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
Protests, anti vaccination, mandates
Morgan Godfery (Guardian): New Zealand police are right to remove ‘freedom’ protesters who have cohered around violence
Steven Cowan (Against the current): Crushing dissent
Kristin Hall (1 News): Hostility at Parliament: 1News reporter reflects on protest
Philip Matthews (Stuff): Freedom protests reveal an ugly side
Matthew Hooton: Beyond the fringe, anger is real (paywalled)
Bernard Hickey (Spinoff): ‘This too will pass’ says Ardern of the anti-mandate fury. But will it really?
Bernard Hickey (The Kākā): Morning chorus: Finally, the Police act
Don Franks (Redline): Former protesters cheering on the police is disgusting
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): No need to send the riot cops in today Trev, you’ve done enough damage for 1 year
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Trevor Mallard’s dangerous gamble: Thursday Stupid Thursday
Lloyd Jones (Herald): Letter to the protesters occupying Parliament grounds (paywalled)
David Farrar (Kiwiblog): The anti-mandate protests
ODT Editorial: Convoy impact limited
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Ireland Hendry-Tennent (Newshub): ‘Tiny group’ of NZers who are ‘misguided by garbage’ on social media – Labour Minister weighs in on anti-mandate protesters
Jenna Lynch (Newshub): Political irony: Speaker Trevor Mallard and COVID-19 Minister Chris Hipkins’ historic arrests make it hard to trespass protesters
Zane Small (Newshub): National MP Maureen Pugh deletes social media post thanking ‘Convoy 2022’ anti-COVID-19 vaccine mandate convoy
Henry Cooke (Stuff): National MP Maureen Pugh deletes post thanking protesters, says she didn’t know they were antivax
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Parliament protesters buoyed by support from Winston Peters
Rodney Hide (Bassett, Brash and Hide): I support the protest 100 percent
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Former Act leader Rodney Hide backs Parliament protest, saying answer is to ‘fight’
Zane Small (Newshub): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern brushes off Parliament protest stand-off with police
RNZ: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern tells anti-vaccine mandate protesters outside Parliament to ‘move on’
Herald: Time for protesters to move on, police’s job to handle – Prime Minister
1 News: Time for Parliament protesters to move on – PM
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Michael Neilson (Herald): 122 arrested in ‘unprecedented’ day of protest at Parliament
RNZ: Covid 19 Omicron outbreak: Anti-mandate protest enters fourth day at Parliament
1 News: Anti-vaccine mandate protest enters fourth day at Parliament
Ben Strang (Stuff): ‘On a knife edge’ – Wellington convoy protest unlike anything the city has seen
RNZ: Protest on Parliament grounds has risk of becoming superspreader event, says Michael Baker
RNZ: Police say anti-mandate protest at Parliament ‘unprecedented’
Herald: Police say protest may go on for days; 120 people arrested, 2 officers ‘assaulted’
Sophie Cornish, Erin Gourley and André Chumko (Stuff): Police arrest 122 Parliament trespassers, warn removal ‘will take some time’
RNZ: Parliament protest: Police arrest 120 in efforts to control occupation
Anna Whyte (1 News): Parliament protests: 120 arrested, police say removal could take days
Eva Corlett and Tess McClure (Guardian): New Zealand police clash with anti-vaccine protesters at parliament, over 120 arrested
Erin Gourley (Stuff): Wellington protest day 4: Quiet start after police add cordons, floodlights overnight
Herald: Sinister message left at Parliament by ‘freedom’ protesters
Herald: Police officers filmed dragging naked protester by her hair on Parliament grounds
Tess McClure (Guardian): Wellington unleashes parking wardens in operation to remove Covid protesters
Rahul Bhattarai (Herald): ‘Most volatile protest since Springbok tour’: Wellington pub owner hits out as staff abused
Tom Hunt and André Chumko (Stuff): Capital businesses call for targeted support as protest abuse escalates
Stuff: In pictures: Protesters get ready for a third night outside Parliament
RNZ: Police on hand as ticketing of protesters’ vehicles begins
Matthew Hampson (Stuff): Anti-mandate protesters to stay in Picton ‘as long as we can‘
Oscar Francis (ODT): Support in Dunedin for Parliament protesters
Herald: World reacts to ‘copycat’ anti-mandate protest on Parliament grounds
Dan Bilefsky, Ian Austen and Natasha Frost (New York Times/Herald): From Canada to NZ – copycat Covid protests spread around the globe (paywalled)
Polls, Parliament, parties, MPs
Peter Dunne (Newsroom): Luxon’s Nats stand for nothing except winning power
Michael Daly (Stuff): New Zealand rated world’s second most democratic country by Economist Intelligence Unit
Steven Cowan (Against the current): James Shaw and Marama Davidson: A failure of leadership
Anneke Smith (RNZ): Omicron outbreak may empty Parliament’s debating chamber
Omicron outbreak, cases, public health measures
Peter Dunne: Andrew Little’s refreshing honesty
Henry Cooke and Thomas Manch (Stuff): Government reveals critical workers who can test out of isolating as contacts
John Weekes (Herald): New tests and bubble scheme outlined as 122 arrested in Parliament protest
RNZ: Rapid antigen testing for return to work scheme: ‘Critical service’ registration for businesses opens today
Amelia Wade (Newshub): Business, Opposition confused by critical worker test-to-return criteria
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Government reveals ‘critical’ workers who can use tests to avoid isolating as contacts
Thomas Manch (Stuff): ‘Phase two’ of Omicron response likely to come within weeks, Dr Ayesha Verrall says
Roger Morris (Herald): What NZ gained through being tough on Covid (paywalled)
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Govt urged to buy and freely supply N95 masks
John Anthony (Stuff): Covid-19: Organisation responsible for face mask exemption cards questions the need for them
Michael Morrah (Newshub): Emergency accommodation wanted as families forced to isolate in cars, garages
Jo Moir (Newsroom): Māori-led Covid response hindered by roadblocks
ODT: Covid in South: Dunedin well placed to cope – Hawkins
Debbie Jamieson (Stuff): Cases in Queenstown and Dunedin, restaurants and bars named locations of interest
Rowan Quinn (RNZ): Queenstown Central amongst least boosted suburbs as Omicron appears
RNZ: Covid-19 case wake-up call for community says Queenstown Lakes mayor
RNZ: Two cases discovered at Gisborne intermediate school
RNZ: Covid-19 update: Record 306 new community cases in New Zealand today
Kate Hawkesby (Newstalk ZB): People aren’t testing because we have Covid fatigue
Cherie Sivignon (Stuff): Tasman council to ask WorkSafe to investigate Free Marketeers
Christopher Reive (Herald): Two teams isolating as Covid-19 hits Super Rugby Pacific
Economy, Business
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Minimum wage to rise to $21.20
Liam Dann (Herald): Who’s being hit hardest by inflation? New data reveals the cost of living
Brian Fallow (Herald): Wages show symptoms of Covid-19 (paywalled)
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Household living costs rose 5.2% in 2021, with mortgage interest included
RNZ: Household cost of living in Aotearoa rises 5.2% – Stats NZ
Michael Reddell (Croaking Cassandra): Inflation
Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): National would make inflation the RBNZ’s sole target: Luxon
Hamish Rutherford (Herald): Review of Kiwibank’s ownership, in step towards direct Government ownership (paywalled)
Herald Editorial: Bumper bank profits are a double-edged sword (paywalled)
RNZ: ASB half-year cash profit increases 22 percent, reaching $742m
RNZ: Countdown cans restrictions on goods for now
The Standard: Chloe Swarbrick Needs A Reset
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): ‘Pretty gruesome’: Restaurants call for more support in red setting
Debbie Jamieson (Stuff): ‘Desperate situation’: Event cancellations leave a $100m hole in Queenstown Lakes economy
Cats Marrett (ODT): Resort fears its thunder will be stolen
Stuart Smith (Herald): Covid restrictions put wine industry at risk (paywalled)
Janine Rankin (Stuff): Central Districts Field Days fall victim to Covid-19 restrictions
Maja Burry (RNZ): Country of origin food labelling comes into effect in supermarkets
Nona Pelletier (RNZ): Top bosses face liability insurance hikes
RNZ: Cruise ship industry hoping for 2022 return
Victoria Young (BusinessDesk): Has the market regulator finally grown a pair? (paywalled)
Darren Bevan (Stuff): Peter Jackson is the highest paid entertainer in the world, according to Forbes’ Rich List
Housing, Lending rules
Rob Stock (Stuff): Commerce Minister David Clark rejects National’s plan to restore homebuyers’ borrowing power
RNZ: House prices continue to increase, slowdown expected – QV report
Miriam Bell (Stuff): There are strong signs the housing market is easing – QV
Rachel Sadler (Newshub): House prices up 6.1 pct with New Zealand’s national average now over $1.06 million
Brad Olsen (OneRoof): NZ’s rental crisis: Country’s poorest are getting squeezed the hardest
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Newstalk ZB): We’re officially in a buyer’s market
RNZ: ASB blames new credit act for refusing some loan applications
Felix Desmarais (Local Democracy Reporting): Rotorua housing crisis: First-home buyers, elderly bear brunt of ‘dire shortage’
Imran Ali (Herald): Emergency housing in Northland: More than $2m a year spent on temporary housing (paywalled)
Nita Blake-Persen (RNZ): Families in motels brace for border opening
White Man Behind a Desk (Stuff): Once you’ve got housing density, everything gets better
Vaccine rollout
Lucy Warhurst (Newshub): 386,000 Kiwis now more than six weeks overdue for their COVID-19 booster vaccination
Matai O’Connor (RNZ): Paediatric vaccines rollout: Call for more suitable times for tamariki to receive shots
Tumamao Harawira (Māori TV): Hauora leaders want say in tamariki vaccinations
Adam Pearse and Chris McDowall (Herald): What regions are falling behind in child vaccinations? (paywalled)
Steven Walton (Stuff): ‘I was quite shocked’: Asian community falls behind in race for Covid boosters
Yashas Srinivasa (Stuff): Doctor’s vaccine exemption form holds ‘no weight’, MOH says
Sam Olley (RNZ): Anti-vaccine Murupara GP suspended pending further investigation
Health, ACC
Nicky Pellegrino (Listener/Herald): Weight-loss guru tells governments: Control Big Food like Big Tobacco (paywalled)
Cate Broughton (Stuff): 6300 health board staff have five days to get boosted to keep their jobs
Oscar Francis (ODT): Offer of payment with a catch angers widower
Toby Manhire (Spinoff): NZ aged care confident in face of omicron, but sees ‘enormous pressure’ on staffing
Rowan Quinn (RNZ): Residency eligibility leaving nurses in limbo, despite critical shortage
Mike Houlahan (ODT): Nursing shortage forces transfers
1 News: New regulations strip thousands of vape products off shelves
Andy Brew (Stuff): Chronic lack of GPs in Marlborough ‘really tough’ for everyone ahead of Omicron arrival
Emma Clark-Dow (Stuff): Auckland Uni study links paracetamol use while pregnant and childhood depression
RNZ: Marathon shearing effort nets $130,000 for charity hospital
Border, MIQ
1 News: Hipkins responds to MP’s MIQ question with Spiderman meme
Herald: Chris Hipkins replies to National MP question with Spider-Man meme
Stuff: Chris Hipkins responds to Parliamentary question with a Spider-Man meme
Siobhan Downes (Stuff): The travellers who have all but given up on their New Zealand dream
Josh Martin (Stuff): ‘Part bouquet, part baseball bat to the face’: New Zealand’s border plan proves underwhelming
Brook Sabin (Stuff): Air New Zealand relaunches 24 international routes
Education
Max Rashbrooke (Stuff): The fallacy of education as a fix for income disparities
Samantha Worthington (RNZ): Work on Māori education review continues without key groups
James Perry (Māori TV): Government’s “new dawn for Māori education” rejected by educators
Adam Jacobson (Stuff): Government spending $21m to upgrade 10 Auckland schools
Mare Haimona-Riki’ (Māori TV): Very hard’ – Schools battling with mask mandates
1 News: Seymour: Education in NZ ‘falling behind the rest of the world‘
Ellen O’Dwyer (Stuff): Unvaccinated students or staff would be trespassed from Victoria University under mandate rules
Laura Smith (Herald): Period products in schools: Free tampons, sanitary pads distributed in Bay of Plenty (paywalled)
Treaty of Waitangi
Te Kuru o te Marama Dewes (Spinoff): Hoki whenua mai: The Greens’ land back push explained
James Perry (Māori TV): What would a ‘divorce’ from the Crown mean for the Treaty of Waitangi?
John Bishop (Stuff): Let’s have a Kiwi as our head of state
Local government
Bernard Orsman (Herald): Auckland councillor Richard Hills announces he won’t be running for mayoralty
Todd Niall (Stuff): Auckland mayoralty: Richard Hills drops plans to run for top job
Stephen Forbes (Local Democracy Reporting): Efeso Collins calls for more investment in south Auckland after Covid-19 cutbacks
Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): Three waters reform: what if the Super Fund half-owned Watercare? (Paywalled)
Craig Ashworth (Local Democracy Reporting): Locals challenge loss of council seat due to new Māori ward
John Lewis (ODT): Councils’ online posts mostly ‘passive’: study
Stephen Ward (Stuff): Wages ‘war’ ramps up as councils fight for skilled staff
RNZ: Credit outlook for some local councils turns negative – S&P report
Marty Sharpe (Stuff): Council tells volunteers they may have to un-restore the war graves they’ve restored
Felix Desmarais (Stuff): Code of conduct breaches: Rotorua councillor Reynold Macpherson removed from committees
Maia Hart (Local Democracy Reporting): Marlborough District Council assessing Covid-19 ‘risk’ among staff
Maia Hart (Local Democracy Reporting): Erosion control needed for Havelock sewage treatment plant after floods
Sandra Conchie and Kiri Gillespie (Bay of Plenty Times/Herald): Covid-19, ‘delays’, blamed for Tauranga City Council $4.8m in budget ‘blowouts’ (paywalled)
Environment, Climate Change
Jill Herron (Newsroom): A secret battle over Central Otago’s new gold: water
Olivia Wannan and Eloise Gibson (Stuff): Covid and lower coal use push down emissions
Giles Dodson (The Conversation): New Zealand is reviewing its outdated conservation laws. Here’s why we must find better ways of getting people on board
RNZ: Agriculture emissions pricing deadline extended by a month
Skara Bohny (Stuff): Heaphy Track closure to last ‘several months’
RNZ: The Detail: We need to talk about feral cats
Transport, Fuel prices
Richard Worrall (Stuff): Doesn’t my city deserve world-class public transport too?
Oliver Lewis (BusinessDesk): Officials warned against hiring ‘highly destabilising’ KiwiRail chair (paywalled)
1 News: Transmission Gully opening date still a mystery
Newstalk ZB: Michael Wood: Transmission Gully will open when it’s safe
Susan Botting (Local Democracy Reporting):Northland roading challenges lead to NZ’s first regionwide speed limit reduction proposal
Riley Kennedy (ODT): Rise in fuel prices forecast to continue
Bill Hickman (Stuff): The Island Bay cycle way is up for discussion. Again.
Foreign affairs
Branko Marcetic (Democracy Project): Ukraine crisis – what Kiwis should know
Gordon Campbell (Werewolf): On the crisis – what crisis? – over Ukraine
Bruce Munro (ODT): Global Insight: NZ has role on world stage
Selwyn Manning (Evening Report): Podcast: Buchanan + Manning on Foreign Affairs – What does 2022 hold in store?
Abuse in Care inquiry
Andrew McRae (RNZ): Marylands School: Abusers used God to intimidate, victim says
Andrew McRae (RNZ): Marylands School: Abuse survivor says calls for help were rubbished
Andrew McRae (RNZ): Marylands School: Many who chose to cover up abuse complicit in ‘evil’, advocate says
Andrew McRae (RNZ): Man recalls priest taking photos while he was forced to sexually abuse another child
Primary and Extractive industries
RNZ: Some farmers with Covid-19 may be allowed to keep working – Minister
RNZ: Funding of $400,000 to support agencies helping farmers, growers prepare for Omicron
RNZ: Fruitful funding for Wairoa horticulture hub
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Tiwai smelter’s ‘will they, won’t they dance’ grates on Government
ODT Editorial: Tiwai’s unsettling uncertainties
RNZ: Southland leaders say Tiwai Point decision hopeful – for now
Other
Naomi Arnold (RNZ): Court process still putting victims’ privacy at risk
John Weekes (Herald): Retail crime surging but arrests plummeting, National blasts Police Minister
Piripi Taylor (Māori TV): Firearms Prohibition Order Bill passes first reading
Amberleigh Jack (Stuff): Bronwyn Hayward named Supreme Winner at Women of Influence awards
RNZ: Commerce Commission proposes letting gas maintenance costs be brought forward
Sandy Eggleston (ODT): Dumping of pets rising: volunteer
