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
Vaccine Mandates, vaccine certificate goes live
Anna Whyte (1 News): Poll shows 74% of Kiwis support workforce vaccine mandates
Gordon Campbell (Werewolf): On the politics of vaccine toughlove
Bridie Witton (Stuff): Freedoms shrinking for unvaccinated
Michael Neilson (Herald): Why health officials support vaccinated over unvaccinated people travelling
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): Is the vaccine worth risking your career for?
John Weekes (Herald): Big call bosses must make before demanding jabs
Riley Kennedy (ODT): Worker support in vaccine process critical—experts
Susan Hornsby-Geluk (Stuff): How employers can handle workers’ requests for vaccination exemptions
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Workers who leave jobs over vaccine mandate ‘won’t face benefit standdown’
Georgia O’Connor-Harding (Herald): Expected rush of unemployment benefit applications from unvaccinated workers
Josephine Franks (Stuff): Homeless whānau asked for vaccine proof by emergency housing agencies
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Lana Andelane (Newshub): Vaccine certificate system ‘already struggling to cope’, site crashing as Kiwis try to secure their ticket to freedom – Chris Hipkins
1 News: Vaccine pass will ‘maximise opportunity to travel’ – Hipkins
Henry Burrell (BusinessDesk): How to vaccine pass (paywalled)
RNZ: Official Covid-19 vaccine certificate to go live
Stuff: ‘Good news’ as vaccine pass launches, says Chris Hipkins
Anna Whyte (1 News): Requests for Covid-19 vaccine passes open today
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Vaccine passes launched, will be needed for ‘extra freedoms’ over summer
1 News: What you need to know about My Vaccine Pass
Zane Small (Newshub): COVID-19 vaccine certificates are ready – here are five things you need to know
Justin Giovannetti (Spinoff): Your vaccine pass is ready
Dan Lake (Newshub): New Zealand COVID-19 vaccination certificates will be accepted in European Union
Adam Pearse (Herald): Government slams private vaccination ID card developers
Vaccine Mandate – education, all children return to school
Perry Rush (1 News): Opinion: Vaccination key to enabling education to function
John Gerritsen (RNZ): Schools cover for unvaccinated teachers
Ellen O’Dwyer and Jody O’Callaghan (Stuff): Principals say most teachers have complied with mandate, early childhood council concerned
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Scientists, journalists, ambassador offer to video call classrooms to help teachers with workload
Ella Stewart (RNZ): Experts offer Zoom classes to help teachers needing extra support
Giles Dexter (Newshub): Coronavirus: Schools seeing impact of missing staff who are unvaccinated
Matai O’Connor (RNZ): 94% kura staff have had at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine
John Weekes (Herald): Unvaxxed teachers put 11 schools on edge as mandate approaches
Gianina Schwanecke (Herald): Barred Hastings teacher feels ‘depleted’, student leader says mandate reasonable (paywalled)
Emma Houpt and Megan Wilson (Rotorua Daily Post/Herald): Rotorua teacher among ‘small number’ quitting as jab mandate takes effect (paywalled)
Ireland Hendry-Tennent and Heather McCarron (Newshub): Unvaccinated Canterbury teacher ‘soul-destroyed’ after being stood down, calls jab mandate a ‘human rights issue’
Katy Jones (Stuff): Vaccine mandate ‘knee jerk’, spurring ‘hatred’ – school staff say
Wyatt Ryder (ODT): Facing mandate’s ‘grim’ effects
Stuff: 200 teachers, ‘vaccinated or not’, keen to work for online school
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Jacques Steenkamp (BusinessDesk): Trusting the govt our unvaccinated children are safe (paywalled)
RNZ: US expert: start testing NZ classrooms for Covid-19
Dubby Henry (Herald): Staggered starts, alternate days as Auckland primary schools reopen
Herald: Back to school for thousands of kids today
Herald: East Auckland student infectious at school for five days
Vaccine Mandate – health
Moana Ellis (Local Democracy Reporting): Up to 33 unvaccinated Whanganui DHB workers could lose jobs
Sophie Trigger (Herald): Nearly 120 Wellington nurses and midwives with unknown jab status
Louisa Steyl (Stuff): Some Southern home care hours to be cut in wake of vaccine order
RNZ: Southern DHB prepares for fewer home visits as vaccine mandate impacts staffing
Govt management of Delta outbreak, Auckland border, regional borders
Jamie Morton (Herald): The three things NZ urgently needs before virus spreads (paywalled)
Jenna Lynch (Newshub): Government may allow negative test as alternative to vaccine for summer travel
Katie Scotcher (RNZ): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to reveal timing of Auckland border restrictions easing
Adam Jacobson (Stuff): Cabinet due to reveal detail of Auckland border reopening
1 News: Separate dates for Auckland’s border lift, traffic light move – PM
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): National MPs disagree on Auckland boundary, Judith Collins and Chris Bishop not sure about spot checks
1 News: Auckland border needs to open so Kiwis can ‘get on with life’ – Collins
Andrew Barnes (Herald): The toughest question – How many deaths is our freedom worth? (paywalled)
Katie Scotcher (RNZ): Cabinet advised to move to traffic light system sooner than planned
Matthew Hooton (Patreon): Anti-Vaxxers, America’s Cup, Freedom Day & MIQ (paywalled)
1 News: Govt speaks with Northland leaders as Auckland reopening date looms
Denise Piper (Stuff): National MP slams Northland communication, as 47th case confirmed
Lana Andelane (Newshub): Auckland Mayor Phil Goff hopeful Aucklanders will be able to travel by early December, suggests spot-checks at border
Herald Editorial: Easing Auckland open from Covid 19 Delta outbreak restrictions (paywalled)
Herald: Experts say Waikato alert level 2 move too early
Karen Rutherford (Newshub): Waikato businesses prepare to welcome back patrons as region awaits imminent level 2 move
Zane Small (Newshub): Opposition erupts after Jacinda Ardern defends allowing crowded shopping in Auckland but not outdoor dining
RNZ: Covid-19 wrap: NZ sees record community cases number; MPs to receive more security
Cases, Delta spreads
Derek Cheng (Herald): Tracking the Covid 19 Delta outbreak – How it arrived, simmered through lockdown, then spread beyond reach (paywalled)
Rukuwai Tipene-Allen (Māori TV): Rawiri Taonui’s nightmare – a ‘white’ Christmas with 6000 Māori Covid cases
Demelza Leslie (Newshub): Māori bearing brunt of outbreak with warning 7000 could be infected by Christmas
Herald: Up to 6000 Māori could be struck with Covid by Xmas – experts say
Whatitiri Te Wake (Māori TV): Three generations of Northland whānau – including newborn – contract Covid
Hannah Martin (Stuff): Have a plan in case the virus finds you, Aucklanders urged
1 News: Person with Covid-19 dies in Auckland
Vaccine rollout
Justin Latif (Local Democracy Reporting): Cabinet never considered prioritising South Auckland vaccines, documents reveal
Jeff Talon (Herald): A vaccination ‘worm’ reveals just how well we are doing (paywalled)
1 News: Annual booster of Covid vaccine ‘likely’ not needed – expert
RNZ: Third dose of Pfizer vaccine ‘really lifts the level of immunity’, immunologist says
Justin Giovannetti (Spinoff): Booster shots are coming. When should you get yours?
Bridie Witton (Stuff): Children aged 5 to 11 could be eligible for Pfizer vaccine early next year
Caitlin Allen (Spinoff): ‘It still haunts me’: A vaccination plea from an ICU nurse in London
RNZ: Health Ministry briefing on Covid-19 vaccination rates
Louisa Steyl (Stuff): Southland, Otago slowing vaccination rates expected, says DHB
Jamie Tahana (RNZ): Ōpōtiki races to vaccinate community before summer visits
Adam Pearse (Herald): Family hesitancy affects vaccination for disabled people
Jake McKee (RNZ): Families weigh up decisions on whether to mingle with un-vaxed people
Contact tracing, testing
Michael Morrah (Newshub): Health officials apologise after pregnant Auckland mum waits four days to find out she has virus
Amelia Wade (Newshub): Close contacts of COVID cases continue to climb but only half have been tested
Tamati Tiananga (Māori TV): Meatworker becomes community Covid-19 swabber
Home isolation, MIQ, Border
Maxine Jacobs (Stuff): Whānau isolating in overcrowded homes need more than a phone call, clinic says
Lincoln Tan (Herald): Auckland woman feels deprived of ‘basic human right’ to be with husband
Vaccine misinformation, protests, rule breaches
David Fisher (Herald): There’s a high chance of a domestic terror attack before 2022 ends (paywalled)
Chris Keall (Herald): GCSB’s cyber unit tracks big rise in cyber attacks, Covid misinformation – its plan to fight back (paywalled)
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): GCSB’s cyber arm warns foreign ‘investment’ in disinformation likely to grow
Helen Harvey (Stuff): Anti-mandate protestors surround Labour Party offices in New Plymouth
Belinda Feek (Herald): Hamilton man facing multiple charges after Claudelands protest
Diane McCarthy (Rotorua Daily Post): Murupara unites in support of unvaccinated doctor
Scott Yeoman (Stuff): Tagging of testing marquee a ‘kick in the guts’
1 News Colmar Brunton poll, parliament, parties
Jason Walls (Newstalk ZB): Collins and Ardern will both be worried about their slipping personal popularity
1 News: ‘Judith has my total support’ – National MPs rally after poll
Zane Small (Newshub): National leader Judith Collins blames low popularity on how hard it is to ‘tell people they got sold a pup at the election’
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Judith Collins blames ratings drop on Labour voters not liking being told they were wrong
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Newstalk ZB): The popular or polarising Prime Minister?
Lloyd Burr (Magic): Death threats to MPs need to stop. Now.
Russell Palmer (RNZ): MPs to get more security provision after death threats over vaccinations
Henry Cooke (Stuff): ‘Things are starting to escalate’: Labour whip Kieran McAnulty wants review of security arrangements following antivax threats
Herald: Labour’s Kieran McAnulty raises concerns about MPs’ safety as anti-vaxx anger rises
Jo Moir (Newsroom): Increased security at MPs’ Wellington residences
Russell Palmer (RNZ): MPs’ security in the spotlight after anti-vaccination attacks
Zane Small (Newshub): Labour MPs on high alert amid death threats, ‘ongoing attacks by anti-vaxxers’
Richard Harman (Politik): What Helen, Jim and Winston learned from 1996 (paywalled)
Neale Jones (Herald): A clearer picture of inside a lobbyist’s world
Luke Kirkness (Herald): Rotorua MP Todd McClay ordered to leave Parliament after quizzing Health Minister
Nita Blake-Persen (RNZ): Checkpoint: National distances itself from ex-MP after video with discredited academic
Herald: Kiri Allan, Jan Tinetti, Ayesha Verrall: first-time ministers on year one in Cabinet (paywalled)
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Ardern-Swarbrick 2023 + Chloe’s secret super power
Aaron Leaman (Stuff): Former National Cabinet minister and ‘statesman’ John Luxton dies
Andrea Fox (Herald): Dairy industry champion and former National Cabinet minister John Luxton dies
1 News: Former National MP John Luxton dies aged 75
Three Waters, local government
Steven Walton (Stuff): Councils ask court if they can get ‘full and fair’ compensation in water reforms
Susan Botting (Local Democracy Reporting): District council trio file Three Waters challenge in Wellington High Court
Felix Desmarais (Local Democracy Reporting): “Insulting”: Te Arawa rep leaves meeting over governance model proposal
Logan Savory (Stuff): Mayor Sir Tim Shadbolt raises concerns over ‘undemocratic’ council committees
Laura Smith (ODT): Sir Tim lone voice against proposals
Maia Hart (Stuff): Council moves to keep three councillors for Marlborough Sounds
Yashas Srinivasa (Stuff): Waimate District Council adds informal, open to public, workshops to meetings structure
Rachael Kelly (Stuff): Environment Southland missing out on millions in cruise ship fees as maritime borders remain closed
Robin Martin (RNZ): Kaitake Trail stalled as hapū does not support council’s concept
Georgina Campbell (Herald): Wellington City councillors’ unwanted pay rise reaches Regulations Review Committee
Joel MacManus (Stuff): Wellington is moving: Why you should still be optimistic about the capital
Gary Hamilton-Irvine (Hawkes Bay Today/Herald): Ocean Beach- New barrier to block vehicle access angers surfers (paywalled)
Environment, climate change, conservation
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Grappling with dread on the frontlines of the climate fight
ODT Editorial: Agreeing to disagree at COP26
RNZ: Pacific civil society disappointed after “most exclusionary” COP
Charlie Gates (Stuff): Hospital in Christchurch one of the first to get carbon zero certification
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Tesla says big carmakers are using disproved arguments to fight NZ carbon targets
Courtney White (ODT): Covid protection turns to liability for wildlife
Economy, business, wage subsidy
Dileepa Fonseka (Stuff): Inflationistas get their day in the sun, but what should the Reserve Bank do about it?
Robert MacCulloch (NBR): Labour’s economic strategy unravels (paywalled)
Gyles Beckford (RNZ): Increase in cargo helps drive record profit at Napier Port
Jonathan Milne (Newsroom): Provinces worst hit by rising prices and shortages
RNZ: Timber shortage hits fencing contractors with weeks-long delays
James Wenley (Newsroom): When will arts in Aotearoa get the green light?
Tess Brunton (RNZ): Visitors spending more in Buller, Westport and Reefton, but Westland numbers down
Employment, Immigration
Jane Nixon (1 News): CTU calls on Government to lift minimum wage to living wage level
Esther Taunton (Stuff): Call for $22.75 minimum wage to reward essential workers
1 News: Some Warehouse distribution centre workers striking today
Adam Jacobson (Stuff): More than 280 workers strike at The Warehouse Group distribution centre
Vanessa Phillip (Stuff): Worker shortage could put squeeze on apple season
BusinessDesk Public Sector series
Oliver Lewis (BusimessDesk): Yes, minister: Chris Finlayson on robust advice
Nikitin Sallee (BusinessDesk): Why the annual report doesn’t substitute for trust
Michael Andrew (BusinessDesk): New pay assessment tool recognises cultural values
Nikitin Sallee (BusinessDesk): Editor’s note: we know it’s hard in there
Housing
Bernard Hickey (Spinoff): The ambitious plan to build 10,000 high quality, affordable rentals
Chlöe Swarbrick (Herald): ‘Two birds, one stone. Economic efficiency, even.’
Miriam Bell (Stuff): Government silent on healthy homes deadline extension
Kerre McIvor (Newstalk ZB): Can we not have a Three Strikes rule for Kāinga Ora?
Alistar Kata (Fair Go): Couples devastated as sunset clause invoked on new homes
Herald: Will house prices keep rising? All your housing market questions answered (paywalled)
Bernard Orsman (Herald): National sticking to its guns on greater intensification in leafy suburbs
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Kiwibank withdraws low-deposit home loan preapprovals
Mike Mather (Stuff): Billion-dollar Te Awa Lakes development north of Hamilton gets green light from city council
Health
Anusha Bradley (RNZ): ACC privacy breach claims in Korean embassy assault case
Samuel Pollen (Stuff): Doctor who left England is now back in thick of Covid-19 in Auckland
Katie Townshend (Stuff): Fears for non-Covid patients as Nelson-Marlborough preps for virus arrival
Sophie Trigger (Herald): Wairarapa Hospital has Covid capacity, but no ICU, as second Masterton case recorded
Stephen Forbes (Local Democracy Reporting): $300m funding shortfall affecting diabetes treatment – Counties Manukau DHB
Christine Perrins (Herald): Give Kiwis with cystic fibrosis a future to look forward to
MIke Houlahan (ODT): Ministry rejects upper noise limit
Transport
Kristin Hall (1 News): Minister can’t recall when KiwiRail workplace concerns raised
Gill Bonnett (RNZ): Filipino workers stuck in Cook Islands shocked by Air New Zealand cancellations
RNZ: CAA tells inquest it is ‘significantly more effective than it was’
Foreign affairs and trade
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta warns of ‘rising nationalism’ during trip to Indonesia
1 News: NZ on show at Dubai World Expo; $300M return expected
Animal welfare
Farah Hancock (RNZ): Pressure on KFC as Domino’s ditches ‘Frankenchickens’
Louise Ternouth (RNZ): Checkpoint: Puppies kept in cages in pet stores throughout lockdown
Mark Quinlivan (Newshub): SPCA investigating after two ‘traumatised’ puppies allegedly left in pens at Auckland pet stores over lockdown
Primary industries
Newstalk ZB: Groundswell Wairarapa cancel protest for fear of anti-vax hijack
Brianna Mcilraith (Stuff): After racist rant, Tatua director ‘deserved to lose his job’, says Māori leader
Ireland Hendry-Tennent (Newshub): Tatua director Ross Townshend resigns over disrespectful social media post about Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta
RNZ: Tatua accepts Ross Townshend’s resignation over social media comments
George Driver (Spinoff): Will New Zealand workers save Central Otago’s summer harvest?
Retirement
Rob Stock (Stuff): Mind the gap: Couples need $809,000 nest egg to retire with ‘choices’ at age 65
Priscilla Dickinson (Newshub): Retirement report reveals widening gap between living costs and NZ Super
Katie Todd (RNZ): Extra savings remain critical for retirees, new guidelines stress
Rachel MacGregor awarded damages for Colin Craig defamaton
Sarah Robson (RNZ): Rachel MacGregor awarded $400,000 after being defamed by ex-Conservative Party leader Colin Craig
Alison Mau (Stuff): Colin Craig ordered to pay $400,000 to press secretary he harassed
Other
Benedict Collins (1 News): Debate rages over controversial beneficiary sanction
Mandy Te (Stuff): Initiative creates platform to highlight barriers some whānau experience in social sector
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): A scathing report has recommend IRD have mandated ‘plain English’ lessons and more pictures -report (paywalled)
Sally Britnell (The Conversation): Good design lies at the heart of normalising disability – NZ’s new Ministry for Disabled People must make it a priority
Hamish Rutherford (Herald): RNZYS members petition for special meeting to demand America’s Cup stays in Auckland (paywalled)
Edward Gay (Stuff): Survivors call for new Government entity to hear allegations of institutional child abuse
RNZ: Covid-19 the focus of National Iwi Chairs Forum final hui for 2021
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): NZDF whitewash their war crime whitewash
Stuff Editorial: Unpacking homegrown appropriation of Māori culture
Newshub: Wellington Body Shop store addresses ‘NZ, not Aotearoa’ billboard, says ‘we are not responsible for it’
Herald: Lockdown baby boom: Number of births in 2021 highest since 2015
1 News: Increased number of births in 2021 confirm lockdown baby boom
RNZ: Cyber threats continue to increase in New Zealand, new report finds
Daisy Hudson (ODT): Uni report will identify climate-related financial risks
Sally Rae (ODT): Advocating for a more equitable, diverse, inclusive world
RNZ: RNZ adds to media awards with three wins at international competition
