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
Wealth tax, Labour-Greens coalition negotiations
Tim Watkin (Pundit): What Else Apart From A Wealth Tax? The Shape Of A Labour-Greens Coalition
Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): Jacinda Ardern’s deputy dilemma
Audrey Young (Herald): It takes two to tango in talks says Green Party’s James Shaw over Ardern’s wealth tax comments
Scott Palmer (Newshub): Chlöe Swarbrick says Labour ‘disingenuous’ ruling out wealth tax, ‘ongoing discussions’ about walking away
Zane Small (Newshub): Jacinda Ardern shuts down wealth tax again as Green candidate sparks fresh speculation
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Judith Collins rolls the wealth tax dice in Wellington
Newstalk ZB: Grant Robertson: Greens entitled to their staunch tax approach
Richard Harman (Politik): Seymour says Ardern unlikely to bring in wealth tax
Zane Small (Newshub): Judith Collins insists wealth tax warnings are ‘absolutely responsible’ despite Labour ruling it out
RNZ: Collins doubles down on wealth tax attack
Newstalk ZB: Paul Goldsmith: There will be a wealth tax under Labour-Greens
RNZ: Labour unlikely to back down on wealth tax – political scientist
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB: The wealth tax isn’t dead just yet
RNZ: The Detail: Behind the scenes in coalition negotiations
1News: Ardern says 2017 negotiation loaf ‘just good baking’, after swipe from Collins
Election
Simon Wilson (Herald): Election diary: The party strategies for your two ticks (paywalled)
Liam Hehir (Democracy Project): How to make your mind up
Jenée Tibshraeny (Interest): Keeping ’em honest: A look at the glaring inconsistencies on politicking around the wage subsidy, JobStart and house prices
David Hargreaves (Interest): The election’s nearly over – was that it?
Justin Giovannetti (Spinoff): With four days to go, Labour taps Jacindamania while National stumbles again
Madeleine Chapman (Spinoff): The week in memes: after all this time we’re so, so close
Newsroom: Good day/bad day: The leader walking on sunshine
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Last UMR internal poll – Labour 50% National 29%
Alex Braae (Spinoff): Predictions: Where every party will rank in the 2020 election
Charlotte Graham McLay (Guardian): ‘Scent of democracy’: fragrant hand sanitiser ticks box for New Zealand’s early voters
RNZ: Little fake news, some half truths in New Zealand election campaign – research
Marion Maddox (Spinoff): Is there room for religion in New Zealand politics?
Anna Bracewell-Worrall (Newshub): Minor parties posture for Government positions but face nervous wait on referendum results
Richard Prebble (Herald): A wasted opportunity on cannabis (paywalled)
Newstalk ZB: What goes through people’s minds when voting?
Rachel Sadler (Newshub): Global media calls win for Jacinda Ardern, warns her popularity ‘will be tested’
Dileepa Fonseka (Newsroom): The ‘unknown’ migrant voter
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Shaw and Ardern seek to rustle up young votes
Michael Neilson (Herald): Benee says, ‘Get out and vote’, shares views on youth politics and the cannabis referendum
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Facing dim prospects at home, young Kiwis might vote with their feet and leave
Herald: New Conservative candidate shares photo of 11yo girl in anti-rainbow campaign
Stuff: False Profit: Full and unedited video with Advance NZ co-leader Billy Te Kahika
Daniel Vernon (Spinoff): A yarn with Nan: A comic about voting, and what brings us together
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Justin Giovannetti (Spinoff): The battle for central Auckland is splitting the left
Thomas Manch and Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Jacinda Ardern and Judith Collins in the battle for the Capital
Dileepa Fonseka (Newsroom): Fighting the Hutt’s ‘red wave’
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): A four-way race in NZ’s ‘thinking electorate’
RNZ: Tight race for candidates in Hutt South and Ōhāriu
Joel MacManus (Stuff): Paul Eagle looking for second win in Rongotai
Shannon Johnstone (Hawkes Bay Today): Tukituki candidates ramp up campaigning ahead of tight election race (paywalled)
Torika Tokalau (Stuff): Pasifika community gears up to vote in Labour stronghold of Māngere
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Anna Whyte (1News): Each party’s top 10 policies outlined, in 40 seconds
Ireland Hendry-Tennent (Newshub): Labour, National, ACT, NZ First, and Greens’ economic policies
Tamsyn Parker (Herald): Global pandemic is still taking lives, Grant Robertson warns as finance men go head to head
Michael Neilson (Herald): What Election 2020 means for The Treaty/Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Ngāpuhi and Ihumātao
NBR: How much you say? The dollars and cents of Labour and National’s election promises updated (paywalled)
Michelle Duff (Stuff): Political nonsense about abortion law
National
Jennifer Curtain (The Conversation): NZ election 2020: as the ultimate political survivor, Judith Collins prepares for her ultimate test
Tova O’Brien (Newshub): National’s marginal and list MPs’ jobs at risk in countdown to polling day
RNZ: Judith Collins’ final week attacks ‘bizarre’, ‘desperate’ – pundits
Claire Trevett (Herald): Judith Collins calls Jacinda Ardern a ‘liar’ over Covid-19
1News: ‘She lied to us’ – Collins attacks Ardern on campaign trail, challenges Labour leader to sue her
RNZ: Judith Collins says Jacinda Ardern ‘lied’ about Covid border testing
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Brittney Degara (Stuff): Judith Collins blaming obesity on ‘personal responsibility’ is ‘shallow, lazy and wrong’, experts say
Vita Molyneux and Zac Fleming (Newshub): Judith Collins blasted for saying obesity is a ‘personal choice’ for which people must take responsibility
1News: Judith Collins says obesity is ‘generally’ a weakness, urges personal responsibility over blaming the ‘system’
Newstalk ZB: Health researcher calls Judith Collins’ obesity comments “heartless”
Newstalk ZB: We need to stop “individualising” obesity, health lecturer says
RNZ: Judith Collins: Obese people must take responsibility for ‘personal choices
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Claire Trevett (Herald): Judith Collins on Wellington’s transport ‘disgrace’ and a Labour-Green government
1News: National’s Judith Collins says Wellington’s transport issues ‘even worse than Auckland’
Claire Trevett (Herald): National Party leader Judith Collins hits Wellington in final week sprint
Labour
Richard Shaw (The Conversation): NZ election 2020: Jacinda Ardern promised transformation — instead, the times transformed her
Julia Hollingsworth (CNN): The small-town takeout store worker who won over New Zealand — and the world
AAP: Ardern defends broken fees free promise on visit to uni – ‘We needed to fill in that skills gap’
Jenna Lynch (Newshub): Jacinda Ardern gets hero’s welcome from students, but disappointment over broken fees-free promise
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Jacinda Ardern touts progressive credentials in rockstar student rally
Derek Cheng (Herald): Jacinda Ardern adds her weight to campaign in marginal Hutt South seat
Cherie Sivignon (Stuff): Victim advocate service in Labour’s plans, says Little
Hannah Kronast (Newshub): Labour releases full manifesto, reveals ‘top priority’ in Government
Steven Cowan: Jacinda Ardern: The business sector say she’s a pleasure to work with
1News: Jacinda Ardern helps make wooden figurines of herself, Clarke Gayford on campaign trail
Greens
1News: ‘Sweating it slightly’ – Green Party appeals for strategic voting to secure Parliamentary future
Tim Cronshaw (Herald): Green Party says the days of vehicle camping anywhere are over
Zane Small (Newshub): Green Party’s values questioned by ACT after candidate calls David Seymour ‘stank-ass leader’
Māori seats
Leigh-Marama McLachlan (Guardian): This election could spell the end of the Māori party for good – and that would be a tragedy
1News: Tamihere, Henare put their case to voters in hotly contested Tāmaki Makaurau
Uma Ahmed (Stuff): Te Tai Hauāuru frontrunners say housing and jobs the big issue
NZ First
Jo Moir (RNZ): Winston Peters returns to in Tauranga in final campaign sprint
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Winston Peters heads back to where it all began, for what could be the end
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Winston Peters dismisses polls, warns of ‘Green, Labour nightmare’ in animated Duncan Garner interview
Amelia Wade (Herald): ‘Sorry sunshine, no thanks’, Winston Peters takes on Covid-19 denier
1News: Winston Peters breaks 40-year no sweets rule to try Laura Daniel’s latest masterpiece
Brent Edwards (NBR): Provincial Growth Fund’s future up in the air, looking dicey (paywalled)
ACT
Gordon Campbell: On flirting with Act, and on the euthanasia/cannabis measures
Amelia Wade (Herald): What 11 Act MPs would mean in Parliament – according to leader David Seymour
Laura Walters (Newsroom): Nicole McKee: Firearms, freedom and family
John Weekes (Stuff): David Seymour’s ACT Party campaign of a lifetime
Cannabis and euthanasia referendums
Claire Robinson (Guardian): How the wider political agenda risks skewing New Zealand’s cannabis referendum
Scott Palmer (Newshub): Why the cannabis referendum is too close to call – and who’s to blame if it fails
Lana Andelane (Newshub): Chlöe Swarbrick, Duncan Garner’s heated exchange over decriminalisation vs regulation
Kristin Hall (1News): NZ Medical Association’s U-turn on cannabis causes backlash from doctors
Eleanor Ainge Roy (Guardian): New Zealand Medical Association changes cannabis stance days before vote
David Farrar: NZMA and the cannabis referendum
Isaac Davison (Herald):5 things you need to know about the cannabis referendum
Action Station: Our cannabis laws divide us. Here’s why voting yes is a vote for fairness.
Robert Hamlin (ODT): Cannabis legislation raises public good concerns
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Carolyne Meng-Yee (Herald): Lecretia Seales’ parents on voluntary euthanasia and her legacy
Advance voting
ODT Editorial: Early voting analysis needed
1News: With days left to go, early voting for 2020 election surpasses all early votes in 2017
RNZ: Advance votes surpass total in 2017
Jamie Ensor and Isabella Durant (Newshub): Advance voting expected to blast past Electoral Commission target
Housing
Jason Walls and Ben Leahy (Herald): NZ Herald-Kantar poll reveals what Kiwis think needs to happen to house prices (paywalled)
Brent Edwards (NBR): TOP: major parties don’t want to spook voters on housing (paywalled)
Alan Kenyon (1News): Minor parties back modular homes as part of solution to NZ’s housing crisis
RNZ: Housing market continues to hit record highs
Brent Melville (BusinessDesk): RBNZ will need to pop the housing bubble: Kiwibank (paywalled)
Greg Ninness (Interest): Westpac’s economists say they underestimated the impact of interest rate cuts and wonder if the Reserve Bank has over-stimulated the housing market
Michael Reddell: Housing, the Reserve Bank, and interest rates
RNZ: Interest rate war predicted as banks look to lend more
Matthew Tso (Stuff): Low housing stocks driving prices to record levels across the Wellington region
Liz McDonald and Jonny Edwards (Stuff): Christchurch house prices reach record high as low interest rates boost demand
Environment
Eloise Gibson, Olivia Wannan and Charlie Mitchell (Stuff): How the Government’s $100m ‘climate resilience’ projects stack up
Eloise Gibson (Stuff): ‘Climate resilience’ quarry’s Govt funding appears uncertain
Leith Huffadine (RNZ): Politicians have a ‘mandate’ for climate action, how do their policies stack up?
Andy Fyers (BusinessDesk): The Chart – election edition: A climate change conundrum (paywalled)
Emily Frost and Aimee Clark (Newsroom): Environment can’t be held hostage to politics
Ellen O’Dywer (Stuff): The Last Lake: ‘Huntly won’t be dumped on anymore’
RMA
Eugene Sage (BusinessDesk): Greens’ RMA reform bottom lines (paywalled)
Brent Edwards (NBR): Resource Management Act to go – but what will replace it? (paywalled)
Primary and extractive industries
Jamie Mackay (Newstalk ZB): A farmers’ guide to voting (for those sitting on the fence)
Andrew Bevin (NBR): Forest owners upset by major party policies (paywalled)
No Right Turn: Time is slipping by for the fruit industry to improve wages
Eric Frykberg (RNZ): Growers warn ‘time is slipping by’ for harvest amid dire need for picker
Sharnae Hope (Stuff): Climate protesters block Huntly coalmine and push national mining conference online
RNZ: Protesters shut down mine near Huntly
Business, jobs
Kate Newton (Stuff): What might help to curb unemployment?
Rebecca Moore (1News): The Warehouse employees feel ‘disrespected’ over hundreds of job losses after company claimed wage subsidy
RNZ: The Warehouse workers ‘dejected, annoyed’ over restructure
Catrin Owen (Stuff): Aviation caterer appeals ruling that found it breached employment law during lockdown
Victoria Young (BusinessDesk): Should staff be paid minimum wage when they don’t work? (paywalled)
RNZ: Bosses call on next government to prioritise partnerships, infrastructure
Caroline Fleming (Herald): Future of Kawerau’s Norske Skog Tasman mill uncertain, job loss speculation ‘premature’, company says (paywalled)
RNZ: Auckland job listings down 40% in September quarter – TradeMe
Local government
Melanie Carroll (Stuff): Porirua City Council to repay Covid-19 wage subsidy after questions raised
RNZ: Porirua City Council told to pay back wage subsidy
Herald: Porirua City Council to pay back wage subsidy
1News: Porirua council to return $2.6 million claimed under Covid-19 wage subsidy scheme
Luisa Girao (ODT): Sir Tim too tired: Biddle
Laura Smith and Abbey Palmer (ODT): Mayor’s deputy call can be fought: academic
Govt access to encrypted data
RNZ: Threats to freedom warned if social media unlocked to Five Eyes
RNZ: New Zealand joins call for access to social media encrypted data
Stuff Editorial: Privacy and the trust we need for the Government to protect all of us
Education
Hamish MacLean (ODT): Fees hike for domestic students
Te Aniwa Hurihanganui (RNZ): Court challenge to Otago University’s admission process weak – law expert
Hamish McNeilly and Steven Walton (Stuff): Surge in demand for rooms at New Zealand university halls of residence
Emma Perry (ODT): High-needs ‘underfunding’
Cameron Bagrie (BusinessDesk): Why missing school matters (paywalled)
Kim Moodie (Herald): New scheme sees trainee teachers immersed in classroom – and fees covered
Health and disability
Cate Broughton (Stuff): Shane Reti’s plan to fix Canterbury DHB channels former Labour minister
Justin Latif (Spinoff): Finding a remedy for South Auckland’s health issues
Janine Rankin (Manawatū Standard): Midwives’ shortage prompts closure of Horowhenua maternity services
Kim Baker Wilson (1News): Waitematā DHB grapples with shortage of nurses and too many paramedics
Catherine Hutton (RNZ): Parents say Trust for the disabled was deliberately run down
Coronavirus
Bridie Witton (Stuff): Leading public health expert ‘irate’ over WHO lockdown advice
Dan Satherley and Isabella Durant (Newshub): WHO official’s anti-lockdown comments aimed at virus-ridden countries, not NZ – experts
RNZ: ‘NZ is in an advantageous position’ – WHO spokesperson
1News: Govt ‘acted unreasonably’ converting Stamford Plaza to Covid-19 isolation hotel – Chief Ombudsman
1News: Investigation underway after member of the public books room, enters Covid-19 hotel
Catrin Owen (Stuff): Woman books room, walks into isolation facility at Auckland Airport
RNZ: Pfizer vaccine ‘a very likely prospect’ – Megan Woods
Duncan Garner (Newshub): Ministerial source reveals vaccine development seriously advanced
Newstalk ZB: Who will get first access to Covid-19 vaccines?
Mark Quinlivan(Newshub): The surge of doctors fleeing the US to New Zealand to escape the coronavirus
Luke Kirkness (Herald): Deja vu feeling of freedom: New Zealand’s virus restrictions a distant memory
Other
Cherie Sivignon (Stuff): PGF ‘lolly scramble’ fails to support top of the south, says National duo
Herald Editorial: Is a four-year electoral cycle too long? (paywalled)
Brittney Deguara (Stuff): How New Zealand’s election compares to the US Presidential race
Christine McCarthy (Newsroom): The last thing young people need
Susan Hornsby-Geluk (Stuff): The very fine line between a genuine volunteer and exploitation
Stephen Forbes (RNZ): Pokie machines: South Auckland’s ongoing struggle with problem gambling
RNZ: Safety concerns for Oranga Tamariki staff after protesters hurl abuse
Jordan Bond (RNZ): Police refuse to release file into allegation pregnant woman thrown to ground during arrest
Steve Braunias (Newsroom): Chris Finlayson halts the National Library madness
Matt Nippert (Herald): South Canterbury Finance finally receives last rites (paywalled)
Paul McBeth (BusinessDesk): South Canterbury Finance’s $485m curtain call (paywalled)
