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
Wellbeing Budget
Stacey Kirk (Stuff): Economics aside, the Budget rules were self-imposed for entirely political reasons
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Budget 2019: Goodbye ‘NZ Inc’ and welcome to the world of wellbeing
Simon Wilson (Herald): Jacinda Ardern, her friends and her enemies (paywalled)
Liam Dann (Herald): Why this is the warm Milo and pyjama Budget (paywalled)
Fran O’Sullivan (Herald): Dear Grant, give me a belter of a Budget (paywalled)
Audrey Young (Herald): National’s Amy Adams on Grant Robertson’s concept of a Wellbeing Budget (paywalled)
Liam Dann (Herald): Jacinda Ardern plays heart strings not purse-strings at pre-Budget speech to business (paywalled)
John Anthony (Stuff): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern gives pre-Budget speech in Auckland
Zane Small (Newshub): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern explains what her ‘Wellbeing Budget’ means
RNZ: Ardern warns of risk of global headwinds ahead of Budget
Rebecca Stevenson (Stuff): Low expectations, but lack of detail in PM’s speech disappoints
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Steven Joyce’s $11.7 billion hole claim to be proven correct – economist
Leah Tebbutt (Herald): Budget 2019: What do Māori want? (paywalled)
Herald: Reaction to Budget rules relaxation shows balance ‘about right’, says Ardern
Stephen Franks (Interest): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the Government appears to have the balance right given mixed responses to planned changes to its debt target
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): The People’s Budget: 6 new Guest Commentators announced for Friday 31st
State care of children
Audrey Young (Herald): Budget 2019: Children’s Minister Tracey Martin announces new service to help young people transition from state care to independence
Hannah Martin (Stuff): $153m announced for transition service to support youth leaving state care
RNZ: Government launches service to help young people transition from state care to adulthood
1News: Budget 2019: Government announce new transition service for young people leaving state care
Albert Redmore (Newshub): Latest Wellbeing Budget announcement introduces support for troubled youth
Dominion Post Editorial: Social workers embedded in families worth our support
Christian parties
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Simon Bridges not ruling out coalition with Hannah Tamaki’s Coalition NZ
John Armstrong (1News): Christian parties are of little assistance to the centre-right
Audrey Young (Herald): It’s make-up-your-mind time, Alfred Ngaro (paywalled)
Tracey Watkins (Stuff): Is a Christian party National’s saviour or millstone?
Colin Peacock (RNZ): Mediawatch: Onward Christian politicians
David Farrar: Three conservative parties means none has a chance
ODT Editorial: Shoring up the Christian vote
Bill Ralston (Listener): Could Christian soldiers march no-mates National into office?
Damien Grant (Stuff): Alfred Ngaro won’t find True Bliss through a manufactured political party
Sophie Bateman (Newshub): Coalition NZ will destroy Labour’s ‘Māori mandate’ – campaign manager
Clair Trevett (Herald): MP Alfred Ngaro on a date with Destiny, abortion, and a new party (paywalled)
Herald: National MP Alfred Ngaro says Christian parties would have to join forces to get elected
Nita Blake-Persen (RNZ): Destiny Church branch on notice over failure to file annual returns on time
Katie Fitzgerald (Newshub): Destiny Church branch warned over failure to file annual charity return
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Where Hannah Tamaki stands on homosexuality and Jacinda Ardern
Andrew Gunn (Stuff): And lo, the great council changeth no minds
Steve Braunias (Herald): The secret diary of… Alfred Ngaro (paywalled)
Beck Eleven (Stuff): I don’t see Brian and Hannah Tamaki’s Christian party lasting long
Tim Batt (Spinoff): Our domain: how to troll a political party for less than $100
Stuff: Kiwis continue to troll the Tamakis’ Coalition Party, snapping up domain names
Anna Whyte (1News): Coalition NZ website domains snapped up after political party launched
RNZ: Comedian buys Destiny Church’s new political party’s domain names
Lobbying
RNZ: PM’s connection to lobbyist raises flags (audio)
1News: Jacinda Ardern’s links with high-powered lobbyist ‘a case of New Zealand being small’
Dominion Post Editorial: Lobbying – trust in the system, but maintain a close watch
Tim Watkin and Kate Newton (RNZ): Ministerial diaries: Who influences those in power?
Francis Report
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Herald): Trevor Mallard should never have claimed rape (paywalled)
Martin van Beynen (Stuff): Is Parliament really such a cesspit?
Alison Mau (Stuff): Parliament’s bullying review lets us bust workplace sex violence myths
Richard Griffin (Stuff): Parliament is designed for confrontation but is it really unsafe?
Katie Fitzgerald (Newshub): Parliament trains people to be ‘adversarial’, but they shouldn’t be bullies – Chris Hipkins
David Slack (Stuff): I shot Muldoon a look that was full of hate when we crossed on a Parliament stairwell
Lizzie Marvelly (Herald): I’m not surprised there is a rapist at parliament (paywalled)
John Roughan (Herald): Home of politics is not for the faint of heart (paywalled)
Liz Gordon (Daily Blog): The Parliamentary cesspit
Colin Peacock (RNZ): Bullying report points the finger at reporters
Parliament, Week in politics
Peter Wilson (Stuff): Week in Politics: Speaker’s rapist comment triggers fear and confusion
Brent Edwards (NBR): Analysis: The week in politics: Debt, infrastructure funding and a born again Christian party
Claire Trevett (Herald): Beehive Diaries: Claire Trevett’s highlights of the week (paywalled)
Kate Newton and Tim Watkin (RNZ): Diaries reveal how government ministers spend their days
Zane Small (Newshub): National’s Simon Bridges halves expenses after $114k cash-splash in 2018
Mike Houlahan (ODT): Petitions useful way to make point to MPs
Phil Quin (Stuff): Believe it or not, New Zealand is well governed
Hate speech
Graham Adams (Noted): Simon Bridges is hobbled in hate-speech debate
Peter Cresswell: He said she said David said G. said
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Don Brash wasn’t offended by Guy Williams’ controversial resurfaced tweet
Eric Crampton: Parliament and Twitter Hate
Alex Loo (Stuff): Hate speech claim by Rotorua councillor ‘absurd’ says ACT leader
Benn Bathgate (Stuff): ‘Hate speech’ politics row in Rotorua referred to police
National Party
Audrey Young (Herald): Inner circle: Meet the closest advisers to National Party leader Simon Bridges (paywalled)
Greg Bruce (Herald): Judith Collins on Simon Bridges, all those scandals and what makes her cry (paywalled)
State sector ordered to investigate cannabis referendum leak
Benedict Collins (1News): Hunt underway after cannabis Cabinet paper leaked to National
RNZ: Search on in public services to check if staff leaked paper on cannabis referendum
Dental care
Patrick Gower (Newshub): How one woman’s teeth illustrate New Zealand’s dental crisis
Albert Redmore and Ella Prendergast (Newshub): Dental Association shocked at absence of funding in ‘Wellbeing Budget’
Nicholas Jones (Herald): ‘Huge public support’: dental petition to be delivered today
Rowan Quinn (RNZ): Toddler waits five months for treatment for rotten teeth, abscesses
Health
Guyon Espiner (RNZ): Pharmac Investigation: Pharmac switches epilepsy drug against Medsafe advice
Katie Fitzgerald (Newshub): Sugar tax campaigner lashes out at David Clark over inaction on obesity
Kerre McIvor (Herald): Don’t blame fast-food companies for kids’ rotten teeth and obesity (paywalled)
Amy Wiggins (Herald): Thousands of children suffer head injuries from sport (paywalled)
RNZ: District Health Board reconsiders second inquest into Nicky Stevens’ death
Libby Wilson (Stuff): Nicky Steven’s family meets with PM, Waikato DHB commissioner in fight for mental health change
Stuff: The brilliant Bagshaws: Canterbury doctors dedicated to helping those in need
Nicola Russell and Finn Hogan (Newshub): Christchurch shooting: Watched his father die but told he wasn’t a victim
Katie Fitzgerald and Hayley Jacobsen (Newshub): Staff were not turned away from ‘informal’ pay meeting – St John
Elle Hunt (Spinoff):Last orders for New Zealand’s binge-drinking culture
Tim Miller (ODT): Roadside birth adds to maternity facilities campaign
Tim Miller (ODT): ‘We told you so!’: Baby born on side of road in Southland
Stuff: Baby Levi born in an ambulance on the side of the road near Lumsden
Scott Palmer (Newshub): National MP Hamish Walker slams Labour after Southland roadside birth
Rotorua Daily Post: Rotorua Hospital reaches capacity as doctors warn locals to stay home
Alice Peacock (Herald): Auckland mother slams 11-day delay in notification of son’s measles exposure
Euthanasia
Chris Ford (Newsroom): Why I changed my mind on euthanasia
TVNZ: Disabled after car crash and previously suicidal, woman now opposes euthanasia law change
Abortion
Bryce Edwards (Herald): Political Roundup: Abortion reform in question (paywalled)
Oscar Kightley (Stuff): Women should have the final say when it comes to their health
Hinemoa Elder (Stuff): It’s time for us wahine to share our secret baby stories
Alice Peacock (Herald): Clash of abortion rallies: Pro-choice protesters’ rally meets pro-life rally in Auckland’s Aotea square
1News: Protesters rally for and against abortion in Auckland’s CBD
Melanie Earley (Stuff): Auckland pro-choice rally gate-crashed by pro-life protesters
RNZ: Abortion debate heats up in Auckland
Mining
Farah Hancock (Newsroom): Answers from the fossil miner
Elena McPhee (ODT): Sifting through layers of history
Rod Oram (Newsroom): Unjustifiable vandalism and grand promises
Chris Hutching (Stuff): Otago Diatomite miner outlines plans on fossil-laden land, apologises
Laura Mills (Greymouth Star): Little info available on mining policy
Simon Hartley and Laura Mills (ODT): Minerals forum flashpoint for protest
Hamish McNeilly (Stuff): Protesters expected at ‘coal forum’ in Dunedin
Housing
RNZ: The Detail: Can Kiwibuild be rescued?
Duncan Garner (Stuff): Flagship KiwiBuild policy in tatters as PM refuses to speak its name
Katarina Williams and Matthew Ts (Stuff): $23m in emergency housing grants in just three months
RNZ: Last minute landlords: insulation providers can’t meet demand
Stuff: ‘High rents not just a city problem anymore’
Samantha Olley (Rotorua Daily Post): Rotorua’s unhealthy homes: Mould, leaks and disease are making people dangerously sick (paywalled)
Lois Williams (RNZ): New money to house homeless sparks hope in Whangārei
Anne Gibson (Herald): Where to now for Auckland’s housing market? (paywalled)
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Why Judith Collins secretly doesn’t want Phil Twyford to resign
Māori land
Māni Dunlop (RNZ): $56m in govt funds to help develop freehold Māori land
Jessica Tyson and Te Kuru o te Marama Dewes (Māori TV): Govt to fund $56.1m to develop whenua Māori
Te Kuru o te Marama Dewes (Māori TV): Unlocking gates for whānau Māori to access their whenua
Marty Sharpe (Stuff): Police given powers to arrest family in their home unless they leave
Transport
Nicole Lawton (Stuff): Public transport fares could be dropped for Community Services Card holders, Govt announces
RNZ: Child Poverty Action cautiously welcomes plan to lower some public transport costs
RNZ: Lower public transport fares for low-income households
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Public transport could be getting cheaper
Herald: Public transport could become cheaper for Community Services Card holders
Todd Niall (Stuff): All aboard Auckland’s public transport – the new challenge
Kate Green (Stuff): Former traffic officers: More surveillance needed to reduce road toll
Lincoln Tan (Herald): MP calls urgent meeting as tensions rise on Waiheke ferries
Caroline Williams (Stuff): MP calls urgent meeting over ‘significant tension’ on Waiheke Island ferries
Russell Brown (Herald): What it’s really like being a cyclist in Auckland (paywalled)
Shane Te Pou (Newsroom): Stop pushing the roads vs rail narrative
Education
Simon Collins (Herald): ‘Scary’ numbers: Govt steps into one in seven schools (paywalled)
Brittany Keogh (Stuff): ‘I won’t pay off my $120,000 student loan in my lifetime’: call for lower tertiary fees
Kate Faith (Stuff): Mega teachers’ strike: ‘We need time, we need resources, we need recognition’
Simon Collins (Herald): Low-income parents back higher pay for teachers: ‘I will never earn that much, but they are qualified’
Josephine Franks (Stuff): Parents come out in support of teachers’ mega-strike
John Lewis (ODT): Teachers look for ‘bold change’
Yvonne Tahana (1News): Kaikohe faces a teacher shortage in kura kaupapa Māori schools
Emily Maclean (Stuff): NZ’s university system needs a shake-up: What we can learn from the US
Environment and conservation
Dominic Harris (Stuff): Plea for law change to protect Christchurch’s water from overseas bottlers
Debbie Jamieson (Stuff): Forest and Bird ditches legal action over skifield’s destruction of wetlands
Kate Nicol-Williams (1News): Only five of New Zealand’s marine mammal species not at risk of extinction – report
Amber-Leigh Woolf (Stuff): Good news for southern right whales, but others remain at risk – report
RNZ: Risk status lowered for endangered southern right whales and sealions
Michael Neilson (Herald): Hauraki Gulf – Tīkapa Moana: Snapper, crayfish stocks in peril as our big blue backyard under pressure (paywalled)
RNZ: Environmental innovation programme launched at Zealandia
Alice Angeloni (Stuff): Marlborough environmentalists hear Dr Jane Goodall’s pertinent pest message
Danielle Clent (Stuff): Leopard seals now officially considered New Zealand residents
Climate change
Richard Harman (Politik): The political machinations behind the Zero Carbon Bill
Denise Piper (Stuff): Climate change adaptation as important as mitigation, MP Shane Jones says
Paul Gorman (Stuff): Are councils walking the talk with the ‘climate emergency’?
Kendall Hutt (Stuff): Declaring climate emergency on the cards for Auckland Council
Paul Gorman (Stuff): Environment Canterbury rejects Taxpayers’ Union ‘hypocrisy’ claim over flight bill
Gerald Piddock (Stuff): New technologies will ‘not be enough’ to hit emission targets
School climate strike
Stuff: Kiwi school students strike again for urgent action on climate change
Stuff: In pictures and video: Students take to the streets for climate protest
RNZ: Checkpoint: Students skip school for climate change strike
Sam Farrell (Newshub): Chlöe Swarbrick addresses climate change protesters from Parliament steps
Newshub: Students throughout New Zealand hit the streets marching for climate change
Herald: School strike for climate: Young people out in force across NZ
Jessica Tyson (Māori TV): ‘We’re telling the government to wake up’ – Rangatahi strike
1News: Auckland students turn out in force at Aotea Square, demanding climate change action
George Heagney (Manawatū Standard): Striking students send out urgent call for climate change awareness
Lee Kenny (Stuff): Hundreds of students gather in Christchurch’s Hagley Park to demand climate change action
Aaron Leaman and Kelley Tantau (Stuff): Hear our voice: Waikato and Coromandel students demand climate change action
Samantha Gee (stuff): Nelson students demand climate action in second strike
Brianna McIlraith (Taranaki Daily News): Low turnout, but New Plymouth’s climate protest will have an impact, say organisers
Zoe Mills (Spinoff): ‘We’re striking because we’re terrified’: a student on the second climate strikes
Local government
Dileepa Fonseka (Stuff): Wellington City Council’s $1 a year lease deals kept secret
Marty Sharpe (Stuff): Napier City Council stops paying Mayor Bill Dalton as he recovers from stroke
Waikato Times: $230k for 12-month trial to help stop the spread of begging beyond Hamilton’s CBD
Nicholas Boyack (Stuff): Hutt City mayoral hopeful calls council ‘a disgrace’ after battle to get access to public documents
Simon Hartley (ODT): Lessons learned from stadium project
RNZ: Porirua council considers paying living wage
Government Use of Artificial Intelligence in NZ
Brittany Keogh (Stuff): Independent watchdog needed to probe Government’s use of AI: law, computer science experts
Dan Satherley and Ella Predergast (Newshub): Are we letting computers make too many big decisions?
Pike River
Jeremy Rose (RNZ: Mediawatch: Pike River families take control of media coverage
Philip Matthews (Press): The mystery of the minister and the saint at Pike River
Aviation
Joanne Carroll (Stuff): Who was to blame when seven people lost their lives on Fox Glacier?
Michael Morrah (Newshub): Helicopter operators demand ‘complete overhaul’ of aviation safety after years of failures
Michael Cropp (RNZ): No changes for the better in aviation watchdog’s approach, helicopter pilots say
Tourism
Nicholas Boyack (Stuff): Too popular and damaged walks removed from tramping guide book
Lorna Thornber (Stuff): New Zealand included on global map of places suffering overtourism
Ian Yeoman (Stuff): Does New Zealand have too much tourism?
Provincial Growth Fund
RNZ: Shane Jones splashes $6.5m on Otago cycle trail from Provincial Growth Fund
1News: Otago’s Clutha cycle trail gets $6.5 million funding boost for expansion
Foreign affairs
Keith Locke (Daily Blog): Trump’s assault on Huawei dangerous for New Zealand
Bernard Hickey (Newsroom): Tip-toeing around the US-China trade standoff
RNZ: NZ foreign minister in Cook Islands for ministerial consultations
Justice
Katie Doyle (RNZ): Too many youths on remand being held in secure facilities – Children’s Commissioner
Tom Hunt (Stuff): Call for change as teens locked up awaiting justice
Isaac Davison (Herald):‘The key doesn’t need to be turned on them’: The Rotorua flat which is the future of the youth justice system (paywalled)
Duncan Garner (Newshub): Send troubled youths to the army, not jail
Kelly Dennett and Tommy Livingston (Stuff): New Zealand cold cases would have a shot at being solved – if only coroners routinely investigated them
RNZ: Extra relief coroners will help ease delays – Chief Coroner
Māori TV: Relief-coroners to reduce wait times for grieving whānau
Marty Sharpe (Stuff): Twelve child-sex offenders have been granted permission to change their name
RNZ: Concerns spark review of workplace culture at Spring Hill Prison
Herald: Serious criminal cases before the courts on the rise says National leader Simon Bridges
Shilo Kino (Herald): Local Focus: The Pasifika face of NZ law
Police
Sophie Cornish (ODT): Canterbury leads NZ in police pursuits
RNZ: New police crime line gets 1000 calls a day
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Did the NZ Police use private spies to break into a former Police Inspectors car?
Defence
Tim Newman (Stuff): Legacy of nuclear test still remains after 60 years
Piripi Taylor (Māori TV): 600-700 NZ Vietnam Veterans not accessing services available to them
Denise Piper (Stuff): Waitangi’s $15m Māori Battalion house of memories has ‘sad story’ to share
Tom Kitchin (Stuff): Devastated father of SAS soldier who died in training accident desperate for answers from Defence Force
John Minto (Daily Blog): Another dirty little Defence Force secret is out – and you can do something about it this weekend – read on…
Jonathan Mitchell (RNZ): Defence Force warns of ongoing cost burden of old planes
Alison Mau (Stuff): RSA ‘forgot’ to call after promising to help NZDF sex attack victim Mariya Taylor
Claire Trevett (Herald): Finding the Missing: How the US is bringing wartime fallen home (paywalled)
Andrew McRae (RNZ): NZ’s first known war dog to receive posthumous medal
Banks
Hamish Rutherford (Stuff): Reserve Bank plan could add thousands to mortgage repayments: Westpac
BusinessDesk: RBNZ proposals ‘will add $6000 a year to mortgage’
Nona Pelletier (RNZ): Banks fight back against RBNZ capital increase proposal
Liam Dann (Herald): Economy Hub: Should our banks take less risk? (paywalled)
Earthquake regulations
Sam Kilmister (Stuff): Manawatū deputy mayor disappointed at decision to toughen earthquake-prone building deadlines
1News: Parliament’s Bowen House to have remedial work over earthquake concerns
RNZ: Bowen House in Wellington investigated for quake risk
Christchurch mosque shootings
RNZ: Christchurch mosque attack gunman’s manifesto and shooting video still being reported
Lee Kenny (Stuff): Hundreds join interfaith bike tour of Christchurch prompted by terror attacks
Erin Speedy (Newshub): Interfaith memorial bike ride brings Christchurch together
1News: Survivor of Christchurch mosque attacks leads hundreds on ride to promote peace
Other
Mike Wesley-Smith (Newshub): Law change for women pregnant by rape and forced to pay child support
Lincoln Tan (Herald): Blind woman on $2.30 an hour gets minimum-wage job offer
Sally Blundell (Listener): Vincent O’Malley: Why we need to open up about past Māori and Pākehā conflict
Annie Newman (Herald): Government contractors fill our ranks of the working poor (paywalled)
Bruce Cotterill (Stuff): Social media – bringing falsehoods to a screen near you
Mark Fowler (Herald): NZ for sale – the unintended consequence of a lower currency
Christina Persico (Taranaki Daily News): Taranaki needs more time for clean energy transition, says National MP
Anuja Nadkarni (Stuff): Job losses likely as The Warehouse closes regional distribution centres
Hayley Coles (Spinoff): Why we started a union for lawyers
Dana Johannsen (Stuff): Swimming NZ faces Human Rights Tribunal over secret report
Jessie Chiang (RNZ): Lawyer slams government and Victim Support over treatment of Muslims
Bonnie Flaws (Stuff):Fonterra is investing in artificial meat, but would you eat it?
RNZ: $4 million funding boost will benefit Māori and scientist
Raniera Harrison (Māori TV): Warning of increase in Northland kids acting as ‘P’ couriers
Christine Rovoi (RNZ): Rotumans in NZ urged to unite to support culture
Lisette Reymer (Newshub): Unexpected defrocking of Kiwi priest Magnus Murray re-traumatises victims – advocate
Andrew Macfarlane (1News) Sale of golliwog dolls banned by Trade Me
RNZ: Papal audience: Māori King invites Pope Francis to New Zealand
