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
Covid
Harry Lock (RNZ): Covid community case: Infection at MIQ facility ‘most likely scenario’
Jamie Morton (Herald): Time to ‘turn down tap’ on travel from risky countries, experts say
Kate Green and Jackson Thomas (Stuff): Covid-19 response, experts say in wake of probable case
Audrey Young (Herald): Where is Jacinda Ardern’s collectivism when it is needed for Covid 19? (paywalled)
Herald: Editorial: More spreadable Covid 19 coronavirus strain puts focus on masks again (paywalled)
Herald: Covid-19 coronavirus: Northland community case – the locations woman visited
Eugene Bingham (Stuff): Timely test: Fears a ‘sluggish’ response will lead to another Covid-19 outbreak
Andrea Vance (Stuff): Delay in Covid vaccine rollout is top risk for Ardern’s Government
RNZ: Govt should look at closing border to UK arrivals – professor
Francesca Rudkin (Newstalk ZB): Is it time we slow the flow at the border?
Cecilia Robinson (Herald): We need to shut our border, now! (paywalled)
Cecile Meier (Stuff): Epidemiologists urge Government to follow Australia’s lead on stricter border measures
Herald: Covid 19 coronavirus: Northland community case a 56yo woman; ‘too early’ for call on response
1News: Michael Baker dubs latest Covid-19 case a ‘hero’, but says ‘it’s a huge wake up call for NZ
1News: Hipkins says ‘too early to speculate’ on alert level change, as Govt investigates Northland community Covid-19 case
Eleanor de Jong (The Guardian): New Zealand records first Covid community case in two months
Danielle Clent (Stuff): 30 businesses visited by Northland woman who tested positive for coronavirus
Newstalk ZB: Covid case in Northland: Woman visited 30 locations, ‘too early’ to update alert levels
1News: Countdown Helensville, The Warehouse in Whangarei among 28 spots visited by Covid-19 case
Ian Powell: Peter’s Covid dunne-over misplaced
Hannah Martin (Stuff): Covid-19: Why the Government isn’t using purpose-built quarantine facilities
Kerre McIvor (Newstalk ZB): PM’s attitude over The Wiggles tour expose major double standards
Kerre McIvor (Herald): Why I have no sympathy for the Wiggles
Hannah Martin (Stuff): Covid-19: Who in New Zealand will get the vaccine and when?
Claire Trevett (NZ Herald): Covid 19 coronavirus: Daily saliva testing for border, quarantine workers will be optional
RNZ: Covid-19: Saliva tests to be offered to border workers
Steven Walton and Liz McDonald (Stuff): Poor ventilation and double-bunking led to health workers contracting Covid-19
Devon Bolger (Herald): Covid-19 coronavirus: Fishermen double-bunking key factor in Christchurch health worker cases
Herald: Promoter’s plan: Turn remote luxury lodges into quarantine hubs for international stars
Grant Bradley (NZ Herald): Auckland Airport and Air New Zealand – what now after Cook Islands quarantine-free flights
Herald: Covid 19 coronavirus: International Air New Zealand aircrew must now isolate in hotels
Michael Daly (Stuff): ‘A real shame’ if enforcement needed against Aucklanders not wearing masks on public transport, Chris Hipkins says
1News: Tame Iti explores Covid-19’s impact on Tūhoe in pop-up art exhibition
Housing
Madison Reidy (Newshub): Pressure mounts on Government as house prices forecast to leap 15 percent this year
Bernard Hickey (Stuff): Will the Government actually ‘do something’ about rising house prices this time?
John Minto (Daily Blog): Labour government: Prioritising the interests of middle-class landlords over struggling working class tenants
Ben Thomas (Stuff): Government’s ‘housing reset’ announcement is too little too late
Rob Stock (Stuff): Low income Kiwi households struggling with unaffordable housing, OECD report says
Steven Joyce (Herald): Why this Govt won’t fix the housing shortage (paywalled)
Lana Andelane (Newshub): New Zealand housing crisis: Don Brash paints grim picture for future of home ownership
Cameron Bagrie (BusinessDesk): A robust property market is healthy — this isn’t
Don Brash: Housing affordability: the utter failure of successive governments
Zane Small (Newshub): Housing Minister can’t promise state house hopefuls will be out of motels by end of Labour’s term
Duncan Garner (Newshub): Jacinda Ardern may have made the biggest mistake of her political career
Zane Small (Newshub): National’s Andrew Bayly hits out at Finance Minister Grant Robertson for ‘taking far too long’ on housing solutions
Miriam Bell (Stuff): State of market play
Josephine Franks (Stuff): Iconic state house saved from demolition, transformed into theatre
Herald: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern promised to fix the housing crisis – and our readers had a lot to say about it
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): Ardern’s housing pledge means nothing
Vita Molyneux (Newshub): Violence, public urination, drug deals and assaults ‘commonplace’ in Wellington CBD as emergency housing fuels disorder
Rob Stock (Stuff): Covid home loan crisis nearly over as just 8300 borrowers remain on repayment ‘holidays’
Parliament and Government
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Herald): The four things Labour needs to do this year (paywalled)
Marc Daalder (Newshub): Time for Labour to deliver beyond Covid-19
Luke Malpass (Stuff): Direction needed from Labour to stop the little niggles from adding up
Joel Maxwell (Stuff): A crew-cut in a Parliament of coiffed heads: Kelvin Davis on growing up on, and out of, Leonard St
Audrey Young (Herald): Judith Collins on thrillers, gangs, Covid and making her MPs more professional (paywalled)
Meriana Johnsen (RNZ): Rātana leader urges followers to break away from Labour
Steve Braunias (Herald): The secret diary of 2021 (paywalled)
Mike Houlahan (ODT): Political machine (slowly) stirs back to life
Jason Walls (Herald): New Zealand First goes cap-in-hand to members seeking to rebuild its political ‘war-chest’
Oranga Tamariki
Ian Hyslop (The Guardian): Oranga Tamariki: Gráinne Moss’s exit does not mean the Māori child welfare crisis is resolved
Justin Giovannetti (Spinoff): After CEO exit, the big question for Oranga Tamariki: reform it or scrap it and start again?
Michael Neilson (Herald): Oranga Tamariki Grainne Moss resignation: Māori leaders say time for ‘devolution of power’
Zane Small & Rosie Gordon (Newshub): Children’s Minister Kelvin Davis says outgoing Oranga Tamariki boss Grainne Moss ‘had her critics’ but wasn’t pressured to resign
Michael Bassett: Grainne Moss: Fall guy for deeper problem
Marc Daalder & Mark Jennings (Newsroom): Moss exit the first step in transforming Oranga Tamariki
Eleanor de Jong (The Guardian): New Zealand child welfare head resigns after furore over Māori family separations
Te Rina Triponel (Herald): Māori Party welcomes resignation of Oranga Tamariki chief executive Grainne Moss
Stuff: Oranga Tamariki chief executive Grainne Moss steps down
RNZ: Oranga Tamariki chief executive Grainne Moss steps down
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Grainne Moss: The power of white middle class feminism in the Wellington neoliberal bureaucracy
RNZ: Timeline: Oranga Tamariki chief executive Grainne Moss’s road to resignation
Local government
Emma Perry (ODT): Satisfaction with DCC consultation plummets
RNZ: Wairarapa councils all lack disability, accessibility policies
Charlotte Jones (Stuff): Resolution in sight for ‘insulting’ Grey Power newsletter
Charlotte Jones (Herald): Ōpōtiki councillor will withdraw Race Relations complaint
Tom O’Connor (Stuff): Is listening to an address in te reo really a hardship to whine about?
Economy, inequality and work
Liam Dann (Herald): Big government is back – let’s hope it’s smarter this time (paywalled)
Damien Grant (Stuff): The tricky business of economic predictions – even the best get it wrong
Debrin Foxcroft (Stuff): Coca-Cola Amatil New Zealand to repay $7.2 million wage subsidy
Dileepa Fonseka (Stuff): The seafarer crisis — a shipping problem being passed from port to port
Tasmyn Parker (Herald): 2020 biggest earning year for investment bankers on New Zealand deals (paywalled)
Caryn Wilkinson and Ripu Bhatia (Stuff): Covid-19: Jobseekers switching careers as pandemic dries up opening
Brian Easton (Pundit): How Is The Economy Doing?
Terry Baucher (Interest): The Week in Tax. What lies ahead in 2021?
Diana Clement (Herald): The new laws you need to know about (paywalled)
Brent Edwards (NBR): Government urged to listen carefully to business concerns (paywalled)
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): More doubt over interest rate cuts after inflation surpises at 1.4%
Chris Keall (Herald): Reserve Bank says it now knows scope of data theft
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Reserve Bank statistics go dark for a few weeks due to hack
Health
Cherie Sivignon (Stuff): Government considers water fluoridation policy, says Andrew Little
Cherie Sivignon (Stuff): Nelson Hospital rebuild to start this term: Health Minister Andrew Little
Cate Broughton (Stuff): DHBs get green light for bowel screening, despite missing colonoscopy targets
Tony Wall (Stuff): Why the Ministry of Health pulled the plug on a million dollar methamphetamine programme for gang members
Aaron Smale (Newsroom): Taxpayers’ $500k for meth treatment goes up in smoke
Education
Lee Kenny, Josephine Franks, George Heagney, Laura Wiltshire and Sharnae Hope (Stuff): How Covid has hit our $5 billion international education sector – and what universities are doing about it
Simon Collins (Herald): Phonics revolution: War of words over how to teach kids to read
Simon Collins (Herald): Phonics revolution: The new sound of reading in the nation’s schools
US politics and NZ
Audrey Young (Herald): US President Joe Biden an inspiration for political has-beens (paywalled)
Vita Molyneux (Newshub): Former New Zealand ambassador Tim Groser says dealing with Trump administration ‘like talking to a brick wall’
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Kiwi MPs welcome Joe Biden’s outward foreign policy after Donald Trump’s withdrawal from international agreements
Chris Liddell
David Farrar: In defence of Chris Liddell
Josh Van Veen (Democracy Project): A Modest defence of Chris Liddell
Cathy Odgers: Chris Liddell has nothing to be ashamed of
Media and debate
RNZ: Australia’s plan to force Google to pay for news goes too far – National
Victor Billot (Newsroom): A poem for Bassett, Brash & Hide
Janine Fenwick (Stuff): Why Stuff’s comment section looks different
Janaye Henry (The Spinoff): Who polices the police: Trash Facebook comments edition
Animal welfare
Karina Cooper (Herald): NZ’s first rodeo related prosecution sees Northland farmer fined for animal cruelty
Denise Piper (Stuff): Farmer fined nearly $2000 for ill-treating rodeo animals in first case of its kind
Karina Cooper (Herald): NZ’s first rodeo related prosecution sees Northland farmer fined for animal cruelty
Nuclear weapons
Tim Cronshaw (Herald): Anti-nuclear protesters kick-off global celebrations in Christchurch
Emma Dangerfield (Stuff): New Zealand joins list of nations vowing to ‘ban the bomb’
Jonathan Milne (Newsroom): NZ offers to be ‘honest broker’ in nuclear disarmament
Other
Eloise Gibson and Olivia Wannan (Stuff): The change that’ll make Rogernomics ‘look like a trial period’
Olivia Wannan (Stuff): Should we ban adverts for inefficient petrol and diesel cars?
Amber Allott (Stuff): New Zealand deep-sea trawling proposal slammed as ‘meaningless greenwash’
Jamie Morton (Herald): How Kiwis’ Google searches predicted ‘reeferendum’ result (paywalled)
Rob Stock (Stuff): Migrant community fight ‘inhumane’ plan to move NZ Super goalposts
Jon Johansson (Stuff): A four-year parliamentary term? Be careful what you wish for
Troels Sommerville (Stuff): Auckland iwi hopes land ruling sets precedent for Māori to have say as kaitiaki
Jackson Thomas (Stuff): Latest intake of future Māori leaders march at Waitangi
Paul Cully (Stuff): Is it time for Farah Palmer to smash the glass ceiling at New Zealand Rugby?
Zane Small & Zac Fleming (Newshub): What to know about second gun buyback and all the other gun law changes
Stuff: Government set to roll out fresh firearms buy-back scheme
John Roughan (Herald): To avoid another Trump, news media need to reflect different views (paywalled)
Ziena Jalil (Stuff): Don’t ask ‘Where are you from?’ Ask ‘What can you do?’
Kylie Klein-Nixon (Stuff): Dear White People: A handy guide to using the N-word
Khylee Quince (Stuff): We don’t need to agree about history to recognise its importance
Mariné Lourens (Stuff): Corrections ordered to pay $3000 to white supremacist Philip Arps over failed prosecution
