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
Bryce Edwards (Guardian): New Zealand once led the world on social housing – it should again
Bernard Hickey (Stuff): Here’s why you shouldn’t believe what you’re told about the housing market
Rob Stock (Stuff): Which prime ministers oversaw the biggest house price increases?
Luke Malpass (Stuff): Why this Government must finally grasp the nettle on housing
Miriam Bell (Stuff): House price expectations hit record high
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Herald): Housing the real test for Labour this term (paywalled)
Tracy Watkins (Stuff): Like the villain in a cheap horror movie, the housing crisis refuses to die
Steven Joyce (Herald): Focus on growth, not the property bubble (paywalled)
Greg Ninness (Interest): House price expectation at a 24 year high – ASB Housing Confidence Survey
Jonathan Milne (Newsroom): Govt’s ‘courage’ in asking for housing help
Ben Leahy (Herald): New Zealand already has a capital gains tax – you probably just didn’t know it
Miriam Bell (Stuff): Housing market strength not sustainable – ANZ
Liam Dann (Herald): The real house price problem is us (paywalled)
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): The politics of money return after 30 years in the wilderness
Peter Wilson (RNZ): The Week in Politics: Govt gets serious about housing crisis
Catherine Masters (One Roof): Who’s the housing market’s biggest bogeyman right now?
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Housing crisis ‘is not real’, investment expert claims
Rod Oram (Newsroom): A market awash with money
Shamubeel Eaqub (Business Desk): The Reserve Bank’s shrinking chance to save itself (paywalled)
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Housing: Bright-line tax on property actually an income tax – Labour MP David Parker
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Newstalk ZB): Extending the brightline test would be unbelievably dishonest
David Chaston (Interest): Embedded imbalances
David Chaston (Interest): A tight market, captured by the majors
Clint Smith (Spinoff): One simple idea to fix New Zealand’s dysfunctional housing market
Andrew King (Stuff): Why I’m proud to be a property investor
Breanna Barraclough (1News): ‘Doesn’t have to be this way’ – Stretched rental market labelled a ‘disgrace’
Herald: Editorial: How you can help our hidden homeless
Michelle Duff (Stuff): ‘I don’t want my kids seeing me like this’: The homeless mothers trying to maintain their mana
Jason Walls (Herald): Government muddying waters around its no new taxes policy, National Party says
Herald: Wellington house sales: Lack of maintenance poses future risk when market slows
Newstalk ZB: ‘Common sense will prevail’: ANZ economist predicts housing market to cool next year
Oranga Tamariki
Tim Murphy (Newsroom): Court orders Newsroom to remove Oranga Tamariki video
Martin Van Beynen (Stuff): Oranga Tamariki – much maligned, deservedly or not?
Isaac Davison (Herald): Kelvin Davis and Oranga Tamariki: ‘There will be a handover of power to Māori’ (paywalled)
Virginia Fallon (Stuff): ‘Somebody’s lying’: Anatomy of an Oranga Tamariki uplift
ODT: Editorial – Time up for Oranga Tamariki boss?
Sam Sherwood and Joanne Naish (Stuff): Oranga Tamariki visited baby two weeks before he was murdered by father
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Understanding the friction between Kelvin Davis and Peeni Henare over Oranga Tamariki
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Smart move by Oranga Tamariki to censor Newsroom story on latest appalling uplift
Vita Molyneux (Newshub): Oranga Tamariki ‘will not get it right’ until power sits with Māori – Assistant Māori Children’s Commissioner Glenis Philip-Barbara
Whatitiri Te Wake (Te Ao Māori): ‘Army of nannies’ to set Oranga Tamariki right
Climate change
Olivia Wannan (Stuff): NZ faces exclusion from UN event of carbon-cutting nations
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): NZ may be excluded from climate leaders summit
Simon Wilson (Herald): Half empty or half full? How we’re responding to the climate crisis (paywalled)
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): The Empty Gesture of the Climate Emergency declaration
Nile Bijoux (Stuff): Government urged to introduce feebate scheme for EVs
Todd Niall (Stuff): Electric Ferries: Operator pushes case as response to climate emergency
Parliament
RNZ: How the 53rd Parliament was opened
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): First Day of 53rd Parliament 2020 – Winners & Losers
Steve Braunias (Herald): The secret diary of Sir John Key (paywalled)
Victor Billot (Newsroom): A poem for .. Peter Goodfellow
ODT: Four-year parliamentary term
Tara Shaskey (Stuff): Newly elected Labour MP plans to marry at Parliament the day before his maiden speech
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Simon Bridges passionately defends ties in Parliament, likes not having to think about what to wear
Liz Gordon (Daily Blog): Reform Parliament now!
Herald: Parliament dress code review: Wellington fashion icon on ties and workplace attire
Curwen Ares Rolinson (Daily Blog): In riposte to a journalist’s outrage at sanskrit being uttered in our nation’s Parliament
Māori Party
Deena Coster (Stuff): ‘Be provocative, but always respectful’: Debbie Ngarewa-Packer’s journey from Pātea to Parliament
Audrey Young (Herald): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has the Māori Party to contend with (paywalled)
Rukuwai Tipene-Allen (Te Ao Māori): Speaker of the House and the Māori Party go head to head
Jo Moir (RNZ): Speaker of the House and Māori Party accuse each other of grandstanding after walk-out
David Farrar: Standing orders apply, even to the Maori Party
Newstalk ZB: ‘Pakeha system will have to figure out a way of coping’: Former MP on the Māori Party’s return
Government
Thomas Manch (Stuff): National portrait: Nanaia Mahuta, the foreign minister no-one saw coming
Caitlin Ellis (Newshub): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern nominated for Time’s Person of the Year
Herald: New Zealand’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta brings new outlook to role
Brian Easton (Pundit): Transformation Or Progress?
Zane Small (Newshub): ‘A leader called Jacinda’: Indian artists pay tribute to Jacinda Ardern in song on her ‘war against virus’
Royal Commission into terrorist attack on Christchurch mosques
Patrick Gower (Newshub): Christchurch mosque attack: Police admin failure allowed terrorist to get gun licence – report
David Williams (Newsroom): Painful and painstaking: piecing together a terror attack
Karoline Tuckey (RNZ): Christchurch terror attack report: ‘People need to be accountable’
Mike Hosking (Herald): Why we need to see the Royal Commission report into the mosque shootings
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Royal Commission stamps 30-year suppression on evidence given by Cabinet ministers and chief executives on March 15 terror attack
Kethaki Masilamani (Newshub): Thirty-year-long suppressions imposed on Christchurch terror attack evidence
Jody O’Callaghan (Stuff): Payout to March 15 terror attack victims the ‘right thing to do’
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Christchurch atrocity inquiry starting to reek of a white wash
Immigrant workers
Dan Satherley and Ella Prendergast (Newshub): Unions question why local fruit-pickers haven’t been offered living wage, like foreigners
Tom Kitchin (RNZ): Fruit-picking worries remain as growers lament dearth of Kiwi labour
Liam Dann (Herald): Government should restrict migrant workers to boost productivity – NZIER study (paywalled)
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Wait – what? Migrant workers paid living wage but domestic workers NOT paid a living wage?
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): If Govt wants to fix the skills shortage, they need to let people in
No Right Turn: Labour sells out kiwis
Esther Taunton (Stuff): Govt offers Kiwis $1000 bonus to take up horticulture work amid labour shortage
Economy and work
Andre Chumko (Stuff): New Zealand’s cleaners, in their own words
Dileepa Fonseka (Stuff): New Zealand’s ‘value for money’ handbrake
Damian Light (Herald): Auckland has been digging a financial hole for a decade (paywalled)
Alison Brook (Interest): Are we reaching peak debt?
Rob Stock (Stuff): NZ’s most dangerous debt could be for our cars, advisory group says
RNZ: Covid break gives us a chance for a tourism reset
Zac Fleming (Newshub): Finance Minister Grant Robertson was warned removing wage subsidy cap risked ‘waste, fraud’
Economics New Zealand: It can work after all
Tim Grafton (Stuff): Insurance Council chief defends new natural disaster model
Terry Baucher (Interest): The Week in Tax: Using CB14 “innovatively”
Jude Murdoch and Steven Hail (Interest): What is modern monetary theory?
Covid
TVNZ: Leading epidemiologist calling for overhaul of MIQ process amid repeated system failures
1News: Is it time for New Zealand to get the Covid card after testing finds it’s easy to use?
Emma Cropper (Newshub): Coronavirus: Australia pushing for two-way trans-Tasman bubble with New Zealand before Christmas
Stuff: Isolation breaches just not cricket
D’Arcy Waldegrave (Herald): ‘Astonishingly arrogant’ – time to make an example of Pakistani cricketers (paywalled)
Heather Du Plessis-Allan (Newstalk ZB): Ministry of Health is overreacting to Pakistani isolation breach
Local government
Logan Savory (Stuff): The findings, the fallout, the future – how a damning Invercargill City Council review played out
Stephen Forbes (RNZ): Will Auckland have Māori seats in 2025?
Susan Botting (Herald): Māori wards campaigner Andrew Judd: Systemic racism at heart of debate
David Farrar: An e-mail sent to Regional Councillors
Jono Galuszka (Stuff): Rangitīkei District Council in trouble again for breaching environmental rules
Guled Mire (Stuff): Wellington’s potential will stay unlocked if it doesn’t include diverse immigrant voices
International relations and trade
Audrey Young (Herald): Questions over Five Eyes being used as public tool of diplomacy (paywalled)
Geoffrey Miller (Democracy Project): New Zealand’s surprising relationship with the Middle East
Nevil Gibson (NBR): World role beckons but government doesn’t care (paywalled)
Health
Bridie Witton (Stuff): Major health service shakeup fast-tracked, will take two years — new health minister Andrew Little
RNZ: New Health Minister Andrew Little promises to fast-track reforms of the health sector
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Health Minister Andrew Little promises Māori Health Agency, fewer DHBs before next election
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Andrew Little watching St John ‘very closely’, but holding off nationalising it for now
Ian Powell: Foot and mouth by health unions not smart
Troels Sommerville (Stuff): ‘Bicultural approach needed’ to address foetal alcohol spectrum disorder in Māori
Dianna Vezich (Newshub): Endometriosis labelled ‘health crisis’ in New Zealand with hospitals declining GP referrals
Media
Mark Stevens (Stuff): Our Truth, Tā Mātou Pono: Stuff’s day of reckoning
Stuff: Stuff’s charter; a brave new era for NZ’s largest media company
Jody O’Callaghan (Stuff): Our Truth, Tā Mātou Pono: The Press’ bias has failed Māori
RNZ: Stuff apologises for its coverage of Māori issues
Colin Peacock (RNZ): News as a social enterprise?
Simon Louisson (The Standard): Media crisis may be most problematic
Education
Katy Jones (Stuff): Teacher aides celebrate pay equity, and wish same for others
Josephine Franks (Stuff): Marked Absent: Counting the cost of Covid-19 on school attendance
RNZ: Polytechs bulging as record numbers sign up for apprenticeships
Other
Damian Rowe (Stuff): National food network delivers to Christmas food parcels to New Zealand’s most isolated communities
RNZ: Lifting the lid on the rise and rise of organised crime in NZ
Simon Collins (Herald): Another cannabis referendum? Vote proposed on decriminalisation
No Right Turn: The secret advice on Labour’s RMA “fast-track”
Wayne Brown (Stuff): Is it still possible to have a grown-up conversation about the RMA?
RNZ: Global crisis not required to have safer, quieter streets – study
Felix Desmarais (RNZ): Transport Minister commits to bilingual signs by the end of term: ‘It’s a priority’
Felix Desmarais (Herald): NZ to have bilingual traffic signs by 2023, Transport Minister says
Hamish Rutherford (Herald): America’s Cup whistleblowers feared for their safety: ‘We’re no traitors’ (paywalled)
Hamish Rutherford (Herald): America’s Cup whistleblowers Tom Mayo and Grant Calder say they feared for their safety after Grant Dalton branded them ‘spies’ (paywalled)
Danielle Clent (Stuff): Mass chicken deaths: ‘No excuse’ for investigation taking so long – welfare group
Jamie Morton (Herald): New analysis reveals New Zealand’s 150-year climate transformation
Deena Coster (Stuff): The continuing cost of the $486k betrayal of a Taranaki hapū by one of its own
Jared Savage (Herald): Gangland: Herald reporter Jared Savage’s new book on the evolution of organised crime (paywalled)
Khylee Quince (Stuff): A trip down the rabbit hole of New Zealand settler history
Talei Anderson (RNZ): Is Basketball NZ doing enough for Māori and Pasifika?
Alex Stone (Pundit): Always More Fish In The Sea? Maybe Not
Kirsty Lawrence (Stuff): What police don’t want you to know about new unmarked highway patrol vehicles
