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.
Local government
Stephanie Arthur-Worsop (Rotorua Daily Post): Election 2019: What do local councils actually do? (paywalled)
Julienne Molineaux (Spinoff): What are DHB elections and can we get rid of them? A Spinoff explainer
Steven Elers (Stuff): Let us pray for the end of religious privilege and the end of prayers in council meeting
Craig Hoyle (Stuff): Local body elections: Try telling Hong Kong protesters you can’t be bothered voting
Local government – North Island
Lois Williams (RNZ): Three-legged race for Whangārei mayoralty
Todd Niall (Stuff): Auckland Council Election: Voting trend remains at an all-time low
1News: Auckland local body elections explained as officials encourage people to vote
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Auckland Mayoralty Daily Update: Early votes continue to plummet
Caroline Williams (Stuff): Local body elections: Concern over voting papers left at doorstep of derelict Auckland building
Simon Wilson (Herald): Is JT’s super harbour crossing vision really a bridge too far? (paywalled)
Herald: Auckland mayoral race: John Tamihere has no chance – National leader Simon Bridges
Herald: Formal complaint against Auckland Council candidate Mark Thomas, alleging he falsified his address
Hayden Donnell (Spinoff): Penny Hulse signs off
Stephen Forbes (Interest): Auckland Council’s annual report shows debt of $8.7 billion
RNZ: Ports of Auckland halts pay-out to council as profit falls
RNZ: Watercare signs $2.4b contract with construction firms
Jamie Fyfe (Newshub): Aucklanders urged to weigh in on Climate Action Framework
Nick Truebridge (Stuff): Auckland Council annual report: Housing remains big issue, as execs demand better performance
Jessie Chiang (RNZ): South Auckland crime: ‘How can we sit by while our young people are dying?’
Aaron Leaman (Stuff): Hamilton City Council politicians’ $100k bill
Richard Swainson (Stuff): Hamilton city councillor Siggi Henry is the ultimate litmus test
Aaron Leaman (Stuff): Hamilton mayoral candidate Louise Hutt delivers soapbox talk
Matthew Theunissen (RNZ): Accidental Whakatāne councillor candidate Kay Boreham: ‘Don’t vote for me’
Stuff: Tauranga brewer uses ‘Boomer comments’ to encourage young voter turnout
Tara Ward (Spinoff): Race briefing: New Plymouth aka the poo emoji election
Robin Martin (RNZ): Petition delivered in effort to overturn Yarrow Stadium plans
Laura Wiltshire (Hawkes Bay Today: The Napier Aquatic Centre: From a concept, to a contentious vote, to the court room
Wellington
Eric Janssen (Dominion Post): Wellington Report 2019: Have the city and region progressed, stalled or regressed?
Dominion Post: Local elections 2019: How Wellington’s city councillors and the mayor have performed
Thomas Manch (Dominion Post): Wellington Report 2019: Public service knocked off its perch in the capital
Dominion Post: Wellington Report 2019: Regional chief executives give their ‘view from the top’
Dileepa Fonseka, Virginia Fallon, Nicholas Boyack, Joel Maxwell and Piers Fuller (Dom Post): Wellington Report 2019: ‘Coolest little capital’ in the cold light of day
Piers Fuller (Dominion Post): Wellington Report 2019: Home is where the work is
Dominion Post: Wellington Report 2019: Money’s too tight to mention. Or not
Dominion Post: Wellington Report 2019: The Living Wage – Mike Parkin
Dominion Post: Wellington Report 2019: What industry leaders have to say about the economy
Thomas Manch (Dominion Post): Wellington Report 2019: Education, the often-overlooked economic powerhouse in the capital
John Milford (Dominion Post): The Wellington Report 2019: ‘Blessed’ city let down
Piers Fuller (Dominion Post): Wellington Report 2019: For tech start-ups, Wellington’s size makes a difference
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Wellington Report 2019: Wellywood goes small screen as Auckland industry sets sail
Damian George (Stuff): Greater Wellington councillors standing for re-election face up to bus network debacle
Dileepa Fonseka (Dominion Post): 22,000 pōhutukawa tree near Sir Peter Jackson-owned property spared the axe after ‘strong objection’
Local government – South Island
Skara Bohny (Nelson Mail): Nelson council may release future job objectives of top boss
Tracy Neal (RNZ): Mayoral candidates in Nelson and Tasman thrash it out for sport
Dominic Harris (Press): Will matriarch of Christchurch politics Lianne Dalziel win a third term as mayor?
Ben Uffindell (Press): How to vote for Christchurch’s Mayor: An Essential Guide
Dominic Harris (Press): Fresh claims against Christchurch councillor Deon Swiggs
Kaysha Brownlie (Newshub): Christchurch City councillor investigated for allegedly sending teenagers ‘inappropriate’ messages refusing to stand down
Eleisha Foon (RNZ): Christchurch councillor to run despite inappropriate behaviour investigation
Dominic Harris (Press): Christchurch mayoralty a ‘passion project’ for political rookie Darryll Park
Tina Law (Press): Councils will face unprecedented levels of change, retiring councillor warns
Emma Dangerfield (Stuff): Greater Canterbury mayoral candidates facing similar issues across all four districts
Matthew Littlewood (Timaru Herald): Questions raised over identity of Timaru mayoral candidate
Stuff: Timaru, Waimate and Mackenzie mayoral candidates talk about key issues
Mark Price (ODT): Lawyer arrives for investigation into Queenstown mayor
Jono Edwards (ODT): Ballot papers trickling in slowly
Chris Morris (ODT): Signs prompting many complaints
Brenda Harwood (ODT): Lack of contenders for community board ‘a shame’
Shawn McAvinue (ODT): No election race needed for Strath Taieri board
Brenda Harwood (ODT): Candidates face disability issues
Hamish McNeilly (Stuff): Big salary hikes at under-performing Dunedin council-owned company
Brent Melville (ODT): Results patchy but DCHL not considering sales
Climate change
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Climate change is having a moment. Can real change come out of it?
Tracy Watkins (Stuff): Jacinda Ardern’s year of delivery on climate change promise
Scott Palmer and Laura Macdonald (Newshub): Simon Bridges says he would have raised climate change with Donald Trump
Phil Quin (Stuff): The long arc of progress is bending too slowly on climate change
Martin van Beynen (Stuff): I’ll listen to teens on climate change when they do the dishes
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Kids will grow out of climate change activism when the world doesn’t end – Judith Collins
Mark Longley (Newshub): Why white, middle-aged men are so angry with Greta Thunberg
Steve Braunias (Herald): The secret diary of … Greta Thunberg (paywalled)
Lorna Thornber (Stuff): Why New Zealand will never fully embrace the flight-shaming movement
Brittney Deguara (Stuff): Crunching the numbers behind the national climate change strike turnout
1News: Watch: Drone footage shows scale of climate change protest in central Auckland
1News: Photos: Protestors around the country take to the streets in climate change march
Anna Whyte (1News): ‘Denial is not a policy’ – Thousands call for action on climate change outside Parliament
1News: Pasifika bring unique perspective to Auckland climate change protest
Jamie Tahana (RNZ): We’re not drowning, we’re fighting’: Pacific youth lead climate march
1News: Lincoln Uni students walk 22km to join Christchurch climate rally
RNZ: Thousands – young and old – demand government action on climate change
Jessica Long (Stuff): 40,000 protest at Parliament for climate change strike action
Georgia Forrester (Stuff): School climate strike: Adults join with kids in huge day of national protest
Harrison Christian and Josephine Franks (Stuff): School strikes show growing sense of ‘climate dread’ among young people
Martin Hanson (Stuff): The psychology of climate change: caught in the carbon pincers
Ireland Hendry-Tennent (Newshub): How to cope with climate anxiety and despair
Parliamentary footage and attack ads
Andrew Geddis (Pundit): The Speaker Did What Now?
RNZ: The House: Irony and advertising: The Parliament video ban
Audrey Young (Herald): The big battle boiling between Simon Bridges and Trevor Mallard (paywalled)
Jo Moir (RNZ): Attack ad hypocrisy on both sides of House
Jo Moir (RNZ): Bridges hopes ‘sense prevails’ over parliamentary footage use
Jason Walls and Boris Jancic (Herald): National Party defies Speaker Trevor Mallard attack ad ruling – keeps videos up
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): National Party flouts Speaker’s ad ban
Zane Small and Tova O’Brien (Newshub): National defies Speaker’s ruling: Ads using Parliament TV footage to remain
Anna Whyte (1News): National refuses to follow Speaker’s order to remove videos from social media, in ‘interests of freedom of expression’
Jo Moir (RNZ): National MPs defy Speaker’s ruling on parliamentary footage use
Week in politics
Brent Edwards (NBR): Coalition drags its feet on climate change (paywalled)
Peter Wilson (RNZ): Week in politics: Prime Minister shines on the world stage
Claire Trevett (Herald): Beehive Diaries: A triumph over Australia, Winston Peters’ prophesy bears fruit (paywalled)
1News; Inside Parliament: The PM and the Pomp (video)
Foreign affairs
Luke Malpass (Stuff): How Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern makes foreign trips pay off
Luke Malpass (Stuff): Dictators, ill-fitting suits and a Eurovision tent: What really goes on at the United Nations
Derek Cheng (Herald): Q&A with Jacinda Ardern on her busy few days in New York
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Trump-Ardern ‘pull-aside’ was actually a ‘superior meeting’ – US Ambassador
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Donald Trump and Jacinda Ardern are ‘great mates’ – Willie Jackson
Brent Edwards (NBR): Cost of US free-trade deal might be too high (paywalled)
Herald Editorial: Jacinda Ardern’s blistering pace on overseas sojourn (paywalled)
Andrea Vance (Stuff): New Zealand is going to be an amazing 51st state. Perhaps the best state you have ever seen.’
Andrew Gunn (Stuff): Dreamland: Simon Bridges meets Donald Trump
Richard Griffin (Stuff): PM’s return from tour de force to economy’s rocky course
Oscar Kightley (Stuff): Jacinda Ardern is smashing it on the world stage right now
Alan Kenyon (1News): Simon Bridges says Govt isn’t taking free movement deal with UK ‘seriously’, NZ risks falling behind Australia
Government
Colin James: ‘After Jacinda’
Alexander Gillespie (Herald): Jacinda Ardern and the Nobel Peace Prize (paywalled)
David Fisher (Herald): Anger over Shane Jones speech to forestry industry: I showed you the money – now show me the votes
RNZ: Jones says he told forestry conference to ‘back the champion’
Transport
Audrey Young (Herald): National leader Simon Bridges accuses Govt agency of rejecting anti car fee-bate submissions
Jo Moir (RNZ): National accuses Genter of gagging those opposed to car tax-rebate scheme
RNZ: Child’s death brings call for better planning of shared pathways
Immigration
1News: Concerns about ‘rogue employers’ in seasonal worker scheme as corruption complaint investigated by Immigration NZ
Gill Bonnett (RNZ): Corruption complaint at Immigration NZ being investigated
Gill Bonnett (RNZ): The New Zealanders involved in the exploitation of Filipinos
Gill Bonnett (RNZ): Filipino farm worker surprised by ‘level of exploitation’ in New Zealand
Gill Bonnett (RNZ): Immigration NZ expands Hamilton office to tackle backlog
Lincoln Tan (Herald): Call to allow abandoned Indian brides back into New Zealand (paywalled)
Canterbury University
Oliver Lewis (Stuff): ‘How can you be that negligent?’ – student criticises lack of pastoral care
Alison Mau (Stuff): It makes me sick to think universities put reputation above student safety
Lee Kenny (Stuff): Universities seeing ‘sustained’ rise in mental distress
Belinda Feek (Stuff): Student association calls for more support staff at hostels following Christchurch death
Education
Ruby Macandrew, Jessica Long and Brittney Deguara (Stuff): Banned from Twitter but welcome at Massey: radical feminist group to host event
Lincoln Tan (Herald): Claims AUT student election poster is linked to ‘racist’ militant group, Black Panthers
John Weekes (Stuff): University sex assault and bullying concerns prompt mandatory courses, funding for counsellor
Damian Grant (Stuff): Teaching history to schoolkids is a task that would defeat even Freyberg
Sophie Trigger (Stuff): Wellington school gives students tools to build mental wellbeing
Zizi Sparks (Rotorua Daily Post): NZEI Te Riu Roa annual conference begins in Rotorua (paywalled)
Parliament, voting age
Bryce Edwards (Herald): Political Roundup: Is it time to lower the voting age? (paywalled)
ODT Editorial: Merit in ‘making it 16’
Point of Order: Becroft reckons we are too young and impulsive at age 17 to be treated as adults in court – but we are fit to vote at age 16
Phil Smith (RNZ): All care and no control: Responsibility lite
1News: Win a dinner date with Winston Peters, Shane Jones for charity
National Party
Evan Harding (Stuff): Invercargill MP Sarah Dowie confirmed as National’s candidate for 2020 election
Wairarapa Times-Age: Simon Bridges’ deputy chief of staff Belinda Milnes found not guilty of common assault
The Opportunities Party
Mike Houlahan (ODT): Top news: Opportunity Party to relaunch
Geoff Simmons (Interest): Population, productivity, planting trees, parking & micro-mobility and prohibition
Health
Nicholas Jones (Herald): Rest home residents ‘assaulted, threatened, left on floor’: Complainants (paywalled)
Nikki Macdonald (Stuff): National Portrait: Diana Sarfati, cancer researcher and new cancer agency boss
Felix Desmarais (Stuff): ‘Exciting milestone’ as New Zealand’s first CAR T-cell cancer therapy clinical trial begins
Oliver Lewis (Stuff): Disappointment and concern over lack of progress passing fluoride bill
Karen Brown (RNZ): Strike to make patients needing X-rays ‘wait longer’
RNZ: NZ tipped to follow Australia’s limits on breast implants
Zane Small (Newshub): National MP wants early childhood teachers jabbed as measles scare grows
1News: Advocates frustrated after Pharmac stops funding two epilepsy drugs
Newshub: Fears epilepsy drug switch will cause problems
Luke Appleby (1News): No further action against Auckland homeopath after Ministry warns him about using the title ‘doctor’
Natalie Akoorie (Herald): Mother afraid high dose of antipsychotic medication clozapine will kill mentally unwell son (paywalled)
Thomas Mead (1News): Christchurch woman says DHB’s refusal of weight loss surgery request is a death sentence
Lucy Warhurst (Newshub): New study aims to break stigma surrounding HIV in NZ
Dale Husband (E-Tangata): Tuari Potiki: Fighting the darkness with the light
Drugs
1News: Police minister’s plan to legalise pill testing at summer festivals derailed as NZ First says it encourages drug use
Ruby Nyika (Stuff): Momentum gathers for Waikato drug court, petition launched
Cherie Sivignon (Stuff): Hopes high for more meth users to seek treatment, says Labour list MP
Firearms
Hera Cook (Spinoff): The myth of the ‘law-abiding citizen’: Why society needs to take control over guns
Daniela Maoate-Cox (RNZ): Parliament calls for public view on gun law
Emma Dangerfield (Stuff): Afghanistan war veteran mocked for taking service dog to gun buyback event
1News: Latest gun law reforms a sore point at NZ’s biggest hunting show
Alice Wilkins (Newshub): Gun owners blast Government at Taupō hunting show
Environment and conservation
Anusha Bradley (RNZ): Hawke’s Bay Fish and Game failed to follow its own rules, audit finds
Emma Hatton (RNZ): What’s stopping regional councils from declining water bottling consents?
Cherie Sivignon (Stuff): Worry on the Waimea Plains as nitrates in some bores exceed water standards
Jimmy Ellingham (Manawatū Standard): Central government must stop talking and start acting over Ōhakea’s contaminated water
RNZ: Dunedin environmental time bomb: Between the sea and the landfill
RNZ: Lower tarakihi catch limits still too high – environmental group
RNZ: Tarakihi catch limits to be reduced
Mark Quinlivan (Newshub): The fish and chip favourite that now has a catch limit
Cook commemorations
Aaron Leaman (Stuff): Waikato academic calls Endeavour a ‘death ship’
RNZ: Waka flotilla to be welcomed in Bay of Plenty
Housing
Anne Gibson (Herald): No crackdown on property managers: minister rejects REINZ push, Govt has other priorities (paywalled)
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): New Zealand: A nation of loners?
Indira Stewart (RNZ): TRC Housing development company welcomes evicted families back
Bernard Orsman (Herald): Mt Albert residents up in arms over Housing NZ apartment block
Sam Kilmister (Manawatū Standard): Palmerston North housing crisis aided by 105 new state houses within three years
Primary and extractive industries
Zane Small (Newshub): ‘I feel so sad’: National MP Judith Collins holds back tears in speech defending farmers
1News: Farmers hold free sausage sizzle in Christchurch CBD in bid to engage with ‘urban cousins’
Brent Melville (ODT): ‘M. bovis’ costs $203m to date
ODT: New dehorning rules are here
Tara Shaskey (Taranaki Daily News): South Taranaki seabed mining appeal decision likely this year
Fonterra
Rod Oram (Newsroom): Sustainability, innovation should be Fonterra’s way forward
RNZ: Fonterra’s Kāpiti cheese factory closure ‘a real blow’ – councillor
Keith Woodford (Interest): Fonterra’s new strategy is all about cutting the cloth to suit the purse
Guy Trafford (Interest): Quiet years ahead for Fonterra as it regroups and seeks to regain farmer confidence
1News: Fonterra’s future focus on New Zealand milk a positive, farming expert says
RNZ: Fonterra result ‘less arrogant … gives me a lot of confidence’ – economist Peter Fraser
Taroi Black (Māori TV): Fonterra failures cause Māori to diversify
Child abuse in church care
Michael Hall (RNZ): Confidentiality clauses: Bishops ‘lack moral leadership’
John Weeks (Stuff): ‘Phoney’ claim after major church leaders voice support for scrapping abuse secrecy
Media
Colin Peacock (RNZ): Was Spark’s streaming drama a storm in a tech teacup?
Colin Peacock (RNZ): Giving Amazon a break
Mark Jennings (Newshub): Gower shows Mediaworks how to smoke its rivals
Economy
Liam Dann (Herald): Cheer up, we’re not sliding into recession (paywalled)
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Herald): Government must focus on business (paywalled)
RNZ: Consumer confidence slips to 4-year low
Michael Reddell: The economic plan that wasn’t
Pacific
Dominic Godfrey (RNZ): The tsunami and the two Samoas: 10 years on
Sapeer Mayron (Spinoff): The survivors of the Samoa tsunami, 10 years on
Hamish Bidwell (RNZ): Rugby World Cup: The sad truth about the Pacific nations
RNZ: Diverse Tonga Cabinet aims to end division
Police
Ben Strang (RNZ): Bullying in the police: Victim reveals identity and wants ‘to see change’
Collette Devlin (Stuff): Race for new police commissioner – Is it time for a female to take the reins?
Defence
Sam Hurley (Herald): Mariya’s battle: Will Court of Appeal grant compensation in NZDF sexual abuse case?
Lisette Reymer (Newshub): Whenuapai airbase: Environment Court rules in favour of property developer
Construction industry
1News: New Government guidelines aim to stop tide of construction firm collapses
Anne Gibson (Herald): New string of claims, failures hit four builder businesses: creditors want $1m from school/ house builder (paywalled)
Animal welfare
Katie Todd (RNZ): Animal activists still concerned by greyhound deaths
Katie Fitzgerald (Newshub): Anti-horse racing protesters to demonstrate outside Ellerslie Racecourse
Mongrel Mob
1News: Mongrel Mob’s all-female chapter plan not backed by all mobsters, gang expert says
Stuff: Mongrel Mob says women-only chapter to be established next year
Other
Laura Walter (Newsroom): Liquidators on the hunt for Marama Fox
Jason Walls (Herald): Finance Minister Grant Robertson pressures Air NZ, energy companies to stop director pay rises (paywalled)
Miriam Harris and Dan Satherley (Newshub): Call for more transparency when it comes to information
AAP: Stats NZ head says Kiwis should be more open with their data following botched Census
Newshub: Fight against online terror comes to Wellington
Matt Nippert (Herald): ‘How could he do this to us?’ – Ministers scramble as East Wind victims express fury (paywalled)
Brent Melville (ODT): High mobile phone users pay 4 times more in NZ
Edward O’Driscoll (Newshub): Children’s Commissioner demands Oranga Tamariki stops using motel rooms to house kids
RNZ: The Detail: The pardoning of Rua Kēnana – pacifist and prophet
Laura O’Connell Rapira (Spinoff): How Ruth Richardson’s Mother of all Budgets is still f*cking us today
Peter Coritz (E-Tangata): Why we should care about retirement policy
1News: Take a look inside the Waihopai spy base for the first time
Amanda Cropp (Stuff): New electronic travel authority compulsory for many overseas visitors
Brent Edwards (NBR): Government wants more tourists visiting the regions (paywalled)
RNZ: Waitara battle sites focus of land wars commemoration
Danyl Mclauchlan (Spinoff): The book that isn’t banned
Dave Goosselink (Newshub): Otago prisoners make lunches for hungry school kids
Katie Harris (Herald): Mongrel Mob Kingdom announces first female chapter
RNZ: Countdown ends firework sales
Paul McBeth (BusinessDesk): In the red: NZ Post reports $121 million loss
Sophie Trigger (Stuff): Winner says Heart Foundation lottery should available online
Greer Berry (Manawatū Standard): Hello, Brother: Why Kiwis are converting to Islam
