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
US politics and NZ
Chris Keall (Herald): NZ Privacy Commissioner critical of Facebook and Twitter’s decision to ban Trump
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): NZ privacy commissioner says social media bans on Trump ‘arbitrary and cynical’
RNZ: PM should not ‘tiptoe’ around Trump’s culpability – professor
Fran O’Sullivan (Herald): US riots: NZ Trump aide Chris Liddell staying on to ‘lead successful transition’
Jonathan Milne (Newsroom): Liddell stays to manage presidential transition: ‘I was horrified by the events yesterday’
Herald: Facebook cracking down on local hate pages
Covid, vaccine, and border
Brittney Deguara (Stuff): Covid-19: Where New Zealand’s imported cases have originated from
Matthew Theunissen (RNZ): Covid-19: Lockdown expected if UK or South African variant found in community – Shaun Hendy
Justin Giovannetti (Spinoff): New Zealand tightens border as Covid-19 wildfires burn out of control in 2021
Michael Neilson (Herald): Covid 19 coronavirus: Spike in borders cases, Brisbane lockdown shows need for ‘extra vigilance’ – expert
Stuff: Covid-19: UK variant raises risk of community transmission – Baker
Derek Cheng (Herald): How often bubbles have been breached in MIQ (and how many people have been penalised)
Debrin Foxcroft (Stuff): ‘It shouldn’t be this hard to come home’: Kiwi stuck in UK criticises MIQ booking system
Ian Powell: Covid-19: Elimination vs Mitigation – Learning from Asia and Europe
ODT: Clear direction crucial in tough times
Helen Petousis-Harris (Stuff): When will life return to normal? A vaccinologist looks into her crystal ball
Carmen Parahi (Stuff): Our kotahitanga Covid-19 response set us apart from the rest of the world
Jason Walls (Herald): Covid 19 coronavirus: Auckland, Canterbury DHBs received stark financial warning from Health Minister (paywalled)
Stuff: ‘Bathing in mould’: Mother hits out at state of room in managed isolation hotel in Auckland
Parliament and Government
Spinoff: NZ politics in 2021: The big issues on which the year will hinge
Pattrick Smellie (Business Desk): Next six months are make or break for Labour (paywalled)
Alex Mason (Herald): Meet the minister: Kiritapu Allan – from rural life to conservation (paywalled)
Economy and work
Rob Stock (Stuff): 2020 meant working more, earning less, lower standard of living, CTU says
Damien Grant (Stuff): We could be staring down the barrel of decades of stagnation
Kirsty Wynn (Herald): The top jobs to emerge from the pandemic (paywalled)
Jo Lines-MacKenzie (Stuff): Work and Income pays out millions in whiteware costs to Kiwis in need
Jonathan Milne (Newsroom): Auckland’s ‘unforeseeable’ sprawl ends protective covenants on rural land
Rob Stock (Stuff): How our Covid year revealed how risky consumer debt really is
Andy Fyers (Business Desk): Covid’s impact on working life – less than you might think? (paywalled)
Emile Donovan (RNZ): Covid-19: Franz Josef businesses in limbo
Reserve Bank cyber breach
RNZ: Reserve Bank likely hacked by another government – expert
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Reserve Bank urgently responding to ‘illegal breach of data system’
Herald: Reserve Bank data breach: Sensitive information illegally accessed
Housing
Brent Melville (BusinessDesk): Happy New Year! Here’s your eviction notice
Anne Gibson (Herald): Biggest tenancy law reform in 35 years: ‘I’ll keep my places empty’ (paywalled)
Stuff: K Rd Chronicles, episode 1: The Covid-19 pandemic
Amy Ridout (Stuff): They may be off the streets, but Nelson’s homeless community is growing
RNZ: ‘She needs to stand up’: calls for mayor’s action on homelessness, safety
Liz McDonald (Stuff): Christchurch holiday sites sold as developer plans new housing
Climate change, environment and conservation
Oliver Hunt (Stuff): Healthcare rethink required for carbon neutral 2025 goal
Gavin Evans (Business Desk): Genesis, major users to drive 2021 renewables growth (paywalled)
Jack Santa Barbara (Newsroom): How extreme materialism is killing the climate
Lee Kenny (Stuff): Record numbers of electric cars took to the road this summer, but how did they cope with the great Kiwi road trip?
Emma Dangerfield (Stuff): What happened to recycling in New Zealand?
RNZ: Funding on way for 19 projects to enhance waterways
Olivia Wannan (Stuff): What will our beaches, lakes and rivers look like in 2050?
Local government
Georgina Campbell (Herald): Analysis: Councils put the heat on Wellington’s congestion question
Joanne Naish (Stuff): The mana of Ngāti Waewae: Gaining representation for Māori
Michael Neilson (Herald): Why Auckland’s beaches are unswimmable every time it rains, and what’s being done to turn it around (paywalled)
RNZ: Auckland water bills may need to double to plug fiscal hole
Michael Neilson (Herald): Auckland mayor Phil Goff says Watercare decision to double water bills in a decade too drastic from some families
Charlie O’Mannin (Stuff): Mackenzie councillors divided over a new Tekapo ward for next election
Georgina Campbell (Herald): Engineers withdraw from building consent work in Wellington
Police, prisons, and law and order
Cheree Kinnear (Herald): Police halt training despite rise in gun crime, recruits left in ‘limbo’
RNZ: Police postpone intake of new recruits
Tom O’Connor (Stuff): Time to outlaw gangs following prison riots and shootings
Morgan Godfery (Guardian): The Waikeria protests show that the problem isn’t bad prisons – it’s that we have them at all
Chris Trotter: On Prisons
Charles Anderson (Guardian): ‘Forms of structural violence’: Waikeria highlights injustice of New Zealand’s prisons
Sophie Cornish (Stuff): Charity working at prison forced to make security changes after contraband bust
Health
Louisa Steyl (Stuff): Southland Hospital pressure doubles in three months
Louisa Steyl (Stuff): The fallout of a GP shortage: the sicker you are, the more you pay
Amy Wiggins (Herald): Foreigners responsible for $68.5m of debt written off by New Zealand District Health Boards (paywalled)
Other
Martin Van Beynen (Stuff): Hate speech – better to have the poison hatch out in the open
John McCrone (Stuff): New Zealand challenged by Māori academics to decolonise its legal training
Fleur Mealing (Stuff): Why this Kiwi mum wants to shake up your kid’s sex education
Troels Sommerville (Stuff): Censor sensibility: The books you can’t read in New Zealand, and why
David Fisher (Herald): Kiwi diplomat was a Russian spy, says NZSIS, author and historian (paywalled)
Will Harvie (Stuff): Russia and NZ in ‘knock out brawl’ over fishing vessel in protected Antarctic waters
Cherie Howie (Herald): The many strange names of New Zealand: From Wet Jacket Arm to Hoon Hay, what’s with our oddball place names? (paywalled)
Sasha Borissenko (Herald): 2020’s winners and losers (paywalled)
Katie Harris (Herald): NZ surrogacy laws: Dad pens letter to Jacinda Ardern from isolation hotel after two-day US trip to deliver sperm (paywalled)
Tina Law (Stuff): Hotel name change sparks angry reaction from a small minority
Brittany Keogh (Stuff): Intellectually disabled teen kept in prison because he had nowhere else to go
Brittany Keogh (Stuff): ‘Asians can’t be vegan’: How Asian-Kiwis are smashing stereotypes
Anna Leask (Herald): Louise Nicholas’ daughter Jessica’s story of addiction, destruction and redemption (paywalled)
RNZ: Mosque attacks: Islamic Women’s Council welcome coroner’s information
