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 by Dr Bryce Edwards.
Suicide
Steven Cowan: Suicide is not a private affair
Mandy Te (Stuff): Suicide conversation needs to change as numbers spike, mental health advocate Mike King says
Laura Walters (Newsroom): Lack of funding questioned as suicide toll rises
Harry Lock (RNZ): Suicide prevention: Experts say money and clear plan needed
RNZ Checkpoint: Māori suicides a national disgrace – Matthew Tukaki
RNZ Checkpoint: Suicide prevention announcement in weeks – Health Minister
Katie Fitzgerald and Perry Wilton (Newshub): Suicide prevention group calls for change from Government
1News: Ministry of Justice’s latest statistics on suicides leaked to media, 1 NEWS understands
1News: Suicide numbers rise from previous year, the highest since records began
Katie Fitzgerald (Newshub): Jacinda Ardern defends refusal to set suicide prevention target
Anna Whyte (1News): ‘The goal has to be no one’ – Ardern says target implies ‘tolerance for suicide’
1News: Māori and Pacific Islanders, young people lead ‘horrendous’ suicide increase
Katarina Williams, Felix Desmarais and Hannah Martin (Stuff): Suicide rates rise to highest-ever level
Herald: New Zealand suicides highest since records began
Sophie Bateman (Newshub): New Zealand’s suicide statistics increase on last year
RNZ: Increase in suicides for Māori and teens latest stats show
Oliver Lewis (Stuff): Bereaved Canterbury father shocked by ‘horrendous’ suicide figures
National Party
Matt Nippert (Herald): Former trade minister Todd McClay helped arrange $150,000 donation from Chinese racing industry billionaire Lin Lang to National Party (paywalled)
Bernard Hickey (Newsroom): Glimmers of hope amid the usual magical thinking
Richard Harman (Politik): Less a policy more a pamphlet
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): National turns to Trump, Britain for big economic policy
Henry Cooke (Stuff): National gets the boring stuff out of the way, with supperannuation change proposal
Jamie Ensor and Emily O’Connell (Newshub): National’s superannuation age increase proposal likely to draw mixed response – Interim Retirement Commissioner
Jenna Lynch (Newshub): National’s superannuation proposal could rule out Winston Peters as a coalition partner
Herald: NZ First Leader Winston Peters: National’s plan to raise the retirement age bad news
Susan Edmunds and Rebecca Stevenson (Stuff): Forget about tweaks to the pension age, it’s time to talk tax
Jenée Tibshraeny (Interest): Why National’s idea to tweak the tax system to benefit boomers is a bad idea
Zane Small (Newshub): National’s economic vision: Oil and gas ban canned, 90-day trials back in, retirement age up
Zane Small (Newshub): The ‘way over the top regulations’ National wants to dump
1News: National pledges to raise NZ superannuation age to 67
1News: National pledge to ‘set a bonfire’ on regulations
Audrey Young (Herald): National leader Simon Bridges signals superannuation move in economic policy
RNZ: National committing to ‘regulations bonfire’ if elected in 2020
Henry Cooke (Stuff): National would still raise super age to 67 in 2037 if elected, finance spokesman Paul Goldsmith says
John Anthony (Stuff): National proposes crackdown on government agencies dragging out payment to contractors
Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): National floats company tax cut, recommits to higher pension age
Local government
Alex Braae (Spinoff): Why you need to pay attention to Regional Council races
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Todd Niall (Stuff): Auckland mayoral election: Has John Tamihere shaken it up too much?
Herald Editorial: Vote now, pay later, as candidates roll out the barrel (paywalled)
Todd Niall (Stuff): Auckland mayoral race: Are John Tamihere’s rates freeze calculations out by $72m?
Bernard Orsman (Herald): John Tamihere’s policies facing criticism from across the political spectrum
Nick Truebridge (Stuff): Auckland mayoral race: Council finance chairman refuses to back John Tamihere’s rates freeze
Bernard Orsman (Herald): Goff critics join the mayor to pan John Tamihere’s pledge to freeze rates
Vaimoana Tapaleao (Herald): John Tamihere’s rates freeze pledge dubbed a ‘hollow promise’
Tom McRae (Newshub): Auckland mayoral candidate John Tamihere compared to Donald Trump over election promise
RNZ: Auckland needs to live within its means – Tamihere
Torika Tokalau (Stuff): Auckland mayoral hopeful John Tamihere a no-show at meet the candidate event
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Goff Vs Tamihere Pub Politics September 17th live @ Chapel Bar
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Anusha Bradley (RNZ): Napier City Council’s monitoring of members’ Facebook accounts ‘uncomfortable’ and ‘creepy’
Dave Armstrong (Dominion Post): Fifty shades of centre in the race to be Wellington mayor
Mike Yardley (Press): Lianne Dalziel fighting fit, but what about reining in rising rates?
Janine Rankin (Manawatū Standard): Childcare payments for councillors off the table
Piers Fuller (Stuff): Local election 2019: Wairarapa councils candidate profiles
Chris Morris (ODT): Councillor claims smear campaign
Chris Morris (ODT): Mayoral campaign signs vanish
Ministry for Culture and Heritage privacy breach
Southland Times Editorial: Our privacy problems aren’t for patching
Craig McCulloch (RNZ): No jobs axed after serious privacy breach at Ministry of Culture and Heritage
Jason Walls (Herald): PM Jacinda Ardern says new rules approved to prevent more data breaches
Tova O’Brien (Newshub): Government forced to take urgent steps over Ministry for Culture and Heritage data breach
BusinessDesk: Govt clamps down on web service providers after data breach
James Fyfe (Newshub): ‘It shouldn’t have happened’: Privacy Commissioner John Edwards on Ministry for Culture and Heritage digital breach
Government
Chris Trotter (Interest):Is Jacinda Ardern’s government a critical mass of talent, or a critical mess of failure
Boris Jancic (Herald): Fact check: The most legislation of any Government?
Health
Guyon Espiner (RNZ):Philip Morris tried to target poor through poverty group and a DHB
ODT Editorial: Supping with the devil
Karen Brown (RNZ): Report highlights Nurses Organisation’s internal strains amid pay talks
Vita Molyneux (Newshub): US vaping death sparks fears Kiwis will swap e-cigarettes for real ones
Hannah Martin (Stuff): Auckland measles outbreak: Ministry of Health ‘extremely concerned’ as case numbers spike
Lana Andelane (Newshub): Auckland ambulance officer pleas for New Zealanders to vaccinate amid measles outbreak
Natalie Akoorie (Herald): Dental Council investigated complaints of dentists doing orthodontics (paywalled)
Florence Kerr (Stuff): DHB confirms man in Waikato River was mental health patient on unescorted leave
Welfare
Benedict Collins (1News): Ardern continues to defend cutting benefits of parents who fail drug tests
David Slack (Stuff): Intolerance fed by wrong and hateful assumptions is all the rage right now
Meng Foon welcomed as Race Relations Commissioner
Laura Walters ((Newsroom): Meng Foon gears up to take on the state
Te Kuru o te Marama Dewes (Māori TV): “The racism among us needs to stop” – Meng Foon
1News: Meng Foon welcomed into role as Race Relations Commissioner with pōwhiri
James Hardie
Newshub: The Project: Building company James Hardie invites waitress to meet man who racially abused her
Michael Neilson (Herald): ‘They were laughing so hard’: Young Māori waitress calls for apology after racist abuse
Sophie Bateman (Newshub): ‘The whole table was laughing at me’: Teenage waitress racially abused by Auckland Viaduct restaurant customer
Sophie Bateman (Newshub): James Hardie hammered with abuse after racist customer story
Patrick Gower (Newshub): There is no such thing as ‘casual racism’ only vile racists
Transport
Jason Walls (Herald): Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter wanted to investigate banning petrol car imports by 2035
Damian George (Stuff): Councillor questions city council’s funding streams for $6.4 billion transport programme
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Auckland-Hamilton rail service slammed for only going to Papakura
Stephen Forbes (Interest): Twyford dismisses claims by National Party about a transport funding squeeze
Matthew Theunissen (RNZ): Optimism for new flights between Auckland and Invercargill
Phil Pennington (RNZ):CAA engine rule change ‘will impact a lot of people’
Environment and conservation
Alice Neville (Spinoff): Selling out or just shrewd? Conservation groups go head to head on Māui dolphins
Farah Hancock (Newsroom): Māui plan ‘gambling’ with extinction
Peter de Graaf (Northern Advocate): Swimming with Bay of Islands dolphins axed as numbers plummet
Laura James (1News): Mako sharks set for more protection in NZ waters despite Government voting against proposal
Amy Williams (RNZ): Mako sharks don’t meet criteria for protection listing – DOC
1New: Dairy industry blasts NZ ecologist’s New York Times piece as ‘un-Kiwi’
Emma Dangerfield (Stuff): Black-backed gulls targeted to protect rare bird species on Canterbury’s braided rivers
Jamie Ensor and Emily O’Connell (Newshub): ‘Intergenerational’ climate strike organiser hopes schools, businesses support protesters
Genetic modification
Damien Grant (Stuff): A much more careful approach is needed on genetic modification
Bonnie Flaws (Stuff): Stoush between grower and NZ Wine over genetic modification-heavy conference line up
Education
John Gerritsen (RNZ): NZ universities’ dependence on Chinese students laid bare
Lydia Lewis (Newshub): Struggling international students feel unsupported after ‘totally ridiculous’ meeting with NZQA
Simon Collins (Herald): School census: How can we give kids healthy school lunches? (paywalled)
Simon Collins (Herald): School census: How can we give kids healthy school lunches kids will actually eat? (paywalled)
Anna Whyte (1News): Should NZ history be compulsory? Students call for ‘honest truth’
Jessica Long (Stuff): Teacher aide work important and worthy of decent pay, staff say
Simon Collins (Herald): Childcare fees rise as ECE teacher shortage deepens
David Kirk (Herald): What is the spirit of New Zealandness? (paywalled)
Gender pay gap, employment
Nikki Preston (Herald): Government urged to address pay secrecy in bid to fix gender pay gap
Felix Desmarais (Stuff): Women’s stories of pay discrimination highlight call for pay transparency
Katie Fitzgerald and Miriam Harris (Newshub): Women share how lack of pay transparency affects them
Jessica Long (Stuff): Are we any closer to achieving pay equity?
Tamsyn Parker (Herald): Insurer to give all new parents 12 weeks leave on full pay
Bruce Rifle Club to reopen
Hamish McNeilly (Stuff): Otago gun range connected to terror attack accused set to re-open
ODT: Rifle club where terror accused trained reopening – report
Amazon fires
Jason Walls (Herald): PM Jacinda Ardern asks officials to express concern to Brazil over Amazon forest fire
Collette Devlin (Stuff): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern concern over Amazon rainforest fires – NZ may help
1News: Ardern expresses New Zealand’s concern over Amazon fires to Brazil
RWC
Zane Small (Newshub): Jacinda Ardern reveals details of extended trading hours for bars
Collette Devlin (Stuff): Green light for bars and clubs to open outside normal licensing hours for Rugby World Cup games
Pita Paraone has died
RNZ: Ngāti Hine in mourning after death of Waitangi stalwart, Pita Paraone
Lynette Amoroa (Māori TV): Pita Paraone remembered as a peaceful yet purposeful leader
Heta Gardiner (Māori TV): Politicians pay tribute to Pita Paraone
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Former New Zealand First MP Pita Paraone dies aged 73
Lindsay Laird (Northern Advocate): Ngāti Hine mourns kaumatua and Waitangi stalwart Pita Paraone
1News: Former New Zealand First MP Pita Paraone has died
Other
TVNZ Q+A: Voters warned to prepare for dirty politics as battle steps up online a year out from election
Michael Morrah (Newshub): Justice Minister Andrew Little warns alcohol industry a law review is on the cards
Terry Baucher (Interest): Interview with Max Rashbrooke about taxing wealth, those who have it and who are ‘not in the system’, and who ‘pay very little tax now’
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Digital services tax would have ‘chilling effect’, Government told
Boris Jancic (Herald): Australia reveals trans-Tasman plan to tackle online extremism
Sam Hurley (Herald): ‘Insensitive and overbearing’: Complaints against judges include reaction to Crown lawyer’s Māori intro (paywalled)
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): New rules take effect for rental property market
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Expert urges caution on sign language controversy
Herald: Violent spate plagues Auckland: ‘It’s getting crazy out there’
RNZ: Crime on the rise in South Auckland: ‘Honestly speaking it is scary’
1News: Recruitment of Māori to police is on the rise
RNZ: More than $4m from Provincial Growth Fund for AI and high-end food development
Duncan Garner (Newshub): Why I don’t fill out the census form
Emma McKay (Herald): Cannabis campaigner says law reform fight ‘has got serious’ after arrest
Stuff: Security cameras throughout youth centre ‘standard stuff’ for safety
Ripu Bhatia (Stuff): Asian migrants rising as British flee New Zealand in face of cliques, traffic
Dan Lake (Newshub): Rainbow Pride Auckland misses out on funding for parade
Curwen Ares Rolinson (Daily Blog): On John Roughan’s Curious Distaste For Journalistic Privilege
