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
Budget
Jane Patterson (RNZ): Wellbeing Budget: Laudable, but not transformational
Richard Harman (Politik): Man alone: Gabriel Makhlouf
Colin James (ODT): ‘Wellbeing’ facet points to different way of governing
Liam Dann (Herald): Budget spending puts Government on a tight-rope
Audrey Young (Herald): Wellbeing Budget is a matter of style and substance (paywalled)
Max Rashbrooke (Stuff): For term wellbeing to be meaningful, Budget spending must be assessed across society
Thomas Coughlan (Newsroom): A budget of knotty contradictions
Fran O’Sullivan (Herald): Fiscal plan delivers from the heart – but where was KiwiBuild for the younger middle-class?
Maria Slade (Spinoff): The well-meaning budget
Eric Crampton (Stuff): Closing the loop depends on delivering wellbeing
RNZ: Watch: Morning Report panel discuss Budget 2019
ODT Editorial: Balancing Budget pressures
Press Editorial: Budget 2019: Wellbeing wins over cynicism
Herald Editorial: Budget 2019 spends $1.4b more than planned last year (paywalled)
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): Amateur hour – this Government of bullies is butchering the economy
Rachel Stewart (Herald): Rail on track but climate challenges ignored (paywalled)
Mike Houlahan (ODT): Long-term approach restrains promises
RNZ: Budget 2019: Critics and fans among those affected
Ryan Bridge (Newshub): My top five budget bits
Christoph Schumacher (The Conversation): New Zealand’s ‘well-being budget’: how it hopes to improve people’s lives
RNZ: Budget: Govt ‘building the blocks’ for low income NZers – Robertson
Chris Knox and Lucy Bennett (Herald): Who got the biggest increases and who lost the most in Budget 2019 (paywalled)
Mike Houlahan (ODT): ‘The start of a programme of change’
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Budget 2019: National’s Judith Collins underwhelmed by support for small businesses
Budget – Health
Cate Broughton (Stuff: Budget 2019 health losers: Cancer, dementia, maternity and hearing impaired
Duncan Garner (Newshub): Why couldn’t $25m be spent on Kiwi women battling breast cancer?
Jamie Ensor and Heather McCarron (Newshub): Budget 2019: Expert welcomes money for long-awaited mental health support model
1News: Jacinda Ardern recalls impact of suicide rally as Government pledges billions to mental health – ‘It affects us all’
Mike Houlahan (ODT): Health No 2 recipient; new hospital funds assured
Budget – Education
Newshub: Budget 2019: Mixed views from educators on new funding
1News: ‘We needed to see more’ – teachers disappointed after Budget fails to address their concerns
Anna Bracewell-Worrall (Newshub): Government ditches school donations, lifts benefits to prove its focus on children
Budget – Child welfare
1News: Children’s Commissioner delighted by wellbeing budget – ‘A game-changer for New Zealand’s children’
CPAG: Budget provides relief but nothing transformational for children in poverty
Jason Walls (Herald): The Government’s first Wellbeing Budget had a significant focus on mental health and child wellbeing
Jessica Tyson (Māori TV): New intervention service to decrease tamariki uplifted from whānau
Budget – Venture capital
Gyles Beckford (RNZ): Budget: Venture capital fund may slow brain drain
Simon Hartley (ODT): Venture capital, innovation funds to receive $457 million
Tamsyn Parker (Herald): Budget 2019: Venture capital boost could help 100 Kiwi start-ups
Budget – other funding
George Block (ODT): Future looking bright for Hillside
David Williams (Newsroom): Devil’s in the detail for big water plan
Charlie Gates (Stuff): Budget 2019: Woman living in car welcomes Housing First expansion
Kereama Wright (Māori TV): Whānau Ora gets $80 million boost
Jess Tyson (Māori TV): Govt spends $98m on kaupapa Māori approach to tackle reoffending
RNZ: Boost for Pacific education, languages, health and business in NZ Budget
Kimberlee Downs (1News): New Zealand military gets $2.1 billion Budget cash injection
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Budget 2019: Efforts to prevent asylum boats receive $25 million
Damien Venuto (Herald): Radio NZ funding shows no sign of proposed boost
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Spy agencies to receive $50 million post-Christchurch terror attack Budget boost
MItch MCann (Newshub): Budget 2019: Planes and trains set to receive major funding boost
Anna Whyte (1News): Funding for cannabis referendum, gun buy back scheme included in Budget 2019
Eric Frykberg (RNZ): Budget 2019: Climate targeted but ‘gaps’ in conservation – Fed Farmers
Budget cover
Herald: ‘It’s what happens on the inside’: Jacinda Ardern hits back after revelation face of the 2019 Budget ‘gave up on NZ’ and moved to Australia
Tova O’Brien (Newshub): Budget 2019: The awkward story behind the Wellbeing Budget’s cover photo
Stuff: Face of the 2019 Wellbeing Budget gave up on Auckland and moved to Australia
Budget leak
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Budget 2019: Finance Minister Grant Robertson refuses to express confidence in Treasury Secretary Gabriel Makhlouf over blunder
John Armstrong (1News): Grant Robertson and Treasury boss should resign over Budget data leak
Kate MacNamara (Irish Times): New Irish Central Bank chief caught up in New Zealand budget leaks controversy
Jenna Lynch (Newshub): State Services Commissioner considering allegations Treasury Secretary misled Finance Minister Grant Robertson
Ben Uffindell (The Civilian): BREAKING: Treasury Secretary confirms emails hacked after they disappear from his outbox
Ben Uffindell (The Civilian): Robertson refuses to release budget; says you’ll just have to find it on the website
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Water
Dominic Harris (Stuff): Cloud Ocean Water fined for environmental breaches at Christchurch water bottling plant
1News: Chinese water bottling company given two abatement notices after plastic beads, contaminants found in wastewater
Katie Todd (RNZ): Water bottling plant’s plastic beads and wastewater pollution
1News: Price of water from the tap to rise for Aucklanders
Pam Jones (ODT): ‘Confident’ about siting of bores
Tim Cadogan (Stuff): Ministerial investigation a sign of troubled waters ahead
Education
Rosemary McLeod (Stuff): Striking teachers have a case, but so do lots of other workers
John Gerritsen (RNZ): Budget fails to avert upcoming teacher strikes
Herald: Secondary teachers to strike again on Tuesday
Josephine Franks (Stuff): Secondary teachers to strike again in June
Vita Molyneux (Newshub): More strikes for secondary school teachers in June
Paul Goulter (Herald): Primary schools feel the funding squeeze (paywalled)
Health
Simon Collins (Herald): Anti-obesity programme slammed as ‘political window-dressing’
RNZ: New mental health body sad but necessary – expert
Herald: No smokes here: Petrol station stops selling tobacco for sake of community
Herald: St John ambulance staff to vote on unsociable work hours pay offer
Police, crime
Tommy Livingston (Stuff): IPCA finds police failures led to man dying in custody at Hawke’s Bay police station
Mark Quinlivan (Newshub): Police failed legal duty when man died in Hawke’s Bay Custody Unit of drug overdose – IPCA
1News: Officers failed in legal duty of care towards inmate who died from meth overdose – police watchdog
RNZ: Prisoner used meth hours before death in police cells – report
Jono Galuszka (Manawatū Standard): Three guns stolen from under police noses still missing
RNZ: NZ police minister gets potential lead on Cook Islands drug trade
Environment and conservation
Simon Wilson (Herald): It’s not climate change, it’s a climate crisis, so let’s treat it as one (paywalled)
Matthew Theunissen (RNZ): Thirty kākāpō in hospital as fungus decimates population
Employment
Dennis Maga (Stuff): F is for farmers, and that’s not good enough
Joanna MacKenzie (RNZ): Farmers staff protest at low wages and performance pay
Virginia Fallon (Stuff): Porirua City Council votes to give employees the living wage
Housing
Jessie Chiang (RNZ): State housing tenants ‘kicked out’ for developments
RNZ: Housing New Zealand privacy breach worries tenants
Other
RNZ: The Detail: What’s all the fuss about Huawei?
Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): US, China prepare to fight over future of Asia-Pacific
George Block (ODT: Supermarket chain silent on facial recognition
Anne Gibson (Herald): Foreign-owned Fletcher Residential wins special waiver from Overseas Investment Office
Todd Niall (Stuff): Heritage Auckland Council HQ on track to be sold and turned into apartments
Jonathan Mitchell (RNZ): Bus company reviews social media policies after ‘cycle w**ker’ comment
Brian Easton (Pundit): New Zealand’s Living Fossil
