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

National Party leadership
Matthew Hooton (Herald): My message to National – and how to avoid another leadership fiasco (paywalled)
Peter Dunne: National needs to sort out what it stands for before it thinks about leadership
Jo Moir (Newsroom): National’s six months in a leaky boat
Grant Duncan: The National Party’s leadership woes

Government
Peter Dunne (Newsroom): Can Covid-19 save Labour again in 2023?
Chris Trotter (Daily Blog): Why haven’t they? How to xxplain this Government’s baffling refusal to solve New Zealand’s problems
Richard Harman: So Grant, what’s next? (paywalled)

Covid: Vaccinations programme and border
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Newstalk ZB): Government is taking the p*ss when it comes to MIQ
Jason Walls (Herald): Chris Hipkins offers half-hearted support for Covid testing register
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): How are officials this useless and still in work?
Duncan Greive (Spinoff): A system that can be hacked by lying is not a good system
Henry Cooke (Stuff): The billion-dollar plan to get everyone who wants a jab vaccinated by 2022
Craig McCulloch (RNZ): MIQ security guard’s testing hiatus: Ardern maintains company, guard to blame
Peter Williams (Magic Talk): Why you should be sceptical of Hipkins, Bloomfield
Kerre McIvor (Newstalk ZB): Officials prove once again we’ve survived by dumb, pure luck

Housing crisis
Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): Megan Woods on housing: ‘The market hasn’t delivered’
Rob Stock (Stuff): Standard & Poor’s predicts an ‘orderly unwinding’ of house prices
Madison Reidy (Newshub): Growing hesitancy in housing market as fear of missing out gives way to fear of overpaying – industry insiders
Nona Pelletier (RNZ): House prices soar as sales rise to 14-year high
Ethan Te Ora (Stuff): Wellington has the most understocked housing inventory in the country, says new data
Kate Green (Stuff): The only way is up: high-density housing key to responsible land use in Wellington facing climate change
Herald: Wellington house prices jump nearly 25 per cent in a year

Local Government
Bernard Hickey (Spinoff): Beware the great suburban backlash of 2022
Joel Maxwell (Stuff): Welcome to the new age of Māori power as Hamilton council revokes Māori ward decision
Damian George (Stuff): City councillors welcome review highlighting poor governance, allegations of bullying, and lack of direction
Joel MacManus (Stuff): Wellington Central Library adopts gifted name: Te Matapihi ki te Ao Nui
Joel MacManus (Stuff): No new pokie machines will be allowed in Wellington as council passes sinking lid policy
Sinead Gill (Stuff): Māori wards vote may be close as Manawatū councillors split over issue
Aaron Leaman (Stuff): Public to have say on Māori wards in Hamilton
Nikki Preston (Stuff): Ratepayers fund Waikato Regional Council chair’s ‘feel-good gifts’ at train launch

Parliament
Jane Patterson (RNZ): Covid-19 committee carry-on catches Labour lacking
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Labour reprimanded for treatment of National MP Chris Bishop at testy parliamentary committee
Zane Small (Newshub): Labour’s ‘patsy’ questions prompt Speaker Trevor Mallard to give National extended scrutiny of COVID-19 response

Economy and work
1News: Three billion dollars for about 7000 jobs: Has the Provincial Growth Fund worked?
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Amazon may be on the way to New Zealand, as Government signs subsidy deal
Tamsyn Parker (Herald): Hospitality businesses predicted to be hardest hit in wave of insolvencies (paywalled)
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Energy Minister Megan Woods not ready to give power firms the ‘Telecom’ treatment
Jihee Junn (Spinoff): A beginner’s guide to the minimum wage
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Record shift off benefit ‘sign of improving job market’
Grant Bradley (Herald): Grant Robertson letter to Air New Zealand: What chairman Dame Therese Walsh thinks (paywalled)
Brent Edwards (NBR): Reserve Bank signals ‘prolonged period of time’ before monetary policy changes (paywalled)

Climate change
1News: Govt not living up to promise of Ardern’s climate change-nuclear-free moment speech, James Shaw admits
Jamie Morton (Herald): Does ‘people power’ distract from corporate responsibility?
Jamie Morton (Herald): Are we doing enough to prepare?
Brian Fallow (Herald): Climate change plan – emissions impossible for farmers? (paywalled)
Simon Wilson (Herald): Will Joe Biden save the world from climate catastrophe? (paywalled)

Transport
Ellen O’Dwyer (Stuff): Slow start for passenger numbers on new Hamilton to Auckland train’s first week
Herald: Slow start for Hamilton to Auckland commuter train, plans underway to lure more passengers
Kate Hawkesby (Newstalk ZB): NZTA needs to listen to their own people

Health
Lucy Xia and Kendall Hutt (Stuff): Government to expand school mental health, wellbeing programme
RNZ: Business case for new Dunedin hospital to go before Cabinet
Ian Powell: District Health Board considers directly employing general practitioners
Stuff: Editorial – Smoking’s last gasp
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Government proposes drastic cut to tobacco retailers, limiting sales to specific R18 stores or pharmacies

Law and order; Justice
Geraden Cann (Stuff): String of gang incidents in Auckland this week suggests escalating tension
Jordan Bond (RNZ): Police told to carry guns on average once a week, figures reveal
Kirsty Johnston (Stuff): The court said she was lying about being abused. She did a year on home detention. She wasn’t lying

Live animal export ban
Louisa Steyl (Stuff): Live export ban may cause backlash from trading partners, Southland Fed Farmers boss says
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): Live export ban wrecks a growing industry

Other
Chris Trotter: Can the state pull the lone wolf terrorist’s teeth?
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Government under pressure over ‘concerning’ hate reform delay
Emile Donovan (Newsroom): Mixed media – how the RNZ and TVNZ merger might work
ODT: Editorial – Drug reform response confused
Matthew Tso (Stuff): Report suggesting removal of now-mouldy classrooms ignored by ministry – school’s board members
Hamish Cardwell (RNZ): Report shows extent of dairy farming destruction – environmental activists
Paul Thomas (Listener/Herald): The real royal crisis and the effect it could have on New Zealand (paywalled)
Andre Chumko (Stuff): Entire board of Museums Aotearoa abruptly resigns
Charlotte Graham-McLay (The Guardian): Christchurch terrorist chooses not to attend court to launch his own legal challenge
Melanie Carroll (Stuff): Law Commission proposes changes to succession law
Herald: Law Commission proposes changes to ‘out of date’ succession legislation
Brent Edwards (NBR): Will Prince Philip’s death spark renewed debate on NZ becoming a republic? (paywalled)
Bruce Munro (ODT): More than 67,000 animals bred for testing at Otago University – but simply killed