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
Foreign affairs – Australia
Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): Ardern in Oz: Little progress but much adulation
Tracy Watkins (Stuff): Home and away: Jacinda Ardern’s trip of two halves
Brigitte Morten (RNZ): Ardern can take a few lessons from Australian Labor’s defeat
RNZ: Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton dismisses Jacinda Ardern’s demands to stop deporting New Zealanders
Jason Walls (Herald): Jacinda Ardern vows not to give up fight on Australian deportations
Jenna Lynch (Newshub): PM Jacinda Ardern rules out retaliation over Australia deporting Kiwis
Jason Walls (Herald): Australian PM Scott Morrison appeared to be unmoved by Jacinda Ardern’s lobbying
1News: Australia’s Kiwi deportation policy ‘corrosive to the relationship’, Ardern says during Oz visit
Tom Cowie (The Age): ‘Corrosive effect on our relationship’: Jacinda Ardern criticises Australia’s deportation laws
Jason Walls (Herald): Unofficial catch-up: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern meets with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison
Collette Devlin (Stuff): ‘Unjust’ deportations focus of bilateral talk between Jacinda Ardern, Scott Morrison
1News: Jacinda Ardern talks Trump, fear, March 15 and Te Tiriti at Melbourne Q+A session
Rebekah Scanlan (News.comAU): Jacinda Ardern’s awkward TV moment with Australian presenter Lisa Wilkinson
Donna-Lee Biddle (Stuff): Deported bikie outlaws are threatening to inflame gang violence in small town NZ
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): The politics of kindness doesn’t work on Australians
Jane Bowron (Stuff): There’s plenty of concern about Australia’s northern exposure
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Herald: Minister of Defence Ron Mark: Flight PM was on ‘at end of its life’
Albert Redmore (Newshub): No plans to replace ’embarrassing’ Government planes
Scott Palmer (Newshub): PM’s press trapped in Australia as another flight breaks down
RNZ: Grounded: Journalists stuck in Melbourne as replacement flight delayed
Jason Walls (Herald): NZDF plane that Jacinda Ardern used to travel to Australia breaks down
Collette Devlin (Stuff): ‘Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s plane breaks down in Australia
1News: Jacinda Ardern temporarily stranded in Australia after air force 757 breaks down, again
RNZ: PM’s Australian visit extended as Air Force plane breaks down
David Crowe (Herald): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern humbled by giant Melbourne mural
Jenna Lynch (Newshub): Jacinda Ardern will not follow Australia’s hard-line response to extremist content
Nicholas Reece (Guardian): Jacinda Ardern prime minister of Australasia? If only it was that simple
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Judith Collins would rather have Scott Morrison as Kiwi PM than Jacinda Ardern
Herald: ‘Diplomatic incident’: Clarke Gayford wades into Pavlova row while on tour with PM in Australia
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Shaminda Kanapathi (RNZ): Offshore detention anniversary ‘life destroying’
Foreign affairs
Audrey Young (Herald): What Winston Peters hasn’t been doing in Washington on US visit is important (paywalled)
Richard Harman (Politik): Embracing differences
Fran O’Sullivan (Herald): Ardern draws line in sand on US Free Trade Agreement (paywalled)
Zane Small (Newshub): PM Jacinda Ardern calls on United States to play larger role ‘within our region’
David Crowe (The Age): ‘I disagree’: Ardern takes issue with Trump over racism furore
Point of Order: No, Peters won’t come home with an FTA – but high-ranking Americans have been listening to him
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Bruce Munro (ODT): Global Insight: Leaders need to up their game with Boris, Donald
Elspeth Sandys (Herald): Our ‘unique and valuable relationship’ with China (paywalled)
Government
Tracy Watkins (Stuff): Jacinda Ardern has some unfinished business
Tracy Watkins (Stuff): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern puts a stake in the ground ahead of the 2020 election
Damien Grant (Stuff): Winston Peters has been a malign influence on NZ politics, it’s time Simon Bridges finished him off
John-Michael Swannix (Newshub): Backstory: NZ First MP Jenny Marcroft on escaping abuse and reconnecting with her whakapapa
Greens
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Herald): Emissions, electric vehicles, CGT – Greens make pragmatic decisions (paywalled)
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): After a dreadful 2017, can the Greens do better in 2020?
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Stuff asks, ‘Can Greens break 5%’
Chris Trotter: A Fool Rushes In
Week in Politics, Parliament
Peter Wilson (RNZ): Week in Politics: Farmers join ETS and new plan to cut road deaths
Claire Trevett (Herald): Beehive Diaries: Jacinda Ardern heads to Oz, Youth Parliament burns (paywalled)
Vera Alves (Herald): Deputy Speaker Anne Tolley chairing group to fight bullying in Parliament
Mike Houlahan (ODT): Being busy is not always being effective
Climate change
Finn Hogan (Newshub): The Nation: Climate change revolution is now inevitable but we can still steer it – expert
Eric Frykerg (RNZ): Government under fire for how it released climate change report
Rod Oram (Newsroom): ‘Let true farming leaders lead’
Sally Rae (ODT): Zero-carbon target will cost farmers, raise prices – report
Geoff Simmons (Daily Blog): Response to Peter Williams Climate Denial
James Renwick (Newshub): Climate change deniers’ arguments are ‘fact-free’
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): What Peter Williams climate denial epitomises & countering the whole ‘NZ gas emissions are tiny’ defence
Cherie Sivignon (Stuff): Don’t panic over Tasman district coastal hazards, says mayor
Jamie Morton (Herald): Climate Voices: 15 Kiwis’ hopes and fears in a warming world (paywalled)
Tom O’Connor (Stuff): Shouting not the way over climate change
Scott Willis (ODT): Driving down emissions
Sarah Thomson (Spinoff): So, you’ve declared a climate emergency. Now what?
Electric vehicles
Audrey Young (Herald): National leader Simon Bridges says Government has done nothing to switch its own car fleet to electric
John-Michael Swannix (Newshub): The Pitch: National’s climate spokesperson supports Govt electric vehicle policy, despite party opposition
Ben Strang (RNZ): Simon Bridges says EV uptake too slow
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Simon Bridges apologises to Julie Anne Genter for getting EV figures wrong
Boris Jancic (Stuff): National Party presses the attack against Govt’s green car policy
Environment and conservation
Mitchell Alexander (Newshub): 29 farm animals allegedly killed by 1080 since 2008
Julie Collins (Newsroom): Taking on Anne Salmond over forests
Hamish Cardwell (RNZ): Nationwide groundwater testing results overdue for months
Matthew Littlewood (Timaru Herald): Ecologist Mike Joy expresses doubts over Lake Benmore/Ahuriri water quality ‘investigation’
1News: Planned controls on the hazardous gas methyl bromide open to public feedback
1News: Sephora slammed by city council after mass disposal of confetti
RNZ: Cosmetics store waste dumped in Auckland drains without consent
Amber-Leigh Woolf (Stuff): New Zealand landfills are becoming full of unloved clothes as ‘fast fashion’ grows
Te Kuru o te Marama Dewes (Māori TV): Funding boost to future proof Waiapu
RNZ: ‘Non-charismatic’ fungi’s future under threat
KiwiSaver, Super
Herald: Man with Down syndrome ‘dancing’ after winning change in KiwiSaver rules
1News: Government makes law change after down syndrome man’s fight to access his KiwiSaver early
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Boomer bureaucrats trying to steal Gen X Super
Duncan Garner (Stuff): No-one will mess with the pension now … will they?
Local government
Tom Hunt (Stuff): 133-year-old transaction gets legal standing in Shelly Bay saga
Dominic Harris (Stuff): Cream at the top for public sector chief executives
Martin van Beynen (Stuff): Why the fuss over a mere $495,000 pay packet?
Anan Zaki (RNZ): Council pay controversy: Public should have a say – councillor
Todd Niall (Stuff): Can Auckland’s election be a generation game?
Todd Niall and Brittany Keogh (Stuff): Young candidates’ secret Facebook page as they unite for local elections
Brittany Keogh (Stuff): Young people sick of being ‘at the kiddie table’ in local government
Bernard Orsman (Herald): What does Auckland Council spend your rates money on? (paywalled)
Bernard Orsman (Herald): Auckland’s $2.4 billion transport budget chews up 30 per cent of rates (paywalled)
Lizzie Marvelly (Herald): Vote beyond Goff, Banks, Tamihere for Auckland mayor (paywalled)
Stephen Forbes (Interest): Ex-Auckland City Mayor John Banks says he may run in this year’s mayoral election as the cut-off date for local body candidates fast approaches
Bill Ralston (Listener): We’re in for fireworks if John Banks runs for mayor
John Roughan (Herald): Auckland – a city well short of super (paywalled)
Kate Hawkesby (Newstalk ZB): Where are the women in Auckland mayoral race?
RNZ: Advocate for homeless Carol Peters seeks seat at Whangārei council
Damian George (Stuff): GWRC chairman Chris Laidlaw rules himself out of local body election race
Tom Hunt (Stuff): Greater Wellington Regional Council new home on Cuba St confirmed
Skara Bohny (Nelson Mail): Two more put names forward for Nelson City Council election
Media
Colin Peacock (RNZ): Mediawatch: Coy candidates playing the media
Colin Peacock (RNZ): Mediawatch: Full credit to the media?
Stacey Kirk (Stuff): Conflict, scandal, eventually progress – it’s a hard road making a difference, but that’s politics
Health
Nicholas Jones (Herald): Sepsis warning for pregnant women: Hospital staffing ‘inadequate’, watchdog finds (paywalled)
Nicholas Jones (Herald): Middlemore Hospital baby deaths: Midwife resignations as Oranga Tamariki ‘uplifts’ cause ‘significant emotional stress’ (paywalled)
Laura Tupou (Newshub): Scathing review slams Middlemore Hospital’s pregnancy care
Laura Dooney (RNZ): Auckland children urged back to school despite measles outbreak
Sophie Trigger (Herald): Seeking Salvation: Anxiety and depression at the ‘forefront’ in winter
Herald: Waikato DHB agrees to mediation with family of Nicky Stevens who died while in Waikato DHB care
RNZ: Waikato DHB to enter talks with Nicky Stevens’ family
Natalie Akoorie (Herald): Ex DHB head Malcolm Stamp escapes justice in nepotism case – unless he returns to Australia
Scott Palmer (Newshub): Vaping industry ‘increasingly agitated’ by Government’s vaping stance
Isaac Davison (Herald): ‘Not good enough’: Father with sick infant waits eight hours at Middlemore Hospital for doctor (paywalled)
Libby Wilson (Stuff): A baby after death: Ministry of Health asks if posthumous reproduction is acceptable to Kiwis
RNZ: Auckland District Health Board admits privacy breach over text reminders
Te Aniwa Hurihanganui (RNZ): Hamilton clinic offers both western and Māori healing
Dan Satherley and Heather McCarron (Newshub): Charging foreign patients before medical treatment would be ‘medieval’ – Collins
Heather McCarron and Lucy Warhurst (Newshub): Foreigners’ unpaid medical debts revealed
Damian Rowe (Stuff): Clinical psychologists to strike amid staff shortages in Southland
Medicinal cannabis, cannabis referendum, synthetic drugs
Scott Palmer (Newshub): ‘Huge error’: Cannabis expert’s warning over medicinal cannabis prescriptions
Karoline Tuckey (RNZ): Medical cannabis ‘a remarkably useful drug’
Laura Walters (Newsroom): Govt knuckles down ahead of ‘reeferendum’
Chris Fowlie (Daily Blog): Science will save cannabis referendum from Reefer Madness
Peter Lyons (ODT): How cannabis referendum is framed will be critical
Phil Quin (Stuff): Without Helen Clark’s help, cannabis reform will go down in flames
Derek Cheng (Herald): Drug decriminalisation? Govt rejected having no criminal penalties for synthetic drug use (paywalled)
RNZ: Why are synthetic drugs so deadly?
1News: NZ First pushes back on Police Minister’s music festival drug testing initiative
Denise Piper (Stuff): Northland’s methamphetamine demand reduction programme could go nationwide
Operation Burnham
David Fisher (Herald): Military told to front up over inconsistent Afghan raid accounts
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Operation Burnham: New Zealand Defence Force to be questioned on denial of civilian deaths
Police
Brad Flahive (Stuff): Only 10 per cent of police misconduct allegations upheld
Tim Brown (RNZ): Police breath-testing inside people’s homes, Dunedin lawyer says
Hamish Cardwell (RNZ): Reputation of police at stake with breath-testing claims – National spokesperson
No Right Turn: More police misconduct
Derek Cheng (Herald): Demands on Police to deal with ‘high’ threat level add up to $2 million (paywalled)
Natalie Akoorie (Herald): Marketing for new police non-emergency number 105 costs taxpayers $262k
Mike White (North & South): Top investigator urges police to speak up about wrongful convictions
Heather McCarron (Newshub): Nurses axed from police station, National claims
Albert Redmore (Newshub): Auckland police officer charged with careless driving, remains on duty
Gun buyback
Heather McCarron and Dan Satherley (Newshub): Buyback nets more than 10,000 weapons and parts in first week
Harrison Christian (Stuff): Police pay $1.75 million to gun owners in buy-back scheme
Liu Chen (RNZ): Over 2000 guns handed in at buyback events this weekend
1News: Police hold collection events across the country as part of the buy-back and amnesty scheme
1News: Auckland gunowners hand in 400 firearms today as national tally tops 2000
Imogen Neale (Stuff): More than 400 illegal guns handed over at Auckland’s first buy-back event
Gerald Piddock (Stuff): Gun owners hand over semi-autos at Waikato’s first buy-back event
Hamish McNeilly (Stuff): Former police ministers ‘impressed’ with Otago gun buyback
Elena McPhee (ODT): 132 guns handed over in buy-back
Tim Brown (RNZ): Ninety people hand in guns at first southern gun buyback
Housing
Nita Blake-Persen (RNZ): Checkpoint: Govt spends record amount on emergency housing
Brittney Deguara (Stuff): Reducing immigration won’t magically lower house prices, experts say
Jenée Tibshraeny (Interest): Property developers and community housing providers want the Government, through its new Kāinga Ora entity, to be legally required to work with them
Matthew Theunissen (RNZ): Homeless and away from home: Rough sleepers want to go back to Manurewa
Chris Hutching (Stuff): New houses have cladding and joinery that lasts just 15 years
Amy Ridout (Stuff): Tenants living in ‘filthy’ homes battle to get action
Northern Advocate: Kaipara news: Huge rent rises throughout district puts pressure on families
Primary industries, biosecurity
Tim Newman (Stuff): Government announces changes to biosecurity and animal tracing
Tracy Neal (RNZ): Govt unveils changes to biosecurity and animal tracing
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Climate change, underfunding to blame for fruit fly incursions – Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor
State care of children
Leigh-Marama McLachlan (RNZ): Insight: Babies in Oranga Tamariki care – safe or seized?
Leigh-Marama McLachlan (RNZ): More residential homes could stop Oranga Tamariki uplifts
Muriel Newman: The Best Interests of the Child
Meriana Johnsen (RNZ): ‘Systemic inequality’ in Māori involvement in child protection
Transport
Patrick Gower (Newshub): Exclusive: Police bust of drivers using phones catches one every three minutes – including government CEO
Belinda Feek (Herald): Drug driving in NZ: Victim’s father calls for tougher drug drive testing laws
Melanie Earley (Stuff): Drug driving: Grieving father speaks about the harm it has caused
1News: Ad campaign aimed to tackle drug-driving has families speaking up
Bernard Orsman (Herald): Auckland’s gridlock nightmare holding steady but will get a lot worse, says Automobile Association
Todd Niall (Stuff): AA: Will Auckland’s transport plans reduce congestion?
RNZ: Most Wellington bus commuters say new network worse than before
Deena Coster (Taranaki Daily News): Court rulings aside, all eyes will be on iwi regarding future of Mt Messenger bypass
Aaron Dahmen (1News): Reports of sediment, mud running into Auckland stream from major motorway project
Clive Matthew-Wilson (ODT): Speed limits do not alter behaviour
RNZ: Grounded planes: ‘Possible in-flight break-up’ cause for concern
Education
Nicholas Boyack (Stuff): Call for debate on ‘white flight’ from our low decile schools
Josephine Franks (Stuff): On-the-job teacher training: the solution to the teacher crisis?
Evan Harding (Stuff): Primary principals fight on for more pay
RNZ: The Detail: Why we need school leavers to pick up a hammer
Economy
Hamish Rutherford (Stuff): When interest rates fall below zero, things could get weird
Albert Redmore (Newshub): Economist delivers warning over possible zero interest rates in NZ
Liam Dann (Herald): Global debt is soaring, why should we care? (paywalled)
Liam Dann (Herald): Nation of Debt: Dairy danger as repayment risks rise (paywalled)
Christchurch mosque shootings
Jonathan Mitchell (RNZ): Defence Force spent about $600,000 in response to Christchurch terror attacks
MIchael Neilson (Herald): Christchurch mosque terror attack accused applies to move trial out of city
Katie Scotcher (RNZ): Inquiry into Christchurch terror attacks extends deadline for public submissions
Youth Parliament
Zane Small (NewshuB): Youth MP Lily Dorrance not discouraged despite ‘heartbreaking’ experience
No Right Turn: Make it 16
Other
Bevan Rapson (North & South): Serving us right: Will the latest public-sector reforms go far enough?
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Only two-thirds of Māori filled out the census
Duncan Greive (Spinoff): Assessing NZ on Air, 30 years after the world’s most radical public broadcasting experiment began
Anna Bracewell-Worrall (Newshub): Greens call out Labour over failure to increase benefits
John Gibb (ODT): Doubts about Archives NZ’s future
Lynn Williams: More on Testosterone
Vicki Anderson (Stuff): Racial profiling of Māori partner in shops ‘happens all the time’
Simon Collins (Herald): Burkini-clad Muslim women turned away from Henderson pool
Talisa Kupenga (Māori TV): Māori Wardens welcome $3.7mil govt investment
Meghan Lawrence (Herald): Variety Appeal looks to remedy too many Kiwi kids sleeping on the floor
RNZ: Andrew Little reopens talks with Ngāpuhi on treaty settlement
Henry Cooke (Stuff): For the United Nations to succeed it needs to escape the acronym soup
Maria Slade (Spinoff): Finance companies: No regulation please, we’re the good guys
Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): First Union leading rivals for biggest average pay claims, says bargaining firm
RNZ: Government says new food safety tools will save businesses money
Jonathan Mitchell (RNZ): Talisman Sabre gives New Zealand military chance to work with allies
Ruwani Perera (Newshub): The Hui: How the Mothers Project is helping women behind bars
Duncan Steel (Listener): What New Zealand can do about the militarisation of space
Madison Reidy (RNZ): Rejected Resolution, AMP A$3.5b deal their own fault – RBNZ
Jenée Tibshraeny (Interest): Did sloppiness kill the A$3.3b AMP Life deal? The RBNZ speaks out
Anna Whyte (1News): ‘It’s not OK women have waited this long’ for abortion law reform – Marama Davidson
Peter Calder (Listener): Once were Anzacs: The epic history of Māori soldiers in WWI
Jamie Tahana (RNZ): Dawn raids remembered in exhibit 40 years on
Meg Williams (Spinoff): The museum protecting, and celebrating, New Zealand’s lesbian history
