Five Big Things: Friday, November 24

Good evening, it’s been a day of the coalition deal being announced, a woman's struggle to get funding for her health battle and advice on kids and mobile phones.

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Winston Peters gets first go and then David Seymour gets a try under the somewhat unusual arrangement for the Deputy Prime Minister role in the new government.

NZ First leader Peters, who was in full flow at the coalition deal announcement this morning, will be in the gig until May 2025 and then Act’s Seymour will take over for the second half of the term.

Other winners in the new Cabinet include Nicola Willis (Finance), Erica Stanford (Education), Paul Goldsmith (Justice) and Shane Reti (Health). The full list of new ministers is here.

As expected, National’s proposed foreign buyer tax has been torpedoed by NZ First and will no longer go ahead. But incoming PM Christopher Luxon says there’s plenty of fiscal wriggle room for tax “relief” all the same.

Meanwhile, both NZ First and Act insisted on co-governance having no part in the delivery of public services, so that’s out the window too. There’s also a range of other Treaty-related policy changes.

Kirsten Bangs wants to access her KiwiSaver on grounds of serious illness but has been denied access to the fund, despite her rare disease being terminal and preventing her from returning to work.

"I wanted things to be easy, I spoke to the KiwiSaver team at my bank as well before I did it, they actually advised me that applying under serious illness was my best option given the circumstances."

After Breakfast contacted BNZ, they said they would reexamine the case.

A 36-year-old man has been arrested after a fatal hit-and-run in Naenae last week. 

He was appearing in the Lower Hutt District Court today on a number of charges, including driving causing death, burglary and a number of dishonesty offences.

Anita Rani, 62, was sadly killed in the incident.

Further organisations have received threats by email today, following yesterday's messages which affected over a dozen around the country.

Police said to date more than 70 organisations have received concerning emails, including schools, hospitals, courthouses and places of worship. But they don't believe there is a genuine threat.

When should you give your child their first mobile phone?

Children and mobile phones can be a minefield - Andy Phippen looks at some of the key issues including how kids can use phones safely.

That cheeky holiday tan you’re planning on getting this summer could be hurting your skin’s microbiota, according to research.

In their study, scientists from the University of Manchester say getting tanned or sunburnt can lower the healthy bacteria’s abundance.