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

Greens and coalition negotiations
John Armstrong (1News): Don’t mistake Ardern’s talks with Green Party for kindness
David Williams (Newsroom): A tale of two Green ministers
Richard Harman (Politik): Greens’ high stakes game carries a big risk
Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): Labour and the Greens: an inevitable embrace (paywalled)
Phil Taylor (Guardian): Jacinda Ardern holds all the cards but should still keep the Greens sweet
RNZ: Green Party should avoid Cabinet positions and remain an independent, critical voice – former MP
Anna Bracewell-Worrall (Newshub): Snapped: What do Green co-leader Marama Davidson’s notes tell us about progress with Labour?
Jason Walls (Herald): Greens and Labour confident a Govt-forming deal can be reached by Friday
RNZ: Labour and Greens meeting: ‘There’s a lot to work through’
Zane Small (Newshub): Green Party will not re-negotiate post-election deal with Labour if members reject it
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Decision on Government to come on Friday, with Greens given one chance to agree on deal
Zane Small (Newshub): How ‘consensus builder’ Jacinda Ardern could work with Greens despite Labour majority: What we know so far
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): The latest from the Green-Labour negotiations
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Newstalk ZB: Chloe Swarbrick on farming, bringing urban agriculture to Auckland Central

Parliament
Justin Latif (Newsroom): Arrival of parliament’s new migrant MPs sparks rejoicing, and backlash
Alexia Russell (Newsroom): Crowded house – the newbie ACT MPs
David Farrar: Who will be the presiding officers?
Sela Jane Hopgood (RNZ): Meet the four new Pasifika MPs for the Labour Party

Labour Government
Richard Wagstaff (Newsroom): Pendulum swings back from the mean politics of the market
Rawiri Taonui (Waatea News): Labour, the Greens and Kaupapa Maori
Joshua Drummond (Public address): Rewarding competence
Steven Cowan: The ties that bind

National Party
RNZ: National Party post-election review to look at campaign and past three years in opposition
Brian Gaynor (BusinessDesk): The end of the National Party? (paywalled)
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Winning is ‘very difficult’ if there are ‘perceptions of disunity’ – Judith Collins
1News: Gruelling campaign, landslide election loss took a personal toll, Judith Collins admits

Economy
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Top economist asks: Should we raise the minimum wage in a recession?
Cameron Bagrie (BusinessDesk): The Reserve Bank should do less (paywalled)
Emma Hatton (RNZ): Working from home leaves ACC law unfit for purpose – lawyer
Tamsyn Parker (Herald): Strong housing and share market provides boost but investor confidence remains negative
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): Still plenty of unanswered economic questions
Stuart Smith and Priyanca Radhakrishnan (Stuff): The problematic balance of safety, risk and keeping costs down
Anne Gibson (Herald): ‘Buyers frantic, banks tough’ – new survey reveals what’s really going on with mortgages (paywalled)
Gavin Evans (BusinessDesk): Improved electricity futures pricing may come next year (paywalled)

Covid
Michael Neilson (Herald): Five days in a row with no community cases, but border questions remain
Herald: Editorial: Good news on latest community Covid cluster (paywalled)
Katarina Williams and Rob Mitchell (Stuff): Covid-19: Sir Ray Avery calls for inquiry into New Zealand’s response, criticises lack of strategy
John Anthony (Stuff): Government spends $20 million on Covid-19 advertising campaign delivered at ‘breakneck pace’
James Dann (Spinoff): How the lockdown changed our diets, affected our sleep, and left us lonely
The Press: Editorial – How much closer is a full-fledged bubble?
Calida Stuart-Menteath (NBR): Auckland Airport lobbies hard on travel bubble (paywalled)
Brent Melville (BusinessDesk): Wealthy migrant investors pushed to Australia (paywalled)
Katie Todd (RNZ): ‘Great for fans’: Musicians face managed isolation for chance to perform
John McDermott (NBR): Rising from the Covid depths (paywalled)
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): The Fishing Covid fiasco highlights all that is wrong with NZ Capitalism

Local government
Logan Savory (Stuff): Councillor criticises Sir Tim Shadbolt for attending election night function and declaring it as a mayoral duty
Bernard Orsman (Herald): Auckland Unlimited: The preferred name for Auckland Council’s new cultural, events and economic agency
Todd Niall (Stuff): Merged council agency named Auckland Unlimited
Tess Brunton (RNZ): Dunedin councillor told to apologise for intimidating behaviour
Hamish McNeilly (Stuff): Errant councillor asked to apologise after finger-wagging tirade against deputy mayor
Grant Miller (ODT): Councillors united against Vandervis

Oranga Tamariki
Laura Walters (Newsroom): ‘Walk away from it. Create something that beats like your own heart.’
Meriana Johnsen (RNZ): Taking Māori babies after birth ‘cruel and inhumane’ – Māori midwives head
Martyn Bradbury (Waatea News): Why diverting Oranga Tamariki funding to a Maori Authority isn’t good enough!

Health
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): The state can afford free dental care, so let’s get it done
Isaac Davison (Herald): Cot death prevention in New Zealand ‘stalled’ by long wait for investigations (paywalled)
1News: Experts look at young woman’s death as they consider restrictions on sale of paracetamol

Education
Phil Pennington (RNZ): ‘We just weren’t being listened to’ – ex-chair of Christchurch school board on earthquake concerns
Teuila Fuatai (Herald): Poor student attendance not a choice (paywalled)
Josephine Franks (Stuff): Government looking into allegations of financial mismanagement in charities linked to Auckland schools
John Gerritsen (RNZ): ‘Great Kiwi Summer’ campaign to extend manaakitanga to foreign students

Environment
Marty Sharpe (Stuff): More than half of Hawke’s Bay residents happy to pay more to tackle climate change
Amber Allott (Stuff): Top DOC staffer criticised for whitebaiting at river proposed for fishing closure
NZ Herald: Boom business: Aucklanders snap up water tanks as drought worsens (paywalled)

Other
Stewart Forsyth (Herald): The conspiracy pandemic and wannabe demagogues (paywalled)
Meng Foon (Spinoff): Me hoki whenua mai? Putting tāngata back on the whenua
Ted Zorn (Stuff): Incumbent advantage could not be more different for Jacinda Ardern and Donald Trump
Henry Cooke (Stuff): National backs Kiwi Trump staffer Chris Liddell for top OECD post, Green Party urges rejection
Bob Kerridge (Newsroom): The price of kindness
Lee Kenny (Stuff): Nazi flag removed from house opposite West Coast tourist attraction
D’Angelo Martin (Māori TV): ‘I had to lift my top up to reveal my gender’ – lesbian couple kicked out of bar
Victoria Young (BusinessDesk): Police over-reach claimed in health & safety asset-freeze (paywalled)