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
State care of children
Laura Walters and Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): How the three inquiries into Oranga Tamariki will work
Michael Neilson (Herald): Uplifted babies: Public outcry at state taking Māori infants
RNZ: Checkpoint: Ombudsman to investigate Oranga Tamariki uplifts
1News: Ombudsman launches ‘wide-ranging and independent’ investigation into baby uplifts by Oranga Tamariki
RNZ: Ombudsman announces ‘wide ranging’ investigation into Oranga Tamariki
Laura Walters and Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): Ombudsman launches independent investigation into Oranga Tamariki
Talisa Kupenga (Māori TV): Chief Ombudsman inquiry into Oranga Tamariki third investigation into child uplifts
Stuff: Ombudsman to investigate Oranga Tamariki process for newborn baby removal
Jamie Ensor and Hayley Jacobsen (Newshub): Oranga Tamariki Minister Tracey Martin admits Hawke’s Bay attempted uplift wasn’t ‘well done’
Katie Fitzgerald (Newshub): Oranga Tamariki uplifts ‘should be the last resort’ – Simon Bridges
Newsroom: Baby’s whānau rejects Minister’s internal inquiry
Hawkes Bay Today: Baby uplift attempt court case: Hearing delayed for two months
Laura Wiltshire (Hawkes Bay Today): ‘A mosh-pit of dysfunction’: Baby uplift inquiries need to include hospital, outspoken DHB member says
Leigh-Marama McLachlan (RNZ): Low confidence new Oranga Tamariki laws will help Māori
Jessica Tyson (Māori TV): Solutions for Māori in state care ‘ignored’ 30 years ago
Tina Ngata (Spinoff): Uplifting children is not a Māori problem. It’s a colonisation problem
Government
Claire Trevett (Herald): Labour’s transparency drive falters in dance of many hats (paywalled)
No Right Turn: An invitation to corruption
David Farrar: Imagine the outcry if this was a National PM’s Office
Jason Walls (Herald): PM Jacinda Ardern confident a potential conflict of interest with former chief of staff managed appropriately
Henry Cooke (Stuff): PM Jacinda Ardern says lobbyist chief of staff matter handled appropriately
1News: Jacinda Ardern joins ‘Good Bitches’ charity at Wellington shelter to deliver homemade cupcakes
Jamie-Lee Bracken (Stuff): Prime Minister whips up treats and becomes a ‘Good Bitch’ for the day
Jason Walls (Herald): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has spent time with Lorde at a private dinner in Auckland
1News: Happy birthday, Neve! A look back at ‘First Baby’ Neve Ardern Gayford’s first 12 months
Banks
Kate MacNamara (Stuff): How much more is ANZ obliged to divulge over the David Hisco affair?
Liam Dann (Herald): Was ANZ’s David Hisco thrown under the bus? And other big questions still unanswered (paywalled)
ODT Editorial: Integrity at the top
Bryce Edwards (Herald): Political Roundup: Dodgy banks under scrutiny (paywalled)
Gordon Campbell: On our Wild West banking culture, and Iran’s role in Armageddon
Catriona MacLennan (Spinoff): Hisco’s ANZ exit is a hot mess of double standards and unanswered questions
Kate MacNamara (Stuff): ANZ’s former boss David Hisco clocked up nearly $450k a year in expenses
Rob Stock (Stuff): Should access to cash be a human right in New Zealand?
David Hargreaves (Interest): Reserve Bank says with the declining use of cash, Kiwis already ‘left out’ of the banking or digital worlds may be ‘severely disadvantaged’
Budget, Budget leak
Richard Harman (Politik): Hughes sets record straight
Derek Cheng (Herald): State Services Commissioner Peter Hughes defends his praise of under-fire Treasury boss
Jane Patterson (RNZ): Testy day in Parliament as Budget breach fallout continues
Jason Walls (Herald): National slams Treasury Secretary Gabriel Makhlouf for absence at committee meeting
Zane Small (Newshub): National outraged over Treasury boss Gabriel Makhlouf’s no-show at Budget briefing
Donal Curtin: Are we ready?
IRD, tax
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): 550,000 people underpaid tax on investments and 950,000 overpaid, says IRD
Tamsyn Parker (Herald): The $42 million tax bill that won’t be paid back to Kiwis
David Hargreaves (Interest): A nasty tax surprise for 550,000 kiwis
Scott Palmer (Newshub): Tax overpayments show IRD ‘taking advantage’ of Kiwis – David Seymour
RNZ: New Zealanders overpay $42 million in tax
Martin Hawes (Herald): Tax education is required for KiwiSavers
Max Rashbrooke: Wealth taxes
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): For and against: Could a flat tax ever work?
Operation Burnham inquiry
Jon Stephenson (Stuff): Insurgent leaders admit they were in Afghanistan village raided during NZ SAS’s Operation Burnham
Craig McCulloch (RNZ): Operation Burnham: Hit & Run author backtracks on key claim
Act party, free speech
Herald Editorial: David Seymour’s relaunch platform a hard Act to follow (paywalled)
Press Editorial: The difficulties of free speech
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): Dancing with David Seymour – don’t write him off yet (paywalled)
Point of Order: David Seymour’s Herculean challenges: getting 14 MPs into Parliament (really?) and flattening the tax rate
Air NZ boss resigns
Bernard Hickey (Newsroom): Luxon readies for political takeoff
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Herald):Christopher Luxon – from national carrier to National leader?
Duncan Garner (Newshub): Christopher Luxon brings new hope to the National Party
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Air NZ chief executive Christopher Luxon ‘absolutely’ interested in standing for National
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Christopher Luxon: If it’s politics, it’s National
Stuff: Air New Zealand CEO Christopher Luxon’s highs and lows at the country’s flagship airline
Grant Bradley (Herald): Christopher Luxon leaves when Air New Zealand is at the crossroads (paywalled)
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Big challenges ahead for Air New Zealand’s next CEO
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Air New Zealand chief executive Christopher Luxon announces his resignation
Herald: Air New Zealand chief executive Christopher Luxon resigns, hints at political move
1News: Air NZ CEO Christopher Luxon resigns, hints at possible move into politics
RNZ: Air New Zealand chief executive Christopher Luxon resigns
Environment and conservation
Charlie Mitchell (Stuff): Government discarded expert advice not to use ‘potentially misleading’ data about dolphin threat
Matthew Littlewood (Timaru Herald): Call to increase public access on Crown Pastoral Land
Christine Rlvoi (RNZ): Climate expert warns of ‘losing the carbon war’
1News: DOC takes over clean-up of Fox River, polluted after March storm uncovered landfill
RNZ: The Detail: Who’s on clean up duty after the West Coast rubbish washout?
Laura James (1News): Experts hopeful deadly kākāpō disease has reached its peak
Joel MacManus (Stuff): Al Gore names 40 Kiwis ‘apprentices’ of his climate change movement
Foulden Maar
Simon Hartley (ODT): Protecting maar now a priority
Simon Hartley and Tim Miller (ODT): ‘Extremely relieved’: Financial strife likely to save fossil site
Tim Brown (RNZ): Company seeking to mine Foulden Maar placed into receivership
Farah Hancock (Newsroom): Hope as fossil site claims second mining company scalp
Oil and gas
Tara Shaskey (Taranaki Daily News): Greenpeace to hold protest training following arrival of rig
Mike Watson (Stuff): Oil rig ready to begin drilling in Taranaki waters
Marta Steeman (Stuff): Oil and gas HQ in New Plymouth for sale a year after Government’s oil and gas offshore exploration ban
No Right Turn: Good riddance
Farming
Gerard Hutching (Stuff): Westland Milk boss promised $680k bonus if sale to Chinese goes through
Eric Frykberg (RNZ): Forestry not taking over farmland – Shane Jones
Guy Trafford (Interest): Sheep and Beef farmers are increasingly concerned at the potential for productive food producing land being lost to forestry
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Thank you, Peter Jackson: It’s time for farming to evolve
Health
1News: ‘This is not the Trump hearing’ – Pharmac deny accusations by National MP of tampering with Northland vaccine order
Denise Piper (Stuff): Pharmac, ministry followed best practice in Northland meningococcal outbreak
Anna Bracewell-Worrall (Newshub): Leftover Northland meningococcal vaccines could expire
Boris Jancic (Herald): Vaccines expiring, children not immunised in Northland: National
Herald: Pharmac grilled over Northland meningococcal vaccines
Samesh Mohanlall (Timaru Herald): More flu vaccines unlikely, Pharmac says
Hannah Martin (Stuff): ‘Significant’ increase in influenza as vaccine supply wanes
RNZ: Life or Death under Pharmac – Part Three
Astrid Austin (Hawkes Bay Today): Hawke’s Bay District Health Board chief executive Kevin Snee to take up Waikato role
Stuff: Waikato DHB announces new chief executive after re-starting search
Stuff: Hawke’s Bay DHB chief executive resigns to be head of Waikato DHB
RNZ: Hawke’s Bay DHB head Kevin Snee shifts to troubled Waikato board
Phil Pennington (RNZ): Hamilton councillor unaware hospital buildings without WOFs
Michael Hall (RNZ): Builder suffers brain damage after receiving pain relief
RNZ: Measles cases hit 215 across New Zealand
1News: Bridges says a friend’s considering health treatment overseas and that shows a ‘failing’ Government
Stuff: Simon Bridges: Someone I know well looking to go overseas for health treatment
Sam Sherwood (Stuff): Canterbury ‘under seige’ as police attend 11 attempted suicide events a day
Cannabis
Katie Fitzgerald (Newshub): National Party would ‘respect’ cannabis referendum – Simon Bridges
Duncan Garner (Newshub): Kiwis being let down by conservative stance on medicinal cannabis
Gun laws, buyback scheme
Miriam Harris and Dan Satherley (Newshub): Gun owners concerned at possible buyback overreach
Jenna Lynch (Newshub): Gun buyback details revealed
Herald: Auckland Council’s five shotguns on Government’s banned list
Police
Anna Whyte (1News): Target for 1800 police ‘aspirational’, says Police Minister as only 650 recruited
Collette Devlin (Stuff): National says Government promise for 1800 extra police is like KiwiBuild target flop
Education
Andy Fyers (Stuff): What – if anything – annual rankings tell us about our universities
Sophie Bateman (Newshub): University rankings: NZ’s winners and losers
RNZ: Teaching as first-choice job: Kiwis below OECD average
Tema Hemi (Māori TV): Will teachers accept government’s latest offer?
Scott Palmer (Newshub): Outrage over ‘death-fest’ possum-killing fundraiser for Drury School
John Gerritsen (RNZ): High-decile schools disadvantaged by donation policy – principals
Immigration, refugees
Collette Devlin (Stuff): Government review of family reunification for refugees to begin
Jay Marlowe (Newsroom): What you can do to help our refugees
Dennis Maang (Spinoff): World Refugee Day: ‘I have wondered what some people might really think of me being here’
Wahida Zahedi (Spinoff): World Refugee Day: ‘Mum, I am safe in a country called New Zealand’
Anne Beaghlehole (Spinoff): World Refugee Day: Who will write the history of the Christchurch terror attack?
Ellen Sinclair (Spinoff): World Refugee Day: ‘Alive’ tells stories of Cambodian resettlement in New Zealand
Jake Kenny (Spinoff): Muslim refugees resettled in Christchurch after terror attacks hold no fears
Gill Bonnett (RNZ): Death threats and abuse as visa delay frustrations grow
Herald: Immigration NZ accused of labelling Israel ‘Palestine’
Sport
Derek Cheng (Herald):‘Trust me’: Winston Peters on setting the funding formula for sporting bodies
Jackson Thomas (Stuff): Academic points to human rights violation in schoolgirl rugby saga, it could be illegal
Olivia Caldwell (Stuff): Top women’s player Kendra Cocksedge says let Briar play rugby with the boys
RNZ: Hawke’s Bay principals defend decision to bar girl from team
RNZ: Girl told she can’t play for 1st XV in school rugby tournament
Local government
Matthew Tso (Dominion Post):Developer’s ‘fun’ billboard campaign to keep Shelly Bay in the public eye
Amber-Leigh Woolf (Stuff): Wellington climate plan called preachy, nonsense and ‘a farce’ by councillors
Katie Fitzgerald and Miriam Harris (Newshub): Climate emergency: Wellington could be next to declare
Tom Hunt (Stuff): Surviving Tapu Te Ranga marae buildings to go but disagreement over no-go order
Stephen Forbes (Interest): The Ports of Auckland says its dividend to the Super City will fall due to the cost of its investment plans
Mandy Te and Todd Niall (Stuff): National Party launches website where people can ‘rate’ Auckland Council
Dubby Henry (Herald): National launches website for Aucklanders to rate council and inform election policy
Rowan Quinn (RNZ): National launches website aimed at locking in Auckland policies
Transport
Paula Penfold and Eugene Bingham (Stuff): Ministry of Transport fraudster Joanne Harrison’s criminal history revealed
Michael Hayward (Stuff): NZTA to consult on lower speed limits on sections of Canterbury highway
Nick Truebridge (Stuff): KiwiRail apologises, promises independent review after another Auckland fault
Jordan Bond (RNZ): KiwiRail promises probe of latest train services disruption
1News: ‘Not good enough’ – Auckland Mayor Phil Goff launches broadside at KiwiRail after another signal failure
Newshub: Auckland trains back up and running after network outage
Grant Bradley (Herald): Pilots, Opposition frustrated at Government stance on high powered laser bill
Housing
Thomas Coughlan (Newsroom): When Newsroom briefed the Govt on KiwiBuild
RNZ: Checkpoint: Family of six who lived in one-bedroom unit move into HNZ home
Workplace safety
Kaitlin Ruddock (1News): Over 1000 Kiwi workers could have been exposed to ‘new asbestos’, specialists warn
RNZ: CentrePort worker’s fall: Court orders fines and payments over $800,000
1News: Wellington business fined $500,000 for unsafe ladders that resulted in worker’s fatal fall
Stuff: Fall and death from container because of inadequate processes at CentrePort
Economy
Zane Small (Newshub): Jacinda Ardern blames economic slowdown on global conditions – and economist agrees
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB)” Number don’t lie, under this Government the economy is mediocre
Other
Chris Trotter (Daily Blog): What Is A White Supremacist?
Jo Moir (RNZ): Stats NZ, phone companies to track people’s movements
Venetia Sherson (North & South): How New Zealand’s community newspapers are bucking the trend
Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): Fix found for flaw in veterans’ support law
1News: Whanganui lending company to return $400,000 to borrowers for failing to meet legal obligations
RNZ: Confidence new tribunal will aid aggrieved quake claimants
Jared Savage (Herald): Jordan Williams asks Supreme Court to recall judgment after judge goes on holiday with Colin Craig’s lawyer (paywalled)
Tracy Neal (RNZ): Tasman bush fires: $145,000 paid out so far from mayoral fund
RNZ: Jail sentence unlikely to deter white supremacists – expert
Jonathan Mitchell (RNZ): Defence force staff stood down for inappropriate behaviour in front of students
Ethan Kisby (University of Auckland): Are New Zealand’s colonial institutions pushing Māori toward a life of crime?
RNZ: UN experts call for better care of Manus, Nauru refugees
Anna Leask (Herald): Home detention offender remains in taxpayer funded motel weeks after eviction from approved address (paywalled)
Rob KIdd (ODT): Mental health services shocking – mother
1News: Auckland woman living with her six grandchildren describes struggle of trying to pay the power bill
Joanne Carroll (Stuff): Pike River re-entry lead: Finding ‘promise note’ not as crucial as honouring the message
RNZ: Euthanasia activist Sean Davison convicted of murder, sentenced to three years house arrest
1News: Kiwi man sentenced for assisted suicides of three disabled people in South Africa
