The local government backstop process is a government policy that requires councils to submit their own amalgamation or reform plans within a set timeframe or else have a plan imposed on them.
Up to 12 framings across outlets and orientations — each a short phrase the extractor generated to characterise the piece's editorial angle (not a quote). Filter by lean to see how each bloc is spinning the story; click through to read the original.
government-driven consolidation without local consent
Stand up or you'll be swallowed up, Feds tells Otago districtscommunity-led alternative to government takeover
Rehette Stoltz discusses council amalgamationsLobby groups, unions, think tanks and industry bodies whose own releases or whose people’s media appearances touched this topic over the last 12 months. Owned = their own press releases; earned = their people quoted across radio, press & commentary. A card carried in both — with the release coming first — is the agenda-setting signal. Co-occurrence isn’t proof a group drove the coverage.
government-driven consolidation without local consent
Stacked weekly counts; colour by lean. “n/a” covers government and iwi-Māori sources where lean isn't applicable.
How this topic has been named, week by week. A new alias winning out is usually a framing shift.
How the news corpus has covered this same topic over the last 12 weeks. 3 articles from RNZ, Stuff, NZ Herald, ODT, 1News, Newsroom and The Spinoff. Click through to the press view for the full panel.
Verbatim segments from politicians speaking on podcasts and radio shows about this topic. Sourced via the voice-reference library — each speaker has been confirmed manually from their voice clip. Click play to stream the original audio from the publisher, pre-seeked to the moment the quote starts.
So, where do we end up on the great journey of council amalgamation? Around 48 have submitted a plan, 17 abstained. Simon Watts is the local government minister, and he's …
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