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

Donation scandals
Bryce Edwards (Guardian): Vested interests in New Zealand politics are too big to ignore – we need a Royal Commission
Richard Harman (Politik): Parties likely to have to wait till after the election for their days in court (paywalled)
Gordon Campbell: On the political donations scandals
Clint Smith (Stuff): Political donations law must be tightened to prevent abuses
Press Editorial: Songs, jokes and serious fraud in New Zealand politics
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Claire Trevett (Herald): Jami-Lee Ross SFO charges – blowing the whistle NZ politics’ greatest own goal (paywalled)
Barry Soper (Newstalk ZB): If Jami-Lee Ross didn’t want name suppression why did his lawyers threaten me?
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Consider the distance National are pretending exists between them and Jami-Lee Ross
Sam Hurley (Herald): Watch: Jami-Lee Ross speaks out about his ‘outrageous’ SFO charges after name suppression lifts
Tova O’Brien (Newshub): MP Jami-Lee Ross speaks out on criminal charges laid against him over National Party donations
Sam Hurley (Herald): Jami-Lee Ross one of four men charged over National Party donations
Jane Patterson (RNZ): National Party donations case: Jami-Lee Ross named as suppressions lifted
Tim Murphy (Newsroom): Jami-Lee Ross one of 4 charged by SFO
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Jami-Lee Ross among four charged in National Party SFO case
Jessica Rodden (TVNZ): MP Jami-Lee Ross among four charged over National Party donations
Zane Small (Newshub): National Party donation scandal: David Seymour refused invitation from Chinese businessman Zhang Yikun
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Claire Trevett (Herald): PM Jacinda Ardern’s silence on Winston Peters is weak – but wise (paywalled)
Bryce Edwards (Herald): Political Roundup: The concerning role of lobbyists in NZ (paywalled)
Newstalk ZB: Shane Jones takes aim at RNZ over NZ First photos incident
David Farrar: More law breaking by NZ First
RNZ: SFO probe adds to reasons Winston Peters must step down – Simon Bridges
Alan Kenyon (TVNZ): Simon Bridges lays into Government over Winston Peters’ recent media-avoiding antics
Curwen Ares Rolinson (Daily Blog): Paula Bennett’s attack on NZ First

Housing
Anna Whyte (TVNZ): New Zealand’s housing woes labelled a ‘human rights crisis of significant proportions’ by UN
Eleanor Ainge Roy (Guardian): ‘They allowed the perfect storm’: UN expert damns New Zealand’s housing crisis
Anna Bracewell-Worrall (Newshub): New Zealand’s housing crisis: The struggle to make rent
Jamie Ensor and Vita Molyneux (Newshub): New Zealand’s housing problem ‘human rights crisis of significant proportions’ – United Nations expert
Henry Cooke (Stuff): UN housing expert calls for NZ rent freeze and CGT to end ‘significant human rights crisis’
Eva Corlett (RNZ): UN special rapporteur calls on NZ for bold human-rights approach to housing crisis
Simon Wilson (Herald): Homelessness: Housing a human right, make evictions illegal, UN visitor says
Jenée Tibshraeny (Interest): UN housing expert calls on Government to break rank from its predecessors and stop promoting home ownership as an investment
Steven Cowan: Leilani Farha: New Zealand’s housing crisis is a human rights crisis
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Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): This government has gone mysteriously silent on house prices
Derek Cheng (Herald): Housing NZ says gazumping private buyers is ‘unfortunate’ and won’t happen again
Mikaela Wilkes (Stuff): First-time buyers say Kiwis need more protection after ‘heartbreaking’ home cancellations
Rob Stock (Stuff): Renters squeezed even as lower mortgage rates help homeowners
Dita De Boni (NBR): Millennials not wastrels in housing debate (paywalled)
Jenée Tibshraeny (Interest): National wants to make it easier for foreigners to buy land to build houses on, but can’t yet specify how

Peter Singer
Danyl Mclauchlan (Spinoff): On Peter Singer and cancellation
Leonie Hayden (Spinoff): Disabled voices on Peter Singer: ‘Who’s actually listening to this guy?’
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Newstalk ZB): SkyCity joins the brigade of cowards
David Farrar: Yes Singer should be allowed to speak
Rebecca Moore (TVNZ): SkyCity’s cancellation of event with philosopher who holds controversial euthanasia views labelled ‘affront to academic freedom’
Dita De Boni (NBR): SkyCity whips rug out from under controversial Aussie ethicist (paywalled)
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Philosopher Peter Singer ‘de-platformed’ after SkyCity cancels appearance
Ben Leahy (Herald): SkyCity cancels Peter Singer’s talk over controversial views on disability
Adam Dudding (Stuff): SkyCity cancels philosopher Peter Singer’s booking over disability concerns
Naaman Zhou (Guardian): Peter Singer event cancelled in New Zealand after outcry over disability stance

Ihumātao
Jo Moir (RNZ): Fletcher Building growing impatient for Ihumātao solution
Te Aniwa Hurihanganui (RNZ): Māori Crown Relations office criticised by National over Ihumātao dispute
Katie Bradford (1News): Fletchers warns Ihumātao protestors, Government that it can’t ‘hold off development indefinitely’
Catherine Harris (Stuff): Fletcher Building expecting Ihumātao solution soon
Jenny Ruth (BusinessDesk): Ihumatao stalemate: Fletcher signals frustration
Tim Hunter (NBR): Ihumātao resolution ‘close’ says Fletcher CEO (paywalled)

Child welfare
Melanie Reid and Bonnie Sumner (Newsroom): OT returned injured boy to Flaxmere home
Melanie Reid and Bonnie Sumner (Newsroom): ‘OT need to own their part in this’
Bronson Perich (Māori TV): Shane Jones: Child abuse protectors are ‘social head lice’
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Kiwis would support criminalising not speaking up in child abuse cases – Simon Bridges
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David Williams (Newsroom): Police review Lake Alice file after UN decision

Environment
Andrea Vance (Stuff): ‘Scorched-earth approach to fishing’: Conservationists says Govt lobbying for fisheries
RNZ: New Zealand successfully opposes stronger coral protection provisions
Jamie Morton (Herald): We’re vastly under-estimating methane emissions – study
Alice Webb-Lidall (Spinoff): Bad news: Humans are pumping out way more methane than we thought
Hamish McLean (ODT): DCC poised to buy fossil deposit land
Stuff: Government announces $500k to help with flood clean up
Denise Piper (Stuff): Northland drought: Government steps in with funding for water sources
Katie Doyle (RNZ): Far North locals feel let down during drought, but council working hard on solutions
Joanne Carroll (Stuff): West Coast milk factory fined over discharge into river

Greens
Charlie Mitchell (Stuff): Veteran climate activist to stand for Greens
Jason Walls (Herald): Green Party MP hopeful one of 14 youth kicked out of, and banned, from Parliament last year
Yvette McCullough (RNZ): Teenage Greens candidate to challenge Jacinda Ardern’s Mt Albert electorate
Zane Small (Newshub): Greens select teen climate striker Luke Wijohn to challenge Jacinda Ardern’s Mt Albert electorate
Josephine Franks (Stuff): Greens select school strike leader Luke Wijohn for Mt Albert in 2020 election

Government staffing
Phil Pennington (RNZ): Govt department spends almost $100m on contractors and consultants in one year
Rebecca Howard (BusinessDesk): Reserve Bank pushes for more staff (paywalled)

Health
Jason Walls (Herald): The total deficit across all DHBs continues to climb and now stands at more than $230 million
Nicholas Jones (Herald): Breast cancer crisis: Counties Manukau DHB makes women wait
Rowan Quinn (RNZ): Breast cancer diagnoses delayed as wait times blow out
Ian Powell (Stuff): Trans-Tasman salary gap for hospital specialists threatens patient care
Mike Houlahan (ODT): Dearth of midwives an ‘urgent’ problem
Nick Truebridge (Stuff): Middlemore Hospital denies Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s ‘sewage down walls’ claim
Mare Haimona-Riki (Māori TV): HealthCare NZ workers protest job cut plans
Charlotte Cook ‘False hope’: Couples warned to be wary of IVF success rates after new study

Coronavirus
RNZ: Jacinda Ardern tries to soothe virus rift with China
TVNZ: Health Minister defends NZ’s coronavirus response as Whangaparāoa quarantine ends for Wuhan group
RNZ: All evacuees quarantined at Whangaparāoa released
RNZ: Pacific evacuees released from quarantine in NZ
TVNZ: Two Kiwis on Diamond Princess test positive to coronavirus, don’t board evacuation flight from Japan to Australia
Joanne Carroll (Stuff): Tertiarty institutes abandon hongi at welcome ceremonies over coronavirus fears

Transport
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Just 16 buses doing public transport rounds in New Zealand, despite push to decarbonise
Madison Reidy (RNZ): What is a congestion charge?
Herald Editorial: Auckland Airport learns it’s the putting right that counts (paywalled)
TVNZ: Auckland Airport apologises after report into runway closures that caused flight gridlock

Media
Chris Trotter (Daily Blog): RNZ Must Have No Dogs In The September Fight
Tim Murphy (Newsroom): Judge lets media defamation case proceed

Infrastructure
Leigh-Marama McLachlan and Charlie Dreaver (RNZ): Auditor-general pans state of water management in New Zealand
Dileepa Fonseka (Newsroom): Inside NZ’s water management mess
Damian George and Joel MacManus (Stuff): Under pressure: Wellington water woes ‘widespread and fundamental’
Charlotte Cook and Rachel Thomas (RNZ): Meeting over Wellington’s sewerage upgrade gets heated
Kate Nicol-Williams (TVNZ): Wellington Water apologises to council after series of breakages and spills
RNZ: Wellington Water say expectations partly to blame for problems
Rachel Thomas (RNZ): Water contamination across Wellington prompts emergency meeting

Education
RNZ: Polytech overhaul passes final reading in Parliament
Kristin Hall (TVNZ): Worrying number of students missing school due to lack of sanitary products, study find
John Gerritsen (RNZ): NZQA halts enrolments for MIT course after marking issues
Libby Wilson (Stuff): Black mould at Waikato primary a symptom of wider leaky school building challenge
RNZ: ‘Slow leak’: Teachers call time on coaching sport
Susan Bates (Newsroom): Why our ECE crisis is everyone’s problem

Firearms
Derek Cheng (Herald): NZ First set to give green light to gun law reforms, including national gun register
Collette Devlin (Stuff): Govt charges ahead with law to tackle gangs with guns

Drugs
Jamie Morton (Herald): Third of middle-aged Kiwis have tried meth, study suggests
RNZ: Study finds 28 percent of middle-aged kiwis have tried meth – and reveals the drug’s links with violence

Justice, corrections
Edward Gay (Stuff): Name suppression: How the uniquely Kiwi ‘hush hush policy’ became law and morphed over a century
Edward Gay (Stuff): Why Grace Millane’s murderer still won’t be named after he is sentenced
Jono Galuszka (Manawatū Standard): Manawatū Prison still has flaws two years after inspection
RNZ: Prisoner on hunger strike over Māori sovereignty now refusing liquids

Other
Peter Dunne (Stuff): NZ referendum polling is prompting a cannabis industry rethink
RNZ: The Detail: The secret deal that’s causing a big stink in Mataura
Stuff: Government moves to relinquish earthquake recovery laws ahead of schedule
Mandy Te (Stuff): Sir Peter Jackson invites councillors to a closed meeting on Shelly Bay’s future
Tamsyn Parker (Herald): Hacked KiwiSaver Generate provider relents to client compensation but not liability (paywalled)
RNZ: Quake risk: Work under way to relocate Bowen House politicians, staff
Phil Pennington (RNZ): Fire tests of cladding are under way in NZ in response to the Grenfell Tower tragedy
RNZ: Te reo target for 2040 on track – Māori language commission
Natalie Akoorie (Herald): Retirement-type villages for the over-55s discriminate and could be illegal (paywalled)
RNZ: Ban on win-backs may help lower prices – electricity boss
Karl du Fresne (Dominion Post): Liberalising abortion risks allowing monsters to flourish
Zane Small (Newshub): MPs demand ‘assurance’ from WorkSafe of ‘proper investigations’ into bulllying, sexual harassment
Gavin Evans (BusinessDesk): ‘Dishonest’ Allan Hawkins banned as director (paywalled)
RNZ: Former high-flyer banned over loan company’s ruthless repossessions
RNZ: Australia’s govt slashes aid budget to some Pacific countries