Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – February 20 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.
China-NZ relations
Fran O’Sullivan (Herald): Jacinda Ardern or Winston Peters – Who’s handling China?
Richard Harman: Secret agreement might solve Huawei problem
Audrey Young (Herald): Foreign Minister Winston Peters slams former Prime Minister Jenny Shipley after China Daily article appears
Audrey Young (Herald): Jacinda Ardern confirms that David Parker is set to attend Belt and Road conference in Beijing
Gordon Campbell: On the alleged crisis over our relations with China
Barry Soper (Herald): Chinese whispers – Donald Trump looms large in NZ’s cooling relationship
Jo Moir (RNZ): China invites New Zealand to attend infrastructure forum
Jenée Tibshraeny (Interest): Trade Minister mulls invite to Belt and Road conference in China
Michael Daly (Stuff): Ardern: No final Huawei 5G decision yet
Chris Keall (Herald): Door still open to Huawei, Ardern says
RNZ: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Huawei: UK and US won’t influence New Zealand decisions
Hamish Rutherford (Herald): Chinese ambassador says New Zealand and China must ‘firmly hold the rudder’
RNZ: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Huawei: UK and US won’t influence New Zealand decisions
Bryan Bruce (Daily Blog): Spy vs Spy
Capital gains tax and Tax Working Group
Tova O’Brien (Newshub): Revealed: Majority of Kiwi voters oppose capital gains tax
Branko Marcetic (Newsroom): Capital gains tax – a vested interest
Jason Walls (Herald): National Leader Simon Bridges says a capital gains tax would lead to Kiwis leaving NZ for Australia
Jane Patterson (RNZ): National Party on offense ahead of capital gains tax report less than a minute ago
Jenée Tibshraeny (Interest): Bridges fails to answer questions about the fairness and effectiveness of the tax system
Duncan Garner (Newshub): Winston Peters could kill off capital gains tax
No Right Turn: They can’t take it with them when they go
Point of order: Gunning for the “rich pricks” through tax changes brings the risk of an electoral recoil
Digital sales tax
Katie Fitzgerald (Newshub): Digital services tax ‘right thing to do’ – Jacinda Ardern
Zoe Madden-Smith (Vice): New Zealand finally wants to tax internet giants – but not very much
Duncan Greive (The Spinoff): The day of digital reckoning is drawing near
Aimee Shaw (Herald): Explainer: How Government’s digital services tax will effect offshore tech giants
Jordan Peterson
Rachel Stewart (Herald): Critics’ hate speech making sure guru will stay popular
Alex Penk (Stuff): Why we need to have ‘anti-fragile’ conversations
Simon Wilson (Herald): An interview with controversial celeb psychologist Jordan Peterson
1News: Jordan Peterson says young men attend his talks not for political reasons, but to turn their lives around
Stuff: Jordan Peterson, author of 12 Rules of Life, says men struggle because of active discouragement
Environment and conservation
Jason Walls (Herald): The Government’s ban on oil and gas exploration could cost up to $30b by 2050, NZIER say
Benedict Collins (1News): Government’s oil and gas ban could cost country $28b, new economic analysis finds
Mike Hosking (Herald): Government’s economic sabotage with oil, gas exploration ban
Kate Gudsell (RNZ): 23 councils refuse to sign climate change commitment
Kate Gudsell (RNZ): Climate change declaration ‘politically charged’ – Thames-Coromandel mayor Sandra Goudie
Juha Saarinen (Herald): How batteries will transform the power grid
Dominion Post: Editorial: 1080 or not 1080, that is the (eventual) question
David Farrar: The anti-science Government
Jesse Mulligan (Newshub): We just lost another species to extinction – it must be the last
Ellen O’Dwyer (Stuff): Department of Conservation lodges submission against Kaimai wind farm
Southland Times: Editorial – Here, puss-puss-puss…
Anna Campbell (ODT): Transformational science poses some questions
Anusha Bradley (RNZ): MPI to investigate death of eels after Hawke’s Bay Regional Council work in Tutaekuri River
Housing
Katie Fitzgerald and Heather McCarron (Newshub): Action, not ‘rhetoric’ needed from Government on housing – poverty campaigner
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Public housing waitlist cracks 10,000, with more families waiting for longer for housing
Scott Palmer (Newshub): More than 10,000 Kiwi households on public housing waiting list
Isaac Davison (Herald): Wait list for social housing tops 10,000
Katarina Williams (Stuff): Government to perform stocktake of emergency housing in wake of Auckland ‘rat hole’ motel revelations
Matt Shand (Stuff): Māori student had rules laid out after potential landlord found out her ethnicity
Victoria University Of Wellington (Newsroom): ‘New solutions’ to housing crisis
Health
Lucy Bennett (Herald): DHBs still waiting for annual plans to be signed off
Lucy Bennett (Herald): Ministry of Health using old Census data to work out DHB funding
Isaac Davison (Herald): ‘It will come back to bite them’: Funding cut for elderly day programmes
Sandra Conchie (Bay of Plenty Times): Thousand-plus appointments, surgeries delayed in Bay of Plenty as junior doctor strikes continue
Herald: Waikato DHB puts brakes on recruiting new CEO due to ‘challenges’
Stuff: ‘Challenges’ pause Waikato DHB search for boss
RNZ: Waikato DHB forced to halt recruitment of CEO citing ‘challenges’
Cliff Taylor (Stuff): Anti-vaxxers’ claim that Northland kids ‘mass vaccinated’ is slammed by DHB
Marty Sharpe (Stuff): Hospital sterilisation units are not audited by the Health Ministry but may be after Hawke’s Bay incident
Samesh Mohanlall (Stuff): Community health, education and care is key to Maori nursing graduates
Drugs, and law reform
Paul Manning (Herald): Doctors, not officials, should decide who gets medical cannabis- Paul Manning
Russell Brown (Public address): Always asking the wrong questions about cannabis
Charlie O’Mannin (The Spinoff): Drug testing on the menu at Otago University O-Week
Bob McCoskrie: Students get green light for dangerous drug use
Hamish McNeilly (Stuff): Students can check their drugs at Otago Orientation
Judith Harvey (Stuff): Medicinal cannabis in Australia changed my life, NZ needs to wake up
Stuff: Methamphetamine sentencing review planned in Court of Appeal
State sector
Hamish Rutherford (Stuff): Polling probe may reveal public service did not know it had a political problem
Herald: State Services Commissioner looking into Inland Revenue political poll question
Hamish Rutherford (Stuff): State Services Commission to examine political polling by government departments
RNZ: Public servants warned after IRD survey asks political questions
Local government
Tim Murphy (Newsroom): Should he stay or should he go
Kate Nicol-Williams (1News): ‘Challenging’ Wellington Town Hall project delayed as budget hits $112.4m with further costs expected
Laura Dooney (RNZ): From $43m to $112m: Wellington town hall project balloons further
Media
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Digital services tax unlikely to be used to bail out local media businesses
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): NZ Herald owner NZME plans to have online paywall by end of June
BusinessDesk: NZME targets profits from paywall by 2021
Tim Murphy (Newsroom): Another brick in the Herald paywall
Herald: Media council upholds inaccuracy claim against writer’s Herald column
Education
Simon Collins (Herald): Compulsory qualifications planned for home-based early childhood education and childcare
Christina Persico (Stuff): Green School New Zealand to be built in Oakura and open in 2020
Mike Houlahan (ODT): Parents vent on Tomorrow’s Schools plan
John Lewis (ODT): NZQA hires UK company to provide online marking
Employment
Laura Walters (Newsroom): Pay equity bill puts teachers’ case at risk – PPTA
Chris Keall (Herald): ‘Climate of fear’ sees only three Chorus subcontractors charged
Shelley Knowles (Stuff): How Pacific workers help New Zealand businesses to thrive
Carmen Hall Want a job? (Bay of Plenty Times): Kiwifruit industry launches campaign to attract thousands of workers
Government
Lucy Bennett (Herald): Government’s wellbeing indicators to be released next month, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirms
Jo Moir (RNZ): Govt’s Wellbeing Budget labelled ‘nonsense’
National Party
Jason Walls (Herald): Senior National MP Judith Collins has again faced questions over her leadership ambitions
1News: Watch: National Party MPs stand behind Simon Bridges as poll results show big drop
Other
Tom Kitchin (Stuff): Police admit chain of evidence for Pike River mine ‘diabolical’
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Should Government give everyone free cash?
Lucy Bennett (Herald): Jami-Lee Ross uses first question to ask about political donations
Graham Adams (Noted): National’s high-risk gamble on marijuana and euthanasia
Karl Du Fresne (Stuff): Cultural appropriation a minefield for image-conscious and risk-averse companies
Te Aniwa Hurihanganui (RNZ): ‘Huge concern’ over rushed Hauraki settlement
1News: Breakfast hosts react to criticism of Whittaker’s ‘gender stereotype reinforcing’ chocolates – ‘A silly thing to get upset about’
No Right Turn: “More ambitious”?
1News: Whānau horrified after revered ancestor depicted bare-breasted and with nipple rings in painting
Maria Slade (The Spinoff): Salvation Army marches in with an ethical shopping truck for South Auckland
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Commerce minister pushes to stop ticket scalping, says current events law can’t
Laura Wiltshire (Hawkes Bay Today): New Zealand’s fruit bowl would benefit from EU trade agreement
1News: David Parker denies telling EU commissioner NZ farmers allow cows ‘to s*** in our rivers’
1News: New Zealand contributes $500K humanitarian funding to the Venezuela crisis
RNZ: Public watchdog toughens stance on detention of the vulnerable
Herald: State of emergency extended for another week in the Nelson-Tasman region
Matthew Whitehead (The Standard): Pollwatch: Colmar Brunton 18/02/2019
David Kennedy: A Green New Deal for Aotearoa
George Block (ODT): Miniature horse dies after stabbing attack
1News: Death ship or cause for celebration – how should we remember Captain Cook 250 years after he landed in NZ?
Zoe Madden-Smith (Vice): NZ Government Is Not Doing Enough To Protect Kiwis From Online Hate, Says Report
1News: Student Volunteer Army scheme hits secondary schools
Sarah Williams (Idealog): Diversity and inclusion in action: Why Spark gets behind the Pride community
Ben Strang (RNZ): NZ justice system is ‘an ambulance at the bottom of a cliff’ – MPs hear from public
David Williams (Newsroom): Tenure review’s lucky eight
Keri Mills (Briefing papers): A day at Waitangi, and at the beach
Paul Cully (Stuff): New Zealand Cricket has damaged its standing with Kiwi women over Scott Kuggeleijn, say academics
Chris Keall and Luke Kirkness (Herald): Auckland Council demands more transparency from Lime scooters on malfunction issues
