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, Budget “hack”
Press Editorial: Time for truth in the ‘hacking’ saga
Eric Crampton (Newsroom): Protecting the privileged
Michael Reddell: On Makhlouf and standards in public office
Bryce Edwards (Herald): Political Roundup: The Budget ‘hack’ scandal reveals big accountability problems (paywalled)
Liam Hehir (Pundit): Controversy Creates Cash: Simon Bridges and the Monday Night Wars
Lyndon Hood: J’Hackuse: Better Analogies for National Pilfering Budget Data
Derek Cheng (Herald): Cover-up? The critical meeting between Grant Robertson and Gabriel Makhlouf (paywalled)
Jo Moir (RNZ): Makhlouf’s future in question as Ireland piles in
Mark Quinlivan (Newshub): Irish politicians hit out at Gabriel Makhlouf’s appointment to head of Central Bank
Harrison Christian (Stuff): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is refusing to say if she has confidence in Treasury’s advice
RNZ: Budget ‘hack’ investigation: Finance Minister Robertson willing to hand communications to SSC
1News: Gabriel Makhlouf investigation to give a ‘more fulsome picture’ of Treasury’s actions around Budget data breach – PM
Derek Cheng (Herald): Paula Bennett: Gabriel Makhlouf should be stood down while being investigated (paywalled)
RNZ: Treasury knew there had been no hack on Budget information – National Party leader
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Response to Budget data breach could be ‘dirty politics’ – Simon Bridges
David Farrar: SSC launches investigation of Treasury Secretary
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Michael Cullen (Herald): Time to blow the lid off Budget secrecy (paywalled)
Jenée Tibshraeny (Interest): Arthur Grimes: Treasury’s 60 wellbeing indicators ’59 too many’
Evelyn Marsters and Thomas Nash (Stuff): Budget charts a long-term course to a fairer society
John Tamihere (Herald): Kudos to a Budget that invested in humanity (paywalled)
Frank Newman: Budget 2019 – Rhetoric or Well-being?
Muriel Newman: The 2019 ‘Wellbeing’ Budget
Government
Audrey Young (Herald): Jacinda Ardern’s Cabinet reshuffle – what to expect (paywalled)
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Predictions: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s Cabinet reshuffle
David Farrar: Reshuffle predictions
Claire Trevett (Herald): PM Jacinda Ardern could take a target lesson from William Tell (paywalled)
ODT Editorial: Is the PGF’s potential being met?
1News: Forty years pass since Winston Peters’ maiden speech in Parliament
Speed limits on NZ roads
1News: New Zealand ‘can do a lot better’ on road speed limits – Transport Minister
Meriana Johnsen (RNZ): Speed limits reduction proposal wins local support, National Party criticisms
Dominic Harris (Stuff): Cutting speed limits could do more harm than good, AA claims
Lucy Bennett and Chris Knox (Herald): Councils should make roads safer, not cut speed limits, says AA (paywalled)
Ben Strang (RNZ): Speed limits too high on most roads, NZTA estimates
Tim Miller (ODT): 100kmh limit too high for most roads in South: NZTA
Denise Piper (Stuff): Northland needs road investment, not speed reduction to fix poor crash rate, councillors say
Ben Leahy (Herald): ‘Blame driver testing and training, not roads’: racing legend Greg Murphy
Transport
Laura Walters (Newsroom): Ritchies denied migrant drivers over pay and conditions
Greer Beery (Manawatū Standard): Capital Connection train service at ‘significant risk’ of being canned without massive cash injection
Greg Miller (Stuff): Exciting times as Budget investment gets rail back on track
Glen McConnell (Stuff): KiwiRail has priced Kiwis off its trains, yet taxpayers fork out to subsidise it
RNZ: Island Bay residents lose cycleway appeal
Kerry Wood (Stuff): Ever more roads are not the answer to Wellington’s transport troubles
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): Auckland Transport is dangerous, inept and out of control
Mining
Tim Miller (ODT): ‘Jaw-dropping inducements’ over Foulden Marr
Simon Hartley (ODT): Oceana seeking judicial review
Environment and conservation
Evan Harding (Southland Times): Just six of 40 Southland waterways swimmable, expert says
Mark Costello (Newsroom): It’s not too late to save ocean life
1News: DOC puts out ‘urgent’ call for extra funding to help save kākāpō from respiratory illness
Thomas Coughlan (Newsroom): Dairy companies pricing massive ETS changes
Joanna MacKenzie (RNZ): Hauraki Gulf rubbish collectors Sea Cleaners fear America’s Cup flotsam
1News: Cape Kidnappers re-opens but with dire warning: You may die
RNZ: Cape Kidnappers opens without final risk assessment
Health
Troy Elliot (Stuff): ‘Don’t let my wife die’: Why government funding for medicines needs to increase
Lauren Paddy and Dan Satherley (Newshub): Hospital staff go on strike for living wage
Deena Coster (Stuff): First timers targeted as mobile breast screening unit rolls out
Anne Gibson (Herald): NZ’s largest pathology business Labtests sold in $600m deal as owner changes hands
Rachael Kelly (Stuff): First baby born at Lumsden maternal and child hub
1News: ‘Enough is enough’ – National MP pleads for change after another baby born before reaching Lumsden maternity hub
Jamie Ensor and Hayley Jacobsen (Newshub): National MP Hamish Walker concerned after another Southland baby born outside primary birthing facility
Newshub: Suicidal woman left on hold by Lifeline for 57 minutes
Johnny Moore (Stuff): We should fund St John more, but keep the model
Samesh Mohanlall (Timaru Herald): South Canterbury District Health Board’s projected surplus lauded
Southland disAbility Enterprises waste contract
Evan Savory (Southland Times): Invercargill Mayor uses casting vote to side with Southland disAbility Enterprises
Laura Smith (ODT): Mayor’s vote favours waste contractor Southland disAbility Enterprises
Local government
Jean Drage (Stuff): Local elections: Let’s make councils more proactive
Janine Rankin (Manawatū Standard): Defence Forum protests prompt venues policy
Anusha Bradley (RNZ): RNZ: Napier residents sue city council over $41m pool complex
Newshub: Community members taking Napier Council to court (video)
Jimmy Ellingham (Manawatū Standard): Horizons Regional Council’s decision to slash livestreaming trial is bizarre
Joanne Carroll (Stuff): Council says Government money not enough for West Coast rubbish cleanup
Tom Hunt (Stuff): Wellington councillors side-step elephant in council rooms
Dileep Fonseka (Stuff): Call to scrap free off-peak cable car rides at top Wellington tourist attraction
Tom Hunt (Stuff):Council-owned theatre employees to get paid living wage
Alex Loo (Stuff): Michael Feyen campaigns for commuter train and landfill closure in second run for mayor
RNZ: Queenstown visitor levy referendum closing
Housing
LIsa Owen (RNZ): Checkpoint: Working poor: The long, excruciating wait for a state house
Ti Lamusse and Vanessa Cole (Spinoff): The biggest housing investment in the ‘wellbeing budget’? Prison cells
Tema Hemi (Māori TV): Māori housing experts gather under one roof
Georgina Campbell (Herald): Wellington Housing First contracts revealed
Tina Law (Stuff): Quake homes unoccupied as social housing need in Christchurch skyrockets
RNZ: Property market growth slow despite CGT scrapping
Education
Dan Satherley and Hayley Jacobsen (Newshub): Teachers keeping a close eye on Education Minister’s meeting with unions
RNZ: Teacher unions, education minister to discuss issues today
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): Teachers’ plea puts Education Minister Chris Hipkins to the test
Carl Pynenburg (Herald): Teachers on strike: A day in the life of a primary school educator
Lee Kenny (Stuff): Preschoolers may not get enough ‘back and forth’ interactions for language development
Jessie Chiang (RNZ): Auckland school bans phones for junior students
Michelle Duff (Stuff): A third of women university students report being sexually assaulted. What do we owe them?
Simon Collins (Herald): British mental health researcher Dawn Freshwater appointed as University of Auckland’s first female vice-chancellor
Brianna McIlraith (Stuff): Witt plans leadership restructure and five new schools
RNZ: Cows cause chaos at school before being ‘arrested’
Tax
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): National’s Simon Bridges refuses to say he will overturn new petrol tax increase
1News: Tax on multinational companies would pale in comparison to tax burdens on Kiwis – Bridges
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Huge numbers who underpaid tax on KiwiSaver last year ‘off the hook’ for previous years
Emma Hatton (RNZ): KiwiSaver tax rate errors: Up to 450,000 New Zealanders overtaxed – IRD
1News: Around 450,000 Kiwis facing extra tax bills after new IRD system reveals Kiwisaver error
Christchurch mosque shootings
Charlie Gates (Stuff): Royal Commission considers help for people contributing to terror inquiry
Katie Scotcher (RNZ): Inquiry into mosque attacks may pay interviewees
RNZ: Cricket World Cup: Bangladesh team putting Christchurch terror attacks behind them
Primary industries
Eric Frykberg (RNZ): Worksafe calls for crush protection on quad bikes
Eric Frykberg (RNZ): Farmland loss to forestry: land prices raise fears for economy, mayor says
RNZ: Farmer satisfaction with banks keeps falling
1News: Beneficiaries picking kiwifruit industry as worker shortage ends
Luisa Girao (ODT): Farmer seeks compensation
Banking sector
Pattrick Smellie (Herald): Bunker mentality returns to the Reserve Bank? (paywalled)
Barry Soper (Herald): Jim Anderton’s Kiwibank creation hardly setting the right example
Sam Stubbs (Stuff): ANZ and BNZ directors can’t have a bet each way
Racing industry
Richard Harman (Politik): Parliament races to save racing
Derek Cheng (Herald): Government moves to allay concerns from sporting organisations over racing industry reforms
RNZ: ‘Serious concerns’ over Racing Reform Bill – Law Society
Stats NZ
RNZ: Stats NZ relying on insurance cash for surveys
Amanda Cropp (Stuff): Who is staying in our beds? Tourism shocked at data loss
Grant Bradley (Herald): Tourism groups ‘devastated’ as Stats NZ and MBIE pull crucial accommodation data (paywalled)
Other
Herald: Crown breaches of Treaty caused ‘serious damage’ to King Country iwi – Waitangi Tribunal
Peter Crabtree (Spinoff): ‘Safe and secure’: NZ Space Agency defends oversight of Rocket Lab launches
Te Aniwa Hurihanganui (RNZ): Kaupapa-Māori approach urged for Māori kids in state care
Joanne Carroll (Stuff): Police claim ‘public interest’ in keeping Pike River risk assessment a secret
Anna Leask (Herald): Too fast: police speedsters pay more than $1 million in on-duty infringements (paywalled)
1News: SPCA can’t afford to prosecute in many cases due to underfunding, chief executive says
Te Kuru o te Marama Dewes (Māori TV): More Māori language content on the way
Johnny Crawford (Spinoff): Shilling in the name of: John Key and how the right co-opts leftwing music
Katie Todd (RNZ): Pigeon Valley fire aftermath: ‘Biggest recovery effort ever made’
Mitch McCann (Newshub): Revealed: Hundreds of suspected sex workers stopped at NZ border
Martin van Beynen (Stuff):New engineer spotted alleged defects in Christchurch high-rise from the street
John Weekes and Nicole Lawton (Stuff): Disgust as memorial ribbons for Catholic Church child sex abuse victims vanish
RNZ: More NZers deported from US, fewer getting citizenship
