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

LABOURS TAX POLICY
Craig McCulloch and Russell Palmer (RNZ): Tax experts respond to GST-free fruit and vegetables: ‘Populist’ and ‘stupid’
Gordon Campbell: On the “GST off fruit and vegetables” saga
Herald: Removing GST from food and veges is not a solution for Māori or poorer communities
Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): Can a regulator really monitor a GST cut? (paywalled)
Jo Moir (Newsroom): Hipkins reaches back into his hat after ‘boondoggle’ policy
Thomas Manch (Post): Labour’s GST policy troubled by $250m error, ignored evidence, and a guessing game (paywalled)
Duncan Garner (NBR): How taxing: fighting over small scraps is underwhelming (paywalled)
RNZ: Labour’s policy of removing GST from fruit and veges slammed, but voters support it
John Weekes (Herald): Supermarkets on political hit list respond to claims they’ll pocket GST cuts
Ryan Bridge (Newshub): Prime Minister Chris Hipkins shunning advice from tax experts Labour paid $2m
1News: Robertson defends GST plan, teases more cost of living measures
Spinoff: Hipkins simmers at Baby-Beet inquisition
RNZ: Labour stands by publicly released GST policy costings
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): GST policy document contained mistake, but Labour says there’s no ‘hole’
Tova O’Brien (Stuff): Labour’s GST own goal the gnarliest we’ve seen all FIFA Women’s World Cup
Felix Desmarais (1News): ACT: Labour’s GST off fruit and vege a ‘huge own goal’
Seni Iasona (Newshub): Labour’s tax policy leaves sour taste for Green Party, ACT
Terry Baucher (Interest): Te wiki o te tāke: Labour’s GST proposal comes at a cost for commercial property owners
Brent Melville (BusinessDesk): Removal of commercial tax write offs – Labour makes another major U-turn (paywalled)

GOVT ENDS COVID RESTRICTIONS
Derek Cheng: The downstream impacts of the pandemic will reverberate indefinitely (paywalled)
Luke Malpass (Post): Hipkins calls time on Covid-land: A game of two halves for Labour (paywalled)
Derek Cheng (Herald): Covid 19: Government ditches all remaining restrictions, as case hospitalisations rise
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): The end of Covid measures: Chris Hipkins ‘longed for the day’, but some are worried
Jody O’Callaghan (Stuff): Lifting Covid isolation will make life more isolated for vulnerable
No Right Turn: A murderous election gimmock
Adam Pearse and Jamie Morton (Herald): Final Covid-19 restrictions banished as experts assess future approach
Jenna Lynch (Newshub): Sir Ashley Bloomfield’s text to the minister upon latest COVID-19 news
RNZ: Covid-19 update: 5372, 20 further deaths and 171 in hospital
RNZ: Watch: Prime Minister Chris Hipkins speaks as government scraps remaining Covid-19 restrictions
Felix Desmarais (1News): Govt to dump all remaining Covid-19 restrictions

ELECTION, PARLIAMENT
Simon Wilson (Herald): Stuck in the middle with Labour’s GST plans and National’s mobile phone obsession (paywalled)
Adam Pearse (Herald): New Talbot Mills poll – Labour in 30s, National/Act can still govern
Tova O’Brien (Stuff): Labour’s pollsters show National-ACT can govern (just)
Rob Campbell (Newsroom): Winston, the master opportunist
Henry Olsen (Washington Post): New Zealand is showing what a viable libertarianism looks like
Ben McKay (Spinoff): Male and stale? Predicting the gender split of the next parliament
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): The Left are losing youth
Paul Moon (Post): Far from perfect, but still better than the alternatives (paywalled)
Newshub: Steven Joyce’s advice to National on its Winston Peters conundrum
1News: Q+A: Possible Nats-ACT-NZ First coalition would ‘survive’ – Steven Joyce
Toby Manhire (Spinoff): The Steven Joyce guide to winning elections
No Right Turn: The Greens’ clean power policy
RNZ: Green Party’s new clean power policy is affordable, Shaw says
Ian Llewellyn (BusinessDesk): MPs begin their last session of this Parliament with one eye on keeping their jobs (paywalled)
Amelia Wade (Newshub): How Chris Hipkins being Prime Minister is strangling his hopes of becoming PM
Ben Bell (Stuff): It looks like minor parties are leading the way in election policies
Seni Iasona and Rachel Sadler (Newshub): Politicians urge vandals against defacing billboards after multiple damaged over weekend
RNZ: Electoral Commission reminds people who have moved house to update their details to vote
Damien Venuto (Herald): The Front Page: National’s Jacqui Dean and Greens’ Jan Logie reflect on their political careers
Verity Johnson (Stuff): Most men, except Sam Uffindell, don’t see domesticity as something that deserves a medal

LABOUR’S PAID PARENTAL LEAVE POLICY
Claire Trevett (Herald): Labour’s offer for new parents is four weeks’ paid leave for partners on top of paid parental leave
1News: 4 weeks of Paid Partner’s Leave: Labour’s big election pledge
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Labour promises paid parental leave for partners, after clashing with National over policies
Rachel Sadler (Newshub): Labour promises to increase paid parental leave for partners
Brent Edwards (NBR): Labour’s election bid for parental support (paywalled)
RNZ: Labour promises four weeks’ Paid Partner’s Leave for new parents

BLACKROCK DEAL, ENERGY, CLIMATE CHANGE
1News: Q+A: Reason for caution over BlackRock climate investment – expert
The Standard: We Need to Talk About Blackrock
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Post): Contact Energy warns of $1b sting in tail to consumers from higher interest rates (paywalled)
Tim Hunter (NBR): Contact warns on looming lines company charges (paywalled)
Nona Pelletier (RNZ): Too costly to achieve 100% renewable energy with current tech – Contact Energy
Timothy Welch (Herald): Creating ‘sponge cities’ to cope with more rainfall needn’t cost billions – but NZ has to start now

PUBLIC SERVICE
Aaron Smale (Newsroom): Corrections deputy left suddenly after behaviour claims
Felix Desmarais (1News): Corrections deputy chief exec resigned amid conduct allegations
Herald: Corrections deputy chief Topia Rameka quits amid concerns about conduct
André Chumko (Post): Election Watch: Ministry staff ‘under pressure’ organising pōwhiri for new boss (paywalled)
RNZ: Ministry for Culture and Heritage reviewing how it works, kaimahi asked for input 

ECONOMY
Liam Dann (Herald): Grim verdict for NZ: No respite from downturn this year – global research group BMI (paywalled)
RNZ: Economic activity picks up but headwinds loom – Infometrics
David Hargreaves (Interest): Some experts on NZIER’s ‘Shadow Board’ think higher rates are needed
Gyles Beckford (RNZ): Reserve Bank expected to hold OCR steady as it assesses state of inflation

MIGRATION
RNZ: Migration net gain of 86,800 in year to June is largest in three years
Liam Dann (Herald): Immigration: Biggest loss of Kiwi citizens in a decade but Stats NZ says migrants still coming (paywalled)
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Net immigration back near record high as revolving-door syndrome strengthens

HEALTH
Brian Easton (Punidit): There Are Wider Lessons To Be Learned From The Failures In The Management Of The Health System
Cécile Meier (BusinessDesk): Health agency’s ‘excessive’ comms team unlikely to be reduced by much as restructure begins (paywalled)
Mana Wikaire-Lewis (Whakaata Māori): Iwi and global pharmaceutical firm sign deal to merge modern medicine and Māori practices
ODT Editorial: Ronald McDonald House (paywalled)

EDUCATION
Kate MacNamara (Herald): Public Purse: Why so many of NZ’s neediest school children could be missing out on a free school lunch (paywalled)
The Hui (Newshub): ACT wouldn’t allocate separate funding for Māori education body – David Seymour
John Gerritsen (RNZ): Fewer Year 8 children enjoy maths than they did five years ago – study
John Gerritsen (RNZ): High school principals face high level of psychological distress – survey
Dave Armstrong (Post): Phone ban will keep schools hanging … on the line (paywalled)
Emma Willis (Newsroom): The show must go on: theatre education in crisis

HOUSING
Rayssa Almeida (RNZ): Kāinga Ora puts Auckland housing development on ice after community backlash
RNZ: Ten new Kāinga Ora one-bedroom homes in Blenheim
Penny Wardle (Marlborough Express): Kāinga Ora opens 10 one-bedroom homes in Blenheim
Greg Ninness (Interest): The latest figures suggest the recent surge in immigration is putting pressure on Auckland housing
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Rent rises pick up: ‘Government seems hell-bent on punishing residential landlords’
Geraden Cann (Stuff): House prices to rise post-election, more so if National win, experts say

CRIME, JUSTICE
Anusha Bradley (RNZ): RNZ investigation reveals 11 alleged paedophiles active within the Jehovah’s Witnesses
Anusha Bradley (RNZ): Jehovah’s Witness elder alleges order to destroy evidence in child abuse cases
Amelia Wade (Newshub): National’s Mark Mitchell accuses Chris Hipkins of personal responsibility for crime, will resign if it doesn’t improve under him
Katie Ham (Stuff): String of fatal shootings sees NZ reach half its annual gun deaths in 17 days
Jordan Dunn (RNZ): So much crime in central Auckland that it has become normal for locals, resident says
Fuimaono Dylan Asafo (Whakaata Māori): Act’s pledge to abolish cultural reports is racist and inhumane – law lecturer
Yvette Tinsley (Newsroom): The problem with jury trials

BUSINESS
RNZ: Record $3.675m One NZ fine under Fair Trading Act a ‘real deterrent’
Brianna McIlraith (Stuff): One NZ cops biggest Fair Trading Act breach fine for misleading customers
Matthew Dallas (Manawatū Standard): Dignity in the aisles: First social supermarket in Palmerston North opens

PRIMARY INDUSTRIES, CONSERVATION
Andrew Bevin (Newsroom): Fishery’s sustainability more important than commercial interests, says court
Isobel Ewing (Newshub): Fishers lash out at Green Party over calls to halt longfin eel fishing
Rachael Kelly (Stuff): Environment Southland carries out second winter grazing flight
Tina Morrison (Stuff): Fonterra is getting ready to tackle its biggest source of emissions – farmers

NELSON TENTHS
Samantha Gee (RNZ): Long-running Nelson Tenths Māori land case back in High Court in Wellington
Tracy Neal (Open Justice): Nelson Tenths Reserves: Losses to Māori from broken promises over land purchases estimated at more than a billion dollars

TRANSPORT
RNZ: Let’s Get Wellington Moving staff paid on average twice what other Wellingtonians earn
Anneke Smith (RNZ): Wellington’s half-price transport fares to end next month
Jonathan Killick (Stuff): Auckland rail crossings will be closed 45 mins an hour during peak commute

OTHER
Gavin Ellis: Feathers will fly as Willie puts the cat among the kiwis
John Braddock (World socialist website): New Zealand intelligence report targets China over “foreign interference”
Lyric Waiwiri-Smith (Stuff): Jacinda Ardern recalls ‘netball knickers’ at gender equity panel