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

Parliament, government, and extremism
Chris Trotter (Interest): Trump’s surprisingly large army of New Zealand supporters
Jason Walls (Herald): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern won’t say if she’s backing Chris Liddell for OECD’s top job
Dave Armstrong (Stuff): Familiar titles with a new twist
Peter McKenzie (Spinoff): The progressive fault lines facing New Zealand in 2021 and beyond
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): How Labour will kill all our progressive hopes in 2021 and still win 2023
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Get ready for the Free Speech vs Hate Speech war of 2021
Matteo Di Maio (Newsroom): We know what you read this summer
Laura Walters (Newsroom): Online safety laws lagging by a decade

Covid
RNZ: Covid-19: New Zealanders have to wait their turn for vaccination – Chris Hipkins
Isabella Durant and Mark Quinlivan (Newshub): Other countries need coronavirus vaccine more urgently than New Zealand – expert
Keith Woodford (Interest): The winding path of Covid-19
Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): Why the 2021 covid challenge rivals 2020 (paywalled)
Ian Powell: Weaknesses in pandemic planning behind $37 million PPE debacle
Bill Ralston (Herald): 2021 is not the year of salvation (paywalled)
Zane Small (Newshub): Professor Michael Baker hails Covid-19 elimination strategy as UK looks to mimic New Zealand’s quarantine system almost a year on
Chris Keall (Herald): Covid 19 coronavirus tracking: We’re poster slackers but taking to Bluetooth (paywalled)
Gill Bonnett (RNZ): Promoter claims border approvals a ‘game of favourites’
Eric Crampton: Aristocracy of Pull continues
1News: Drop in Covid-19 QR code scans prompts warning from DHB
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Time to get serious about migrants stuck at the border
Hannah Martin (Stuff): Stop! Scanner time: Why use Covid-19 app at work or gym if I have a swipe card?

Economy, inequality and work
Louise Ternouth (RNZ): Foodbank still grappling with demand resulting from Covid-19 impact
Tina Morrison (Stuff): Michael Hill should pay back wage subsidy, financial education specialist says
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): ‘It’s a very profitable smelter now’, Meridian boss says after price beat-down
Gavin Evans (Business Desk): Smelter extension beyond 2024 unlikely – Meridian (paywalled)
Nicholas Pointon (RNZ): Covid-19 contributes to shortage of plumbing, electrical and glass supplies
David Hargreaves (Interest): Risks of deflation are now receding
Esther Taunton (Stuff): Why getting your five-plus a day cost more in 2020
RNZ: Survey reveals negative impact of Covid-19 on working life
Rob Mitchell (Stuff): Covid helping NZ crack billion-dollar gaming market
Cameron Bagrie (BusinessDesk) The economy needs support (paywalled)
Nikki Mandow (Newsroom): TINA says There Is No Alternative to equities – but TINA is wrong

Housing
Matt Burrows (Newshub): The New Zealand town where house asking prices have skyrocketed 132 percent in just 10 years
Edward Yiu (The Big Q): Why do housing prices soar despite a Covid recession?
RNZ: Housing build proposed for Dunedin
Grant Miller (ODT): Rule changes could lead to 2500 new homes for Dunedin
Rachel Sadler (Newshub): Property management company criticised for discouraging landlords from renting to tenants with intellectual disabilities
Anne Gibson (Herald): Know your rights: What landlords must read before biggest tenancy change in 35 years (paywalled)
Daria Kuprienko (One Roof): ‘Tenants will have a lot of power, more than what investors are used to’

Climate change
Pattrick Smellie (Spinoff): Five ways NZ can meet 2021’s big Covid challenges (and there’s going to be a lot)
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Why we can’t plant our way out of climate change
Amber-Leigh Woolf (RNZ): Climate change strikers back for more in 2021
John Milnes (Herald): Conservation Comment: Can the team of 5 million beat climate change?

Health
Bruce Munro (Herald): Disgraceful waiting list for elective surgeries at public hospitals
Bridie Witton (Stuff): Hundreds of pensioners with breast cancer overlooked for routine breast screening — Breast Cancer Foundation
Luke Kirkness (Herald): Drinking culture in New Zealand putting ‘lives at risk’, worse than in Australia
Daisy Hudson (ODT): O Week drug testing likely

Law and order
Melissa Nightingale (Herald): Jared Savage’s book Gangland banned from prisons by Corrections
RNZ: Prison’s book confiscation breached Bill of Rights Act, Arthur Taylor argues
RNZ: Police apologise for mistaken arrest by armed officers

Education
John Gerritsen (RNZ): Schools will feel impact of 2020 lockdowns in 2021, Education Review Office warns
Simon Collins (Herald): Only a third of senior high-school students enjoyed learning in Covid year – study (paywalled)
1News: Effects of Covid-19 on students’ learning in NZ will continue into 2021, report warns

Other
Michael Bassett: New Zealand’s modern cultural cringe
Scott Palmer (Newshub): Puhoi Pub renames its ‘racist’ bullock horns, calls backlash ‘desperately stupid’
Marcus Anselm (RNZ): Water becomes a commodity
Jean Bell (RNZ): Opinions on Tauranga City Council governance still divided
Gavin Ellis: Change must be highly contagious
Todd Niall (Stuff): Auckland public transport fares to rise 4 per cent but off-peak travel cheaper
Kirsty Johnston (Stuff): Women are the primary victims of human trafficking. New Zealand’s plan to stop slavery forgot them
Simon Draper (Stuff): Biden’s America will call on New Zealand for Asia Pacific support
RNZ: Nathan Rarere named as new host of First Up
Martyn Bradbury (Waatea News): Ministry of Social Development debt fiasco an example of beneficiary powerlessness
Herald: Just what the doctor ordered’: Clarke Gayford’s sweet photo of holiday with Jacinda Ardern and Neve