New Zealand Politics Daily is a collation of the most prominent issues being discussed in New Zealand. It is edited by Dr Bryce Edwards of The Democracy Project.
Items of interest and importance today
PUBLIC SERVANTS, CONSULTANTS AND CONTRACTORS
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall says Pharmac chair Steve Maharey has offered resignation, she’s seeking advice
Claire Trevett (Herald): Health Minister Ayesha Verrall fronts on Rob Campbell sacking, says Steve Maharey offered to resign after columns criticising National
Russell Palmer (RNZ): Public sector boss Steve Maharey has offered to resign – Health Minister
1News: Pharmac chairman Steve Maharey offers resignation over columns
Duncan Garner (Today FM): Steve Maharey must be sacked as of yesterday
Lloyd Burr (Today FM): One law for Rob Campbell, one law for Steve Maharey
Rachel Smalley (Today FM): No one wins if we have major instability across our public service
Sharon Brettkelly (RNZ): The Detail: Ashley Bloomfield, the public service and political neutrality
Oliver Hartwich (Newsroom): Germany’s political public service v NZ’s myth of neutrality
1News: Interim Te Whatu Ora board chair appointed after Campbell sacking
Bridie Witton (Stuff): Naomi Ferguson named interim board chairperson of Te Whatu Ora – Health NZ
Jenna Lynch (Newshub): Hundreds of public servants earning more than $100k get pay rises despite freeze
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Public servants might get a pay rise, as Chris Hipkins and Chris Luxon try to use fewer consultants
Anna Whyte (Stuff): Public Service Commissioner to be questioned by MPs as pay restraint nears three years
Dita De Boni (NBR): Consultant-using Luxon vows to banish public sector consultants (paywalled0
Heather du Plessis-Allan: The Nats are onto something by targeting the Government’s consultancy spending
Russell Palmer (RNZ): National targets consultancy spending figures in Question Time
Herald: Question Time: National’s Christopher Luxon, Act’s David Seymour tackle PM Chris Hipkins on consultant use
Fiona Ellis (ODT): Bill for consultants tops $51m (paywalled)
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): RNZ-TVNZ merger board is still working, costing thousands a day
Jane Patterson (RNZ): ‘Ludicrous’ spending on establishment board weeks after RNZ/ TVNZ merger canned
PARLIAMENT
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Government looks set to ditch Jacinda Ardern’s attempt to lower voting age
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): No decisions yet on lowering the voting age – Kiri Allan
Mark Quinlivan (Newshub): Voting age: Prime Minister Chris Hipkins not ruling out referendum
Audrey Young (Herald): National makes limited progress on new women candidates (paywalled)
Madeleine Chapman (Spinoff): Fight for Life: Political match-ups we’d pay to watch
Anneke Smith (RNZ): Stuart Nash won’t fight in charity boxing match, but ‘not scared of Mark Mitchell’
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Chris Hipkins formally corrects record in Parliament over tax haul mistake
Adam Pearse (Herald): New MP caught by emotion as he honours ancestors in maiden statement to Parliament
ECONOMY, TAX
Louise Delany (Public Health Communication Centre): Tax policy reform: equity, fairness, and health
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Why the Reserve Bank could be forced to shelve its inflation target
Liam Dann (Herald): Has inflation peaked? The dynamics are shifting around the world, says ANZ (paywalled)
David Hargreaves (Interest): ‘It’s worryingly easy to imagine inflation remaining above the RBNZ’s target over the next few years’
RNZ: Treasury figures show $2.36 billion deficit for seven-month period
EXTREME WEATHER
Adam Pearse (Herald): Cyclone Gabrielle: Police Minister challenges Opposition claim gang members threatened roadworkers with guns
Bonnie Sumner (Newsroom): The toxic mile
Adam Burns (RNZ): Primary sector cyclone fund boost welcomed but more needed, farmers say
Herald: Police uncontactable list from Cyclone Gabrielle reaches zero, Joseph Ahuriri still missing
Tom Taylor (RNZ): Muriwai residents bring in own geotech experts for stickered homes
Louise Ternouth (RNZ): Some ‘spongy’ city properties already soaking up heavy rainfall in Auckland
Rewi Newnham (Stuff): Cyclone Gabrielle highlights landslide at Shelly Bay
RNZ: Two key state highways reopen in Wairoa
CLIMATE CHANGE, ENVIRONMENT, RMA
RNZ: Failing to take decisive climate action could shrink economy by $4.4 billion – report
Richard Prebble (Herald): How to pay the price of climate change (paywalled)
Brigitte Morten (NBR): General agreement RMA reforms are a mess (paywalled)
Jamie Gray (Herald): NZ power generators say RMA’s replacement will stifle investment
Karen Pasco (ODT): Mining exploration decision lawful
TRANSPORT
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Government-commissioned survey suggests replacing fuel tax with wealth tax – and people love it (paywalled)
Dileepa Fonseka (BusinessDesk): Recalculating: government’s transport funding u-turn (paywalled)
RNZ: Emissions still in mix but weather-proofing transport network crucial – Hipkins
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Greenpeace takes aim at Government over transport change, but Michael Wood says there’ll still be focus on emissions reduction
Bernard Hickey: Ford Ranger Man drives over Michael Wood
Asia Pacific Report: Greenpeace accuses Labour govt of ‘robbing’ climate mitigation funds to fix storm damage
1News: Michael Wood says cycleway, bus lane proposal mischaracterised
Michael Hosking (Newstalk ZB): Michael Wood was dragged kicking and screaming back to reality
LOCAL GOVERNMENT, THREE WATERS
Lauren Crimp (RNZ): Wellington City Council turns down $10m funding request for water network repairs
Hamish MacLean (ODT): Ex-ORC chief got $300,000 in ‘termination payments’
Katie Townshend (Nelson Mail): Nelson mayor moves to ‘thwart’ transfer of Nelmac assets under Three Waters
Georgina Campbell (Herald): Fourteen exemption applications made to new water regulator
Michael Fallow (Stuff): Nobby Clark threat leads to reported Audit NZ assurance
Rachael Kelly (Stuff): Council CEO says he was ‘surprised’ to learn that people had been playing near wastewater ponds
Rachael Kelly (Stuff): Police will not investigate Gore toddler’s death for a third time
HOUSING
Kelly Makiha (Rotorua Daily Post): Rotorua Lakes Council bills Government $420,000 for share of emergency housing hearing costs
Anne Gibson (Herald): $200m plans: Auckland Council, Housing NZ selling Fletcher land for 300+ homes (paywalled)
Malcolm McCracken: Can we afford greenfield growth in our cities?
Rob Stock (Stuff): Here’s why US home loan borrowers can fix for 30 years, and we can’t
Nona Pelletier (RNZ): Industry needs to work together to address critical housing shortages – Property Council
Tom Hunt (Dominion Post): Gang-linked tenant prompts round-the-clock security at Wellington council flats
EMPLOYMENT
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): By the numbers: What does the minimum wage increase really mean?
ODT Editorial: Clarity needed on worker safety concerns
RNZ: Warehouses with potentially dangerous designs getting a closer look
HEALTH
Rowan Quinn (RNZ): Ambulances turned away from Auckland Hospital’s full emergency department
Isaac Davison (Herald): Emergency departments under pressure: Ambulance staff called in to help, patient beds overflow into hospital cafe
RNZ: Dunedin Hospital postpones operations due to staff shortages and high emergency demand
ODT: ‘Very busy’ Dunedin Hospital postpones some operations
Hannah Martin (Stuff): Millions of dollars’ worth of measles vaccines among expired doses last year
Hannah Martin and Rachel Thomas (Stuff): Cystic fibrosis drug Trikafta, Keytruda for lung cancer to be funded
Stephen Forbes (Local Democracy Reporting): Supermarket vouchers part of push to turn around dire child immunisation stats
Eda Tang (Stuff): World-first digital platform for menstrual health education launched in Aotearoa
Deena Coster (Taranaki Daily News): MP brokers health solution for 60 rest home residents at risk of losing GP
Nicholas Boyack (Dominion Post): Spirit of Sister Suzanne will live on as church-based rest home goes private
CENSUS
David Williams (Newsroom): Everybody counts (but not twice, please)
RNZ: Census officials confident they’ll get almost everyone this time – including Harry Styles
Emma Clark-Dow (Stuff): ‘I’ve done it!’: Harry Styles announces he completed NZ Census at concert
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
Damien Venuto (Herald): The Front Page: How the confidence gap stifles women in the workforce
Brianna Mcilraith (Stuff): The times companies got International Women’s Day so wrong
Eda Tang (Stuff): It’s as important to listen as it is to speak up, says social justice advocate
EDUCATION
Adam Pearse (Herald): Isolation from school leads to 20pc increase in youth court proceedings – Justice Ministry
Jody O’Callaghan (Stuff): Kura lays formal complaint over armed police response to toy gun
MĀTAURANGA MĀORI
Graham Adams (The Platform): Dawkins’ views on teaching mātauranga Māori go viral
Katie Harris (Herald): How mātauranga Māori is being rolled out in schools, Rangi Mātāmua explains the knowledge system
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Andrew Macfarlane (1News): Experts say Australia faces threat of war with China
Mark Quinlivan (Newshub): Chris Hipkins says ‘I’m just not making a comment’ on whether Govt would back possible US sanctions on China over Ukraine
CO-GOVERNANCE
Mana Wikaire-Lewis (Whakaata Māori): Co-governance the answer for country’s challenges – Waikato professor
Helmut Karewa Modlik (Stuff): We’ve been doing co-governance all along, just look at the Treaty
GEORGINA BEYER
Chris Carter (Spinoff): ‘Georgina had guts’: Chris Carter remembers Georgina Beyer
Tess McClure (Guardian): Sex worker, survivor, Māori TV star: world’s first transgender MP remembered as trailblazer
Louisa Wall (Stuff): Georgina Beyer `an outstanding example of the potential of humanity’
Mana Wikaire-Lewis (Whakaata Māori): Louisa Wall on Georgina Beyer: ‘She smashed stereotypes’
RNZ: Carterton council to consider naming road after late Georgina Beyer
EXTREMISM
Juliet Moses (Plain Sight): Byron Clark’s explanation raises more questions than answers
Juliet Moses (Plain Sight): What Byron “extremism expert” Clark isn’t telling you?
Alexia Russell (RNZ): The Detail: The toxic world of the manosphere
OTHER
Simon Collins (Herald): We need to decolonise our world view and make alliances with movements in Australia, Pacific, Asia, Africa and the Americas
Herald: Whakatōhea will sign settlement on May 27, 2023 – 183 years after signing Te Tiriti
Rachel Stewart: Not everything is about free speech
Zoe Hunter (Bay of Plenty Times): Dozens attend Tauranga library’s Rainbow Storytime despite complaints
Tommy de Silva (Spinoff): Courageous kōrero is the first step to overcoming intergenerational trauma
Leighton Keith (Herad): Another meth-positive dog prompts SPCA to call for end to greyhound racing
Lincoln Tan (Herald): More than 26,000 still waiting for their 2021 Resident Visas, immigration lawyer says delay ‘unacceptable’
Aaron Smale (Newsroom): First torture, now solitary – NZ’s shame
Alex Spense (Herald): Teens, social media and mental health: ‘New Zealand has been incredibly slow to respond’
Lois Williams (RNZ): Reefton turns the lights on again
