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
Foreign affairs and trade
Barbara Dreaver (1News): Ardern’s visit to Fiji, Australia a test of New Zealand’s climate change compass
Jo Moir (RNZ): PM’s Fiji, Aus visits highlight differing climate change approaches
Anna Bracewell-Worrall (Newshub): Jacinda Ardern has no plans to raise climate change with Australian PM Scott Morrison
Barry Soper (Newstalk ZB): NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in Fiji: Drinking kava and meeting Frank Bainimarama
Eleanor Ainge Roy (Guardian): Deportees and a climate crisis: what’s on the agenda as Ardern meets Morrison
Anna Whyte (1News): Simon Bridges ‘naive’ to retaliate against Australia’s deportation rules, Ardern says
Zane Small (Newshub): Jacinda Ardern knocks ‘naïve’ Simon Bridges for mulling reciprocal deportations for Australians
RNZ: PM not interested in tit-for-tat deportation policy with Australia
1News: Jacinda Ardern plans to tell Australia ‘corrosive’ deportations policy ‘impacting on our relationship’
Collette Devlin (Stuff): Simon Bridges says Australian PM Scott Morrison revealed no changes to deportation in foreseeable future
RNZ: National considers reciprocal deportations for Australians
Martyn Bradbury: Whoa – National might just have won the election
RNZ: Call for closer ties between Australia and small Pacific states
RNZ: Marape seeks more PNG numbers in NZ seasonal work scheme
Kurt Bayer (Herald): US accuses China of ‘debt-trap diplomacy’ in Pacific
1News: Winston Peters, David Parker head to India for business delegation
Coronavirus
James Fyfe and Miriam Harris (Newshub): Coronavirus could infect billions – Kiwi public health expert
Craig McCulloch (RNZ): Universities make case for ability to handle students arriving from China amid Covid-19 outbreak
Richard Harman (Politik): Student travel ban: “a betrayal of trust”
Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): Govt considering special travel exemption for Chinese students (paywalled)
Aaron Leaman (Waikato Times): Coronavirus travel ban blocks hundreds of Waikato-bound students
Anna Whyte (1News): New Zealand extends ban on people travelling from China as coronavirus outbreak worsens
RNZ: Covid-19: Travel restrictions for those coming from China extended
Mandy Te (Stuff): Ministry deciding if travel ban may be extended
Collette Devlin (Stuff): Jacinda Ardern reveals how New Zealand would cope with any outbreak here
Lara Andelane (Newshub): NZ Govt agencies launch ‘rapid research’ fund in response to COVID-19
1News: Ministry of Health preparing for pandemic as coronavirus cases outside China grow
Herald: Government commits $3 million to combat Covid-19 outbreak
Dan Satherley (Newshub): ‘Very high chance’ COVID-19 will reach NZ – Jacinda Ardern
Liam Dann (Herald): Economic risks deepen on new coronavirus hot spots (paywalled)
Brent Edwards (NBR): Government plans for the worst over coronavirus, hopes for the best (paywalled)
RNZ Checkpoint: Is NZ ready for a worst-case economic scenario?
Grant Bradley (Herald): Air NZ slashes outlook, cuts Asian routes as airlines face biggest financial threat in a decade (paywalled)
RNZ: Coronavirus could cut Air New Zealand earnings by $35m-75m
1News: Air New Zealand halts flights to Seoul amid coronavirus outbreak
Emma Hatton (RNZ): Counting the cost of Covid-19s local impact
Dan Brunskill (BusinessDesk): NZ shares tank following sudden spread of coronavirus
Debrin Foxcroft (Stuff): Log jam at Chinese wharves as forestry industry feels impact
Political donations
Chris Trotter (Daily Blog): Wake up call
Jane Patterson (RNZ): Four men facing charges over National Party donations case to appear in court
Zane Small (Newshub): Simon Bridges fires up over ‘conspiracy theory nonsense’ in debate over National Party donations
Bill Ralston (Listener): Political-donation scandals are spreading like a virus
John Minto (Daily Blog): The one constant in national and local body politics…
Welfare
Jamie Ensor and Perry Wilton (Newshub): Benefit increase: Budgeting expert questions ‘how much difference it will make’
Audrey Young (Herald): PM Jacinda Ardern announces larger-than-usual increases for social welfare benefits
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Benefits to be boosted $10 as Government indexes welfare payments to wage growth
Anna Whyte (1News): Benefits set to rise three per cent, in line with average wage
Hannah Kronast (Newshub): Government’s 3 percent main benefit increase: How will it affect you?
Māori TV: Benefit rises will help 310,000 families – Carmel Sepuloni
Audrey Young (Herald): Benefit lift to aid 300,000 Kiwi families
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): Now is not the time for benefit increases
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Kiwibank standardising time of benefit payments
Election, political ads
Audrey Young (Herald): Just a matter of time before John Tamihere declares for the Māori Party
RNZ: Māori Party candidate puts faith in youth for upcoming election
Waatea News: Waititi jumps off colonists’ waka
1News: Working with National ‘inconceivable’, Greens co-leader James Shaw says
David Cormack (Herald): Prime Minister Bridges or Prime Minister Ardern? (paywalled)
Waatea News: Political radiation leak over attack ad lines
Transport
David Farrar: Another day, another humiliation for the Greens
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): NZ First has saved us from mad EV feebate scheme
Amanda Cropp (Stuff): Northland trucking company keeps its transport licence after agency drops action
Shelly Bay
Tom Hunt (Dominion Post):Sir Peter Jackson threatens legal action if Shelly Bay land vote not put back to council
Tom Hunt (Dominion Post): Council between a Sir Peter-shaped rock and a Cassels-shaped hard place over Shelly Bay
Georgina Campbell (Herald): Chief executive’s ambiguous words trigger Shelly Bay fiasco
Māni Dunlop (RNZ): Shelly Bay development: Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh threaten legal action
Andrew Bevan (NBR): Sparring NBR Rich Listers put Wellington council in sticky situation (paywalled)
Wellington water
Tom Hunt and Joel MacManus (Dominion Post): Wellington Water apologises for ‘inappropriate’ email rant
Matthew Tso (Stuff): Wellington mayoral taskforce to tackle water woes
Dileepa Fonseka (Newsroom): How ‘run to failure’ failed in Wellington
Local government
Todd Niall (Stuff): Auckland Council election: Residents call for online and booth voting after poor turnout
Eric Frykberg (RNZ): Extra $25 million cost for dam construction not stopping Tasman council going ahead
Piers Fuller (Stuff): Crunch time looming for $20 million Masterton Civic Centre project
RNZ: Future of Masterton’s Henley Lake up for debate
Education
Simon Collins (Herald): Massey University proposes axing science at Albany, Auckland – 400 students affected
John Gerritsen (RNZ): Massey University staff ‘hard hit’ by cut-back plan
1News: Government’s new dyslexia funding a ‘redressed status quo’ based on outdated research – advocate
Wilhelmina Shrimpton (Newshub): Massey High School principal says punishing parents of waggers is wrong approach
Cira Olivier and Zoe Hunter (Bay of Plenty Times): Anxiety, illness, and overseas holidays among reasons for Tauranga’s low school attendance rate (paywalled)
James Fyfe (Newshub): Parents of repeat waggers should be prosecuted – Auckland Grammar headmaster
Kaitlin Ruddock (1News): Call for schools to step up support services as number of former refugees coming to NZ increases
Child welfare
Vivienne Martini (Newsroom): Oranga Tamariki running for cover
Te Aniwa Hurihanganui (RNZ): Oranga Tamariki uplift complaints team investigating 17 cases
RNZ: Police intervene as family of boy injured in Flaxmere receive threats
Taiha Molyneux (Māori TV): Police urge community to stop online attacks
Leigh-Marama McLachlan (RNZ): Grieving whānau want answers, apology from Oranga Tamariki after boy’s death
Vaping
Janet Hoek, Richard Edwards, Andrew Waa, Nick Wilson, George Thomson: Proposed Vaping Regulations for NZ: Strengths and Limitations
Tema Hemi (Māori TV): David Seymour: “Māori are the national champions of smoking”
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Jacinda Ardern defends not letting kids use vaping to quit smoking
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Vaping ad and flavour bans slammed as ‘short-sighted’, ‘knee-jerk’
Newstalk ZB: Jenny Salesa defends delay to release vaping legislation
Felix Walton (Spinoff): Cheat sheet: what’s the deal with the new vaping law?
Jonathan Devery (Herald): Vaping laws are a breath of fresh air (paywalled)
Kate Hawkesby (Newstalk ZB): Going berserk over vaping legislation a rare misstep for Act
Liz Gordon (Daily Blog): Vaping, addiction and innovation
Health
Louisa Steyl (Stuff): Relationship issues remain SDHB’s department’s biggest challenge
Ripu Bhatia (Stuff): Mother and businesswoman Kim Girbin dies after health system failures
Hannah Martin (Stuff): ‘Unacceptable’: Elderly man in rest home found with maggots in wounds
Rachel Sadler (Newshub): Auckland rest home reprimanded for not providing adequate care to dying patient
RNZ: Heritage Lifecare breaches health code after maggots found on man in final days
Tiwai Point
Murray Horton (Stuff): Rio Tinto, clean up your own smelter mess (and go away)
Daisy Hudson (ODT): More MPs add voices on dross
Rachael Kelly (Stuff): Petition launched to rid Mataura of ouvea premix
RNZ: Tiwai Point aluminium smelter suffers $46m loss
Gavin Evans (BusinessDesk): Rio Tinto reports $46.2m loss at Tiwai Point
Brent Melville (ODT): Indication of Tiwai Point value surety
ODT: Lower aluminium prices blamed for $46m loss
Environment
Jane Matthews (Stuff): ‘Thousands’ of eels dead following chemical spill at South Taranaki meat works
Luke Appleby (1News): ‘Thousands’ of dead eels found in Taranaki stream after meat plant ammonia leak
RNZ: Ammonia leak kills thousands of fish
Jessica Tyson (Māori TV): Taranaki iwi ‘devastated’ after thousands of eels killed by ammonia spill
Emma Perry (ODT): Whitebaiter’s comments ‘appalling’
Logan Savory (Southland Times): Chick scientists’ are doing their job, says Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage after ‘sexist’ whitebaiter comments
Vita Molyneux (Newshub): Southland Fish and Game councillor could be forced to resign over ‘appalling’ comments about female scientists
RNZ: Northland drought: Iwi to divert farm water to support town supply
RNZ: The Detail: The city that soaks up water – can Auckland cope?
Lisette Reymer (Newshub): Disturbing reason kiwi was filmed paddling in Auckland stream in daylight
Mia Sutherland and Shaneel Lal (Stuff): What Pākehā call climate activism is survival for indigenous people
Housing
Eric Crampton (Stuff): UN right about ‘human rights’ housing crisis, but wrong about the solution
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Our homelessness IS human rights crisis
Ripu Bhatia (Stuff): Auckland rental with no kitchen advertised for ‘working families’ for $450 a week
Hamish MacLean (ODT): City housing shortage issues hotly debated
Christchurch mosque attacks
Mariné Lourens (Stuff): Victims, families present at Christchurch mosque shootings hearing
RNZ: Christchurch terror attacks: Brenton Tarrant’s case back in court today
Kurt Bayer (Herald): Christchurch mosque shooting: Survivors attend pre-trial court hearingUS accuses China of ‘debt-trap diplomacy
Lisa Davies (1News): Pre-trial hearing held for alleged Christchurch mosque gunman
Media
Mandy Te (Stuff): RNZ Concert supporters take over parliament to protest for station’s future
Laura Grigg (Newshub): There’s a hidden message in RNZ Concert’s show line-up
Tim Murphy (Newsroom): NZME’s big reveal
Justice
Stuff: Hunger striker – ‘I don’t think they wanted a dead Māori in their jail’
David Farrar: Good decisions from Little
Animal welfare
1News: SPCA releases ‘list of shame’ highlighting shocking cases of animal abuse, abandonment and neglect
Joel MacManus (Stuff): SPCA List of Shame reveals ‘intense neglect and extreme violence’ against animals in NZ
Other
Brent Edwards (NBR): How fiscal stimulus can help the economy: Treasury advice (paywalled)
Marilyn Garson and Fred Albert (Stuff): Racists don’t care about new definitions of hate
Harry Lock (RNZ): Group splinters from Wellington pride parade
RNZ: The Detail: Setting aside the Moriori myth
ODT Editorial: Keeping safe in the workplace
Laura Wiltshire (Stuff): National War Memorial found to be earthquake prone, silencing Carillion bells
RNZ: National War Memorial closed after being found earthquake prone
Amy Williams (RNZ): ‘Dancing with the Stars’ could wrong-foot aspiring politician Hannah Tamaki
Rachael Elder (RNZ): Sexual assault survivor on why women don’t always speak up
MIchael Morrah (Newshub): Customs sees 600 percent increase in MDMA seizures at New Zealand’s border
Mike Yardley (Press): It’s not for ratepayers to bankroll or bail out commercial tourist ventures
Dave Armstrong (Dominion Post): Sky-high prices spoiling tourist meccas
Glen Herud (Stuff): Farming better off to mimic diverse natural systems
1News: Victims unhappy as man behind New Zealand’s biggest Ponzi scheme released from prison
Bob Jones: Professor Singer
Chris Keall (Herald): 5G auction: Date set, dreams of a Crown windfall dashed
Scott Hamilton (Spinoff): Ancient giants and old delusions: a history of mysticism and racism in Aotearoa
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Apple TV content at risk if streaming bill goes forward
Terry Baucher (Interest): Another week in tax: The more-tax, less-tax camps tussle
