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

Housing
Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): Housing: Jacinda Ardern’s Achilles heel?
Alice Wilkins (Newshub): Tax reform needed to solve New Zealand’s housing crisis – economist
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Housing crisis: Green Party urge prime minister to reverse ruling out taxing property wealth
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Housing crisis: Judith Collins reluctant to push for change to Reserve Bank’s mandate
RNZ: No controls on how trading banks use funding ‘recipe for disaster’ – Collins
TVNZ: Judith Collins wants brakes on lending that’s ‘continuously pushing up house prices’
Louis Houlbrooke (Herald): How the Govt is fuelling the housing market fire (paywalled)
Mike Hosking (Herald): Who’s afraid of the housing market? (paywalled)
Mike Hosking (NewstalkZB): Is there really angst in the housing market?
Mikaela Wilkes (Stuff): Dear Jacinda, we need to talk about housing
RNZ: First home buyers hit record high in market share – CoreLogic report
Isaac Davison (Herald): Houses for 300 low income tenants opened today in New Lynn

Covid
Barbara Allen and Michael Macauley (The Conversation): The hard, ethical choices New Zealand will have to make when a COVID-19 vaccine arrives
Justin Giovannetti (Spinoff): New Zealanders could be asked to pay for a Covid-19 vaccine
Bridie Witton (Stuff): Government agrees to buy 5 million Covid-19 vaccines for 2021 and 2022, once it passes testing
Simon Collins (Herald): Covid 19 coronavirus: NZ buys second vaccine, mandatory mask order from today
RNZ: Covid-19: Government agrees in principle to buy Janssen Pharmaceutica vaccines
Stuff: Tougher border testing rules to strengthen Covid-19 barriers after recent community cases
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): National staffer came to Parliament after working at border hotel, before officials gave the all-clear
TVNZ: US paid for ambassador to fly on private jet so he could avoid NZ’s managed isolation
ODT: Editorial – Masks: better late than never
Ripu Bhatia (Stuff): Auckland police to patrol transport hubs as mandatory mask order comes into effect

Environment
Emile Donovan (Newsroom): A coastal property dilemma where everyone pays
Andrew Bashford and Joanna Silver (Herald): Climate change and infrastructure
Katy Jones and Cherie Sivignon (Stuff): Maps forecast large areas of Nelson underwater from sea-level rise
Tracy Neal (RNZ): More than 4000 Nelson City properties included in new sea level rise hazard index
Jonathan Milne (Newsroom): Don’t miss the bus: Govt to roll out new low-emission vehicles funding
Meriana Johnsen (RNZ): Seabed mining appeal: Crown accused of ignoring Māori rights to foreshore and seabed
Kate Green (Stuff): Environmentalists rally to ban bottom trawling in our oceans, with 50,000 signature petition
Aimee Shaw (Herald): Steinlager goes carbon neutral – cutting 10% of NZ’s beer market emissions (paywalled)

Labour Government
Branko Marcetic (Democracy Project): If Labour rests on its Covid-defeating laurels then its headed for a big fall
Dylan Asafo (Newsroom): The cruel violence of ‘kindness’ and ‘unity’
Chris Trotter (Daily Blog): The Hollow Persons (With Apologies To T.S. Eliot.)
John Braddock (World Socialist Web Site): New Zealand government rejects calls to increase welfare payments
Against The Current: How do you like it so far?

Election and Parliament
Simon Chapple (Newsroom): How to drop big money from NZ politics
Business Desk (paywalled): House leader Chris Hipkins defends Parliament’s sitting programme
Zane Hall (Newshub): House Leader Chris Hipkins hits back as Judith Collins criticises Government’s ‘lazy’ Parliament schedule

Economy and work
Richard Harman: Covid recovery cannot return to the status quo
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Regional economies bounce back from Covid as Kiwis open their wallets
Damien Venuto (Herald): Supermarket prices: Commerce Commission probe did nothing for petrol prices, supermarkets won’t be squirming either (paywalled)
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): Supermarket study to drum up trouble where there isn’t any
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Judith Collins says tackling unemployment shouldn’t be Reserve Bank’s job
Zane Small (Newshub): Jacinda Ardern reflects on ‘awakening’ teen work experience that entrenched her support for ‘vulnerable workers’
Daniel Dunkley (Stuff): To call in sick or soldier on? A dangerous decision to make in the Covid era
Todd Niall (Stuff): Prosperity gap in Auckland has changed little – south and west lag
Nicholas Pointon (RNZ): Foreign investment fell by 70 percent in first 6 months of 2020
Zane Small (Newshub): Jacinda Ardern throws doubt on Australia’s bid to pinch Kiwi seasonal workers with $2000 incentive
TVNZ: Jacinda Ardern makes ‘plea to Kiwis’ to take up horticulture jobs at home
Esther Taunton (Stuff): Australian Govt offers Kiwi seasonal workers $2000 bonus to pick fruit
Hamish McNeilly (Stuff): Massive construction boom across Otago facing labour shortage
Martin Van Beynen (Stuff): Plenty of overseas visitors still arriving in New Zealand
Kate MacNamara (Herald): Jacinda Ardern ‘convinced’ tech sector can turn TIN into economic gold (paywalled)
Brent Edwards (NBR): Government promises action on infrastructure deficit (paywalled)
Brent Melville (Business Desk): NZ needs an outcomes-based infrastructure plan (paywalled)
Brent Edwards (NBR): Worries about what a hard Brexit will mean for New Zealand (paywalled)
David Chaston (Interest): We don’t like them but we tolerate trading with them
Hamish McNicol (NBR): Foreign investors still eye NZ opportunities, says Simpson Grierson (paywalled)
Liam Dann (Herald): Reserve Bank seeks internal review after accidental disclosure
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Reserve Bank admits breaking own embargo on Funding for Lending scheme
Michael Reddell: Funding for lending and other myths
The Standard: C’mon Grant

Tourism
Stuff: Editorial – Should New Zealand become a playground of the super-rich?
Alex Braae (Spinoff): In defence of backpackers
TVNZ: Stuart Nash, who wants to ban campervans without toilets, says he’s never been caught short on the road
Herald/Otago Daily Times: Govt’s focus on wealthy travellers welcomed by Queenstown’s mayor

Local government
Matt Nippert (Herald): Council hedging losses hit $2.7b, years of pain forecast (paywalled)
Jonathan Mitchell (RNZ): Wellington residents balk at idea of double-digit rates growth
RNZ: Capital’s mayor plays down prospect of large rates increase
Charlotte Jones (RNZ): Ōpōtiki votes to poll ratepayers on Māori wards
Tom Kitchin (RNZ): Emotions run high as Hawke’s Bay Regional Council debates Māori wards

Media
Tim Murphy (Newsroom): Reports of death of NZ media greatly exaggerated
Dita De Boni (NBR): NZME makes unabashed pitch for advertisers to exploit all its platforms (paywalled)
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Hilary Barry named TV Personality of the Year, Gower wins award for cannabis documentary

Animal welfare
Marcelo Rodriguez Ferrere (Spinoff): Farrowing crates for pigs being ruled unlawful is a victory for all animals
Sally Rae (ODT): Farrow crate use ‘saves piglet lives’
Bonnie Flaws (Stuff): Shearer shortage could lead to serious animal welfare issues as summer kicks in, farmers say

Other
Nicky Hager (Spinoff): Australia’s inquiry into its special forces shows up NZ’s pathetic efforts
Amal Samaha (Spinoff): How ‘blood phosphate’ has made New Zealand complicit in a foreign war
Josephine Franks (Stuff): Hunger means school kids suffering headaches, stomach cramps, nurse says
Tumamao Harawira (Te Ao Māori News): Tikanga for sale?
Ian Powell: The extreme consequence of overworking medical specialists
Rowan Quinn (RNZ): Auckland DHB indicates potential change for city’s child dental care system
RNZ: Prosecution of Māori for cannabis offences falling – Police Commissioner
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): 9000 crimes from Australian 501s – don’t tell me you are surprised NZ?
Josephine Franks (Stuff): Teacher aides say they finally feel recognised after pay boost
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Covid-19 forced universities to move online, which is good – but we can’t digitise human connection
Liam Hehir (Kiwiblog): Hehir responds to Garrett
Jono Galuszka (Stuff): Manawatū Gorge replacement highway gets the final go-ahead
Jason Walls (Herald): Government spends $30k on social media influencers to woo young people into trades
Stuff: The Warehouse has dropped Pete Evans, will other NZ retailers follow suit?
Herald: Bookshops cull Pete Evans cookery books over neo-Nazi symbol
Tracy Neal (RNZ): NZ records lowest-ever fertility rate
David Williams (Newsroom): Crown’s top lawyer fronts abuse commission
Kerry Harvey (Stuff): Clarke Gayford drops a hint about his wedding to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern