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.
Cancer
Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): Cancer agency a sign of greater tests to come
Mike Houlahan (ODT): Cancer Society: plan must have accountability
Tina Law (Press): Moves to rid NZ’s cancer care postcode lottery applauded
1News: Government’s Cancer Action Plan a ‘landmark beginning’ says Māori Council
Regan Paranihi (Māori TV): ‘PHARMAC boost good start but not enough to make change’ – Māori family member
Duncan Garner (Newshub): $60m for new cancer drugs is piddly
Emma Russell (Herald): Cancer hope: Government promises to put an end to postcode lottery care
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Government ’embarrassed into action’ over cancer, Michael Woodhouse claims
1News: Government announces Cancer Control Agency and $60 million PHARMAC funding boost
Scott Palmer (Newshub): Government unveils new 10-year plan to tackle cancer
Karen Brown (RNZ): Government to establish a Cancer Control Agency and give Pharmac an extra $60m
Brad Flahive (Stuff): Government announces an extra $60m in Pharmac funding and new cancer treatments
Emma Russell (Herald): Government unveils national cancer agency and $60 million injection into Pharmac
Mike Houlahan (ODT): Cancer plan: new agency, $60m boost for Pharmac
1News: Terminal cancer sufferer Blair Vining wants Government’s Cancer Action Plan to go further
Mike Houlahan (ODT): Vining is cautiously optimistic
Emma Russell (Herald): ‘Cancer hero’ Blair Vining can finally put his feet up
1News: ‘People are starting to act’ – terminal cancer sufferer who organised petition welcomes new agency
Karen Brown (RNZ): Cancer experts wait anxiously as government set to unveil cancer plan
Perry Wilton and Dan Satherley (Newshub): Cancer patients await Government’s plan to tackle the disease
Vita Molyneux (Newshub): ‘Listening is different than acting’: Terminal cancer patient Blair Vining’s challenge to Health Minister
Herald: Pharmac reveals new cancer drugs on the way, contraception more available
Dan Satherley (Newshub): GPs’ ‘outdated’ prostate cancer advice is killing men – experts
Hannah Martin (Stuff): Kiwi prostate cancer sufferers facing delays, inconsistent advice – study
RNZ: Men face increasing wait times for prostate cancer treatment
RNZ: The link between hormone treatment and breast cancer
Measles
Martin van Beynen (Stuff): What the measles epidemic says about New Zealand
Michelle Duff and Andy Fyers (Stuff): The parent trap: A dangerous ideology threatening lives
Michelle Duff (Stuff):Anti-vaxxers target new parents, while others nurse their critically ill kids
Zane Small and Jenna Lynch (Newshub): ‘This is serious’: National Health Coordination Centre activated over measles outbreak
1News: ‘The situation is very serious’ – Government launches coordinated response as Auckland measles outbreak hits 762
Newshub: As it happened: Julie Anne Genter delivers Government’s response to measles outbreak
Herald: Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter announces national measles outbreak response
Don Rowe (Spinoff): Cheat sheet: NZ might have just lost herd immunity to measles. Now what?
Jason Walls (Herald): PM Jacinda Ardern urges people to get vaccinated for measles as confirmed cases climb
Brad Flahive (Stuff): Measles outbreak: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern urges people to get immunised
RNZ: Measles ‘epidemic curve is still steeply upwards’
Heather McCarron and Dan Satherley (Newshub): Auckland measles outbreak: Children ‘likely to die’, head of Starship Hospital warns
RNZ: Some children ‘likely to die’ from measles outbreak, doctor says
Lucy Warhurst (Newshub): Special training underway for school nurses to fight measles outbreak
Elizabeth Binning (Herald): Vaccinations to take place in schools as the battle to curb measles outbreak continues
Cherie Howie (Herald): Auckland measles outbreak: Child critically ill in Starship Hospital as measles cases grow
1News: Child critical as Auckland measles cases jump by 19 in a day to 778
Scott Palmer (Newshub): Twenty new measles cases per day as Auckland’s outbreak worsens
Jessie Chiang (RNZ): Tongan church elder keen to highlight impact of measles as free vaccinations launch
Scott Palmer (Newshub):Measles strikes Auckland school ball
Vita Molyneux (Newshub): ‘Not appropriate’: New Zealand Rugby League cancels secondary school competition due to measles outbreak
Hayley Jacobsen and Dan Satherley (Newshub): Measles outbreak sees high school league competition scrapped
1News: ‘We’re really worried’ – Plunket inundated with calls from concerned parents as measles outbreak spreads
Herald Editorial: Measles should not be a risk to our children’s future
ODT Editorial: The unwanted rise of measles
Sasha Borissenko (Herald): Drawing the legal line on infectious diseases and vaccination (paywalled)
Health
Mike Houlahan (ODT): SDHB to get crown monitor
Nicholas Boyack (Stuff): Health boards should be scrapped, says academic
Nicholas Jones (Herald): ‘We fit definitions describing racism’: DHB’s soul-searching over Māori illness and death (paywalled)
Amber-Leigh Woolf (Stuff): ‘Plant based’ diet could cut disease, hospital costs and emissions, NZ health sector says
1News: Vaping criticism will only protect cigarette trade, leading NZ academic says
RNZ: World Health Organisation’s approach to vaping will do more harm than good – academic
John-Michael Swannix (Newshub): The Pitch: Michael Woodhouse reveals National’s plan for health
Katie Kenny (Stuff): Why is immortality once again big business and what does that say about us?
RNZ: ‘Dream project’ wants to cut rates of heart disease among Māori and Pasifika
Donna Chisholm (North & South): New Zealand’s bitter pill: No justice for medical negligence
Karen Rutherford (Stuff): Tauranga podiatric surgeon Stefan Edwards under investigation over multiple botched operations
Laura Walters (Newsroom): Wāhine Māori suicide rates rising
Dave Macpherson (Daily Blog): Hold on, aren’t the same people in charge….?
Ireland Hendry-Tennent (Newshub): Mental health campaigner Jazz Thornton urges Kiwis not to be discouraged by suicide figures
Government
John Armstrong (1News): Ardern’s struggle from now on will be to keep her head above the water
Audrey Young (Herald): Managing Māori issues a test for Jacinda Ardern’s Government (paywalled)
Richard Griffin (Stuff): Politics ‘falls off cliff’ in Britain but little action on home front
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Suicide rates skyrocket, public housing wait list explodes to 12,644 while beneficiaries queue at 2am – how is this transformative?
Zane Small (Newshub): Jacinda Ardern was sent ‘lewd’ unsolicited image on Twitter
ODT Editorial: Clare Curran: An MP who really cares
Mike Houlahan (ODT): Curran’s career in perspective
Siobhan Downes (Stuff): At home with Guy Williams and Golriz Ghahraman
Lana Andelane (Newshub): ‘Happy Father’s Day to all the dads’: Labour MP Tāmati Coffey shares adorable photos
Parliament
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Newshub Nation: Should we cap political party donations to just $1000?
Bryce Edwards (Herald): Political Roundup: Lifting the MP pay freeze — how much are politicians worth? (paywalled)
Colin Peacock (RNZ): Oncoming online onslaught of paid political ads?
Claire Trevett (Herald): Bad blood: Winston Peters, Paula Bennett and other explosive feuds of Parliament (paywalled)
Peter Wilson (RNZ): Week in Politics: Unity crumbles on gun law reform and climate change
1News: Inside Parliament: Political unity breaks over guns, immigrants and pensions (video)
Claire Trevett (Herald): Beehive Diaries: PM Jacinda Ardern points the finger and Bridges’ three baddies (paywalled)
Phil Smith (RNZ): The everlasting money talk
Guy Williams (Stuff): Simple (half-baked) ideas to improve politics in New Zealand
National Party
Chris Trotter: A Grim Necessity
Brooke van Velden (Stuff): Judith Collins 2.0 may be the leader National need to take on Jacindamania in 2020
John-Michael Swannix (Newshub): Newshub Nation Backstory: Agnes Loheni
Local Body Elections
Alex Braae (Spinoff): Whose job is it anyway? Inside our inadequate, uncoordinated efforts to up voter turnout
Steve Elers (Stuff): People with criminal pasts have every right to stand for office
Nick Truebridge (Stuff): Auckland mayoral election: Christine Fletcher quiet as running mate drops policy bombshells
Stephen Forbes (Interest): John Tamihere says if he wins he’ll be seeking Auckland’s ‘fair share of our taxes deployed back in our city’
1News: Phil Goff promises living wage for council cleaning contractors if he’s re-elected
Brittany Keogh (Stuff): Auckland mayoral race: Phil Goff promises to lift cleaners’ wages if re-elected
Bernard Orsman and Simon Wilson (Herald): How good are they? We rate the Auckland councillors (paywalled)
Todd Niall (Stuff): Auckland mayoral election: Some media tips for candidates
1News: Former gang leader eyes new role as Far North mayor
Tom O’Connor (Stuff): No place for candidate’s misguided ‘Nazi nation’ phrase in local body politics
Mike Mather (Stuff): Hamilton election candidate Lisa Lewis says she’s being left out of meetings
Richard Swainson (Stuff): No red lights for this mayoral candidate
Felix Desmarais and Ruby Macandrew (Stuff): Former Wellington mayors weigh in on city issues and say it’s ‘lost its heart’
Dileepa Fonseka (Stuff): Election 2019: Wellington City Council Northern ward candidate profiles
Virginia Fallon and Joel Maxwell (Stuff): Local election 2019: Porirua City’s candidate profiles
Virginia Fallon and Joel Maxwell (Stuff): Local election 2019: Kāpiti Council’s candidate profiles
1News: Thirteen candidates vying for Christchurch mayoralty in upcoming elections
Eleisha Foon (RNZ): Muslim local election candidates want ‘harmony in our society’
Alex Braae (Spinoff): Race briefing: Waitaki District mayoralty, aka the Overlord of Oamaru
Chris Morris (ODT): City’s future direction at stake in election
Tim Miller (ODT): Youngest mayoral candidate focuses on housing, community
Tim Miller (ODT): Moving to circular, low-waste economy seen as vital for city
Spinoff: Democracy saved: We debated one of New Zealand’s top unopposed local election candidates
Local Government
Catrin Owen (Stuff): Auckland Council, Mayor Phil Goff, taken to court for barring right-wing Canadian speakers
Stuff: Auckland Council now pays living wage to staff
RNZ: Auckland Council’s living wage comes into effect
Alastair Lynn (Newshub): Low-income Auckland retirement village residents stunned homes could be bulldozed
Cherie Howie (Herald): The Auckland Council password no-no list: Elected members and staff warned off ‘common’ words
Lee Kenny (Stuff): Christchurch City Council paid $55,000 to recruitment firm to help find new CEO
Chloe Ranford (Stuff): Environment plan three years in the making on track financially
Water
Chris Trotter (Daily Blog): A Step Too Far
Simon Shepherd and Finn Hogan (Newshub): Newshub Nation: Waitangi Tribunal call for stronger freshwater rights for Māori could benefit everyone – Māori Council
Housing
Henry Cooke (Stuff): The Government can wrest something from the wreckage of KiwiBuild
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Public housing waitlist at new high with 12,644 households waiting months for housing
1News: Waiting list for state housing hits record high
RNZ: ‘Warm homes … instead of them living out in caravans’: Govt invests $2.7m in housing on Māori land
Herald: Government to part fund new Māori housing development in Tauranga
NIcholas Boyack (Stuff): Government forking out millions for emergency housing in Lower Hutt
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): More Kiwis battling lifelong mortgages
Katie Todd (RNZ): Tiny house owners lobby to secure renters’ rights
Environment & Climate Change
Andrea Vance (Stuff): The world is burning and Judith Collins just poured fuel on the fire
Paul Gorman (Stuff): Will ECan’s proposed nitrate reductions make dairy farming untenable?
John Jackson (Stuff): Not NZ first when it comes to agricultural emissions cuts, thanks
Dominic Harris (Stuff): Christchurch makes bold step toward ambitious carbon emissions goals
Todd Niall (Stuff): Auckland could do more on sustainability and climate action, says former PM Helen Clark
Pat Baskett (Newsroom): Zero carbon submissions: they don’t make it easy
Leith Huffadine (RNZ): ‘Flax roots’ climate action leads to the first ‘climate safe house’
Ben Uffindell (The Civilian): Opinion: Treat your car by buying it extra petrol to snack on while you aren’t driving
RNZ: The Detail: Swamp kauri plunder a tale of misadventure
RNZ: Māori zero waste scheme Para Kore gets half a million dollars in funding boost
Ryan Boswell (1News): Breakthrough technology destined for New Zealand promising to help reverse plastic waste crisis
1News: In five years, sediment levels have more than doubled in Porirua Harbour
Sam Farrell (Newshub): Eugenie Sage denies rumours of a blanket ban on whitebaiting amid rising concern
Primary industries
Eric Frykberg (RNZ): Crown to net $5 million from Westland Milk sale
RNZ: Protesters in Lyttelton call for halt on phosphate imports
1News: Kiwi company funded $75,000 by Government to try turning pest seaweed into high-value export
Zane Small (Newshub): ‘Turning gorse into gourmet’: Plan to turn ‘pest seaweed’ into ‘premium edible export’
RNZ: New Zealand invasive seaweed exporter snags $75,000 government buy-in
Tom Furley (RNZ): Kiwi company knows how to seaweed as opportunity
1News: Wairarapa community fear for survival after large farm sold to Swiss company
RNZ: The North Canterbury cow sanctuary run by a teenager
Free School Lunch Policy
Andrew Becroft (Herald): Free school lunches is a good start but more is needed (paywalled)
Dominion Post Editorial: Food for thought on how to feed our kids and fight poverty
1News: Jacinda Ardern gives insight into how free lunches scheme came about – ‘I read every postcard that children wrote’
RNZ: Free lunches for kids scheme not bold enough – ActionStation
Duncan Garner (Stuff): Eat that – there is such a thing as a free lunch after all
Kerre McIvor (Herald): Free school lunch great idea, now how to deliver (paywalled)
Dan Satherley (Newshub): The real reason many parents can’t feed their kids
Ben Uffindell (The Civilian): Bridges: If kids become reliant on free lunches, how will they cope when we’re in power?
Education, bullying
Jennifer Eder (Stuff): Taking credit from other subjects scrapped as students not literacy, numeracy-ready
Belinda Feek (Herald): New Zealand’s suicide and bullying shame; calls for Government to target the schoolyard
1News: Children’s Commissioner calls for compulsory anti-bullying programmes as Auckland college in firing line
RNZ: Call for compulsory anti-bullying programmes in all schools
Charlotte Cook (RNZ):Scathing report into bullying has victim ‘vindicated’
Herald Editorial: Bullying cuts to the very heart of who we want to be (paywalled)
Simon Collins (Herald): Mediator called in to West Auckland’s Matipo School as parents and teachers split into warring factions (paywalled)
Josephine Franks (Stuff): Children of prisoners need better support at school, teacher says
Sereana Naepi & Tara McAllister (E-Tangata): Why aren’t universities made for people like me?
Scott Palmer (Newshub): Students welcome University of Auckland Foundation’s fossil fuel divestment
Firearms
Boris Jancic (Herald): What new gun reforms could mean for mental health (paywalled)
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Police hoping for ‘way better’ response from owners of illegal guns
Hayley Jacobsen and Dan Satherley (Newshub): Gun City joins police buyback scheme
Helen Harvey (Stuff): Gun owners hand back more than 200 firearms in Stratford buyback
Employment
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Law firm could take Chorus to court over workers’ rights but needs more backers
1News: SkyCity Casino employees striking for compensation over unsociable hours
Katie Fitzgerald (Stuff): SkyCity workers to strike
RNZ: Workers at SkyCity Casino go on weekend-long strike
1News: More than 7000 workers at The Warehouse win living wage
RNZ: Living wage on the way for 7000 Warehouse staff
Social welfare
Benedict Collins (1News): Sixteen Kiwi kids hit by Government’s welfare drug sanctions
Lee Kenny (Stuff): Social workers call for pay increase as wages differ by $30,000 across sector
Economy
Liam Dann (Herald) Get set for the most stimulating NZ election in a generation (paywalled)
Newsroom/RNZ: The economic heavyweight bout of the year: Kate Raworth and Arthur Grimes (podcast)
Justice
RNZ: A significant drop in youth offending since 2010
RNZ: More needs to be done to cut Māori offender numbers – advocate
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Trades Hall suspect hopes for resolution in bombing cold case after 35 years of suspicion
Te Kuru o te Marama Dewes (Māori TV): An original voice for the Māori renaissance
Treaty of Waitangi
Te Aniwa Hurihanganui (RNZ): Government responds to bid for Māori intellectual and cultural property rights
Moana Maniapoto (E-Tangata): Restoring mana and confidence
Leigh-Marama McLachlan (RNZ): Using Treaty settlement to put the H back in Whanganui
Transport
Dileepa Fonseka (Stuff): Let’s Keep Wellington Waiting: $6.4b regional transport plan mired in doubt, uncertainty and accusation
Joel Maxwell (Stuff): Drivers ‘frustrated as hell’, at transport package changes: regional mayor
Ben Strang (RNZ): Written off: The true cost of road deaths
Immigration, refugees
Tom Kitchin (Stuff): Refugees’ stories of shock and happiness after arriving in New Zealand
Lorna Thornber (Stuff): Migrants’ experiences of New Zealand: Expectation versus reality
Eleanor Ainge Roy (Guardian): ‘It gave me hope’: New Zealand charity gives refugees bikes and teaches them to ride
Alison Mau (Stuff): An unexpected love story we can all have a stake in
Gill Bonnett (RNZ): Visa crackdown impacting couples, say advocates
Cannabis
Daily Blog: Pub Politics – 8pm Tonight live streamed from Chapel Bar – The Cannabis Referendum with Paula Bennett, Chloe Swarbrick, David Seymour & Chris Fowlie
Kristin Edge (Northern Advocate): Cannabis: Green Fairy helps herself and others with illegal green stuff (paywalled)
Māori cloak auction
Katie Fitzgerald and Edward O’Driscoll (Newshub): Māori cloak could be sold privately, lost again – academic
Loyd Burr (Newshub): Māori cloak auction cancelled after Kiwis threaten owners with abuse
Other
Tim Brown (RNZ): Whistle-blowers expose bullying at Te Whare Pounamu Dunedin Women’s Refuge
Charlotte Graham-McLay (New York Times): Muslims in New Zealand Say They Have Been Sidelined in Christchurch Inquiry
Liam Dann (Herald): How the trade war is hurting NZ – threat vs reality (paywalled)
RNZ: Government’s $8m pilot programme for responsible camping
Paul Gorman (Stuff): Competing weather forecasts from two separate Govt agencies labelled ‘absurd’
RNZ: Government still considering Queenstown bed tax
Thomas Bywater (Herald): New Zealand Passport potential design flaw a fern in travellers’ side
Grant Shimmin (Stuff): Freedom of speech is not an excuse for bad behaviour or abuse
Lizzie Marvelly (Herald): Racist behaviour virus thrives in tolerance (paywalled)
Sharnae Hope (Stuff): ‘I hated myself for a long time’: One woman’s experience of six abortions
RNZ: Defence force in Timor-Leste: ‘A strong desire to help’
RNZ: Consumers slightly more optimistic about finance
Dale Husband (E-Tangata): Lani Wendt Young: A hunger worldwide for our stories told by us
RNZ: Hopes Māori King will develop land in Cook Islands
RNZ: Building consents granted highest since 1974
Stevan Eldred-Grigg (Spinoff): The case for NZ joining WWII, reassessed
Stuff: TV Three has a new content boss, Ben Quinn
1News: Youth MP calls for more action to ban gay conversion therapy a year after petition presented to Parliament
George Block (ODT): Respected leader farewelled at Otakou Marae tangi
Toby Morris (Spinoff): The Side Eye: Who’s the man?
Regan Paranihi (Māori TV): Ngāti Toa unhappy about commercial use of haka
Cherie Sivignon (Stuff): Recovering pokie addict supports sinking lid proposal in Tasman district
1News: Pike River families ‘disappointed’ with MP Nick Smith’s opinion piece calling for end to recovery ‘charade’
Simon Wong (Newshub): One dead, another critical after police chase ends in crash
