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  "description": "10 News Stories They Chose Not to Tell You",
  "path": "/your-daily-ten-10-2026-034/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-02-26T21:00:09.000Z",
  "site": "https://goodoil.news",
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  "textContent": "**This is edition 2026/034 of the _Ten@10_ newsletter.**\n\nHi all,\n\nThis is the Ten@10, where I collate and summarise ten news items you generally won't see in the mainstream media.\n\nEnjoy!\n\n* * *\n\n## 1. How Comms-driven politics broke New Zealand\n\nBryce Edwards\n\n  * 🏗️ New Zealand’s first National Infrastructure Plan has sparked headlines about failing assets, but **Danyl McLauchlan** argues the real story is how PR-driven politics has hollowed out serious governing.\n  * 📣 McLauchlan traces the problem to **Alastair Campbell** under **Tony Blair** , where the “comms grid” turned politics into a schedule of media-friendly “announceables,” with policy substance coming second.\n  * 🎭 In this model, governments focus on optics — hard hats, ribbon cuttings, staged visits — while core questions (“Will it work? What will it cost?”) sit downstream from the announcement.\n  * 🇳🇿 McLauchlan says New Zealand imported this system wholesale, with leaders like **Jacinda Ardern** mastering the art of pre-announcements and media cycles heavy on symbolism but light on follow-through.\n  * 💸 The current government under **Christopher Luxon** is portrayed as no different, using subsidies and splashy event funding as purchasable “announceables,” where the photo-op precedes the business case.\n  * 🌾 **Shane Jones** Provincial Growth Fund is cited as an example: risky loans and defaults matter less in a comms-driven system than the favourable headlines generated during regional tours.\n  * 📊 The Infrastructure Commission’s report reveals systemic failure: nearly half of recent projects lacked full business cases, 11,925 projects sit in the pipeline worth $275b, and $193b is unfunded — yet already announced.\n  * 💰 Despite spending about 5.8% of GDP on infrastructure — among the highest in the OECD — New Zealand ranks poorly on value for money and asset management: “we spend the most but get the least.”\n  * 🔧 The Commission urges that 60 cents of every dollar go to maintenance and renewals — unglamorous work like fixing roofs, pipes and hospitals — but such projects are politically unattractive because they aren’t “announceable.”\n  * 📉 McLauchlan argues grid politics no longer even works electorally: voters have grown cynical after years of broken promises, cancellations and cost blowouts.\n  * 🏛️ The rise of communications professionals inside the Beehive — far more numerous than in the days of **Keith Holyoake** — has shifted power from policy experts to spin doctors managing the 24-hour news cycle.\n  * 🌊 Wellington’s own troubled mega-projects, including the Town Hall rebuild and the **Tākina Wellington Convention and Exhibition Centre** , symbolise how “new and shiny” projects have crowded out basic maintenance.\n  * ⚠️ Ultimately, McLauchlan frames the infrastructure crisis as a democracy crisis: when announcements trump delivery, public trust erodes and reality eventually catches up.\n  * 🔄 His conclusion: unless governments break free from the comms grid and prioritise long-term maintenance over media theatre, the Infrastructure Plan itself will become just another announcement — briefly hyped, then forgotten.\n\n\n\nRead More\n\n### This post is for subscribers only\n\nBecome a member to get access to all content\n\nSubscribe now",
  "title": "Your Daily Ten@10 - 2026/034",
  "updatedAt": "2026-02-26T21:00:09.227Z"
}