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
BANKS
Rob Stock (Stuff): By the numbers: Here’s why some people think banks are making too much money
Gareth Vaughan (Interest): How the RBNZ, Payments NZ & the Government have contributed to holding back competition in NZ banking
Bridie Witton (Stuff): National seeks to claim position as the cost-of-living party with call for banking inquiry
Russell Palmer (RNZ): Labour leaning towards Commerce Commission for bank profits inquiry
Felix Desmarais (1News): All parties keen for select committee banking inquiry except Labour
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): National calls for ‘short, sharp’ banking inquiry, Greens on-board
Jenée Tibshraeny (Herald): Bank profits: Grant Robertson says select committee ill-equipped to conduct an inquiry (paywalled)
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): National wants inquiry into bank profits – Greens say time for excess profits tax
Rob Stock (Stuff): National says ‘short, sharp’ inquiry into banking competition needed
Riley Kennedy (BusinessDesk): Nat’s Willis calls for select committee inquiry into retail banking
Jenny Ruth (BusinessDesk): Banks ‘welcome’ prospect of an inquiry (paywalled)
Gordon Stuart (Stuff): Where the focus of a banking inquiry really needs to go
Lane Nichols (Herald): ANZ bank offers $19k settlement to pensioner who lost $36k to scammers, acknowledges victim’s stress
PUBLIC SERVICE
Peter Dunne: Government looking more and more erratic
William Hewett (Newshub): Peter Dunne slams Government over ‘remarkable inconsistency’ over way three senior public servant cases handled
Bryce Wilkinson (Herald): What ails the public service and why? (paywalled)
Grant Duncan (The Conversation): NZ has a history of prominent public servants who were also outspoken public intellectuals – what’s changed?
Robert MacCulloch: Let’s put the game the Government & Public Service Commission are playing out there on the table
Tova O’Brien (Today FM): The most remarkable political verbal acrobatics I’ve ever seen
Merepeka Raukawa-Tait (Herald): Rob Campbell’s faux pas did not require his removal (paywalled)
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Public Service Commissioner provides advice on Pharmac chair Steve Maharey after political comments, has been asked to write to chairs about impartiality rules
Craig McCulloch and Russell Palmer (RNZ): Former Labour MP Ruth Dyson caught up in political neutrality crackdown
Adam Pearse (Herald): Fire and Emergency NZ’s Ruth Dyson challenged over social media comments about National Party Opposition
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Former Labour MP Ruth Dyson to ‘review’ social media over concerns about political tweets while in Fire and Emergency role
Jenna Lynch (Newshub): Public health boss in Labour ad: Why no rules may have been broken
Anna Whyte and Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Steve Maharey breached impartiality rule but will keep jobs, as another chair faces scrutiny
Russell Palmer (RNZ): Steve Maharey will not lose jobs despite political comments – Hipkins
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Pharmac chair Steve Maharey not being sacked over political comments
Richard Harman (Politik): Simeon Brown and Peter Hughes clash over the state of the public service (paywalled)
William Hewett (Newshub): Christopher Luxon says pay freeze on public servants might need to go, but they need to perform better
Anna Whyte (Stuff): Public Service Commissioner questioned by MPs as pay restraint nears three years
CONSULTANTS, CONTRACTORS
Phil Pennington (RNZ): Luxon confuses health agency with ministry when putting comms staff in firing line
RNZ: Christopher Luxon says health comms staff ‘a good place to start’ in public service cuts
William Hewett (Newshub): Christopher Luxon says PM Chris Hipkins wrong about business advisory council hiring consultants
Jonathan Mitchel (NBR): National questions ‘massive’ spend on consultants at WorkSafe (paywalled)
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Labour’s reliance on consultants part of their cultural Professional Managerial Class capture
PARLIAMENT
Brent Edwards (NBR): Reporting election issues more important than the race (paywalled)
Karl du Fresne: Please remind me – who’s Jacinda?
Ripu Bhatia (Stuff): New Zealand’s voting system ‘one of the best’ – US academic
Gary Hamilton-Irvine (Hawke’s Bay Today): Once a political force: Social Credit Party deregisters, vows to rebrand in 2024
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Chloe drags the Greens back to economic justice – will it be enough?
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Right’s reliance on Billionaire donations part of their cultural capture
Joseph Los’e (Herald): Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni off work after her son breaks his leg
Te Aorewa Rolleston (Stuff): From marae lawns to the Beehive: Hamilton West MP Tama Potaka delivers maiden speech
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Michael Curreen (ODT): New minister implied Three Waters changes: Gore District Council CE (paywalled)
Justin Hu (1News): Invercargill mayor unapologetic for saying n-word, says it again
Michael Fallow (Stuff): Nobby Clark – those weren’t my words
Luisa Girao (ODT): Nobby Clark called out for use of ‘n-word’
Sam Brooks (Spinoff): Bleak: Invercargill’s mayor just used the n-word
Shilpy Arora (Stuff): Auckland budget: Proposed cuts would have ‘devastating impact’, community leaders say
BusinessDesk: Brown hires former Molloy spin doctor (paywalled)
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Co-governance with Māori is preferable to Co-governance with Corporations (but 3 Waters is still a problem)
Glenn McLean (Taranaki Daily News): Council rejects New Plymouth homeowner’s plea for help with crumbling cliff
RNZ: Wellington convention centre a catalyst for more development in capital, mayor says
Susan Botting (Local Democracy Reporting): Whangārei District Council’s new $59 million civic centre leaking monstrosity – former mayoral candidate
Robin Martin (RNZ): Council decides against paying to help stabilise landslip next to New Plymouth home
TRANSPORT
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Who cuts emissions if not road users? (paywalled)
Bernard Hickey: Young prefer wealth tax to fuel tax, while the old oppose such taxes
Damien Venuto (Herald): The Front Page: What has caused the many Cook Strait ferry failures?
Chris Schulz (Spinoff): Approved, cancelled, on standby: A ‘horrific’ 24 hours trying to board the Interislander
CENSUS
Michael Daly (Stuff): Census website reports 2.6m individual forms completed by the end of census day
Lucy Xia (RNZ): Census officials aim for most inclusive survey to date
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Why Census will be a flop
Kahu Rapira-Davies and Lucy Hu (Stuff): Why the ‘New Zealand European’ tick-box on forms like the census has to go
HOUSING
Mildred Armah (Stuff): Kāinga Ora to demolish 27 flood-damaged homes in West and south Auckland
Stephen Forbes (Local Democracy Reporting): Street’s future hangs in the balance amid plan to demolish homes after flooding
Matthew Scott (Newsroom): Housing crisis: Fresh blows from Gabrielle
Miriam Bell (Stuff): House prices remain nearly 25% higher than pre-pandemic
Piers Fuller (Stuff): Wellington house prices continue to drop, wiping out huge pandemic gains
RNZ: House prices drop further with Rotorua topping list
Miriam Bell (Stuff): Online property seekers are not rushing to buy this year
CHILD WELFARE
Bridie Witton (Stuff): Outgoing children’s commissioner raises serious concerns about new system
Adam Pearse (Herald): Minister Kelvin Davis warns Oranga Tamariki officials over shoddy information sharing
Jimmy Ellingham (RNZ): Lake Alice survivor wants memorial created at water tower on site
No Right Turn: Can our government really hold itself to account for torture?
HEALTH
Ian Powell: Health New Zealand turns to Star Wars and the Ancient Sith; what would Yoda say?
Danica MacLean (Herald): Majority of health professionals approved for immigration pathway already in NZ
Kate Green (RNZ): Minister expects hospitals to plan for increased demand during winter
Rachel Smalley (Today FM): If this was an organisation in the private sector, Maharey would be long gone
Kristie Boland (Stuff): ‘The whole system is failing’: Five anaesthetic technicians leave Christchurch Hospital in three weeks
Stuff: Vaccine mandate case victory agreed for family caregivers
Rachel Thomas (Stuff): Rooftop ward green-lit at Wellington Hospital, work continues on leaky pipes
Kelly Burrowes (Newsroom): Women aren’t exactly from Venus, but they are different
Rachel Thomas (Stuff): Hub for hapū māmā opens in Porirua in effort to improve access to maternity care
Herald: Always ‘lurking’: Nationwide increase in meningococcal cases prompts warning for students to be vigilant
Herald: 18-year-old student admitted to Christchurch Hospital with meningococcal disease
RNZ: Student confirmed as third case of meningococcal disease in Canterbury this year
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Covid spreading in university halls
Mac Gardner (ODT): To avoid a fate worse than death, change assisted-dying law
EXTREME WEATHER, CIVIL DEFENCE, INFRASTRUCTURE
RNZ: What regions need, three weeks since Cyclone Gabrielle
Martin Brook (The Conversation): The red and yellow sticker dilemma – how do we balance safety with the desire to return home after a disaster?
Morgan Godfery (Stuff): Marae are an integral part of our civil defence infrastructure
Lianne Dalziel (Newsroom): Red zoning isn’t a quick and easy solution – I should know
Chris Keall (Herald): Is Chorus wrong to stop selling ‘reliable’ old copper lines in an age of wild weather? (paywalled)
CLIMATE CHANGE, ENVIRONMENT, RMA
William Hewett (Newshub): What Labour needs to do on the climate to get Greens’ support, according to Shaw
Anna Whyte (Stuff): Two years after promise, DOC phase-out of coal still 3 years away for ‘investigation’
RNZ: Downing trees for Marlborough airport carparks ‘epic fail in fight against climate change’
Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): Why the Infrastructure Commission isn’t submitting on RMA reforms (paywalled)
Lindsay Wood (Newsroom): Cyclone will cost over 2% of our GDP – less than cost of properly tackling climate crisis
Byron Clark (Newsroom): Pandemic madness ‘just a rehearsal’
FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND TRADE
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Senior government analyst accused of reporting to Chinese government by Security Intelligence Service
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Exclusive: Government briefs Australia on efforts to avoid China economic freeze (paywalled)
Gordon Campbell: On using the trade weapon against China
Nicholas Khoo and Alex Tan (The Diplomat): The Political Case for a New Zealand-US Free Trade Agreement
MEDIA
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Willie Jackson defends spending millions on RNZ-TVNZ merger, hopes it can go ahead one day
Jane Patterson (RNZ): RNZ/TVNZ merger: Minister defends ongoing payments on scrapped project
Duncan Greive (Spinoff): Australia is moving boldly with a ‘Netflix quota’. Will New Zealand follow?
Stewart Sowman-Lund (Spinoff): After three years away, Stuff has (accidentally?) returned to Facebook
BUSINESS
Graeme Peters (Stuff): How can we secure our electricity networks for the future?
Herald: Breaking the glass ceiling: 10 of the most powerful women in NZ business
GENDER EQUALITY
Julia Gabel and Chris Knox (Herald): Interactive: Where gender diversity is getting worse in NZ — check how your profession is doing
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Newstalk ZB): Cancel the opinion piece, women need accessible early child care
1News: ‘More work to do’ on gender equality in NZ – Jan Tinetti
PRIMARY INDUSTRIES
RNZ: Processing forestry slash on-site an immediate solution – Scion chief executive
Sally Rae (ODT): Bearing the brunt of’ wave of policies and proposals’
GEORGINA BEYER
David Herkt (Herald): Georgina Beyer: The courageous wahine toa with generous spirit
Piers Fuller (Stuff): Georgina Beyer to get Carterton street named after her
EDUCATION
Gavin Brown (Newsroom): We have to face the truth – our kids aren’t good at writing
Penny Simmonds (Stuff): Problems mount for polytechnic mega-merger
OTHER
Hamish Cardwell (RNZ): Police lawyers advised photographing youth likely breached UN protections for children
Nona Pelletier (RNZ): Clubs urged to make sure they are complying with new law
Andrew Bevin (Newsroom): Liquor trusts acknowledge community returns inadequate
RNZ: New Pike River images showing ‘considerable damage’ will help investigation
