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
Fresh water reforms, environment, conservation
Richard Harman (Politik): Swimming together; the coalition agrees on freshwater reforms
Collette Devlin (Stuff): NZ First claims win as Government softens freshwater reforms
Russel Death (Spinoff): Even China’s waterways are better protected than New Zealand’s
Jamie Morton (Herald): New Govt water reforms miss mark on nitrogen pollution, advocates say
Science Media Centre: Action for Healthy Waterways – Expert Reaction
Amber-Leigh Woolf (Stuff): Explainer: $700m to make waterways clean again
No Right Turn: Chickening out on clean rivers
Anna Bracewell-Worrall (Newshub): Govt’s $700 million waterway reform brings mixed reviews
Newstalk ZB: What farmers think of Government’s freshwater reforms
Brent Edwards (NBR): Questions asked about regional councils implementing new freshwater policies (paywalled)
Gavin Evans (BusinessDesk): More time for farmers, councils in govt water reforms (paywalled)c
Molly Houseman (ODT): Freshwater plans meet with approval
Brent Edwards (NBR): Government confirms plan to clean up waterways but makes concessions (paywalled)
Charlie Dreaver (RNZ): Government pushes ahead with landmark freshwater reform
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Govt promises clean waterways with final freshwater plan
RNZ: Government sticks to strict waterways rules, adds $700m for jobs
Anna Whyte (1News): Govt reveals $700m plan to improve New Zealand’s waterways, stave off risk to ‘clean, green reputation’
Collette Devlin (Stuff): Government pumps $700m into cleaning up waterways
Jenée Tibshraeny (Interest): Finalised freshwater reforms half as costly as those proposed last year
Alex Braae (Spinoff): Te Mana O te Wai: What’s in the government’s new freshwater cleanup package?
Steven Walton (Stuff): $700m ‘long-term’ waterways package could restore swimming at Lake Ellesmere
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Charlie Mitchell (Stuff): A push for new coal mines amid ‘alarming’ fast-tracking of infrastructure
Olivia Wannan (Stuff): High-carbon ‘shovel-ready’ projects should be denied – Commission
RNZ: After the Virus: The Environment
Jessica Desmond (Guardian): New Zealand’s new plan to save our seabirds is strong on rhetoric but light on action
Michael Neilson (Herald): Hauraki Gulf recreational crayfish take slashed in half – scientists say not enough
Chloe Ranford: Social distance rules see 360 tonnes of Marlborough’s recycling diverted to landfill
RNZ: Auckland drought ‘a wake up call’ for water supply
RNZ: Offshore wind farm proponents warned surf breaks will be protected
National Party
Peter Dunne (Newsroom): Only one thing matters
Brent Edwards (NBR): Missteps mark Todd Muller’s first week as National Party leader (paywalled)
Simon Wilson (Herald): The big thing we’ve learned about Todd Muller (paywalled)
Kate Hawkesby (Newstalk ZB): Bridges must be licking his chops after Muller’s performance
Rosemary McLeod (Stuff): Todd Muller: If the cap fits, hide it
Newstalk ZB: Do the National Party have an ‘intelligence unit’ for the election?
1News: ‘Don’t just look at the colour of people’s skin’ – Bennett defends National’s largely white front bench
1News: ‘Politics is brutal and it’s public’ – Paula Bennett opens up about demotion
Zane Small (Newshub): Winston Peters mocks National MPs for ‘fighting from the backbenches’ against new leaders Todd Muller, Nikki Kaye
Michael Neilson (Herald): Māori Party co-leader John Tamihere says National ‘pushing Māori’ away, but not ruling out working with them
RNZ: National says ‘no talk’ of cutting benefits
Vita Molyneux (Newshub): National MP Maureen Pugh blasted for ‘misleading’ economic statistics comparing Greece and New Zealand
Mike Tweed (Whanganui Chronicle): Whanganui MP Harete Hipango picks up Māori Crown Relations portfolio
Mike Tweed (Whanganui Chronicle): TVNZ pulls episode after Whanganui MP Harete Hipango hits out at ‘insult’ (paywalled)
Parliament, election
Audrey Young (Herald): The best and the worst – rating our MPs under Covid 19 Coronavirus crisis (paywalled)
Peter Dunne: This is shaping up to be New Zealand’s most dramatic and unusual election ever
Herald: James Shaw: A coalition with National ‘not up to leadership’
Herald: Former Opposition leaders explain why the leader of the Opposition is the hardest job in politics (paywalled)
Trans-Tasman, Pacific bubble, Alert levels
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Opinion: Time to cool the hype on the trans-Tasman bubble
Melissa Chan-Green (Newshub): ‘We are not safe enough for you’: Epidemiologists weigh in on safety of trans-Tasman bubble
Rachel Sadler (Newshub): Trans-Tasman bubble ‘realistic’ by September – Jacinda Ardern
Yvette McCullough (RNZ): Travel between NZ and Australia could start in September
Julie Iles (NBR): Deputy PM: trans-Tasman bubble ‘can’t wait’ for every state (paywalled)
Derek Cheng (Herald): Winston Peters says a transtasman bubble can safely be done now
Alan Kenyon (1News): Winston Peters says he’d like to see trans-Tasman bubble implemented ‘yesterday’ when pressed in Parliament
Stuff: Jacinda Ardern says trans-Tasman bubble could open in September, but Winston Peters wanted it open yesterday
Calida Stuart-Menteath (NBR): No ‘health passport’ likely for trans-Tasman travel bubble, Ak Airport chief says (paywalled)
RNZ: NZ health chief says Pacific bubble risks could be managed
Derek Cheng (Herald): Jacinda Ardern’s wriggle room on moving to alert level 1 early
John Weekes (Stuff): NZ could be declared free of Covid-19 in 21 days
Brittney Deguara (Stuff): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern compares notes with ‘early movers’ Singapore, Australia, Denmark
Health
Phil Pennington (RNZ): Health Ministry ‘considering options’ to increase funding
Andre Chumko and Bridie Witton (Stuff): Covid-19 will make health inequality worse, experts say
Nicholas Jones (Herald): Testing gaps at virus-hit St Margaret’s rest home risked ‘catastrophe’
Amelia Wade (Herald): How were healthcare workers infected with Covid-19 at work? The Ministry of Health doesn’t know
Rowan Quinn (RNZ): Unions challenge WorkSafe on Covid-19 infections at Waitākere Hospital
Rowan Quinn (RNZ): Review highlights need for cohesive national contact tracing system
Bruce Munro (ODT): WHO about to call for mass masking – Otago academic
Bridie Witton(Stuff): Covid-19 cancer surgery delay meant Wellington man had chemotherapy
Susan Botting: Saturday catch-up surgery to clear Northland DHB’s 900-strong backlog
Newstalk ZB: Māori waiting for elective surgery prioritised on waiting lists
Rukuwai Tipene-Allen (Māori TV): Māori nurses call for immediate intervention over racial attacks
Mackenzie Smith (RNZ): Advertising Standards Authority to fast-track takedown of misleading Covid-19 ads
Susan Strongman (RNZ): NZ man selling bleach ‘cure’ slammed by scientists
Wage subsidy
Ben Strang (RNZ): Wage subsidy auditing figures only collected quarterly – MSD
Isaac Davison (Herald): Private school pays back some of wage subsidy – but should it be paying back the lot? (paywalled)
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Delivery firms say online shopping rush no goldmine, as Mainfreight repays subsidy
Jamie Gray (Herald): NZ dairy start-up Happy Valley repays wage subsidy (paywalled)
Economy, employment
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): That light isn’t the one at the end of the tunnel, bank economists warn
Hamish Rutherford (Herald): Worse than the GFC already, labour market may enter ‘second wave’ of job losses
RNZ: Business confidence rises, but remains bleak
Zane Small (Newshub): Job numbers plummet by 37,500 in April as COVID-19 economic impact cripples businesses
RNZ: Job numbers dropped by record 37,500 in April, Stats NZ says
1News: NZ lost a record 37,500 jobs last month amid the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown
Jarrod Haar (Stuff): A four-day work week could be the shot in the arm tourism needs
RNZ: Covid-19 debt levels: ‘It’s really about having a job’
Brent Edwards (NBR): Banks are flush and part of post-Covid solution, says RBNZ (paywalled)
Jenny Ruth (BusinessDesk): RBNZ’s awkward about-face on bank capital and stress tests (paywalled)
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): What countries have done to support the unemployed during the COVID-19 crisis
1News: Overwhelming majority of Kiwis want to continue working from home, study suggests
RNZ: Most want to continue working from home… at least sometimes
Recovery
Jamie Morton (Herald): What will NZ’s ‘new normal’ look like? (paywalled)
Brian Fallow (Herald): Back to normal isn’t enough (paywalled)
RNZ: The Detail: Changing our lives in a post-Covid world
Immigration, migrant workers
Tess Brunton (RNZ): Immigration NZ to send workers to Queenstown to help migrant workers and employers
Matthew Mckew (ODT): Help centre for workers who have lost jobs
Katarina Williams (Stuff): Tens of thousands of offshore visa applications stalled
Dileepa Fonseka (Newsroom): ‘Mayhem’ for locked out migrants
Zane Small (Newshub): Golriz Ghahraman hits back at ‘baseless assertion’ Manus Island refugee Behrouz Boochani won political favour
Housing
Alan Kenyon (1News): Housing Minister passes responsibility for long delayed Wellington Kiwibuild development onto developer
Eva Corlett (RNZ): House buyers now in financial strife risk losing deposits
Internet
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Heads butt over new bill’s internet powers
RNZ: Proposed legal framework on objectionable content filter ‘a step too far’ – InternetNZ
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Government introduces law which could erect a firewall around New Zealand, concerning Internet NZ
Arts and culture funding
Derek Cheng (Herald): Jacinda Ardern unveils bailout for Te Papa
1News: Jacinda Ardern announces where $95 million for arts and culture sector will go
Zane Small (Newshub): Jacinda Ardern unveils lifeline of more than $57m for artists, museums and heritage services hit by COVID-19
RNZ: Govt announces multi-million dollar funding boost to help arts sector recover post-Covid
Transport
1News: Air NZ should refund customers’ money for flights cancelled because of Covid-19 – Consumer NZ
John Weekes (Stuff): Air NZ’s 777-200ER fleet may never fly again due to the impact of Covid-19
Georgina Campbell (Herald): Transmission Gully: ‘Stuck cleaning up expensive legal mess’
Amy Williams (RNZ): Animal behaviour’ in ferry queue sparks police complaints
1News: Auckland public transport to be discounted by 30 per cent during off-peak hours
Local government
Logan Savory (Southland Times): Mayor Tim Shadbolt says he no longer trusts his deputy Toni Biddle
Luisa Girao (ODT): Invercargill council revamped
Damian George (Stuff): Wellington City Council pulls paper proposing 2026 reopening date for central library
Amber-Leigh Woolf and Andre Chumko (Stuff): Days after Wellington sorts its waste, a sewerage pipe bursts outside police station
Hamish Cardwell (RNZ): German engineers ‘unsung heroes’ of sewage pipeline
John Lewis (ODT): DCC spends $145,000 on new campaign: ‘Dunedin, A Pretty Good Plan D’
Business
Jo Moir (RNZ):Commercial property tenants still waiting for Covid-19 relief
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): ANZ asks contractors to take a pay cut
Eric Crampton (Newsroom): Smooth the path for business to adapt
Dita De Boni (NBR): Public sector boards almost half full of women (paywalled)
Education
1News: ‘We are delighted’ – Teacher aides pay deal will bring security and decrease anxiety, union says
Karl Goddard (Stuff): The New Zealand Teaching Council is tone deaf and must go
Luisa Girao (ODT): Quarantine students in Queenstown plan backed
Eleisha Foon (RNZ): Teacher calls for schools to teach race issues following student’s blackface social media post
Herald: Westlake Girls High School under fire over response to blackface social media post by student
Media
Shane Taurima (RNZ): Māori media must lead and inspire innovative change required for survival
Dita De Boni (NBR): Bauer mags sell-off process thought to be reaching key milestone (paywalled)
Christchurch mosque shootings
David Williams (Newsroom): Agencies pull back from terror victims
AAP: Christchurch mosque attack gunman’s sentencing delayed, court eyes international video screenings
Other
Thomas Manch (Stuff): More than 200,000 children may face hardship, children’s commissioner says
Jessica Tyson (Māori TV): Arming police damaging for relationship with Māori – Moana Jackson
Pat Baskett (Newsroom): The real price of eating pork
Steven Moe (Stuff): Charities are essential, yet often forgotten
Anna Whyte (1News): Foreign investment rules tightened amid Covid-19 fallout
Daisy Hudson (ODT): Police should not have allowed gang tangi, Nats say
Luisa Girao (ODT): Steady progress with ouvea removal
RNZ: Tourism will return to growth eventually – Tourism NZ modelling
1News: Tower Insurance cuts 108 jobs in order to secure ‘sustainable future’ for business
RNZ: Christchurch events company cuts permanent workforce by 60 percent
Lana Andelane (Newshub): Auckland cafe’s sign telling employees to speak English ‘taken out of context’ – race relations commissioner
1News: Covid-19 lockdown bear hunt commemorated with special NZ Post stamps
Debrin Foxcroft (Stuff): Commission warns electronics retailer Becextech over fair trade breaches
ODT Editorial: Universal super transcends pandemic
