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.
Labour Party sexual abuse allegations
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Newstalk ZB): We must question PM’s honesty over Labour sexual assault allegations
Barry Soper (Newstalk ZB): Labour Party’s handling of sex attack claims beggars belief
Press Editorial: A second Labour scandal looks like carelessness
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): Labour sex abuse scandal – where’s Jacinda Ardern’s famous empathy now?
Claire Trevett (Herald): Jacinda Ardern and the Labour sex assault inquiry: Who knew what, when? (paywalled)
Toby Manhire (Spinoff): Timeline: Everything we know about the Labour staffer inquiry
1News: ‘Very unlikely’ Ardern didn’t know about alleged sexual assault by Labour Party staffer, Bridges say
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Jacinda Ardern knew about Labour staffer sexual assault allegations – Simon Bridges
RNZ: Checkpoint: Labour assault investigation retraumatised victims – witness
Andrea Vance (Stuff): Former Labour party volunteer says he raised allegations with party president Nigel Haworth
Tova O’Brien (Newshub): Emails show Labour was sent details of sexual assault allegations against party staffer
Craig McCulloch (RNZ): Labour complainants say party president let them down
Derek Cheng (Herald): Second complainant says Labour knew about sexual assault claims
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Nigel Haworth – the Labour Party president facing calls to resign
Duncan Garner (Newshub): Nigel Haworth must resign over Labour sexual assault investigation
Andrea Vance (Stuff): Complaints about Labour Party staffer taken to his employer
MeToo Labour: Open Letter to Prime Minister
Jane Patterson (RNZ): Labour Party members urge PM to act over sexual assault allegations in open letter
Jessica Mutch-McKay (1News): Complaint made to Parliamentary Service against Labour staffer
Derek Cheng (Herald): Labour Party president Nigel Haworth: I have acted professionally
Henry Cooke and Collette Devlin (Stuff): PM: Labour didn’t learn its lesson over summer camp scandal
Anna Whyte (1News): Labour Party President to ‘consider’ his position once review of sexual assault allegation against staffer complete
RNZ: Future of Labour Party president Nigel Haworth uncertain after handling of sexual assault allegation
Herald: Calls for Labour president to resign over handling of sexual assault allegation against staffer
1News: Independent inquiry into alleged sexual assault by Labour Party staffer expected to take four weeks
Eleanor Ainge Roy (Guardian): New Zealand Labour faces sexual assault crisis as Jacinda Ardern sets up inquiry
Anna Bracewell-Worrall (Newshub): Labour assault, bullying claims: Everything you need to know
Katie Fitzgerald (Newshub): Labour Party alleged sexual assault victims felt Jacinda Ardern ‘didn’t care’ – Paula Bennett
Cathy Odgers: Why Ardern’s Problem Is Not An Employment Issue
Suicide, depression
Jenna Lynch (Newshub): Government’s ‘postvention’ suicide bereavement counselling set to support friends and whānau
Jamie Ensor and Lana Andelane (Newshub): Mike King supports Government’s Suicide Prevention Strategy, believes ‘in the direction we are going’
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Māori Council slams Government’s suicide plan
RNZ: ‘One suicide is one suicide too many’ – Govt unveils Suicide Prevention Office
Zane Small (Newshub): Suicide Prevention Office part of Government’s plan to ‘take mental health seriously’
Herald: Government announces suicide prevention office
Collette Devlin (Stuff): Government sets up Suicide Prevention Office as part of national strategy
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Duncan Garner stunned children under ten died by suicide
1News: Suicide Prevention Office part of Government’s plan to reduce high rate of Kiwis taking their own lives
Herald: Labour MP Kiri Allan opens up about niece’s suicide and depression
Foreign affairs
Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): Bridges opens up foreign policy divide on China
Zane Small (Newshub): Simon Bridges rejects claim he met with China’s head of ‘secret police’
Jo Moir (RNZ): Guo Shengkun a Chinese minister, not secret police – Bridges
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Ummmmm – why did Simon Bridges meet with the leader of China’s secret police???
Report on NZ intelligence agencies’ role in CIA torture in Afghanistan
Gordon Campbell: On this week’s damning report into the SIS/GCSB’s tacit compliance with torture
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): The spin SIS & GCSB are demanding we believe to wipe their CIA torture guilt clean
Local government
Chris Ford (Newsroom): Local government’s missing voice
RNZ: RNZ mayoral debate: Phil Goff and John Tamihere face off in RNZ’s mayoral debate
RNZ: RNZ mayoral debate: Watch live: Christchurch mayoral candidates face off in debate
Matt Shand (Stuff): Million-dollar section gifted to Māori trust by Tauranga City Council despite strong opposition
Aaron Leaman (Stuff): Labour MP Jamie Strange breaks election sign rules
Rikihana Smallman (Stuff): Mayoral candidate ‘happy to be wrong’ after firing off at rival
Laura Dooney (RNZ): Wellington mayor lays down challenge to rivals – who tell him it’s meaningless
Stuff: Local elections 2019: Mayoral debates for Wellington and Hutt City
Felix Desmarais (Dominion Post): Frank the crayfish costs Wellington ratepayers $16k – and counting
Chloe Ranford (Stuff): Marlborough’s council candidates ready for election face-off
Esther Ashby-Coventry (Stuff): South Canterbury community boards fund mobile cameras for police use in rural areas
Mark Price (ODT): Council, developer join forces over wastewater
Logan Savory (Southland Times): Darren Ludlow: Leadership missing at Invercargil’s council table
Housing
John Tookey (Stuff): KiwiBuild will remain an albatross around the Government’s neck
Dominic Harris (Press): New Christchurch social housing units 10 years away if insulation fast-tracked
Marta Steeman (Stuff): Build-to-rent apartments must not become slums, property specialists warn
Jessica Tyson (Māori TV): Te Puna Wai Papakāinga opens first home for Wainuiomata whānau
Abortion
Zane Small (Newshub): Abortion: Law Commission told gestation period is ‘grey area and somewhat arbitrary’
RNZ: Law Commission lays out abortion law reform options
Synthetic cannabis
Lucy Warhurst (Newshub):‘One puff could kill’: New Zealand’s synthetic cannabis among the worst in the world
RNZ: Four deadly synthetic cannabinoids identified
Cannabis referendum
Bob McCoskrie (Herald): The case for no in the cannabis referendum (paywalled)
David Farrar: How come Helen didn’t mention this in 2008?
Measles
1News: World Health Organisation ‘worried’ that New Zealand’s measles outbreak could spread to Pacific neighbours
RNZ: Pacific immunisation rates in South Auckland among the highest
Scott Palmer (Newshub): Measles lockdown: Prisoners isolated, babies quarantined over fears disease has hit women’s prison
Melanie Earley (Stuff): Measles outbreak: Prisoners isolated, babies quarantined at Auckland women’s prison
Dubby Henry (Herald): Measles outbreak: Vaccines being redistributed after GPs run out
Stuff: Measles outbreak: Five new cases in Queenstown
Meenal Duggal (Herald): Does the code of consumer rights mean you don’t have to vaccinate? (paywalled)
Health
Peter Davis (Herald): Primary and community health services are lagging
Emma Hatton (RNZ): ACC taxi troubles: Drivers rejecting trips due to lower pay, Auckland woman told
Janine Rankin (Manawatū Standard): Urgent action needed to boost midwifery workforce
Phil Pennington (RNZ): Fire alarm issues at Waikato Hospital persist 8 years after first raised
David Loughrey (ODT): Ministry confident of building purchase
Jamie Searle (Southland Times): Ambitious plan for a charity hospital in Southland
Laura Smith (ODT): Southland charity hospital discussion tonight
Mark Quinlivan and Mel Logan (Newshub): Blair and Melissa Vining’s project to create charity hospital in Southland to begin
1News: Blair Vining’s fight for better cancer care continues with launch of plan to establish charity hospital in Invercargill
Samesh Mohanlall (Timaru Herald): South Canterbury ‘too small for cancer radiation centre’
1News: Māori health agency accuses UK company’s ‘Haka Legend’ vaping kit of brand theft, exploitation
Police
Ben Strang (RNZ): Bullying in the police: ‘It absolutely destroys you’
RNZ: Bullying in the police: ‘We absolutely address complaints’
Kim Baker Wilson (1News): Police Commissioner says force is a ‘positive environment’ amid claims of bullying
Transport
RNZ: KiwiRail to train prisoners as track workers in Northland
Denise Piper (Stuff): Northland rail: Link to Marsden Point ‘next step’
Damian George (Stuff): Wellington’s retired trolley buses destined for museums or scrapheap
Brian Rudman (Herald): Politicians travelling familiar publicity trail (paywalled)
Herald Editorial: What’s behind the push for a commercial airport at Whenuapai (paywalled)
Grant Bradley (Herald): Battle of Whenuapai: Australasian airline group flies into push for another airport (paywalled)
RNZ: Huge growth needed to make Wanaka Airport investment viable – report
Environment
Richard Harman (Politik): NZ First MP hints at changes to the water proposals
Jamie Mackay (Herald): Ten water-quality questions for Todd Muller and Jacinda Ardern (paywalled)
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Multi-agency project announced to avoid similar environmental disasters as Fox River
1News: Spurred by West Coast ‘wake-up call’, Govt launches investigation into risks of older landfills
Joanne Carroll (Stuff): National action plan to tackle environmental risk from disused dump
RNZ: Plan launched to identify landfill risks after West Coast washout
RNZ: Gisborne seafront residents warned rocks may be removed
Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): Helen Clark on the case for sustainability optimism
Paul Duignan (Stuff): Climate change – let’s hear solutions, not just problems
1News: Whangārei bans bins at beaches in a NZ-first bid to curb rubbish – and it’s working
RNZ: The Detail: Why is Japan still slaughtering whales?
Te reo Māori
Brittney Deguara (Stuff): Losing te reo could threaten Kiwi ‘humanity’ and follow in Australia’s footsteps
Mike McRoberts (Newshub): Māori Language Week: Teachers say demand to learn Te Reo outstripping supply
Newshub: ‘It caused a sensation’: Hinewehi Mohi reflects on singing national anthem in Māori
Christchurch call
Jo Moir (RNZ): Simon Bridges says Christchurch Call ‘was a big talkfest in Paris’
Derek Cheng (Herald): Simon Bridges slams Christchurch Call, says PM too focused on Twitter
Anna Bracewell-Worrall (Newshub): Simon Bridges lashes out at Jacinda Ardern’s attempts to curb terrorist content online
Education
Simon Collins (Herald): OECD education update: How much are parents paying for schools?
John Gerritsen (RNZ): Student alleges cheating, misbehaviour at Whitireia Polytechnic
George Heagney (Manawatū Standard): Ministry of Education plans for new school in Palmerston North
Media
Duncan Greive (Newsroom): ‘Google is our biggest competitor’: CEO Kevin Kenrick reimagines TVNZ for the digital age
Philip Somerville (ODT): An inquisitive fence-sitter, by profession, to the end
Other
Tom Hunt (Stuff): Childhood horrors laid bare as survivors talk of sexual abuse
1News: Euthanasia laws can change ‘whole fabric of society’ – Dutch professor
Peter Cullen (Stuff): Striking for the right to a weekend – sound familiar?
Jono Galuszka (Stuff) Labour plans bid for Ōtaki electorate after Nathan Guy’s resignation
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s cynical Sunday ‘policy’ rollouts
Phil Smith (RNZ): The Westminster crisis and NZ
Derek Cheng (Herald): Refugees to representatives: Golriz Ghahraman and Ilhan Omar meet in US
Hannah Martin and Jessica Long (Stuff): Gay father fighting for fairer surrogacy laws backed by thousands as he presents petition to Parliament
Tara Shaskey (Stuff): Veteran support service makes deep cuts to crisis response hours after funding shortfall
Kaysha Brownlie (Newshub): ‘The end is coming’: Christchurch’s Lancaster Park comes crashing down
Nicholas Pointon (RNZ): Christchurch’s Lancaster Park demolition enters final stage
Kate Nicol-Williams (1News): Family of first Kiwi killed in WWI disappointed after medal sold on Trade Me
ODT Editorial: Putting the fun back into sport
Fa’anānā Efeso Collins (Newsroom): Small steps toward a normal life in Pasifika youth court
Gerard Hutching (Stuff): Fonterra to shed large number of jobs to balance books
Christine Rose (Daily Blog): Nu Zilind Gothic – Primary Sector Privilege Needs to End
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Bank profits suffer as pressure goes on
1News: Inland Revenue, ACC to phase out cheques from March next year
RNZ: Christchurch mayor happy Gun City owner is reconsidering his signage
RNZ: House price slowdown eases economic risk
RNZ: Economic weakness ahead, traffic movements signal
