Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – May 03 2019
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.
Today’s content
Pike River
RNZ: Pike River: Rebecca Macfie on its ‘extraordinary story’
Barry Soper (Newstalk ZB): It’s costing us $36m to conclude that mines are unpredictable
Duncan Garner (Newshub): Government won’t risk lives for Pike River re-entry
Lucy Bennett (Herald): Pike River Mine recovery boss turns down offer by Winston Peters to go in to mine (paywalled)
Kurt Bayer (Herald): Could animals nibbling through tubes have caused Pike River Mine re-entry delay?
1News: ‘Not a show-stopper’- agency for Pike River Recovery says there will definitely be re-entry, despite postponement
Kurt Bayer and Derek Cheng (Herald): Pike River re-entry delayed due to safety concerns
Zane Small (Newshub): Andrew Little quashes suggestion National was right about Pike River re-entry all along
RNZ: Unexplained atmospheric readings delay Pike River Mine re-entry
Collette Devlin (Stuff): Pike River re-entry delayed after Andrew Little raises safety concerns
1News: Tomorrow’s planned re-entry to Pike River Mine drift delayed
Eleanor Ainge Roy (Guardian): Pike river mine disaster: operation to retrieve bodies called off at last minute
1News: Delay of Pike River mine re-entry ‘deeply upsetting’, but safety the priority – Jacinda Ardern
Vita Molyneux (Newshub): Pike River re-entry delay ‘deeply upsetting’, but safety the priority – Jacinda Ardern
Kurt Bayer (Herald): Frustration and disappointment as long-awaited re-entry to Pike River mine hits another delay (paywalled)
Conan Young (RNZ): Tears shed at news Pike River re-entry would be delayed
Rachael Graham, Logan Church (RNZ): Checkpoint: Pike River families hopeful despite delay
Collette Devlin and Joanne Carroll (Stuff): Pike River families confident re-entry delay will resume
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): ‘It’s not a show-stopper’: Families of Pike River victims understand mine re-entry delay
Joanne Carroll (Stuff): Pike River widow ‘full of nerves’ for mine drift re-entry
AAP: Pike River Mine re-entry: Australian victim’s mother fearful of holding on to hope
Drugs
Benedict Collins (1News): Government planning to reveal cannabis referendum details next week, 1 NEWS understands
David Farrar: Cannabis referendum could be untidy
Daniela Maoate-Cox (RNZ): Support and criticism for misuse of drugs bill at select committee
Zane Small (Newshub): Government accused of appeasing Greens’ ‘incessant desire’ to decriminalise drugs
Education
Laura Walters (Newsroom): Can Wellbeing Budget solve teaching crisis?
Anna Bracewell-Worrall (Newshub): Why principals say $95m Budget announcement won’t address actual teaching problems
John Lewis (ODT): Schools hail $95m to fill teacher gap
Talisa Kupenga (Māori TV): Pre-Budget teachers package not enough to curb shortage – former teacher
John Gerritsen (RNZ): Teacher training to get $95m more government spending over four years
1News: Government promises thousands more teachers over the next four years – at a cost of $95 million
Zane Small (Newshub): Budget 2019: Government sets aside $95 million to hire more teachers
Zane Small (Newshub): Education Minister Chris Hipkins confronted by students over Budget announcement
Simon Collins (Herald): Modern learning: finding a balance between face-to-face and online learning (paywalled)
Simon Collins (Herald): Modern learning: No more rows of desks in today’s schools (paywalled)
Simon Collins (Herald): Modern learning: Schools gamble with children’s future (paywalled)
Sarah Proctor-Thomson (Herald): Love isn’t enough to sustain our teachers (paywalled)
ODT: Invercargill school attack videoed
Che Baker (Southland Times):Invercargill school children viciously attacked in bullying incident
Elena McPhee (ODT): Russell McVeagh ties to law schools re-evaluated
Christchurch mosque shootings
Herald: Christchurch mosque attacks: Turkish man Zekeriya Tuyan dies from injuries after 48 days
Gordon Campbell: On the media’s novel rules for the Christchurch shooter’s trial
Alex Braae (Spinoff): Overseas critics don’t get why our terror trial reporting restrictions matter
Patrick Begley (Sydney Morning Herald): Australian white nationalist group tried to recruit Christchurch terror attack accused
Jordan Oppert (1News): University of Canterbury’s Muslim students get safety tips in workshop with police
Māori MPs
Tova O’Brien (Newshub): Willie Jackson, Paula Bennett locked in fierce racism row
Jason Walls (Herald): National’s Paula Bennett says comments calling into question her Māori heritage were ‘racist’
Shelly Bay
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Shelly Bay valued at $23.6m, then $12.8m but valuations ‘no conspiracy’
RNZ: Shelly Bay developer sale at fraction of price to iwi – property records
Housing
Jane Patterson (RNZ): Changing answers on KiwiBuild causing headache for Twyford
1News: West Coast most affordable, Auckland most unaffordable place to live according to report
Anuja Nadkarni (Stuff): Foreign buyer ban sees drop in house sales to overseas buyers
David Hargreaves (Interest): Stats NZ says number of residential properties sold to overseas buyers plummeted after the foreign buyer ban came fully into place
RNZ: Foreign house sales drop 80 percent
RNZ: Checkpoint: Social housing tenants feel like ‘second class citizens’
Sahiban Hyde (Hawkes Bay Today): Hawke’s Bay police try new initiative in bid to fix woeful family harm statistics
Elena McPhee (ODT): Making students compete for flat ‘distasteful’: Twyford
Brooke Jenner (RNZ): Bidding war backdown and apology from Dunedin property manager
Joseph Nunweek and Edward Miller (Spinoff): How Kiwibuild destroyed the capital gains tax
Health
Boyd Swinburn (Herald): Health crisis – What will it take to break through? (paywalled)
Libby Wilson and Oliver Lewis (Stuff): ‘Significant deficit’ bites Waikato DHB as Health Minister refuses to sign off annual plan
Press Editorial: Were Māori sidelined in the mental health inquiry?
Jessica Tyson (Māori TV): 20k NZers sign petitions for better funding of medicines
Cate Broughton (Stuff): Emaciated mental health patient found living in squalor
Mike Treen (Daily Blog): Tobacco tax is racist and anti-working class
RNZ: Majority of junior doctors working during strike – DHBs
Mike Peebles (Southland Times): Frustrated Southland Hospital junior doctor wants safer working conditions – not strikes
Peter Bramley (Dominion Post): Why things must change in the junior doctors’ dispute
RNZ: Hospital beds full during junior doctors strike – District Health Boards
Ben Leahy (Herald): Privacy breach: More than 100 Hauora Tairāwhiti patient files in Gisborne missing
Catherine Hutton (RNZ): Wairarapa school mass illness: Report highlights lack of communication
Laine Moger (Stuff): Unvaccinated daycare staff posing serious measles risk to babies, mum and experts say
1News: Measles cases continues to rise throughout New Zealand, new cases in Auckland and Bay of Plenty region
Farah Hancock (Newsroom): Meningitis: a deadly alphabet soup
Newshub: Vaping only worth doing to curb smoking addiction – Ministry of Health advisor
Tax, IRD
Brian Easton (Pundit): Too Near a Third Rail?
Terry Baucher (Interest): Interview with Andrea Black: Her role in the TWG, the inside stories on the various factions, and how many issues have a life yet
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Support builds for tax advocacy service to help Kiwis in dispute with IRD
Government
Jason Walls (Herald): At the beginning of this year, ministers started releasing their diaries – what are they getting up to? (paywalled)
Claire Trevett (Herald): Winston FIrst: Who’s really running the country? (paywall)
RNZ: Semenoff Logging court case: National accuses Shane Jones of a ‘cover-up’
David Farrar: Audrey’s bottom ranked Ministers
National Party
Peter Dunne (Newsroom): Silly stunts not the way to win power
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Simon Bridges ‘really enjoyed’ screaming about slushies in Parliament – Judith Collins
Madeleine Chapman (Spinoff): Every frame of Simon Bridges yelling ‘slushies!’ in parliament, analysed
Alice Neville (Spinoff): Everything you ever wanted to know about slushies but were afraid to ask
Melissa Nightingale (Herald): Eminem’s representatives fight costs decision in National Party’s copyright breach
Stuff: Copyright claim in Supreme Court for rip-off of Eminem’s Lose Yourself
1News: Court reserves its decision in National Party Eminem damage appeal case
RNZ: Eminem lawyers seek another shot at National Party
Rachael Kelly (Stuff): Clutha-Southland MP Hamish Walker moves to Queenstown
Local government
Jean Drage (Stuff): Local elections are a hit and miss affair
Henry Cooke (Stuff): LGNZ say online voting could be needed for local elections as postal votes cannot be guaranteed
RNZ: Damaged Adventure Park to repay debts with $5 million from council
Auckland
Simon Wilson (Herald): How Auckland Council found half a billion dollars without cutting costs (paywalled)
Tim Murphy (Newsroom): Ongoing ‘killer’ costs of Auckland’s rail tunnel
Ben Leahy (Herald): Budget blowout: Auckland Council approves $500m City Rail Link bailout
Rowan Quinn (RNZ): Council to pay its share of City Rail Link $1b budget blowout
Stephen Forbes (Interest): Council development agency Panuku shows its hand in Auckland’s property market
Matthew Theunissen (RNZ): Dog owners in Auckland feel ‘policed’ as council looks to change walking rules
RNZ: South Auckland shootings raise fears in community – mayor
Anne Gibson (Herald):Auckland councillor Chris Darby calls for more ‘stringent’ helicopter landing rules (paywalled)
Justice and corrections
Collette Devlin (Stuff): MPs urged to not appoint judges to commission for miscarriages of justice
Derek Cheng (Herald): Access to privileged info may be key to proving innocence, MPs are told
RNZ: Prison payroll fixed after Corrections’ $2m consultants spend
Amber-Leigh Woolf (Stuff): First Māori judge, Joseph Williams, appointed to the Supreme Court
RNZ: Joe Williams first Māori judge appointed to Supreme Court
Herald: Justice Joe Williams becomes first Māori Supreme Court judge
Jamie Ensor (Newshub):Justice Joseph Victor Williams appointed as Supreme Court judge
Gabriel Makhlouf
Jenée Tibshraeny (Interest): Grant Robertson says his legacy will be his work underpinning NZ’s first ‘Wellbeing Budget’
Chris Hutching (Stuff): Civil servant who promoted Treasury’s ‘wellness’ measures to head Ireland bank
Cusha Norman (1News): NZ Treasury boss appointed Governor of Ireland’s Central Bank
RNZ: NZ Treasury boss Gabriel Makhlouf appointed to head Ireland’s central bank
Environment
Geoff Simmons (Spinoff): Don’t listen to the extremists. Gene editing could be an environmental miracle for NZ
Tema Hemi (Māori TV): “Radical and collective change” needed to stop drilling in Taranaki
Skara Bohny (Stuff): DOC gearing up for Kahurangi National Park 1080 drop to hit rats
Stuff: Supreme Court asked to hear poison drop case from Nelson
Jennifer Eder (Stuff): Forestry authority reduces fines for Kaikōura farmer who cut down trees
No Right Turn: Climate Change: The sell-out
No Right Turn: Climate Change: Ban palm kernel
RNZ: Schools Strike 4 Climate: Second protest action planned
Brooke Jenner (RNZ): Tree deaths across New Zealand after dry conditions followed wet
Transport
Matthew Hooton (RNZ): Matthew Hooton: Port could be Jacinda Ardern’s legacy
LIstener Editorial: NZ’s shocking road toll shows it’s time for more median barriers
Simon Wilson: Platitudes about better driving will make the roads more dangerous (paywalled)
Martin Johnston (Herald):More than half of survivors in New Zealand trauma study were seriously injured in road crashes
Libby Wilson (Stuff): Health cost in promoting cycling without safety provisions: trauma study
Charlie Dreaver (RNZ): More cyclists need hospital treatment for injuries, study finds
Dileepa Fonseka (Stuff): Bus crisis sparks war of words between Wellington’s city and regional councillors
RNZ: Councils expect few bus cancellations over new rest and meal break law
Nita Blake-Persen (RNZ): Checkpoint: Auckland Council quadruples e-scooter provider fees
Chris Keall (Herald): ACC reveals another big jump in e-scooter claims (paywalled)
RNZ: Z Energy’s profit falls as people avoid the pump
1News: Vehicle owner with GUN number plate requests replacement in wake of Christchurch terrorist attacks
Grant Bradley (Herald): Friction on the flightdeck – why employment law is pitting pilots against pilots (paywalled)
Lee Kenny (Stuff): Jetstar plane flew below safe limit as it approached Christchurch Airport
RNZ: Landing Jetstar flight descended below minimum altitude limit – TAIC
Labour relations, migrant exploitation
1News: Fair labour agreement signing to stop migrant exploitation
Brian Fallow (Herald): Still waiting for wage growth (paywalled)
Foreign Affairs
Lucy Bennett (Herald): Hopes for a fairer deal for New Zealanders living in Australia in a change of government (paywalled)
Jenna Lynch (Newshub): Winston Peters called upon to lead war against killer robots
RNZ: MPs urged to take strong stance on killer robots
RNZ: Phillip Taula new NZ high commissioner to PNG
RNZ:Fiji union leaders left with no option but to defer protests
Vocational training
Tina Newman (Stuff): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announces plan to increase skills and trade training
Daisy Hudson (Mountain Scene): Training stoush heads to court
Abortion
Claire Trevett (Herald): Breakthrough sees possible abortion reforms back on track (paywalled)
Sharon Brettkelly (Newsroom): ‘Why I made this abortion story personal’
Sport
Olivia Caldwell (Stuff): Pacific Island rugby players torn over whether to publicly support Israel Folau
Paul Cully (Stuff): Rugby and religion: The difference between Sonny Bill Williams and Israel Folau
Georgina Robinson (Stuff): Israel Folau fallout: Twisted messages point to simmering tensions
Laura Dooney (RNZ): Homophobia difficult to tackle in sport – researcher
RNZ: All Black happy living his beliefs
Peter FitzSimons (Sydney Morning Herald): Taniela Tupou, can I ask you, what would Jesus do?
Mike Hosking (Herald): Wallabies star Israel Folau must be sacked
Caleb Marsters (Newsroom): The special pressures on top Pasifika rugby players
Grant Chapman (Newshub): Caster Semenya conundrum a bad look for sport
Media
David Robie (The Conversation): Pacific countries score well in media freedom index, but reality is far worse
Alex Perrottet (RNZ): Opinion: Guyon Espiner kept us on the edge of our seats
Herald: NZ Herald business journalist and columnist Fran O’Sullivan made Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit
Herald Editorial: Premium digital strategy already paying off for NZ Herald (paywalled)
Joanna Hunkin (Herald): TV’s breakfast war: John Campbell’s instant impact for TVNZ
Other
Richard Harman (Politik): Big changes in the capital
Thomas Coughlan (Newsroom): Huawei decision looms over NZ
Phil Smith (RNZ: Filibustering for Jesus: slowing End of Life Choice
Steve Kilgallon (Stuff): The ‘Unlikely Avengers’ fighting to shut down infamous ‘pokie dens‘
David Hargreaves (Interest): The Government must take a more realistic approach than currently intended in its initiatives on financial conduct
Mackenzie Smith (RNZ):‘We don’t believe anything anymore’: Cryptocurrency ‘scam’ targets NZ Samoans
Rob Stock (Stuff): Pushing back on demand for unlimited rest home guarantee
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s social media crusade will prove pointless
Karl du Fresne (Stuff: Securing a highly influential public position doesn’t make human rights boss one of us
Lee Kenny and Tom Kitchin (Stuff): Almost 5000 dog attacks ‘requiring hospitalisation’ during 10-year period
Patrice Dougan and Simon Collins (Herald): Doctors call for action after dog attack injuries jump by almost half
John Moore: May Day and working class politics
ODT Editorial: The changing face of RSAs
RNZ: Ngāti Hine launch campaign for separate Treaty settlement
Torika Tokalau (Stuff): Auckland residents concerned about alleged organised shooting event at closed gun club
Jessica Tyson (Māori TV): US game developer cancels release of ‘Maui’ character
David Farrar: Maori Council hate free speech
Greyson Beights (Stuff): After Notre Dame, we must protect and preserve NZ’s landmarks
RNZ: Auckland new building consents reach levels not seen since 1970s
Greg Ninness (Interest): New dwelling consent activity remains strong with the number of new consents issued nationally more than doubling over the last five years
Angie Skerrett (Newshub): Former MP appointed to Pāmu board
Lana Andelane (Newshub): New Zealand is the seventh most popular destination for millionaires
1News: New developments in rebuild of earthquake-ruined Christchurch Cathedral
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Christchurch has more sudden mass-deaths than anywhere else in NZ – research
Electoral Commission: People’s Party no longer registered
