now, ordinary people and small to medium local business are paying their tax and contributing the most to funding essential public services, like schools, hospitals and transport infrastructure, while big corporates and the wealthiest people aren’t paying their fair share,” said Kate Stone, Better Taxes campaign manager and spokesperson.
“In 2023 IRD research showed that the wealthiest families were paying less than half (9%) the tax rate of average Kiwis (20%), because while we tax every dollar workers’ earn, we do not tax wealth properly in New Zealand. The Green’s commitment to tax the super-rich 2.5% on net assets over $10m (excluding the family home), and to tax assets and gifts that people receive without working for them where they exceed $1m (excluding family farms and homes), are critical moves if we are going to tackle this unfairness and the inequality it perpetuates. We believe that pairing these policies with a comprehensive Capital Gains Tax would be even better!”
The Better Taxes Campaign considers these policies, alongside the commitment to a $10,000 tax-free threshold and more progressive tax rates, have the potential both to address immediate cost of living pressures, and to tackle skyrocketing wealth inequality that was on full display in last week’s Rich List.
“We’re not anti-wealth or opposed to success. But it’s a question of balance. Over the last 40 years the wealth of the super rich in NZ has increased from $5.3b to $126bn, while child poverty rates have tripled. It is clear that the “success” of the wealthiest few is not lifting up everyone in Aotearoa, and we need to make significant changes now, if we’re to avoid even greater inequality and the breakdown of social cohesion and democracy that come with it, as we’re seeing globally.”
“Better Taxes also welcomes the moves to close some of the gaps in taxes on big corporates, to level the playing field for local small and medium businesses and to ensure the biggest corporations are contributing back into our economy, from which they’re extracting huge profits,” said Stone.
Last year, alongside Tax Justice Aotearoa, we released the Big Tech Little Tax report which demonstrated that some of the biggest tech companies were making billions of dollars in New Zealand and paying barely any tax. Last week we released expanded and updated research, which estimated tax minimisation practices by Big Tech have conservatively cost over $600m in the last five years.
“Our analysis shows these companies already have obligations under existing law to pay withholding taxes of at least 5% on much of the funds that they send to their parent company overseas and it is great to see the Green Party commit to cracking down on Big Tech,” said Stone.
“Finally, it’s a no brainer to introduce a bank levy on the big four banks. Our recent polling showed there is majority support for such a levy, including amongst voters who support the current government. It was clear during Budget announcements that the Minister of Finance had been keen to advance such a levy, so we hope that there can be cross-party support for this measure that has already been adopted in Australia, the UK and some other EU countries.”
“If the big four try to pass the levy on to their customers then smaller banks will be given an opportunity to compete and people can vote with their feet. We would also recommend an excess profits tax on the big banks, which the UK has adopted, to create a disincentive for the major Australian-owned banks to take Kiwis for a ride, ” said Stone.
You can read the full Better Taxes and Tax Justice Aotearoa policy platform here: https://www.bettertaxes.nz/tax_policy_statement?utm_campaign=greens_tax_policy_2026&utm_medium=email&utm_source=tja
The Better Taxes for a Better Future Campaign is a coalition of over 20 organisations led by Tax Justice Aotearoa.
Back to index · Read original article
5. UnionPay Showcases Innovations with 15 Ecosystem Partners at 2026 China International Financial Exhibition
June 22, 2026
Source: Media Outreach
SHANGHAI, CHINA – Media OutReach Newswire – 22 June 2026 – The 2026 China International Financial Exhibition opened in Shanghai on June 16-18. UnionPay, together with 15 global ecosystem partners, showcased its latest achievements in global network development, core technological capabilities, open AI ecosystem, consumption growth solutions, and ecosystem collaboration.
Building a Global Payment Network
Amid a diverse and competitive global payments landscape, UnionPay continues to strengthen its global payment network by advancing three strategic pillars: merchant acceptance, local card issuance, and cross-border QR interoperability.
UnionPay’s acceptance network now spans 183 countries and regions, covering over 100 million merchants outside China’s mainland. UnionPay mobile payment services are available in more than 100 markets, while cards have been rolled out across 84 countries and regions outside the Chinese mainland. As of May 2026, transaction volumes generated by international cards and wallets in China rose by 54% and 62% respectively year-on-year. A real-time transaction dashboard at the exhibition area continuously updated cumulative transaction volumes, highlighting the sustained growth of UnionPay’s global business.
Cross-border QR payment interoperability is a centerpiece of UnionPay’s international section. The company has accelerated partnerships with local payment networks across Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Central Asia, Latin America, and Africa to enable QR payment connectivity. On June 11, 2026, the China-Indonesia cross-border QR linkage officially went live, witnessed by central bank governors of both countries. The milestone increased the total number of overseas merchants accepting UnionPay QR codes to more than 46 million.
To showcase services catered to inbound visitors, UnionPay has set up a dedicated booth for Nihao China, demonstrating the one-stop service app jointly developed with China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism. With over 200,000 registered users, the Nihao China app integrates a wide range of travel-related services, including QR payment, public transit, voice translation, and tax refunds. The user interface has been fully localized to suit international users.
UnionPay has been working with global partners to build a cross-border payment ecosystem featuring unified standards, orderly development, and shared success. Five international partners have joined UnionPay at this year’s exhibition, namely, ASPI from Indonesia, ZeroPay from South Korea, Dialog Finance from Sri Lanka, Halyk Bank from Kazakhstan, and Banco do Brasil.
Expanding the Ecosystem and Advancing Fintech Innovation
As digital transformation accelerates, UnionPay remains committed to strengthening independent and secure fintech capabilities. The company has been investing in computing infrastructure, artificial intelligence, privacy protection, and smart payments. By fostering collaborative innovation among members, universities, technology companies, and government agencies, UnionPay expands the ecosystem and supports the development of new productive forces in the financial industry.
The AI exhibition area highlights the progress of UnionPay’s National AI Application Pilot Base in the financial sector, the only one of its kind in China. UnionPay has established a “1+1+N” large language model architecture consisting of an L0 foundation model, an L1 financial payments model, and multiple L2 models specific to different use cases. The architecture is supported by a computing resource pool with over 1,000 GPUs and a high-quality 2TB open financial dataset. Leveraging a comprehensive payment data infrastructure covering merchants, industry stakeholders, users, and use cases, UnionPay delivers robust data support for model training, consumer insights, and intelligent decision-making. More than 120 AI applications have been deployed across four key verticals: inclusive finance, consumption growth, risk management and compliance, and operational efficiency. To address critical data security challenges in the financial sector, UnionPay has pioneered privacy protection technologies for large language model and introduced an innovative edge-cloud synergy approach, enabling secure AI services without exposing sensitive data. The innovation facilitates broader AI adoption while safeguarding partner data.
UnionPay’s open AI platform brings together the innovative capabilities of ecosystem partners, including banks, payment institutions and technology companies. By providing payment, data, and AI-powered services, the platform empowers industry participants and fosters collaborative innovation. The exhibition area for smart payments features UnionPay’s APOP (Agentic Payment Open Protocol), an open framework for agent-based payments. Built on user consent and robust risk controls, APOP explores new models for intelligent agents to access payment capabilities. To date, UnionPay has partnered with 19 industry players to deploy applications including travel assistants, overseas hotel reservations, in-vehicle payments, and utility payments.
Fudan University, Huawei, Baidu AI Cloud, HYGON, and KUPAS.AI have joined UnionPay as technology partners at the exhibition, demonstrating collaborative achievements in computing power, large language models, and cybersecurity. Together, they have showcased UnionPay’s open innovation ecosystem and its commitment to driving the evolution of the payments industry through technological progress.
Delivering Payment Services that Better Serve Consumers, Businesses, and the Real Economy
Using Shanghai as a case study, live dashboards at the booth present data insights, including foot traffic heat maps of key commercial districts and consumer profiles of domestic and international visitors. Data showed that tourists from outside Shanghai account for 55% of total spending in the Nanjing East Road commercial area, making them a key driver of consumption. Distinct spending patterns were also observed among inbound travelers: visitors from the US favor local street food, South Korean tourists prefer popular lifestyle destinations, and Thai travelers show strong interest in shopping. These insights provide valuable support for commercial district operations and cultural tourism promotion.
At this year’s China International Financial Exhibition, UnionPay showcases its extensive global network, solid business foundation, and leading technological capabilities through a wide array of immersive exhibits. Moving forward, UnionPay will continue to grow its global payment network, develop self-reliant digital and intelligent infrastructure, and deliver value to consumers.
Hashtag: #UnionPay
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
– Published and distributed with permission of Media-Outreach.com.
Back to index · Read original article