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.
NZ Politics Daily: 8 September 2023
ELECTION
Bernard Hickey: An interview with PM Chris Hipkins
Tova O’Brien (Stuff): Labour source says party’s internal polling is ‘f…ed’
Tova O’Brien (Stuff): Has Labour entered the killzone on its own internal polling?
Matthew Hooton (Herald): Minor parties gain as purple power fades (paywalled)
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Support for Chris Hipkins plummets, as Labour hits new low in poll
Adam Pearse (Herald): Labour drops in new poll as Chris Hipkins returns to Wellington
Luke Malpass (Post): Nearly two-thirds of voters think country going in wrong direction (paywalled)
Barry Soper (Newstalk ZB): Can Labour turn its polling slide around?
Liam Hehir (The Blue Review): Labour’s Misinformation Crisis
Tim Watkin (RNZ): A campaign of fear and loathing? Nah, the facts matter more
RNZ: Labour removes false advertising over public transport for disabled people
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Labour accused of desperation after making repeated false claims about National
Vanisa Dhiru (Herald): Inclusion, equity and truth: The complex terrain of NZ’s election (paywalled)
Jenna Lynch (Newshub): Chris Hipkins admits getting public transport info ‘wrong’ as another untrue Labour attack ad emerges
Andy Fyers (BusinessDesk): Election 2023: The right bloc now has a clear lead (paywalled)
Josie Pagani (Post): Without Great Causes, no wonder we’re miserable (paywalled)
Matt Raskovic (Post): Populist policies a danger from left or right (paywalled)
Metiria Stanton Turei (ODT): Leadership is an essential political question for voters (paywalled)
1News: Housing, health, cost-of-living top of mind for Pasifika voters
Jenna Lynch (Newshub): Analysis: Chris Hipkins needs to crank up a gear to stay in election race
Dileepa Fonseka (BusinessDesk): Chris Hipkins sets out how he would grow the economic pie
Amelia Wade (Newshub): National vows to boost immigration to help New Zealand economy
Derek Cheng (Herald): Christopher Luxon waves his magic wand over Queenstown
Andrea Vance (Post): If Luxon wants to win, he’ll have to strike out of safe waters (paywalled)
ODT: Mayor challenges Luxon on housing consent push (paywalled)
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Act MP-in-waiting did not publicly disclose censure over real estate deal
Nicholas Jones (Herald): Act leader David Seymour reveals election fleet – Big Pinky, Little Pinky, a private plane
Stewart Sowman-Lund (Spinoff): All aboard ‘big pinky’: Act unveils candidate-emblazoned bus
Newshub: Watch Lloyd Burr quiz ACT candidates aboard ‘Big Pinky’
Shanti Mathias (Spinoff): Everyone running in Ilam needs to win
Maia Ingoe (Salient): Candidate Kōrero: Julie-Anne Genter
The Standard: Where is NZ First’s list?
Brent Edwards (NBR): Labour’s economic plan, goodbye ute charge, and a gloomy outlook
Glenn McConnell and Anna Whyte (Post): A new Great Walk and 300 more police latest political promises (paywalled)
Newsroom: Raw Politics: Things get personal
Herald: The Front Bench – Heather du Plessis-Allan, Barry Soper, Phil O’Reilly, Richard Hills on big political issues
Darren Bevan (Newshub): Newshub’s Decision 23 election coverage, live debate times and dates revealed
RNZ: Call for politicians to follow Google’s lead on AI advertising
1News: Flashback Friday: Watch the famous election ads from NZ’s history
Courtney Winter (Herald): How TikTok could be the social media platform to swing the election
Vaughn Davis (Post): My life as Orange Guy’s stepfather (paywalled)
PUBLIC SERVICE, STATE SECTOR
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Reserve Bank chair’s ‘totally inappropriate’ work with National Party
Michael Reddell: Just making stuff up: the chair of the RB Board and the blackball on expertise
Eric Crampton: Blackballing academics for the Monetary Policy Committee?
Richard Harman: Hughes bye date (paywalled)
Jem Traylen (BusinessDesk): Head of public service announces he’s retiring five months early (paywalled)
Anna Whyte (Post): High profile public servant Peter Hughes to retire in February (paywalled)
LABOUR’S CRIME POLICY, CORRECTIONS
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Labour ‘crackdown’ on gangs: Can police confiscate tractors? And is 300 new cops enough?
Thomas Manch (Post): Worsening crime ramraids its way into being a top election issue (paywalled)
Giles Dexter (RNZ): Labour’s crime crackdown promise met with cautious optimism – but not from National
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Labour’s gang convoy crackdown could be used for any large processions intimidating Kiwis
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Labour promises more cops, gang convoy crackdown, stalking law, re-announces new ram-raid offence
RNZ: Watch: Labour promises more frontline police, will explore making stalking a crime
Felix Desmarais (1News): Labour pledges 300 extra police officers, targets gangs and stalkers
Matthew Scott (Newsroom): Prime Minister turns his eye to crime in Hamilton
Tova O’Brien (Newshub): Labour considering new stalking offence with jail time attached
Will Trafford (Whakaata Māori): Davis defends plans to put 12 and 13 year olds through criminal justice system
Will Trafford (Whakaata Māori): Released Māori prisoners turned away for housing amid stark stats
Matthew Hansen (Stuff): NZ Police unveil new electric car in celebration of ethnic diversity
NATIONAL’S TOURISM POLICY
Brent Edwards (NBR): Tourism spending will still be cut as part of National’s plan (paywalled)
RNZ: National’s tourism policy promises new Great Walk, holiday visas rework
Felix Desmarais (1News); Great Walk, changes to holiday visas pledged in Nats’ tourism plan
BUSINESS, COST OF LIVING, ECONOMY
Dita De Boni (NBR): Are 90-day trials set to return to all NZ workplaces? (paywalled)
Louise Ternouth (RNZ): What happens when prices keep rising, but your budget does not?
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): One NZ ranked worst mobile provider in terms of customer service by ComCom
Rebecca Stevenson (Interest): Commerce Commission issues its first rankings for mobile and broadband customer service. Here’s how they rated
Rob Stock (Post): Motorists be warned: insured values fall even as used car prices rise (paywalled)
Susan Edmonds (Stuff): The capital gains tax you don’t know you’re paying
Sam Stubbs (Post): Breaking the ‘vicious circle of mediocrity’ to make New Zealand rich again (paywalled)
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): We need more productivity
Brianna Mcilraith (Stuff): How consumers can protect themselves as more companies go bust
David Cunningham (Interest): New Zealand banks need to do right by their customers, and it starts with dropping mortgage rates
Gareth Vaughan (Interest): Squirrel’s David Cunningham explains how interest rates are set and how banks have been able to boost their margins by about 20%
Rituraj Sapkota (Whakaata Māori): Ngāti Tūwharetoa drops bid for Ruapehu Alpine Lifts; reserves stance under its Treaty claim settlement
GAMBLING
Tim Hunter (NBR): How to invest in addiction (paywalled)
Liu Chen (RNZ): Shame, stigma fuelling increased Asian risk to gambling addiction
HEALTH
Hannah Martin (Stuff): Thousands waiting more than a year for planned medical treatment
Bill Hickman (RNZ): Emergency doctors call for 24 hour security staff at all New Zealand EDs
Jemima Huston (RNZ): Wellington Hospital staff worry for safety over reduced car parks in Newton
Rachel Thomas (Post): New breast cancer screening sites aim to prevent backlogs (paywalled)
Tony Wall (Stuff): Health agency keeping details of patient deaths secret from public
Piers Fuller (Post): Plans to build charity hospital near Basin Reserve (paywalled)
TRADE, FOREIGN AFFAIRS, DEFENCE
Phil Pennington (RNZ): New Zealand faces dilemma over AUKUS ‘replicator’ drone swarm plans
Paul Buchanan: “Second image” issues in NZ foreign policy
1News: NZ trade delegation heads to China as its economy falters
Thomas Manch (Post): Canada claims ‘victory’ after NZ defeats its restrictive dairy trade policies (paywalled)
Andrew Bevin (Newsroom):Canadian diplomacy curdles when it comes to milk
Oliver Lewis (BusinessDesk): NZ help needed to combat illegal fishing in Pacific
TRANSPORT
Anne Gibson (Herald): National calls $33m Auckland Light Rail building deal ‘a shocker’ (paywalled)
1News: Labour and National at odds as to how to get people into EVs
Conor Knell (Post): Can National start the second Mt Vic Tunnel as quickly as they say? (paywalled)
Mark Quinlivan (Newshub): Extending Warkworth to Wellsford, Cambridge expressways could boost New Zealand’s GDP by nearly $500 million per year – report
Herald: Two highway projects will each add ‘billions’ to economy, Simon Bridges says (paywalled)
John MacDonald (Newstalk ZB): A lesson in squandering public money
Andrew Williams (Post): Big increase in cyclists passing Basin Reserve (paywalled)
Tom Hunt (Post): Metlink scraps plans to electrify diesel buses (paywalled)
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Janine Rankin (Manawatū Standard): Palmerston North mayor Grant Smith fails to get rid of STV
Nicholas Boyack (Post): Upper Hutt, where Māori are almost politically invisible (paywalled)
Sue Teodoro (Local Democracy Reporting): Māori ward under discussion in South Wairarapa
Tim Scott (ODT): Board member won’t back toppling Williams over racism
Andrea Fox (Herald): Port of Auckland: The cost of rebranding after dropping ‘s’ from name is modest (paywalled)
EXTREME WEATHER
RNZ: Twyford calls for independent body to handle appeals for flood-damaged home categorisations
RNZ: Napier civic awards pivot to honour Cyclone Gabrielle heroes
HOUSING
Emma Stanford (RNZ): 1000 new state homes in Auckland every year described as a ‘stretch’, but doable
David Hargreaves (Interest): More FOOP? Or the return of FOMO? – What is it to be New Zealand?
Samantha Gee (RNZ): Nelson’s proposed housing intensification: ‘They are stealing our sunlight’
EDUCATION
Anna Sargent (RNZ): National’s Erica Stanford tells school to fight plans to slash roll, but won’t commit to keeping it as is
Gabrielle McCulloch (Stuff): ‘Slap in the face’: Government delays roll out of reduced class sizes for schools
Phil Pennington (RNZ): School building projects face delays and cost blowouts
John Gerritsen (RNZ): Fewer parents applying to home-school children following pandemic
Sarah Hearinga (Stuff): Students succeeding despite exploitative second jobs
Janine Rankin (Manawatū Standard): Massey University job losses would cut deep into Palmerston North
OTHER
Olivier Jutel (Newsroom): MPs’ report ignores track record of crypto boosterism
Shayne Currie (Herald): Media Insider: TVNZ boosts security for political reporters; Kiri Allan’s legal letter to media; the Christopher Luxon NZ Herald advertisement (paywalled)
Ethan Manera and Zoë Mills (Salient): Paddy Gower Just Wants to be a GC
Spinoff: ‘He actually hit me’: The moment Marama Davidson was struck by a motorbike
Emma Hatton (Newsroom): Fresh High Court pokie claim filed against Internal Affairs
David Farrar: A good suggestion from the Clerk of the House
Edward Gay and Melanie Earley (Stuff): Billy Te Kahika says envelopes of cash for whānau – not a donation
RNZ: Moriori call for official week to celebrate indigenous language
Kelvin McDonald (Whakaata Māori): Petition seeks support for official Moriori language week
Laura Smith (Local Democracy Reporting): How Rotorua halved early deaths from air pollution
Caleb Fotheringham (RNZ): Cooks’ tourism industry upbeat, but anger persists over high air fares
Herald Editorial: Queen Elizabeth’s death, King Charles’ accession and the monarchy’s relevance a year on (paywalled)
