Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – January 30 2019
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.
The Beehive and Parliament Buildings.
Insurance industry report
Bernard Hickey (Newsroom): Another big, fat and wet bus ticket
Hamish Rutherford (Stuff): Damning report seals case for greater regulation of the finance sector
Barry Soper (Newstalk ZB): No doubt New Zealanders ripped off by insurance companies
Jamie Gray (Herald): Insurance industry needs total reform after high level report
Rob Stock (Stuff): Government to fast-track laws to protect customers from banks and insurers
Jason Walls (Herald): Cabinet agrees to get rid of sales incentives in insurance industry that are driving bad behaviour
1News: PM slams life insurance industry after damning report – ‘some practices are simply shocking’
1News: Banking and insurance shake-up: Government promises to act to protect consumers after damning industry review
Katie Bradford (1News): Life insurance industry in for a shake up after release of damning, high level report
BusinessDesk: Life insurance industry slammed in regulators’ report
Jenée Tibshraeny (Interest): Robertson and Faafoi commit to plugging legal gap that sees bank and insurance conduct go unregulated
Jenée Tibshraeny (Interest): Life insurers given timeline to get rid of sales incentives
RNZ: Govt demands change in insurance sector after damning report
RNZ: Life insurance firms ‘put sales and profits ahead of customers’ – report
Housing
Herald Editorial: KiwiBuild not only weapon in armoury
Laura Walters (Newsroom): KiwiBuild shortfall under the microscope
Isaac Davison and Ben Leahy (Herald): ‘Short-sighted’: Govt looks to developers to ramp up social housing – angering non-profit groups
Greg Ninness (Interest): The Government is looking to set up ‘partnership groups’ with builders and developers to undertake major housing projects
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Complaints about Stephen Barclay ‘pre-dated’ KiwiBuild unit being moved
Gia Garrick (RNZ): Property sector insiders rally around Barclay
Zane Small (Newshub: ‘It will be tough for us’: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern gives coy KiwiBuild update
Lucy Bennett (Herald): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks about troubled KiwiBuild programme
RNZ: Grant Robertson on KiwiBuild: ‘We’ve got to re-look at the targets’
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Government won’t scale back overall KiwiBuild target despite setbacks – Grant Robertson
Stuff: Former KiwiBuild boss put through ‘awful’ few months
BusinessDesk: Ex-KiwiBuild boss speaks out
1News: Government insulates 3200 homes as part of warm, dry home scheme
David Hargreaves (Interest): First home buyers enjoying their slice of the action
Government
Audrey Young (Herald): Eight big problems for Jacinda Ardern
Tracy Watkins (Stuff): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern keeps her powder dry on Cabinet reshuffle
Herald: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern holds first post-Cabinet press conference of the year
Herald: Summer heatwave: Wellington’s foggy weather hampers 2019’s first Cabinet meeting
RNZ: Ministers miss Cabinet as Wellington fog cancels flights
Jamie Ensor (Newshub):Labour’s spending priorities completely wrong – Duncan Garner
Herald: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says she was surprised at how public responded to baby Neve
Tax
Richard Harman (Politik): And now the hard part; getting Winston to agree to a capital gains tax
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Many Kiwis pay the top tax rate, but the flipside is that rate is low
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Low and middle-income earners ‘deserve tax break too’
Tova O’Brien (Newshub): Capital gains tax set to be biggest political scrap of the year
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Capital Gains Tax is ‘political suicide’ that will hurt small business owners- Duncan Garner
Tom Pullar-Strecker & Tracy Watkins (Stuff): Decision on capital gains tax will take a wee while, Grant Robertson warns
1News: Capital gains tax could be up for consideration, Finance Minister says
Environment and conservation
Charlie Mitchell (Stuff): By asking for evidence of climate change, a council is neglecting its duty
1News: Climate scientist believes West Coast Council’s dismissal of Zero Carbon Bill is a ‘social issue’, not lack of science
Alex Braae (Spinoff): West Coast council shows that on climate change, facts often aren’t enough
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): West Coast council wants more evidence of man-made climate change before supporting Bill
No Right Turn: Climate Change: (Local) government in denial
Māori TV: Heatwave – Māori Climate Commissioner urges action
Donna Awatere Huata: Is Jacinda’s ‘Nuclear-free moment’ on climate change nothing more than a bumper sticker?
Michael Neilson (Herald): Māori burial grounds under threat from rising seas increasing storm events
Bob Kerridge (Herald): Conservation is encouraging us to be killers
RNZ: Plastic in our waterways: ‘Is it from people littering?’
Alexia Russell (Newsroom): Urban trees a matter of health
Brian Rudman (Herald): A gondola on Rangitoto dishonours the taonga
Blue-Green party mooted
Bryce Edwards (Herald): Political Roundup: Don’t write off a new centrist green party yet
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): Blue-Green Party has a good chance
Gordon Campbell: On National’s new, fledgling blue-green partner
Brigitte Morton (RNZ): New green party: Viable option or wishful thinking?
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): We already have a centrist Green Party – it’s called the Green Party – the truth behind Blue-Greens
RNZ: Former Green MP Kennedy Graham backs new centrist party
No Right Turn: Getting the problem backwards
Parliament
Southland Times Editorial: Sarah Dowie: why we should care
Derek Cheng (Herald): Jami-Lee Ross shut out from National Party offices in Parliament
Liam Hehir (Spinoff): Nick Smith is the latest cheerleader for a four-year term. Here’s why he’s wrong
Health sector employment
Karen Brown (RNZ): Junior doctors’ strikes could extend into February
1News: There’s been a ‘breakdown of trust’ in talks with DHBs, say striking junior doctors
Libby Wilson and Caroline Williams (Stuff): Strung-out resident doctors on strike around New Zealand
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): More than 3000 junior doctors strike against longer working hours
Talisa Kupenga (Māori TV): Second junior doctors’ strike underway
Mike Houlahan (ODT): Doctors stage second strike
Alice Angeloni (Stuff): Striking junior doctors in Marlborough swap placards for rakes
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Jnr Doctors strike again – where is CTU and PSA solidarity?
Stuff: ‘Repeatedly overlooked’ district health board administrators to consider strike
1News: Over 5500 clerical workers with DHBs nationwide to hold stop work meeting
Farah Hancock (Newsroom): DHB admin workers to stop work
Health
RNZ: Meat tax debate fuelled by ‘stupid figure of speech’
Joel MacManus (Stuff): Kiwi-led international report says obesity, climate change, and malnutrition are actually all the same issuegs
Luke Appleby (1News): Cancer Society calls out Consumer NZ’s test methods after sunblock fails SPF test
RNZ: Cancer Society disputes findings about ‘overrated’ sunscreen
Debrin Foxcroft (Stuff): Cancer Society challenges Consumer NZ to retest of under-spotlight sunscreen
Farah Hancock (Newsroom): Smallpox: a disease in deep freeze
Education
Dominion Post Editorial: Paying the cost of tradition: Is it time to ditch school uniforms?
Stuff: Gary McCormick calls for national standardised uniforms for Kiwi kids
Josephine Franks (Stuff): No fees and no have-nots at this Northland school – but a whole lot of fundraising
Simon Collins (Herald): More schools delay start dates to avoid the heat
Emily Menkes (Herald): Grant Hannis case: Students say Massey University did not take complaints seriously enough
David Farrar: Massey ignored complaints about predator professor
Mary-Jo Tohill (Stuff): Telford staff support the community that supported them
Justice, corrections
Donna Chisholm (North & South): The Family Court is more broken than ever – what will it take to fix it?
Toni Myers (Newsroom): The drug courts that work where prisons don’t
Transport
Amanda Cropp (Stuff): Urgent brake tests on 300 Christchurch buses after VTNZ failed to do proper checks
Stephen Forbes (Interest): Treasury report shows tensions with the Minister of Transport Phil Twyford over ‘extremely complex’ Auckland light rail project
1News: High temperatures cause commuter chaos as Wellington train lines shut down during rush hour
Stuff: Wellington trains expected to return to normal on Wednesday after heatwave meltdown
1News: Horn-happy motorists beware: Wellington councillor aims to ban ‘really annoying’ toots in Mt Vic tunnel
Cathy Strong (Stuff): Why I toot in Mt Vic tunnel
Dileepa Fonseka (Stuff): $930 taxi ride refund ‘lucky’ break after driver of Wellington taxi found
Meriana Johnsen (RNZ): Tourist ‘puzzled’ over time taken for refund from $930 taxi ride
RNZ: Tourist charged $900 for a five-minute taxi ride
Employment
Heather Chalmers (Stuff): $400 a day? Forestry industry told to improve pay to meet one billion tree planting target
Peter Cullen (Stuff): Promoting flexible jobs while protecting vulnerable workers
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Fencing businesses struggle for staff: ‘Young people don’t want to do physical work’
Local government
Sophie Bateman (Newshub): John Tamihere vows to end homelessness within 18 months if elected Auckland Mayor
Leighton Keith (Stuff): Council should have told community about massive raw sewage spill at Taranaki stream, mayor says
Dileepa Fonseka (Stuff): Demolition an option for Wellington’s City to Sea Bridge after structural issues investigated
Heta Gardiner (Māori TV): Māori to have say on Rotorua lakefront redevelopment
RNZ: Outdated infrastructure cited as reason for sewage spill in New Plymouth
RNZ: Fears raised over E. coli as Kawerau pipes are flushed
Aotearoa New Zealand
Herald: Should New Zealand also be called Aotearoa? Petition launched to add to country’s official name
Scott Palmer (Newshub): Petition launched to add Aotearoa to country’s official name
John Wilson
Fran O’Sullivan (Herald): Brain tumour felled Fonterra’s last hands on chairman
Gerard Hutching (Stuff): Former Fonterra chairman John Wilson ‘the ultimate advocate’
Andrea Fox (Herald): Former Fonterra chairman John Wilson’s death a blow to dairy industry
Other
RNZ: GCSB Minister Andrew Little on Huawei 5G decision: ‘There’s going be tension one way or another’
Peter Hartcher (Stuff): New Zealand researcher continually harassed by China in her own country
Eva Corlett (RNZ): Immigration declines residency for Auckland’s La Vista owners
RNZ: Trade deficit hits 11-year high on fuel imports
BusinessDesk: NZ’s trade deficit highest in a decade
Phil Pennington (RNZ): Rugby club removes ‘inappropriate’ award named after paedophile
Jessica Tyson (Māori TV): Film addressing domestic violence, alcohol, drugs wins award
Holly Carran (Newshub): West Coast campground says it won’t survive against Govt-funded freedom camping
Leigh-Marama McLachlan (RNZ): Symposium looks at building Maori social economy
Tiim Newman (Stuff): Palestinian activists protest Israeli musicians in Nelson
RNZ: Man who abused elderly woman performed music at rest homes
