Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage. You can sign up to NZ Politics Daily as well as New Zealand Political Roundup columns for free here.

Today’s content

Auckland, Govt management of Delta outbreak
Richard Harman (Politik): Hipkins “detached from reality” (paywalled)
RNZ: Checkpoint: Time slots possible for Auckland border vaccine certificate checks in holidays – Hipkins
David Farrar (Kiwiblog): Has the Government lost its effing mind?
Derek Cheng (Herald): Jacinda Ardern under pressure as she flags no summer travel for unvaccinated Aucklanders
Mike Hosking (Herald): Cancelling Christmas was never an option (paywalled)
1 News: Summer travel allocations mulled for for vaccinated Aucklanders
Siobhan Downes (Stuff): When can Aucklanders leave the city? Answers are hard to come by
Michael Morrah (Newshub): 605 Kiwis made to wait more than 24 hours to find out they’d tested positive for COVID-19
Lana Andelane (Newshub): Hipkins urges Auckland’s hospitality businesses to hang on for ‘traffic light’ system despite pleas for respite
Adam Jacobson (Stuff): Two in five Aucklanders negative about Govt response to Delta outbreak
Sapeer Mayron (Stuff): ‘Pretty much everywhere’ in Auckland is a suburb of interest, as areas drop off report
Dan Satherley (Newshub): ‘Peculiar’: Judith Collins questions why Auckland hasn’t got localised lockdowns after alert level border splits Northland in two
RNZ: National Party leader Judith Collins says trip to Auckland by Ardern long overdue
RNZ: Checkpoint: Auckland Botox services open as hairdressers stay closed
Jane Nixon (1 News): Botox rule change outrages others in beauty industry
RNZ: Covid-19 wrap for 3 November: Travel may be on cards for Aucklanders, warning on paid vaccine exemptions

Vaccine mandates and certificate
Chris Trotter (Daily Blog): For God’s sake, don’t send Jacinda to Dallas!
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Don’t let Jacinda come to Auckland
Zane Small (Newshub): Jacinda Ardern insists COVID-19 vaccine mandates ‘not taken lightly’ as second clinic visit cancelled due to protests
Irra Lee (1 News): Ardern addresses vaccine mandates amid protests
Georgia Forrester and Sinead Gill (Stuff): PM Jacinda Ardern’s trip to Whanganui, Hunterville promoting vaccine interrupted by protesters
Herald: Jacinda Ardern unfazed by protesters, vows to ‘continue on’
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Simon Connell (ODT): Lessons important for vaccine certs
RNZ: Aggressive demands for vaccine exemptions
RNZ: Health and educational leaders urgently seek clarity over vaccine exemptions
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Rogue doctors charging for vaccine exemptions are ‘trying to rip you off’ – Chris Hipkins
1 News: Police will deal with aggressive demands for jab exemption – Hipkins
Bridie Witton (Stuff): Government ‘slow’ to act on vaccine exemptions after doctors assaulted, abused
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Zoë George (Stuff): Community sport vaccination certificates ‘a balance’ between safety and participation
Elizabeth Binning (Herald): No jab, no frontline job for firefighters 
Megan Wilson (Herald): Vaccine mandate – Half of teachers at some Bay of Plenty schools may leave, principal says (paywalled)
RNZ: PM Jacinda Ardern: ‘We have not taken lightly the decision for some areas to require vaccination’
Deena Coster (Stuff): Pro-vax Taranaki council bosses’ wait-and-see approach on jab policy
Matt Burrows (Newshub): Police investigating after Bay of Plenty woman offered $200 to get COVID-19 vaccine on someone else’s behalf
Roderick Mulgan (Stuff): When it comes to Covid vaccination, we all have the right to be wrong

Vaccine rollout
Rod Jackson (Herald): Soon everyone in NZ will be immunised against Covid-19
Jo Moir (RNZ): Jackson: Māori vaccination won’t hit 90 percent this year
Stephen Forbes (Local Democracy Reporting): Whānau Ora court victory over Health Ministry: ‘We need to know where to target our efforts’
Mark Quinlivan (Newshub): Auckland’s Remuera among latest New Zealand suburbs to pass 90 pct
Jake McKee (RNZ): Covid-19 vaccination rates: How district health boards across Aotearoa compare
Mitch McCann (Newshub): Revealed: Why locals in the eastern Bay of Plenty are refusing to get vaccinated
Ireland Hendry-Tennent (Newshub): Members from NZ’s most notorious gangs band together to promote COVID-19 vaccine amid Delta outbreak
Eva Corlett (Guardian): New Zealand gang leaders unite to urge community to get Covid shots
RNZ: ‘Stay in the game! Get your shot!’ Pasifika sports stars’ message
Tumamao Harawira (Māori TV): Rangatahi Māori in Auckland learn to vaccinate
RNZ: Covid-19 ‘dotted’ campaign aims to push rangatahi vaccination
1 News: Kiwi with underlying health conditions feels ‘lucky’ to get Pfizer booster shot
Stuff: Government buys 4.7 million more Pfizer vaccines
Luisa Girao (ODT): Mayors happy with immunisation tour
James Halpin (Stuff): Two Northland councillors won’t say if they’re fully jabbed

MIQ, Home isolation, home quarantine, NZ border 
Lucy Xia and Bernadette Basagre (Stuff): Death of Covid case in home isolation ‘unexplained’
Rowan Quinn (RNZ): Covid-19 positive families waiting up to 36 hours to hear back on isolation
Māori TV: Māori businessman pushes for self-isolation technology for overseas returnees
Ben Strang (Stuff): Sport NZ warns some athletes may not return to elite competition after MIQ woes
Jude Dobson (Stuff): New Zealand’s place on the Western Front on the way

Northland, Waikato
RNZ: Northland mystery cases: ‘There isn’t a working theory at this point’ – Hipkins
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Anti-vaxxers might have brought COVID-19 to Te Tai Tokerau – Hone Harawira
Nita Blake-Persen (RNZ): Far North nervously waits to see if Covid has spread
Herald Editorial: Far North lured to catastrophe by mendacity (paywalled)
Rukuwai Tipene-Allen (Māori TV): Is Kaeo in level 2 or 3? Confusion over boundaries and iwi left out of conversation
Adam Jacobson (Stuff): Rural Northland vaccinations lag as unlinked cases remain a concern
David Fisher (Herald): Far North resort blockaded after concerns about hosting Covid positive cases
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Andrew McRae (RNZ): Hamilton Mayor calls for separation from region once vaccination target reached

Health
Herald: Unknown positive cases slipping through screening could create severe staffing crunch in hospitals, NZ Nurses Organisation warns
Elizabeth Binning (Herald): Alcohol Healthwatch audit: Booze is being sold at ‘pocket money’ prices
Jimmy Ellingham (RNZ): Coroner opens inquiry into death at Palmerston North Hospital
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Second inquiry underway after another Palmerston North Hospital death
Dylan Cleaver (Spinoff): Carl Hayman doesn’t want to forget
Mark Reason (Stuff): Legal action vital to stop men and families being torn apart by concussion

Environment, climate change, conservation
Hamish Cardwell (RNZ): Environment groups criticise govt’s decision to avoid methane cuts
Lisette Reymer (Newshub): New Zealand’s methane deal catches government officials off-guard, leaves farmers stunned
John Minto (Daily Blog): COP26 has misdiagnosed the climate crisis
Peter Dunne: James Shaw’s trip to Glasgow
Rod Oram (Newsroom): Amid all the noise, one thing matters at COP26
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Climate could be NZ’s ‘gilets jaunes’ moment (paywalled)
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): A week of procrastination from Wellington to Glasgow
KDee Aimiti Ma’ia’i and Marco de Jong (Spinoff): If climate change is a new ‘nuclear-free moment’, will NZ abandon the Pacific as it did then?
No Right Turn: Climate Change: Freeloaders
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Newstalk ZB): What was the point of COP26 anyway??
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Judith Collins says she’ll do her best to meet emissions target
Eloise Gibson (Stuff): Why Stuff is treating climate change as an emergency
Simon Wilson (Herald): Glasgow Diary – November 4 (paywalled)
Bronwen Golder (Stuff): Political reality means the Government won’t act to protect oceans
Leonie Hayden (Spinoff): Te taiao under threat: Indigenous voices speak up on climate change
Hannah Blumhardt (The Conversation): NZ’s government plans to switch to a circular economy to cut waste and emissions, but it’s going around in the wrong circles
David Williams (Newsroom): ECan exposed: regulator hides damning report
Rob Stock (Stuff): Reserve Bank warns owners of flood and fire-prone homes will pay more for insurance
Daniel Dunkley (Stuff): Insurers play pivotal role in the climate fight
RNZ: Genesis links $100m loan interest rate to emissions targets
RNZ: The New Zealander behind a global clean energy initiative
Laura Smith (ODT): Mail-in service launched for water testing
Tamsyn Parker (Herald): The Warehouse founder Sir Stephen Tindall on why he is investing in green businesses (paywalled)

Economy, business, employment
Liam Dann (Herald): Record low unemployment points to higher interest rates, inflation (paywalled)
Riley Kennedy (ODT): Employers ‘struggling’ with hiring
Liam Dann (Herald): Labour crunch: NZ unemployment hits lowest level on record
Luke Malpass (Stuff): Low unemployment is great, but creates other problems for Grant Robertson
RNZ: Unemployment drops to 3.4%, economy adds 54,000 jobs while wage inflation highest in a decade
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): As many as 45,000 missing from unemployment stats, Māori undercounted

Housing
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): House price crash warning: ‘It’s impossible to save people from their mistakes forever’
Bernard Hickey (The Kākā): Why the RBNZ was more than a ‘bit player’ in the 34% rise in house prices in 18 months
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): Adrian Orr has responsibility for overcooking the housing market
RNZ: Reserve Bank finalising more measures to cool housing market
Justin Giovannetti (Spinoff): An unprecedented boom in housing consent
Joel MacManus (Stuff): Greens want rental subsidy for all council housing tenants
Anne Gibson (Herald): ‘I may be forced to sell 85 Auckland rentals’ – Ockham boss Mark Todd on tax change (paywalled)
Anne Gibson (Herald): Plans for 10,000 new Auckland, Tauranga, Wellington build to rentals worth $5b
Miriam Bell (Stuff): KiwiSaver members’ money backing new rental properties

Parliament, Government
Brigitte Morten (NBR): A panicked government (paywalled)
Courtney White (ODT): Taieri MP’s office target of graffiti attack
Herald: Clarke Gayford reveals what’s on the menu for his wedding to Jacinda Ardern

Three Waters, local government
Gordon Campbell: On why Three Waters is a good idea worth supporting
Grant Smith (Manawatu Guardian): $550 million reasons for Three Waters reform
Ingrid Leary (Stuff): Govt had to push past Three Waters misinformation
Kevin Norquay (Stuff): Three Waters: An Idiot’s Guide to the massive water fight
Adam Burns (Local Democracy Reporting): Furious Ashburton councillors urge Three Waters pushback
Jared Morgan (ODT): Open letter on water to be sent to Govt
Robbie Nicol (Stuff): What is ‘Three Waters’ and why is everyone so angry?
Gianina Schwanecke (Herald): Official Three Waters visit would have been ‘beneficial’, Wairoa mayor says (paywalled)
Andrew Marshall (ODT): Laws may face ORC discipline
Joel MacManus (Stuff): Wellington City councillors ask authority for permission to pay themselves less
Joss Miller (ODT): Dunedin could really do with some waves of a wand
Andrea Fox (Herald): New Waikato economic growth agency boosts firepower, determined not to fail like predecessors (paywalled)

Transport 
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Let’s Get Wellington Moving is a joke that sums up NZ perfectly + Auckland’s only traffic congestion solution
RNZ: Central Wellington parking levy of up to $2500 per annum considered
Nicholas Pointon (RNZ): Plan to build four green hydrogen fuelling stations in North Island begins
Georgina Campbell (Herald): Wellington City Council accused of not learning from past mistakes over Island Bay cycleway
Georgina Campbell (Herald): Two options to fix Wellington’s controversial Island Bay cycleway revealed
Phil Pennington (RNZ): CAA’s pilot medical surveillance system ‘inconsistent’ – Occupational health expert
Jean Bell (RNZ): Auckland Transport strategy may remove hundreds of car parks

Migrant workers
RNZ: Police restrain assets of group illegally-housing migrant workers
Lucy Xia (Stuff): Migrants ‘will leave NZ’ if residency pathway for parents remains closed 

Supermarket inquiry
Eric Crampton (Offsetting Behaviour): A hive of rent-seeking and villainy
Grant Miller (ODT): Grocery changes wanted
Jonathan Milne (Newsroom): Discreet family firm backs big supermarket brands

Media
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Ministers delay decision on TVNZ, RNZ merger until next year
RNZ: Meta launches programme to support New Zealand news organisations
Melanie Carroll (Stuff): Facebook ‘support’ for NZ media won’t include paying for content
Daniel Dunkley (BusinessDesk): Facebook to invest in selected NZ newsrooms (paywalled)

Primary industries
RNZ: Farmers urged to create Covid-19 checklist
Christine Rose (Stuff): Saving biodiversity starts here at home with changing agriculture

Foreign Affairs
Michael Neilson (Herald): Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta on Pacific ‘reset’ to ‘resilience’ and China’s growing influence
Lucy Craymer (Stuff): Why China wants to take control of Taiwan, and why New Zealand should care
Thomas Manch and Lucy Craymer (Stuff): New Zealand’s diplomats to focus on ‘resilience’ in Pacific, as climate change and Chinese debt threat grows
Stuff:  Afghans face Taliban retribution, perhaps death, for Kiwi links, lawyer says 
Fran O’Sullivan (Herald): Angela Merkel’s acute warning ahead of Apec meeting with Jacinda Ardern (paywalled)
Dylan Reeve (Spinoff): The latest bonkers Covid-adjacent conspiracy theory? The Italian military is here
Fran O’Sullivan (Herald): Kiwi leadership critical to Apec’s success (paywalled)
Jacinda Ardern (Herald): Apec Summit an opportunity from crisis (paywalled)
Liam Dann (Herald): A virtual breakthrough for Apec 2021 (paywalled)
Alan Bollard (Herald): Breaking down more walls (paywalled)
Rebecca Sta Maria (Herald): Pandemic’s lessons will inform policy  (paywalled)
Andrea Smith (Herald): A masterclass in digital diplomacy (paywalled)
Charles Finny (Herald): Apec — and a WTO in crisis (paywalled)
Fran O’Sullivan (Herald): Apec 2021 a huge undertaking for NZ (paywalled)
RNZ: Major Asia-Pacific trade deal ratified
Asia Media Centre: What is the RCEP and what does it mean for NZ?
Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): Reopening: old mate Aussie sees us with fresh eyes (paywalled)
Simon Power (Herald): Apec 2021: Inclusion in the economy

Immigration
Phil Pennington (RNZ): NZ-affiliated Afghans unfairly denied visas, court told
Gill Bonnett (RNZ): Former minister denounces ‘set-up’ to block Chinese couple’s immigration appeal

Police
RNZ: Police Tactical Response Model to be trialled in four areas
William Hewett (Newshub): National MP Simeon Brown hits out at Police, Government for ‘handing over roads to gangs’ after funeral procession in Porirua

Other
Juha Saarinen (Herald): The value of privacy (paywalled)
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Workplace fatalities remain high despite 2015 law change
RNZ: The Detail: Ministry for disabled has a big job to do
Paula Tesoriero (Herald): Transformative change needed for disabled (paywalled)
David Farrar: We need more meaningful OIA data
Kelly Dennett (Stuff): Police didn’t tell Ministry of Social Development its job applicant was being investigated for rape
Tom Kitchin (RNZ): Wairoa community aims to clean up town’s image
RNZ: Rakiura Stewart Island bolstered by domestic tourism over pandemic
Michelle Duff (Stuff): Treatment in women’s prisons ‘degrading’, urgent action needed – report
Saunoamaali’i Karanina Sumeo (Stuff): Prisons are failing our wāhine and it’s a human rights issue
Reuters: How Māori culture is changing New Zealand’s central bank
1 News: 4,500 veterans now eligible for medals after long battle for recognition
Zane Small (Newshub): Jacinda Ardern considers ‘bespoke solution’ for surrogate baby Paige to have deceased mum on birth certificate
Courtney White (AlliedPress): South Dunedin MP’s office target of graffiti attack
Daisy Hudson (ODT): Barely coping with food need
Jo Cribb (Newsroom): Charities’ race for the piggy bank slows