Politics Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – 14 December 2017 – Today’s content
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.

Below are the links to the items online. The full text of these items are contained in the PDF file (click to download).
Euthanasia
Tracy Watkins (Stuff): Parliament votes on assisted dying
Dan Satherley and Giles Dexter (Newshub): Assisted dying: ‘Fear, uncertainty and doubt’ campaign ahead – Seymour
Emma Hurley (Newshub): Assisted dying Bill passes first reading in New Zealand Parliament
Tim Murphy (Newsroom): Big vote in favour of euthanasia bill
RNZ: Euthanasia bill passes first reading
David Farrar (KIwiblog): End of Life Choice Bill passes first reading
Nicholas Jones (Herald): Euthanasia support gets boost after referendum pledge
Benedict Collins (RNZ): Changes to euthanasia bill to court NZ First vote
Nicholas Jones (Herald): Five hundred emails in an afternoon: Euthanasia debate heats up
Anna Bracewell-Worrall (Newshub): Aussie right-to-life group lobbies NZ politicians against euthanasia
David Farrar (Kiwiblog): Hosking says send euthanasia bill to a referendum
Child welfare and poverty
Jared Savage (Herald): Moko inquest: Red flags missed, Coroner wants compulsory checks on children under 5
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Beef up Well Child Tamariki Ora to fight child neglect – Children’s Commissioner
Yvonne Tahana (1News): Coroner investigating Moko Rangitoheriri’s horrific death calls for all children to be monitored by government agencies
Grant Chapman and Mike McRoberts (Newshub): Coroner challenges PM Ardern, Government after Moko inquest
Edward Gay and Joanna MacKenzie (RNZ): Child, Youth and Family blind to Moko warning signs
Stacey Kirk (Stuff): Moko Rangitoheriri: Never more invisible, never more let down
Rachel Smalley (Newstalk ZB): There must never be another baby Moko
Gordon Campbell (Werewolf): On vulnerable kids, fresh RNZ funding, and Poppy
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Are we really sad KidsCan is getting dumped? Really?
1News: ‘We are seeing more need’ – Kidscan alarmed at prospect of $350,000 funding cut
International relations
Matt Nippert (Herald): GCSB and SIS table China’s influence at Five Eyes meeting
Pattrick Smellie (Stuff): Nations question terms of their friendship with China
Nicholas Jones (Herald): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says Australian Government ‘being overly sensitive’
Craig McCulloch (RNZ): Is Australia being too sensitive on Manus? ‘Yes’ – PM
Ben Doherty (Guardian): Barnaby Joyce says New Zealand should ‘back off’ on offer to resettle refugees
RNZ: Cooks to lobby New Zealand over pension portability
RNZ: New Zealand aid to Tokelau needs to count – academic
Education
RNZ: ‘Schools shouldn’t be finance companies’ – Principal
RNZ: ‘Teacher crisis’: Aides standing in for registered staff
RNZ: Govt unveils $9.5m package to tackle teacher shortage
Talisa Kupenga (Māori TV): $9.5mil teachers package will support more Māori teachers – Kelvin Davis
Simon Collins (Herald): Labour cuts National’s planned teacher bonus
Jo Moir (Stuff): Government teacher supply package targets Auckland teachers and hard-to-fill subject areas
1News: Government sets up new emergency fund to halt looming teacher shortage
The Standard: National’s Standards
Laura Dooney (RNZ): Karori community ‘losing a lot’ with campus sale
Paul Barkle (Infometrics): Fees-free tertiary education: right problem, wrong answer?
Budget and economy
Tracy Watkins (Stuff): Labour’s early Christmas present for families, beneficiaries
Audrey Young (Herald): Government set to implement centre-piece of campaign but National says it’s too narrow
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): Money for families needs focus, not a free-for-all
Newshub: Govt’s spending priorities to be revealed
Michael Reddell (Croaking Cassandra): Why so secretive?
Defence
Richard Harman (Politik): The 38 per cent Defence budget blowout
Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): Battle over ‘blowout’ in Anzac frigate costs
RNZ: Govt to keep frigate contractor despite soaring cost
Mei Heron (RNZ): Frigates’ costs blowout by $265m
TOP
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Gareth Morgan ends the ‘farce’ of trying to get into Parliament
The Wireless: Gareth Morgan will resign as leader of TOP
Laura Walters (Stuff): Gareth Morgan won’t lead TOP into 2020 election
RNZ: Gareth Morgan to stand down from TOP leadership
Herald: TOP to fight next election, minus Morgan
Election and 2017 in review
Spinoff: 2017 in politics: The champs and the flops
Victoria University: Jacinda Ardern – PM against the odds
Claire Trevett (Herald): National and its Frankenstein’s monster
Environment
Rachel Stewart (Spinoff): What gives with the chief scientist of the Environmental Protection Agency?
Grant McLauchlan (Herald): Environmental watchdog sorely needed
Charles Anderson (Spinoff): ‘They are going after the last fish’: Michael Field on the race for Pacific tuna
Charlie Mitchell (Stuff): More complaints emerge on conditions at water bottling plant
Laurel Stowell (Wanganui Chronicle): Editorial: Climate change to transform farming
Dominic Harris (Stuff): Kea recognised as endangered on red list of globally threatened species
Public service CEO pay
Barry Soper (Newstalk ZB): Change on the cards for State Service
Bernard Hickey (Newsroom): ‘Enough with the big pay hikes’
Hamish Rutherford (Stuff): Public sector boss warns escalating CEO pay is ‘not sustainable’
Chris Bramwell (RNZ): Crown CEOs paid too much – Commissioner
Herald: Government may change law to curb state sector bosses’ pay rises
Health
RNZ: Mental health inquiry must be independent – advocates
Charlie Dreaver (RNZ): Most DHBs keep no records on self harm in respite care
RNZ: Funding for Māori and Pasifika youth mental health research
Jake Fitzgibbon (Stuff): One in five elderly New Zealanders say they are lonely, study says
RNZ: Wgtn Airport confirms toxic compounds not used
Aaron Leaman (Stuff): Alarm raised over doctors’ ‘culture of entitlement’
Housing
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Law to ban foreign home buyers to be introduced in Parliament, passed in new year
Nicholas Jones (Herald): Legislation to ban foreigners from buying existing homes will be introduced tomorrow
RNZ: Bill banning foreign home-buyers to be introduced
RNZ: November house sales rebound, with record prices in 7 regions
Herald: Families in Papamoa emergency housing before Christmas
Robin Martin (RNZ): Waitara residents face massive lease hikes
RNZ: Housing ‘halo’ effect shines a light on new hotspot
Primary industries
Anne Salmond (Newsroom): Plan to revive Forestry Service not out of the woods
Gerard Hutching (Stuff): Fisheries, forestry, biosecurity and food safety have new ‘entities’
Newshub: MPI gets rearranged into four agencies
Herald: MPI to be re-organised into four by early 2018 – O’Connor
Audrey Young (Herald): Strict tests announced for New Zealand manuka honey exports under new MPI rules
The Country (Herald): Listen: Jacinda Ardern on Mycoplasma bovis – ‘we’ve got to contain this’
Food and inequality
RNZ: Pumpkin and kumara prices skyrocket
Rachel Clayton (Stuff): Wet weather has led to skyrocketing prices for pumpkin and kumara
Ruby Nyika (Stuff): We want tinned tomatoes, Hamilton’s Salvation Army says
Virginia Fallon (Stuff): Give generously – but please no tinned tomatoes or chickpeas, say charities
Ryan Bridge (Newshub): Charities ask Kiwis to donate more than second hand goods or tinned vegetables
Justice
Alistair Paulin (Press Editorial): We should care about prisoners more than we care about dogs in a hot car
RNZ: Indians, Chinese demand action on crime
Auckland
Todd Niall (RNZ): Government’s America’s Cup plan deemed too costly and difficult
RNZ: Exemptions to visitor rate strip $1.9m from expected take
Todd Niall (RNZ): Almost 33,000 face 10% rates rises
Other
David Williams (Newsroom): CTV families’ last-ditch plea to police
Herald: Government to launch independent inquiry into pipeline failure
RNZ: Govt inquiry into country’s fuel supply
BusinessDesk (Newsroom): IRD to get tougher overseas powers
Herald: Public media should put people, place and planet before profit – report
No Right Turn: More dubious behaviour from the SIS
Russell Brown (Public Address): Public Address Word of the Year 2017
John Boynton (RNZ): Auckland iwi find common ground
Liz McDonald (Press): EQC bungles could force elderly Christchurch woman to sleep in car
Northern Advocate: Don Brash at Whangarei play to learn why te reo should be spoken more