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.

Today’s content

MEKA WHAITIRI TO STAND FOR TE PĀTI MĀORI
Wena Harawira (Whakaata Māori): Meka Whaitiri jumps waka to Māori Party in shock move
Glenn McConnell and Luke Malpass (Stuff): Labour minister Meka Whaitiri to stand for Te Pāti Māori
Richard Harman (Politik): The Maori Party and Labour’s chances increase (paywalled)
1News: PM unaware of rumoured MP defection until UK arrival
Herald: Prime Minister Chris Hipkins learned shock news of minister Meka Whaitiri jumping ship to Te Pāti Māori on arrival in London
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Meka Whaitiri: Labour appears caught off guard as announcement looms
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Māori Party shockwave – Labour Cabinet Minister to defect
David Farrar: Meka defects
Jenna Lynch (Newshub): Prime Minister’s Office appears to be blindsided by Meka Whaitiri move
Newshub: National says Labour ‘falling apart’, people escaping ‘sinking ship’ amid reports Meka Whaitiri defecting to Māori Party
Felix Desmarais (1News): Labour’s Meka Whaitiri to switch sides to Te Pāti Māori

PARLIAMENT, PUBLIC SERVICE
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Senior Green members to quit over ‘dragged out’ Elizabeth Kerekere bullying investigation
Roy Morgan: New Zealand: National/Act NZ on 44.5% are now just ahead of Labour/Greens on 42% but neither is set for a majority
Bridie Witton (Post): The dark arts of opposition research – does it work in New Zealand? (paywalled)
Bridie Witton (Post): Does opposition vetting in New Zealand work? (paywalled)
Thomas Manch (Post): National challenges ACT for votes of 240,000 firearms users
Bridie Witton (Post): Winston Peters returns to Wellington with some strange new bedfellows (paywalled)
Jem Traylen (BusinessDesk): The Business of Government: DPMC’s Brook Barrington, trust in government and more … (paywalled)
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): National continues pursuit of Labour’s alleged secret tax in rowdy Question Time

IMMIGRATION
Madeleine Chapman (Spinoff): An apology and a wake-up call (literally)
Barry Soper (Newstalk ZB): Heads should roll over Immigration NZ’s ‘dawn raid’ tactics
Russell Palmer (RNZ): Minister Michael Wood warns Immigration NZ over dawn raids tactics
RNZ: Dawn raid tactics still happening, despite government apology
Mildred Armah (Stuff): Immigration NZ mistakenly issues 115 visas, family told they could be deported
Gill Bonnett (RNZ): Iranian-born doctor endures 17-month wait for security checks in visa process
Ankur Sabharwal (Stuff): It’s easy to lie and cheat your way into New Zealand
Elly Fleming (RNZ): The lottery keeping families apart and holding New Zealand back
William Hewett (Newshub): Economist Brad Olsen sounds alarm on impact of surging migration on critical resources

TRANSPORT
Thomas Coughlan and Chris Knox (Herald): Remuera-dwelling Tesla drivers – Where are the clean car rebates going? (paywalled)
Felix Desmarais (1News): ‘Tacky little culture war’: Wood, Brown spar over clean car scheme
Bernard Hickey: Govt throttles rebate scheme for electric cars
Tom Taylor (RNZ): Clean car customers waiting on orders may lose rebate
Nile Bijoux (Stuff): Biggest losers: those hit hardest by the Clean Car changes
Matthew Hansen (Post): Within the bowels of Clean Car measures lies a cruel irony (paywalled)
RNZ: EV rebates changed, fees on high-emitting vehicles raised under Clean Car Discount rethink
1News: Rebates and fees: Changes to Clean Car scheme explained
Piers Fuller (Post): Clean Car Discount changes hit farmers, tradies and used car buyers (paywalled)
Brianna Mcilraith (Stuff): Further charges to clean-car discount scheme ‘bitter pill to swallow’ for farmers and tradies (paywalled)
No Right Turn: Michael Wood: Climate saboteur
Piers Fuller (Stuff): KiwiRail admits ‘systems failure’ leading to Wellington network fiasco
Georgina Campbell (Herald): KiwiRail reveals further problem that led to Wellington’s train fiasco
RNZ: KiwiRail orders investigation into failures leading to Wellington disruption
William Hewett (Newshub): KiwiRail boss admits they weren’t fully accurate in reasons behind Wellington’s rail disruptions
RNZ: Bus shortage adds to Wellington’s train troubles
William Hewett (Newshub): Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau calls for tougher punishments for Restore Passenger Rail protesters
Herald: Auckland’s bus woes: Mayor Wayne Brown says he is ‘seeking answers’ after swarm of cancellations

COST OF LIVING
Cameron Smith (Herald): Cost of living: 300,000 more New Zealanders worrying about money weekly (paywalled)
Rachel Sadler (Newshub): Cost of living: One in two Kiwis worry about money daily or weekly as financial issues negatively affect wellbeing – report

HOUSING
Nicky Hager (Post): The bad processes risking bad decisions at Shelly Bay (paywalled)
Peter de Graaf (Northern Advocate): Kāinga Ora a no-show at public meeting about Kerikeri social housing plans
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Reserve Bank: Mortgage holders paying 22% of income in interest by year’s end
David Hargreaves (Interest): RBNZ expects more mortgage borrowers to fall behind with payments this year
Jenée Tibshraeny (Herald): Government won’t support stressed mortgage holders (paywalled)
Greg Ninness (Interest): Residential property values are continuing to slide as the market heads towards winter
Miriam Bell (Stuff): Auckland’s median price drops below $1 million
Miriam Bell (Post): Why landlords hate not being able to issue ‘no cause’ terminations (paywalled)
Liam Hehir (The Blue Review): Why I support National’s tenancy policy
Marty Sharpe (Stuff): Conditions for those living in council-owned motor camp ‘appalling, unfair’
John Collyns (Stuff: Let’s give people living in retirement villages some credit, please

TAX
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Post): No hiding from fact NZ’s wealthiest families own $85 billion (paywalled)
Gareth Hughes (Stuff): Tax reports gives us a failing grade
Richard Prebble (Herald): Why taxing ‘the rich’ will hurt us all

FOREIGN AFFAIRS, CORONATION
Jamie Ensor: National MP Simon O’Connor says New Zealand ‘stable’ because of constitutional monarchy, other systems have violence like ‘in Sudan’
Liam Hehir (The Blue Review): Independence Daze: When did Aotearoa / New Zealand break free?
Herald: King Charles’ coronation: Prime Minister Chris Hipkins meets Prince William at Windsor Castle
1News: Chris Hipkins arrives in UK ahead of King’s coronation
Catherine Hubbard (Nelson Mail): Kiwis relaxed, friendly and good negotiators, says EU diplomat
Peter Fa’afiu (Stuff): The urgent need to protect human rights in a more insecure, threatening world

ENVIRONMENT, CLIMATE CHANGE
Isobel Ewing (Newshub): Heatwaves melt 17 pct of ice off Southern Alps glaciers in three years – study
Timothy Gordon Walmsley and James K Carson (The Conversation): NZ industry burns the equivalent of 108 litres of petrol every second – that has to reduce to meet our carbon targets
Nicholas Boyack (Post): ‘Substantial’ sea wall needed for shared pathway to protect Eastbourne (paywalled)
Jonathan Killick (Stuff): Councils look to build ‘waste to energy’ plant to burn Auckland rubbish

EXTREME WEATHER, NATURAL DISASTERS
Tom Hunt (Post): The disaster scenarios keeping those in charge up at night (paywalled)
Kate Green (RNZ): ‘There’s no timeline’: Communities in limbo awaiting categorisation of cyclone damage
RNZ: Mayors of cyclone-affected regions want certainty for flood-damaged properties
RNZ: Records tumble as IAG works way through deluge of claims
RNZ: Hawke’s Bay needs more financial assistance or faces ruin – report

HEALTH
Katie Kenny (Stuff): Tales from the front line: ‘Ninety-nine percent of the time, we have no beds’
Katie Kenny (Post):’ I’ve stopped looking for respite now’: Healthcare workers are burning out as winter approaches (paywalled)
Gianina Schwanecke, Lee Kenny and Anna Whyte (Post): ‘A whole new addiction’: Calls for Government to do more to stop young people vaping (paywalled)
Anna Whyte (Stuff): NZ won’t follow Australia’s vape crackdown this Parliamentary term – health minister
Giles Dexter (RNZ): Urgent debate needed on future on vaping in New Zealand – GP
Anusha Bradley (RNZ): An unauthorised video sparked a woman’s years-long fight for support
Emma Houpt (Rotorua Daily Post): Lakes children face long waits for dental surgery, ‘complex problem’ worsening in NZ (paywalled)
David Farrar: Our immunisation disaster
RNZ: Stroke risk ‘quite significant’ in younger people – prize-winning scientist

LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Stewart Sowman-Lund (Spinoff): Mayor and licensing trust boss at odds over job ‘option’ for harassment complainant
Michael Fallow (Post): Call for Invercargill councillor to resign after stadium incident (paywalled)
RNZ: Teen employee ‘left in tears’ by comments from Invercargill City councillor Nigel Skelt
Damien Venuto (Herald): The Front Page: Stadium wars – Should we renovate Eden Park or build a waterfront stadium?
Tommy de Silva (Spinoff): Christchurch’s journey to becoming a more inclusive city
David Hill (Local Democracy Reporting): ‘Speed dating’ with Hurunui’s mayor
Susan Botting (Local Democracy Reporting): Whangārei’s old town hall to get renovated, council to pay

MEDIA
The Facts: Kiwis rate media leanings
Stuff: RNZ misled public over Govt decision to wrap up MIQ, broadcast watchdog rules
Duncan Greive (Spinoff): Why Police Ten 7 had no option but to end

EDUCATION
Hamish McNeilly (Press): University of Otago quiet on volunteers for redundancies as union plans stop-work meeting
David Cohen (The Australian): NZ tertiary institutions risk going broke by going a bit woke (paywalled)
Gabrielle McCulloch (Stuff): Teacher strikes: What you need to know about the upcoming protests
Sharon Brettkelly (RNZ): The Detail: Inside the government’s school lunches programme
The Hui (Newshub): Calls for Kura Kaupapa Māori scheme to run alongside existing system
Adam Hollingsworth (Newshub): Northland principal says region is cracking the school absence crisis
Jerry Coyne: A new paper presages the death of science in New Zealand

PINK SHIRT DAY, BULLYING, SHANEEL LAL
The Ministry has fallen: Bully fronts anti-bullying campaign
Bob McCoskrie: The inconvenient truth about Pink Shirt Day
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Can Shaneel Lal really claim people are critical because of topless photos?

PRIMARY INDUSTRIES, OIO
Matthew Ronsenberg (Local Democracy Reporting): ‘Extreme danger’ at Gisborne beaches until after winter
Whanganui Chronicle: Horizons Regional Council to carry out aerial assessment of intensive winter grazing
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Federated Farmers claim Greenpeace is lying about Farmers poisoning water when that’s exactly what is happening
Tina Morrison (Post): Ikea investment firm buys livestock farms in Southland, Hawke’s Bay for forestry conversion (paywalled)
Anne Gibson (Herald): Dutch forestry giants linked to Ikea cleared to buy 1600ha more NZ land (paywalled)
Anne Gibson (Herald): Coca-Cola cleared to buy Auckland homes: Mt Wellington expansion planned (paywalled)

OTHER
Alexander Gillespie and Claire Breen (The Conversation): Parliament protest report shows NZ police have come a long way since 1981 – but practice and law must still improve
Rachel Sadler (Newshub): Single parents facing ‘discrimination’ in daily lives, ‘negative attitudes’ from govt departments, employers – report
Jo Moir (Newsroom): Ministers consider whether community services card ‘fit for purpose’
Herald Editorial: What’s in it for me? (paywalled)
1News: Generous Kiwis donate $36.6m to charity amid cost of living crisis
Rose Crossin and Joe Boden (Newsroom): An Aotearoa drug policy for the 21st Century
Bess Manson (Stuff): Sir Ashley Bloomfield back in front of the camera, with new acting gig