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
Poverty and inequality, welfare
Stacey Kirk (Stuff): This Government promised a war on poverty – is it gaining any ground?
Susan St John (Newsroom): Poverty: not an earthquake but still a crisis
Auckland Action Against Poverty: We should not have to do MSD’s job for them
RNZ: Checkpoint: Long queues outside MSD ‘shocking’ but not the norm – minister
Zane Small (Newshub): Paula Bennett has no regrets over National’s ‘naming the father’ sanction
Clean car scheme
Barry Soper (Newstalk ZB): Green cars – why the Government’s plan to clean up vehicle fleet is a no-brainer
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Government ‘feebate’ scheme could make cleaner cars up to $8k cheaper, dirtier cars more expensive
Craig McCulloch (RNZ): Government’s ‘clean car discount’: Fees for high-emission vehicles would offset efficiency subsidy
1News: Government proposes discount for clean cars, fee for biggest polluters
Jason Walls (Herald): The Government wants to provide discounts for importing cleaner cars to New Zealand
Katie Fitzgerald (Newshub): Government announces proposed clean vehicle incentives
Ryan Bridge (Newshub): Climate change tax proposed for driving utes, SUVs
Rob Maetzig (Stuff): The cleanest and dirtiest car brands in New Zealand
Health
Tim Brown (RNZ): Lack of cancer agency ‘another broken promise’ by govt
Richard Harman (Politik): Less to government move than meets the eye
Karen Brown (RNZ): Cash-strapped DHBs get almost $2b for new hospital facilities
Jason Walls (Herald): The Government is looking to ease the financial burden on DHBs as their deficits widen
Zane Small (Newshub): Government to ‘directly fund’ DHBs for building new facilities
Stuff: Government offers $1.7b to help DHBs with cost of new builds
Ruby Macandrew (Stuff): Smokefree 2025: The ever-mutating Government plan to stamp out smoking
Cathy Stephenson (Stuff): What we know and don’t know about vaping
Mike Houlahan (ODT): Cash-strapped SDHB to gain from Govt change
Sarah Robson (RNZ): Asbestos court victory over ACC ‘bittersweet’ after lung cancer death
RNZ: ACC should have covered asbestos victim, High Court rules
Stuff: ‘Hug of death’ asbestos case ACC win fulfils a promise to victim
Teuila Fuatai (Herald): Biggest vaccine losers may be those who most need them (paywalled)
Amy Wiggins (Herlad): Measles outbreak: Lower vaccination age sees 1555 Auckland babies immunised
Martin Johnston (Herald): Community fears over expected delay in primary maternity unit for Waitakere, Auckland
Russell Brown: Who are the medicinal cannabis users?
Katilin Ruddock (1News): Mental health units must be properly resourced, or more attacks will occur, PSA warns
Kerry Hand (ODT): Action needed to ensure services
Funded Family Care
1News: Government announcement on family funded care ‘false hope’, disability advocate says
RNZ: Funded Family Care changes draw criticism for not addressing assessment process
One Billion Trees programme, Forestry
Benn Bathgate (Stuff): Forestry Minister Shane Jones pumps cash into native seedling research in Bay of Plenty
RNZ: One Billion Trees injects $422k for research in native seedling production
Rotorua Daily Post: Shane Jones announces funding boost to One Billion Trees programme
Jane Clifton (Listener): Out on a limb: How to fix New Zealand’s flawed forestry policy
Jane Clifton (Listener): Environment Commissioner warns of dangerous over-reliance on forests
Jane Clifton (Listener): How overseas firms could leave us with dying, carbon-re-emitting forests
Ewan McGregor (Hawkes Bay Today): Billion-trees push a landscape disaster?
Eric Frykberg (RNZ): Log price collapse could impact jobs in New Zealand
Jamie Gray (Herald): NZ log prices plummet as China demand suddenly dries up (paywalled)
Local Government
1News: Jacinda Ardern’s climate change message to local government: ‘You’re doing your bit, we must do ours’
Laura Macdonald and Lana Andelane (Newshub): Local councils vote to ban private sale and use of fireworks
Dileepa Fonseka (Stuff): Should councils swallow DHBs? ‘Localism’ discussion continues at Local Government NZ conference in Wellington
Stephen Forbes (Interest): Local Government New Zealand steps up campaign for greater devolution
Laine Moger (Stuff): Compulsory voting favoured with young Aucklanders, new survey shows
1News: Majority of young Aucklanders want voting to be compulsory, new survey finds
Alex Loo (Manawatū Standard): Horowhenua mayor Michael Feyen calls for mayors to form political party
Talisa Kupenga (Māori TV): Local govt reps want more rangatahi on councils
Laura James (1News): Auckland golf resort accused of sewage snafu had long-running issues, documents show
RNZ: Forest and Bird in mediation with council over regional pest plan
RNZ: Auckland councillors to vote on measures to prevent future floods in Piha
Mark Thomas (Newsroom): Auckland’s real crisis isn’t just climate change
Chloe Ranford (Stuff): Roll call: Has the councillor you voted for been turning up to work?
Mike Yardley (Press): Inner-city population goal remains elusive
Environment and conservation
Farah Hancock (Newsroom): Dolphin plan’s ‘misleading’ terms and ‘overstated’ costs
Nick Main (Stuff): Low carbon is the new (old) challenge for business
Zane Small (Newshub): Paula Bennett scorns Jacinda Ardern over ‘ridiculous’ openness to ‘climate emergency’
Tracy Neal (RNZ): Rubbish dumps near waterways in spotlight after Fox River pollution
Rachael Kelly (Stuff): DOC catches hundreds of illegal walking and tour guides operating in Fiordland
Hamish Cardwell (RNZ): Checkpoint: Massive urban pest eradication effort launched
Amber-Leigh Woolf (Stuff): Miramar predator wipe out ‘NZ’s biggest and most complex urban eradication’
Sam Farrell (Newshub): Wellington undertakes New Zealand’s biggest urban pest eradication
Amber-Leigh Woolf (Stuff): The masses of coffee cups produced in Wellington cost too much to compost, council says
1News: Wellington cafes angered after city stops taking compostable cups
Emily Joy Frost and Michael Harvey (Newsroom): When did NZ fall so behind on plastic
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): The plastic bag ban is virtue signalling garbage
Stuff: Air New Zealand to remove around 55 million plastic items from flights
Primary industries
Eric Frykberg (RNZ): Government may be relieved to see Westland milk sold to Chinese conglomerate
Gerard Hutching (Stuff): Fonterra CFO Marc Rivers rejects foreign ownership talk
Brittney Deguara (Stuff): Why the meat and fruit-picking sectors are missing out on Kiwi employees
Industrial relations
Ellen O’Dwyer (Stuff): Waikato University academic calls for default unionism
Hamish Rutherford (Stuff): Think tank says arguments used to back controversial labour law reform are ‘illusory’
Provincial Growth Fund
Jason Walls (Herald): A company going public within a year is getting a $15 million Provincial Growth Fund loan
Zane Small (Newshub): Provincial Growth Fund: Proposed waste-to-energy plant gets multimillion-dollar loan
RNZ: Regional Fund gives Geo40 $15m boost to extract silica for export
Stuff: PGF boost for ‘game changing’ energy initiatives
Lucy Warhurst (Newshub): Multi-million dollar boost for Kiwi company turning food waste into power
Moola
1News: Loan provider Moola faces court action over interest rates as high as 550 per cent
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Commerce Commission taking Moola to court over lending
RNZ: ComCom files legal action against payday lender Moola
Christchurch mosque shootings, Far Right
David Williams (Newsroom): Ministers vetoed ACC extension for terror victims
Thomas Manch (Stuff): ‘Alarming’ increase in extreme-right genocide theory came before Christchurch terror attack – report
Crime, Police
Denis O’Reilly (Herald): Violent crime is a contagion, spread by Australian evictions (paywalled)
RNZ: Worried, scared and frustrated: South Auckland dealing with string of shootings
RNZ: Police deputy commissioner Wally Haumaha accused by Stuff over media approach
Anna Leask (Herald): Fast and Furious: Youth drivers explain why they flee police (paywalled)
Justice, corrections
1News: Andrew Little considering database for court suppression orders after Google’s breach in Grace Millane case
Anneke Smith (RNZ): Funding cultural reports a matter of ‘natural humanity’ – lawyer
RNZ: Chief district court judge appointed to High Court
Herald: Chief District Court Judge Jan‑Marie Doogue appointed to the High Court
Lee Kenny (Stuff): Qualifications offer a second chance for inmates at Christchurch Women’s Prison
Child welfare
1News: Dame Tariana Turia reveals ‘I’ve taken two of my own grandchildren’, slams Oranga Tamariki policy
Khylee Quince (Newsroom): Closed adoption rears its ugly head again
Transport
Jonathan Mitchell (RNZ): Wellington City Council seeks more consultation as bus network woes continue
Mitchell Alexander (Newshub): Revealed: Hamilton City Council aiming for regional fuel tax by 2020, documents show
Emma Hatton (RNZ): Cameras filming drivers continuously ‘does nothing for driver safety’
Sevu Reece selection
Jim Kayes (Newsroom): Hansen not all wrong on Reece
Josie Adams (Spinoff): The problem with Steve Hansen’s ‘not a gender thing’ comments
Albert Redmore (Newshub): Women’s Refuge slams All Blacks coach Steve Hansen for ‘old-fashioned and out-dated’ remarks
Other
1News: Long-awaited abortion reform announcement expected ‘within weeks’ – Justice Minister
Liam Hehir (Stuff): Opposition parties pushed to their fringes can expect further failure
1News: Dame Tariana sees a future for a Māori movement ‘to give us back our rights’
John Gerritsen (RNZ): Education Minister Chris Hipkins refuses ‘crisis’ meeting with ECE groups
1News: Racing industry reforms will see more gambling harm in the community, expert says
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Insulation might be compulsory but tenant says enforcing it is impossible
Zizi Sparks (Rotorua Daily Post): Family of seven living in a tent move into new home in Rotorua (paywalled)
Ellen O’Dwyer (Stuff): Cold and ill but bill puts heat pump off limits
Teresa Cowie (RNZ): Time’s up for volunteering
Michael Reddell: Failing statistics
David Slack (Stuff): Fake meat on pizza shocker hogs headlines, but how are we going to feed the world?
RNZ: Civil Aviation Authority accepts support offer
Jennifer Dann (Herald): 12 Questions: Moana Maniapoto goes hunting in new territory
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Legalising cannabis doesn’t make teens want to smoke it – study
Russell Brown (Herald): Synthetics are an entirely different kettle to pot
Liam Dann (Herald): ‘Be unapologetic globalists’ – OECD director’s trade war advice to NZ (paywalled)
Laura Walters (Newsroom): Ethnic communities ministry plan scrapped
RNZ: NZ funds vaccine, polio efforts in PNG
Bryan Bruce (Daily Blog): What is the purpose of an economy?
Simon Hartley (ODT): More city businesses feel outlook positive: OCC
Chris Keall (Herald): NZ shoppers’ interest in Huawei dives – but hope ahead (paywalled)
Conor Whitten (Newshub): Allied Troops and New Zealand Defence Force draw Chinese spy ship attention in Queensland
Georgina Campbell (Herald): No surprise Victoria University is changing its name all but officially (paywalled)
Sarah Catherall (Stuff): What NZ looked like in the 60s and 70s
