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

Labour Party and new Labour Government
Andrea Vance (Stuff): ‘Labour Connect’ the data analysis tool that boosted Jacinda Ardern’s campaign
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Herald): Time for Govt to take some risks (paywalled)
Audrey Young (Herald): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on her big win and big plans (paywalled)
Audrey Young: What Kelvin Davis wants for Māori from Jacinda Ardern (paywalled)
Julie Iles (NBR): Fact or Fiction: Will Jacinda Ardern be the new handbrake? (paywalled)
Rod Oram (Newsroom): Brave politics for a better future
Richard Harman: Job going — foreign minister
Jo Moir (RNZ): Labour and Greens to wrap-up final talks this week
Edward Gay (Stuff): Labour set to repeal three strikes law, which sees repeat offenders get max sentence
Steve Kilgallon (Stuff): The moment that stood out to PM Jacinda Ardern following weeks on the campaign trail
John Braddock (World socialist website): New Zealand markets, business welcome Labour’s election victory
David Farrar: Labour’s supposed mandate
John Roughan (Herald): Lighter Labour shows lots of promise (paywalled)
Deena Coster (Stuff): What a sea-change to the left means for Taranaki
Suze Wilson (The Conversation): The reward for good pandemic leadership: Lessons from Jacinda Ardern’s New Zealand reelection
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Labour will ‘do a few wacky things’ with or without the Greens – Simon Bridges
Bruce Bisset (Hawkes Bay Today): Landslide can also mean disaster
Florence Kerr and Katie Kenny (Stuff): In a bold departure, Labour’s Peeni Henare is making a public bid for the top health job
Newstalk ZB: Former Health Minister on the risks of giving the portfolio to Peeni Henare
Newstalk ZB: Should Kelvin Davis be Deputy Prime Minister?
James Robb: New Zealand Labour Party re-elected on an anti-Labour course
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): 4 immediate challenges for new Labour Government
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Dear Labour – we need urgent kindness now
Greg Presland (The Standard): What should Labour do in the next three years?
Steven Holden (NBR): Holding Labour to account for NZ business (paywalled)
Joseph Nunweek (Spinoff): Expecting less – or more – of Labour’s new voters
Te Aniwa Hurihanganui (RNZ): Andrew Little to prioritise Ngāpuhi if retained as Minister
Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): Will NZ back Chris Liddell for OECD’s top job?
Nikki Mandow (Newsroom): SMEs to Ardern: give us more certainty

National Party
Andrea Vance (Stuff): The ‘complete disarray’ of National’s campaign that led to electoral ‘slaughter’
Chris Trotter (Interest): A tale of two political worlds
Liam Hehir (Spinoff): One big idea for the National Party to show it’s up for fresh thinking
Steve Braunias (Herald): The secret diary of the Collins Gang (paywalled)
Tom O’Connor (Stuff): National needs to work out what it’s purpose is
Alister Browne (Stuff): National’s way forward can’t be more of the same
Richard Pamatatau (Stuff): Talofa National, it’s time to consider attracting the Pacific blue vote
Rob Mitchell (Stuff): Wellington high-fliers survive despite National Party being laid low
Michael Daly (Stuff): Simon Bridges wouldn’t say if National could have won more votes under his leadership

Green Party
Chlöe Swarbrick (Guardian): The Green party won in Auckland by reaching beyond its own bubble
Michael Neilson (Herald): Chlöe Swarbrick on her Auckland Central campaign, the Hauraki Gulf and ending homelessness (paywalled)
Justine Sachs (Spinoff): The Green party should think twice before accepting a deal with Labour
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): How shallow are Green supporters for the baubles of office?
Jessica Tyson (Māori TV): Youngest Green Party candidate reflects on first time standing in election

Advance NZ Party
Tova O’Brien (Guardian): My ‘feral’ interview with Covid-19 denier Jami-Lee Ross didn’t go as he planned
Matt Shand (Stuff): ‘Used goods’ Jami-Lee Ross saw Billy Te Kahika Jnr as only path to election
Matt Burrows (Newsroom): Billy Te Kahika confirms NZ Public Party’s split from Advance NZ, say it’s an effort to ‘restore autonomy’
Bernard Orsman (Herald): Billy Te Kahika quits Advance NZ party
Josephine Franks (Stuff): Advance NZ co-leader Billy Te Kahika quits party
Victor Billot (Newsroom): A farewell poem for … Jami-Lee Ross
Jack Tame (Newstalk ZB): Billy TK isn’t done yet
Christchurch Star: How many Christchurch voters gave their tick to the controversial Advance New Zealand party?

Act Party
Brooke van Velden (Stuff): Inside ACT’s election campaign, through the eyes of its deputy leader
Victoria Young (BusinessDesk): My Net Worth: David Seymour, MP
Dan Satherley (Newshub): ACT’s new MPs in their own words

Māori Party
Matt McCarten (E-Tangata): Don’t take the Māori vote for granted
Joel Maxwell (Stuff): ‘Always be number one’: Māori Party MP Rawiri Waititi on Moses, winning and being Māori

New Zealand First
Claire Trevett (Herald): Shane Jones Interview: Jones on the future of NZ First and lessons of losing (paywalled)
Mike O’Donnell (Stuff): Here’s what Winston Peters can teach the next Government

Election campaign and results
Andrea Vance (Stuff): The strategic error that cost Winston Peters – and boosted a determined, wily David Seymour
Luke Malpass (Stuff): In defence of the polls
Andrew Gunn (Stuff): Election 2020 – Where Are They Now?
Jihee Junn (Spinoff): NZ’s election, online: What did each party spend – and how effective was it?
Newstalk ZB: How well did minor parties actually do?
Peter Wilson (RNZ): Tactical voting could have helped Labour’s landslide win
Rob Mitchell (Stuff): Baby steps but young candidates keen to make big strides
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Election 2020 Autopsy
Newstalk ZB: Post-election- let’s look to the future

Parliament
David Farrar: How does Parliament compare to the adult population
Torika Tokalau (Stuff): Expectations high after record number of Pasifika MPs elected into Parliament
Brian Easton (Pundit): The Ideal and the reality for a new MP
Emmaline Pickering-Martin (E-Tangata): No time to be humble
Claire Trevett (Herald): Wrap the week: Chris Hipkins edge over the PM, Shane Jones’ plea for clemency

Misinformation and media
Bruce Munro (DOT): Twisting untruths
Colin Peacock (RNZ): Should we fear fake news in our politics?
Hayden Donnell (RNZ): A new twist on fake news
Liam Hehir (Pundit): Everyone I Don’t Like Is Hitler, Or, How I Got Banned By Facebook

Covid
Gordon Campbell: On why herd immunity isn’t a valid option, and what’s with our reluctance to wear masks?
Emile Donovan (Newsroom): A Covid vaccine will be no silver bullet
Nick Eichler and Siddhartha Mehta (Spinoff): How to Covid-proof a country
Amelia Wade (Herald): Cluster clampdown proves system working – but don’t get smug, warns epidemiologist
James Dann (Spinoff): When it all stopped: measuring the impacts of the great lockdown experiment
Dick Brass (Herald): How us Americans have already flunked the biggest stress test of our lives (paywalled)
Liz Gordon (Daily Blog): Passion, caution and the Covid

Economy and work
Martin Van Beynen (Stuff): We rely too much on the foreign poor
Bonnie Flaws (Stuff): Salaries can be high, with lots of time off – so why can’t fishing boats hire Kiwis?
Liam Dann (Herald): Classic hits of the NZ economy are back – why is no one dancing? (paywalled)
Tony Alexander (Stuff): Here’s why things are looking up for the New Zealand economy
Lana Hart (Stuff): Govt needs to target our soaring cost of living
Tina Morrison (Stuff): Inflation unexpectedly slows; economists expect more stimulus to come

Wage subsidy and loans
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): More than 100,000 existing business borrowers set to benefit from Small Business Cashflow Scheme extension
Michael Andrew (Spinoff): The tale of Ian Swney: The spray-can-wielding wage subsidy avenger
Amanda Cropp (Stuff): Third AJ Hackett-linked company turns down cash grant
John Anthony (Stuff): Sole trader who was declined wage subsidy ‘frustrated as hell’ to see corporates holding onto millions
John Anthony (Stuff): Mitsubishi repaying $456k Covid-19 wage subsidy, hopes others will do the same

Housing
Damien Grant (Stuff): Reserve Bank’s role in the overheated housing market
Catherine Harris (Stuff): Housing heroes: how rich benefactors are not waiting for a housing solution
Jonny Edwards (Stuff): Christchurch first-home buyers face ‘massive interest’ and rising prices
David Farrar: Kiwibuild update

Dental care
Newstalk ZB: Dental Association wants free dental care given to young adults on benefits
Cleo Fraser (Newshub): One person is admitted to intensive care every fortnight in Northland due to poor dental health
Cleo Fraser (Newshub): Pop-up dental clinic set up to help Kaikohe residents ‘pulling their own teeth out’ leaves with 1300 locals on waiting list

Local government
Joel MacManus (Stuff): Kāpiti Council to vote on plan to return airport land to tangata whenua
ODT: Editorial – Vandervis his own worst enemy
Alice Angeloni (Giborne Herald): Gisborne District Council lifts block on prolific writer of emails
Alice Angeloni (Gisborne Herald): Hurt versus history: Critics, fans debate future of Endeavour models
Melissa Nightingale (Herald): Hutt City councillor Chris Milne refuses to apologise for code of conduct breach, cites legal advice

Education
Lee Kenny (Stuff): Classroom violence the biggest education issue, principals say
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): Why do we keep messing with our schools?
Tahir Nawaz (Newsroom): A case for teaching Islam in schools

Public holidays
Newstalk ZB: Should we let people choose their own public holidays?
RNZ: Hindu community group calls for Diwali to be made a public holiday in New Zealand

Other
Kevin Hague (Herald): Governing for all NZ, nature included (paywalled)
Martin Van Beynen (Stuff): Professor’s paper on Chinese influence ‘inflammatory, unprofessional’
Joel MacManus (Stuff): How Abe Gray became New Zealand’s ‘Gandalf of Weed’
Simon Draper (Stuff): Asia the key playmaker in New Zealand’s economic future post-Covid
Lofa Totua (Spinoff): What makes an activist?
Catherine Delahunty (E-Tangata): Who should tell our history?
Brannavan Gnanalingam (Stuff): Hey white people, look around