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
Media
Henry Cooke (Stuff): There’s no easy way for Government to save media drowning. But a fast fix is needed
Duncan Greive (Spinoff): Bauer’s shocking fall reveals the government’s poisonous media dilemma
Mark Jennings and Tim Murphy (Newsroom): MediaRoom: The dominoes begin to fall
Simon Wilson (Herald): Why the end of Bauer magazines is a blow to everyone (paywalled)
Rachel Stewart (Democracy Project): Can the noble cause of journalism be restored?
Chris Trotter (Daily Blog): New Zealand’s Government Must Save New Zealand’s Media
Rick Neville (Stuff): Why the Government must take some blame for Bauer Media’s closure
Martyn van Beynen (Stuff): Bauer’s closure leaves a devastated staff and a cultural gap
Tim Watkin (RNZ): RIP The Listener, New Zealand’s pioneering voice
Finlay Macdonald (Newsroom): The New Zealand Listener, 1939-2020
Steve Braunias (Newsroom): A thank you to the Listener
Damien Venuto (Herald): Coronavirus claims its first big business scalp
Spinoff: A story ended too suddenly: In praise of the NZ magazines of Bauer Media
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Newstalk ZB): Covid-19 is hastening the death of media
Joanne Black (Stuff): Bauer Media closures: So many livelihoods, so much devastation
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Hands up who loves Adam Smith’s ungloved invisible hand?
David Farrar:Government kills off massive media company
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Tova O’Brien (Newshub): Government turned down request for help from struggling publisher Bauer Media
Susan Edmunds, Anuja Nadkarni and Henry Cooke (Stuff): Prime Minister ‘gutted’ Bauer closing its doors, but says company refused wage subsidy
Matt Burrows (Newshub): Jacinda Ardern rejects notion Government’s COVID-19 response caused magazine publisher’s closure
Herald: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern criticises Bauer Media for refusing Government support
1News: Jacinda Ardern ‘extraordinarily disappointed’ Bauer rejected wage subsidy ahead of closure
Colin Peacock (RNZ): Why did Bauer blow up the business so soon?
Hayden Donnell and Colin Peacock (RNZ): Sudden shutdown for New Zealand’s largest magazine publisher
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Magazines ‘only product’ banned from supermarkets, says publishers association
Melanie Carroll (Stuff): Who is Bauer, the conglomerate shutting Woman’s Day, Metro and NZ Listener?
Dan Brunskill and Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): Publishing empire scion Matthew Horton eyeing Bauer titles
Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): Govt must resist private media bail-outs: Horton (paywalled)
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RNZ: Major magazine publisher Bauer Media closing down
Vita Molyneux (Newshub): Government ‘put a bullet’ in Bauer Media, forcing ‘tragic’ closure – industry expert
1News: Publisher of Woman’s Day, North & South magazines to close NZ business; lockdown blamed
Spinoff: Publisher of NZ Listener, Woman’s Weekly, North & South to shut down
Herald: Bauer Media closing – publisher of the Listener, Woman’s Day, Woman’s Weekly, North & South
Dita De Boni (NBR): Bauer New Zealand closes its doors, all staff laid off (paywalled)
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Lance Girling-Butcher (Taranaki Daily News): Community newspapers are the lifebood of society
Government and public health response, DIY epidemiology
Juliet Gerrard (Herald): Why we need to look beyond the numbers
Katie Kenny (Stuff): This isn’t about Millennials saving Boomers, it’s about the country banding together to save itself, experts say
Graham Adams (Democracy Project): Confessions of an armchair epidemiologist
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Lockdowns spark bad faith backlash
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Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Confidential Government emergency plan warns recovery still a some time away
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Government says it has no plan B if lockdown fails to stamp out Covid-19
Dan Satherley (Newshub): How many social distancing rule-breakers it will take to stop the lockdown from working
Richard Harman (Politik): What it will take to end the lockdown
Dileepa Fonseka (Newsroom): The Path to Level 3
1News: Alert Level 4 will be maintained until cases of coronavirus ‘drop off’ – Dr Ashley Bloomfield
Rachel Sadler (Newshub): New Zealand not flattening the curve during COVID-19 crisis
Audrey Young (Herald): No sign yet that NZ has lethal virus under control
1News: The idea that life will go back to normal post coronavirus lockdown is not realistic, expert says
Newstalk ZB: Simon Bridges wants Government to overtest for Covid-19
Newshub: Government-bought masks could be made available to public – director-general of health Ashley Bloomfield
RNZ: Health Ministry considers US review of who should wear face masks
Phil Pennington (RNZ): Epidemiologist says safer to wear masks, but priority should be health workers
1News: Govt launches WhatsApp channel to share Covid-19 updates
Andrea Vance (Stuff): Ministry of Health to amend ‘unclear’ self-isolation bubble guidelines
Government
Matthew Hooton (Herald): Save lives, but at any cost? That’s Jacinda Ardern’s awful dilemma (paywalled)
Chris Trotter: Returning To “Normalcy”
Brian Easton (Pundit): Backstage And Theatre
Brent Edwards (NBR): Government needs to be more transparent than ever (paywalled)
Peter Dunne: We should have been prepared for an event like Covid-19
Point of Order: Election date may be determined by progress in defeating virus and ending the lockdown
Bryan Gould: A government system that works
Enforcing the lockdown, lockdown rules, civil liberties
Derek Cheng (Herald): The yawning gap between Jacinda Ardern, Ashley Bloomfield and Mike Bush and why it matters
Lana Andelane (Newshub): New Zealanders arriving home asked to consent to police tracking their location
1News: Police use mobile phones to track returning Kiwis entering into self-isolation
Collette Devlin (Stuff): Police use cellphone location data to track quarantine compliance
Jane Patterson (RNZ): Border restrictions: No sign of tighter controls despite police admission
Jane Patterson (RNZ): Police didn’t check all recent arrivals were self-isolating – Bush
Jenna Lynch (Newshub): Police admit to not tracking every Kiwi that’s come home from overseas
Graeme Edgeler: Waiver, the singular Crown and the conduct of Crown legal business
Cat MacLennan (Newsroom): ‘Flippant’ Bush doing himself no favours
Zane Small (Newshub): Disaster law specialist concerned about ‘mixed messaging’ by police during COVID-19 lockdown
Collette Devlin (Stuff): Police Commissioner under fire for withholding lockdown law guidelines
Cathy Odgers: Where Oh Where Is Our Chief Justice Winkelmann In This Time Of Crisis?
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Thomas Manch and Henry Cooke (Stuff): Health Minister drives to local park to ride his mountain bike, amid coronavirus lockdown
Herald: Health Minister David Clark flouts his own Government’s lockdown advice
Liam Hehir (Pundit): Maybe Axing Clark Would Be Unfair. But What About Any Of This Is Fair?
Amelia Wade (Herald): Police Commissioner Mike Bush admits the lockdown advice is unclear
Anna Whyte (1News): Police Commissioner asked to clarify lockdown rules – ‘When am I allowed on a beach?’
Matt Burrows (Newshub): Epidemic Response Committee grills Mike Bush over beach access guidelines in lockdown
Mark Quinlivan (Newshub): Queenstown Lakes District Council shames social-distancing rule-breakers jumping off bridge and swimming amid lockdown
Zane Small (Newshub): Civil Defence promises transparency as more powers ‘may be required’ to combat COVID-19
Mark Quinlivan (Newshub): Police to increase presence in Northland after Kaitaia residents blasted by Dr Lance O’Sullivan
1News: Kaitaia area under police scrutiny as some locals flouting lockdown law
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Why Kaitaia locals flooded the streets this week, despite lockdown
Te Aniwa Hurihanganui (RNZ): Northland doctor: ‘This isn’t lockdown, this is a joke’
Inequality, welfare
Sue Bradford (Democracy Project): Basic Income and Covid-19: Let’s get serious
James Fyfe (Newshub): Coronavirus and social inequality: How poorer Kiwis are set to bear the brunt of COVID-19
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Cutting public sector workers’ pay not currently proposed – Finance Minister
Jonathan MItchell (RNZ): Charities expect to suffer losses in Covid-19 disruptions
CPAG: Let’s move hard and early to curb Covid-19-related poverty
Todd Niall (Stuff): 1000 Aucklanders call Covid-19 emergency food service in first day
Kristin Hall (1News): Single mum forced to supply medical records for food grant before lockdown
Workers, businesses, wage subsidies
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says essential workers vulnerable to the virus will receive leave payments
Zane Small (Newshub): Essential workers given scheme to ensure they get paid for time off during COVID-19 lockdown
1News: Government announces new leave scheme for vulnerable essential workers
Dan Satherley (Newshub): More Kiwis worried about jobs than the disease itself – survey
RNZ: Union on badly behaved employers: ‘We will remember’
Zane Small (Newshub): Government’s COVID-19 wage subsidy scheme claimed by 15 percent of the population
Cushla Norman (1News): Fletcher Building staff were given 24 hours to decide on pay cuts
Anna Gibson (Herald): Union decries Fletcher Building cutting staff pay up to 70% in sliding scale of cuts (paywalled)
Andrew Bevin (NBR): Fletcher and unions at odds over wage subsidy (paywalled)
RNZ: Fletcher pay cut talks nearing completion
Georgina Campbell (Herald): A fifth of central NZ businesses have no contingency plan
Damian Geroge (Stuff): Business confidence plummets to record lows as coronavirus pandemic hammers economy
Economy
Gordon Campbell: On the changes hitting the economy, work, and the benefit system
Peter Lyons (Herald): The Covid-19 economic freefall
Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): Global trade’s reckoning, or reimagining?
Andrew Patterson (Newsroom): Awkward questions from the last crisis managers
Hamish Rutherford (Herald): Economist’s plea to MPs: ‘We need a grown up to tell us how to think about it’ (paywalled)
Newstalk ZB: Economist urges Government to be careful about lock down period
RNZ: New scheme aims to curb unemployment from Covid-19 fallout
Health system
Charlotte Cook (RNZ): Prepare to reuse goggles, frontline health workers told
Carmen Parahi (Stuff): Government fends off major health system review to avoid distraction from Covid-19
1News: Over 40m masks, 500k gowns and 30k face shields: The staggering PPE order made by Ministry of Health
Michael Morrah (Newshub): Doctors running out of swab tests, told there are no more available
Natalie Akoorie (Herald): Testing definition widened to ‘priority groups’ – docs say more needed
Robin Martin (RNZ): Expanded criteria for testing puts strain on assessment centres, doctor says
James Fyfe (Newshub): GPs dispute claims they’re not carrying out enough COVID-19 tests
Sam Sherwood, Joanne Carroll and Michael Hayward (Stuff): GP blasts health officials for raising expectations around testing
Meriana Johnsen (RNZ): Details of $30 million for Covid-19 Māori health funding to be released next week
RNZ: Hospital staff report increase in being spat on
RNZ: Auckland healthcare workers test positive for Covid-19
1News: GPs working for free as coronavirus threatens job losses
Bridie Witton (Stuff): Hundreds of doctors have hours cut, while dozens are out of work
1News: Over 100 St John staff in self-isolation due to coronavirus concerns
Katarina Williams (Stuff): STI testing restricted as testing kits needed for Covid-19
Repatriation
Vita Molyneux and Holly Carran (Newshub): Tens of thousands of stranded tourists will be helped out of New Zealand despite coronavirus lockdown
1News: Winston Peters announces plan to return stranded tourists home
RNZ: Foreign nationals can travel to catch international flights
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Government unveils plan for stranded foreigners to leave New Zealand
Tess Brunton (RNZ): Tourists face hefty plane ticket costs to return home
1News: Many Kiwis still stranded overseas are facing a long wait to come home
1News: Kiwis stuck in Nepal get rescue flight back home
RNZ: Kiwis stuck in New Dehli call for help from the government
Transport
Grant Bradley (Herald): Air NZ pilots flying planes with no passengers (paywalled)
Grant Bradley (Herald): Air NZ shrinks its domestic network to handful of cities
1News: Air NZ slashes domestic flight capacity by 95 per cent
RNZ: Air NZ slashes domestic flights by 95 percent
Eva Corlett (RNZ): Transport Agency was failing to deliver road projects before pandemic struck, documents show
Domestic violence
1News: Domestic violence on the rise in Kiwi homes as coronavirus lockdown has unintended consequences
Vita Molyneux (Newshub): How the COVID-19 lockdown has created a ‘perfect storm’ for domestic violence
Education
John Gerritsen (RNZ): Foreign students worry about families and passing their courses
Rachel Sadler (Newshub): AUT student faces ‘uncertain’ future following term date reshuffle
Internet, technology
Jason Walls (Herald): National calls on Jacinda Ardern to stop using Zoom at Cabinet meetings
RNZ: Using Zoom for Cabinet meetings undermines scrutiny – National
Environment
Phil Vine (Newshub): We have one chance to rebuild our economy sustainably
Lana Andelane (Newshub): GeoNet’s volcano monitoring network ‘senses’ Auckland’s dramatic slowdown
Ryan Anderson (Stuff): Prolonged coronavirus lockdown will lead to rise in pests and predators – experts
Local government
Georgina Campbell (Herald): Wellington City Council looking at $70m fiscal shortfall
RNZ: Christchurch City Council allows rate payment deferrals
RNZ: Auckland Council launches effort to co-ordinate Covid-19 support for Māori
Chloe Ranford (RNZ): Marlborough council plans annual plan ‘lolly scramble’ without the lollies
Chloe Ranford (RNZ): New Marlborough water policy scrapped
Pacific
Barbara Dreaver (1News): Pacific Update: 147 new coronavirus cases confirmed across the region
Jamie Tahana (RNZ): Fiji confirms two new Covid-19 cases, Suva will go into lockdown
Koroi Hawkins (RNZ): Pacific economies hit hard: ‘Unlike anything we have seen’
RN
Banks
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): NZ banks not allowed to pay dividends until recovery, RBNZ announces
Kate MacNamara (Stuff): All eyes on Australia’s big banks after Reserve Bank bans dividends
Other
Chris McDowall (Spinoff): Covid-19: New Zealand cases mapped and charted, April 2
Te Aniwa Hurihanganui (RNZ): Number of confirmed Covid-19 cases among Māori increases to 56
Brittney Deguara (Stuff): Almost 100 Kiwis have overcome the virus, but how is recovery defined?
Māori TV: Online petition demands Government open unoccupied houses to homeless
1News: Funeral restriction reprieve a relief to grieving families under lockdown
1News: Expert says high demand, not price-gouging, reason for expensive groceries during lockdown
Dave Gooselink (Newshub): South Island town of Glenorchy in its own little bubble telling visitors they’re not welcome
Harry Lock (RNZ): Teenager waits in isolation in Auckland, family in Christchurch
Eric Frykberg (RNZ): Electricity use down since lockdown began
RNZ: Checkpoint: Flour demand up 500 percent for NZ producer, but plenty of wheat
Belinda Feek (Herald): ‘We’ve got the flour’, however, country-wide distribution proves tricky
1News: NZ’s island communities get lifeline as Government announces fund
Phil Pennington (RNZ): Some plumbers defy lockdown rules for non-essential jobs
Eleisha Foon (RNZ): Families worried about members with addictions in lockdowning for vital air freight
RNZ: Government allows butchers to process pork for wholesale only
Mike Bush – last day as Police Commissioner
Derek Cheng and Anna Leask (Herald): Outgoing Police Commissioner Mike Bush opens up about police bias, tragedy and trauma counselling
RNZ: Outgoing police commissioner Mike Bush reflects on 42 years in the service
1News: Mike Bush hangs up blue uniform on last day as Police Commissioner
1News: Today marks final day of Mike Bush’s tenure as Police Commissioner
