Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage. Click here to subscribe to Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup and New Zealand Politics Daily.
Today’s content
Covid: India travel ban
Luke Malpass (Stuff): Is the the ‘temporary’ India travel ban proportional or a massive overreaction?
Andrew Geddis (Spinoff): Is banning all arrivals from India, including New Zealand citizens, actually legal?
Keith Lynch (Stuff): What the numbers say about the India travel ban
1News: Michael Baker says halting arrivals from India ‘absolutely right thing to do’
1News: Temporarily halting travellers from India has ‘element of racism’, says Indian community leader
Liz Gordon (Daily Blog): Banning people from India: the right thing or racist policy?
Jason Walls (Herald): Jacinda Ardern not ruling out extending India travel ban to other high-risk nations
Herald: New Zealand’s India travel suspension leaves Kiwi family in limbo
Herald: Emirates introduces NZ flight restrictions days before India travel ban starts
Katie Scotcher (RNZ): India travel suspension: ‘Suddenly you’re left to fend for yourself’
Paul McBeth (BusinessDesk): India flights suspended, community outraged (paywalled)
RNZ: New Zealand temporarily suspending travel from India – PM Jacinda Ardern
Reuters (The Guardian): New Zealand suspends travel from India after jump in Covid-19 cases
Covid: Vaccinations programme and border
Amelia Wade (Newshub): Coronavirus: Government doesn’t know how many border workers there are, but still insists 90 percent have got COVID-19 vaccine
Mike Houlahan (ODT): Vaccination rollout a ‘shambles’
Zane Small (Newshub): Labour’s Dr Ayesha Verrall fends off jeering MPs in tense standoff over Covid-19 vaccine rollout
Chris McDowall (Herald): Analysis: Is New Zealand’s vaccine rollout on track? (paywalled)
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Government plans to hire army of coronavirus vaccinators
Peter Dunne: Transtasman travel bubble at last
Herald: Chris Hipkins: Border worker who tested positive for Covid-19 offered vaccine ‘several’ times
1News: MIQ security guard confirmed as Covid case after second positive test, his close contacts test negative
Hannah Martin (Stuff): Covid-19: Unclear why infected MIQ worker unvaccinated seven weeks into rollout
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Government’s trans-Tasman bubble afterglow gives way to Covid-19 crunch
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): The pandemic made us reconsider everyday life. We shouldn’t take that for granted
Housing crisis
RNZ: The back-firing probability of rent controls
Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): Community housing regulator falling short – report
Colleen Hawkes (Stuff): Collective housing is our future: New report recommends a solution to the housing crisis
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Landlords told: Planning to increase rent? You might be disappointed
Miriam Bell (Stuff): Rents rising fastest in provincial areas
Dan Satherley and Caitlin Rawling (Newshub): Housing crisis: Landlords’ threats to hike rents or sell are likely empty – expert
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Landlords could face jail if they form rent cartels
Luisa Girao (ODT): ‘Depressed’ by lack of affordable houses in city
Robin Martin (RNZ): Hotel management school opens student accommodation to the homeless
Anne Gibson (Herald): Auckland Council limits house inspection bookings after developers created ‘nightmare’ (paywalled)
Ireland Hendry-Tennent (Newshub): The Salvation Army criticises National MP Todd McClay’s ‘unhelpful’ comments about emergency housing tenants
Jenny Ruth (BusinessDesk): NZ isn’t alone in having a red-hot housing market (paywalled)
Caroline Williams (Stuff): Racist graffiti at Auckland Kāinga Ora social housing development ‘grossly unfair’
Marta Steeman (Stuff): New insulation rules for windows, walls, ceilings and floors in new homes set to ramp up building costs
Herald: Editorial: Think outside the box to beat the urban squeeze (paywalled)
Mental health crisis
Bryce Edwards (Democracy Project): Political Roundup – An overwhelming vote of no confidence in Labour’s mental health reforms
Stuff: Editorial – Facing up to our mental health challenges
Chris Lynch (Herald): How will mental health improve when reports are being censored? (paywalled)
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Health Minister Andrew Little denies ‘cock-up or conspiracy’ behind controversial mental health report
1News: Health Minister rejects ‘conspiracy theory’ that mental health report edited to make Govt look better
Parliament
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Parliament lets MPs rent property from themselves, at the taxpayer’s expense
Audrey Young (Herald): Phone numbers of three NZ cabinet ministers and party leader in Facebook hack attack (paywalled)
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Labour looks set to torpedo Simon Bridges’ tax bracket bill
Newstalk ZB: ‘Crazy silly talk’: Bridges dismisses rumour of new leadership bid
Jo Moir (Newsroom): Beers or beliefs – Parliament to decide
Local Government
Harry Lock (RNZ): Mana whenua gain full voting rights on Wellington City Council
Georgina Campbell (Herald): Wellington mayor accused of delaying tactics over mana whenua voting rights
Damian George (Stuff): Wellington Mayor Andy Foster accused of seeking ‘political cover’ after calling for public feedback on iwi voting rights proposal
Janine Rankin (Stuff): Palmerston North to create Māori wards
Joel MacManus (Stuff): More than 1200 Wellington bus services cancelled during March
Chloe Ranford (Stuff): Marlborough Sounds councillors fear cuts to ward
Economy and work
Bernard Hickey (Spinoff): On the new plan to unravel capitalism’s ‘doom loop’
Hamish Rutherford (Herald): ‘Are prices too high?’ Energy Minister Megan Woods puts market on notice amid soaring wholesale prices (paywalled)
Aimee Shaw (Herald): ‘Price of everything’ set to increase: Consumers face pain at the checkout (paywalled)
Brian Fallow (Herald): Expect Reserve Bank to keep things loose (paywalled)
Gill Bonnett (RNZ): Chinese workers’ agents, visa approvals need to be probed – lawyer
Health
Phil Pennington (RNZ): Health data system fragmented, leaving clinicians and patients in the dark – IT experts
Gary Payinda (Stuff): With majority of cervical cancers now preventable we should already be halfway to eradicating it – but we’re not
Louisa Steyl (Stuff): Bed blocks may get worse, Southern DHB boss fears
RNZ: Grant Robertson says government focused on Pharmac solution to cancer treatment
Ports of Auckland dispute
Craig Harrison (Herald): Time to listen to the port workers on the frontline (paywalled)
RNZ: Pressure mounts on Ports of Auckland chief executive Tony Gibson to resign
Mina Kerr-Lazenby (Stuff): Ports of Auckland CEO absent as letter calling for his resignation is delivered
Michael Barnett (Herald): Why is Ports of Auckland CEO Tony Gibson being personally targeted? (paywalled)
Media
Mike Hosking (Newshub): Barry Soper is right, I can’t ban the Prime Minister
Newshub: Mike Hosking backtracks on assertion he no longer wants PM Jacinda Ardern on his show
Stewart Sowman-Lund (Spinoff): ‘Three pillar’ approach for new $55 million public interest journalism fund revealed
Daniel Dunkley (BusinessDesk): Journalism funding plan revealed (paywalled)
No Right Turn: Protecting journalists
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): What Mike Hosking’s big back down really says about the state of the right
Auckland public transport
Simon Wilson (Herald): The transport plan that Auckland deserves (paywalled)
Matthew Hooton (Herald): Michael Wood, light rail and the new role that could wreck a career (paywalled)
Peter Dunne (Newsroom): Think big, but think hard on light rail
Environment and climate change
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Most coal boilers would need to go by 2037 under Government plan
No Right Turn: Climate Change: Doing the minimum again
Richard Harman: National threatens to end bipartisan climate change consensus (paywalled)
Grant Brookes (Daily Blog): Trade unionists & environmentalism
Other
John Bishop (Stuff): Let’s remedy the failings of our colonial past
Max Rashbrooke (Stuff): Another blow for the doom-mongers
No Right Turn: Self-interested arse covering
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Scrap internet filters, select committee told
Katarina Williams (Stuff): In the eye of the taniwha – the lived experience of pandemic racism
