NZ Politics Daily - 10 October 2019
10 October 2019
Today's content
Local government
Andy Asquith and Andrew Cardow (Stuff): No quick fixes to low voter turnout
Chris Trotter (Daily Blog): Let’s Hear It For Up-Close-And-Personal, Hard-Copy Democracy!
David Farrar: I’m with the PM on this one
Aaron Leaman (Stuff): Aspiring councillors talk about why young councillors are so rare
Denise Piper (Stuff): Local body elections: Northland mayoral candidates want transparency on convictions
Te Kuru o te Marama Dewes (Māori TV): Time is running out to vote in Tairāwhiti
Gerald Piddock (Stuff): King the lone supporter in amalgamation with neighbouring Waikato councils
Christina Persico (Taranaki Daily News): New Plymouth District Council's inflatable poo emoji hits the election campaign trail
Georgie Ormond (Herald): Local Focus: Equity for Māori is core issue for Whanganui DHB
Jono Galuszka (Stuff): Horizons candidates give their views on how to sort Horowhenua's environment problem
Alex Braae (Spinoff): A beautiful local government friendship comes to an end
Virginia Fallon, Dileepa Fonseka and Joel Maxwell (Stuff): Auditor's report into Porirua mayor's spending due; council boss remains tight-lipped
Dileepa Fonseka (Dominion Post): What five Wellington mayoral candidates would do in their first 100 days
Harry Lock (RNZ): Candidates support 'blue belt' protection of Wellington coast
Georgina Campbell (Herald): Incoming Wellington City Council to be schooled on Treaty of Waitangi
Mark Quinlivan (Newshub): Tasman resident uses Official Information Act to find out how to deal with mosquitoes
Tina Law (Press): Christchurch mayoral contenders challenged to reveal backers
Tina Law (Press): Christchurch mayoral candidate engages lawyer over breaches by rival
Daisy Hudson (ODT): Pace of voting starts to increase
Daisy Hudson (ODT): DCC takes first step to explore running bus service
Immigration
Zane Small (Newshub): PM Jacinda Ardern defends Immigration Minister's quick read of Karel Sroubek's file
Derek Cheng (Herald): Sroubek review: Immigration Minister to disempower himself in deportation cases
Jo Moir (RNZ): Sroubek review: Ministers should be 'above the fray'
Derek Cheng (Herald): Sroubek deportation review: Immigration NZ should have inquiry powers
Anna Whyte (1News): Review sparked by Czech drug smuggler saga finds Immigration Minister should be able to ask for advice in complex cases
Collette Devlin (Stuff): Decisions around Karel Sroubek residency debacle 'risky'
Laura Walters (Newsroom): Sroubek review finds undue risk in deportation process
Scott Palmer (Newshub): Review into Immigration New Zealand's deportation process finds room for improvement
Tova O’Brien (Newshub): Renewed call for Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway to resign over Karel Sroubek case
Barry Soper (Newstalk ZB): Who is really running this Government - the bumblers or the bureaucrats?
Gill Bonnett (RNZ): Greens' family reunification policy review seeks more settlement funding
Lincoln Tan (Herald): Abandoned Indian bride vows to fight for better life after being granted NZ residency (paywalled)
Transport
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): After 70,000 WoFs fail, NZTA urged to learn people, not companies, are its customers
Michael Morrah (Newshub): Former NZTA worker 'frustrated' by agency's failure to follow regulatory process
Phil Pennington (RNZ): Road user bill hikes after road safety regulatory failures
1News: Road Transport Forum calls on NZTA to act as regulator and target those not following rules
Jason Walls (Herald): Government has given NZTA an extra $45m after damning 'wake-up call' report
Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): Extra $45m for NZTA after damning report on regulatory failures
Anna Whyte (1News): NZTA failed to properly regulate transport sector, review finds
Zane Small (Newshub): NZTA boss Sir Brian Roche tells WOF certifiers to 'rectify' or risk having licences taken
Zane Small (Newshub): Review finds NZTA's regulatory model is 'dispersed, 'not performing'
RNZ: Review finds NZTA road safety regulation failings
NBR: Revamp of NZ Transport Agency after independent review (paywalled)
Damian George (Dominion Post): Regional mayors still questioning $6.4 billion transport programme
Mark Quinlivan (Newshub): Aucklanders get opportunity to walk section of $4.4b City Rail Link
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): If the government isn't buying electric vehicles why should we?
NZ First
Danyl Mclauchlan (Spinoff): The NZ First leaks reveal a furious party fighting back against its leadership
Craig McCulloch (RNZ): Ex-NZ First president Kevin Gardener says leak source must be a senior figure
Zane Small (Newshub):Winston Peters condemns 'malicious' leak of New Zealand First members' personal details
Tim Murphy (Newsroom): Peters leak: Stand by for a surprise
Martyn Bradbury: What is actually happening inside NZ First’s implosion?
Government
Claire Trevett (Herald): Labour bulldozes the Green Party (paywalled)
Glen McConnell (Stuff): No capital gains tax, not even pill testing: this three-headed Government is out of juice
Economy, surplus
Richard Harman (Politik): Robertson and Ardern get good news on the economy
Press Editorial: A Government surplus creates new problems
Toby Manhire (Spinoff): Quiz: Can you tell the difference between the parties’ finance talk?
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Don Brash downplays $7.5 billion Government surplus
RNZ: Simon Bridges: Surplus is at the expense of New Zealanders
Jason Walls (Herald): National Leader Simon Bridges: Government should cut taxes after the $7.5b surplus
Duncan Garner (Newshub): Surplus shows Government fleecing New Zealanders
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Big surplus makes argument against tax cuts harder to swallow
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Brian Tamaki would spend $7.5 billion Government surplus on 'empowering parents package'
Education
RNZ: 'He was a very happy young man' - stepfather of student whose body lay undiscovered for weeks
Herald: Hostel chased family for unpaid bills as student lay dead, dad claims
Jessica Long (Stuff): Victoria University of Wellington hall cancels award for 'hermit' of the year
Kristy Johnston (Herald): Studies, parties and drink: a deadly culture (paywalled)
Josephine Franks (Stuff): Auckland Uni students vow to occupy quad until VC apologises over white supremacy row
Rae Hughes (Stuff): Sending kids to 'good schools' no guarantee of a better education
Stuff: FreeLorde movement underway amid fears Lorde has been jailed as school dropout
Free speech
Harrison Christian (Stuff): Event with feminist speaker banned from Twitter moved by Auckland Council amid safety fears
Karl du Fresne: News flash! Academics defend freedom of speech
Health
Karen Brown (RNZ): Palmerston North doctors say hospital outdated and lacking vital facilities
Nicholas Jones (Herald): National slams Minister over sugar tax: 'Wants to hike your grocery bill'
Jenny Meyer (RNZ): WHO's 5-year plan to target obesity, smoking and superbugs
Te Aniwa Hurihanganui (RNZ): Māori missing out on ACC services, tribunal told
RNZ: Suspected measles outbreak in Samoa
Farah Hancock (Newsroom): Is vaping NZ’s last gasp for a smokefree 2025?
Nicholas Boyack (Stuff):Māori women benefiting from marae-based approach to cancer support
Jessie Chiang (RNZ): Lack of policy over increasing suicide rates for Asians
James Ffye (Newshub): Suicide rate for Asian people living in New Zealand a 'concern'
RNZ: Countdown to introduce quiet hours at store
Debrin Foxcroft (Stuff): Countdown rolls out nationwide low-sensory quiet hours after successful trials
Eleanor Ainge Roy (Guardian): New Zealand supermarket launches 'quiet hours' for customers with autism
Mark Quinlivan (Newshub): New hospital announced for NZ's tourist capital Queenstown
RNZ: Queenstown Lakes to get new hospital for elective surgeries
Tracey Roxburgh (ODT): Hospital build news welcomed
Hannah Martin (Stuff): Auckland DHB preventing partners staying overnight after birth 'sexist, archaic' - new mum
Farming and the environment
Rob Stock (Stuff): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern calls for end to 'town vs country' on climate
Gavin Evans (BusinessDesk): National Party open to higher methane targets
Allan Barber (Interest): The devil’s in the detail of Essential Freshwater
Rodney Hide (NBR): Townies force farmers back to peasant hoes (paywalled)
Northern Advocate: Northland farmers express concerns over proposed freshwater reforms (paywalled)
Catherine Groenestein (Stuff): Meeting called for South Taranaki farmers affected by proposed freshwater standards
Matthew Littlewood (Timaru Herald): Changes to water quality rules to be debated in Timaru
Esther Taunton (Stuff): NZ sheep population down to fewer than six per person
Environment and conservation
Eloise Gibson (Newsroom): Number of natives under one billion trees anyone’s guess
Katee Shanks (Rotorua Daily Post): Support for Waihī's mining industry after Government approval for land buy (paywalled)
Amber-Leigh Woolf (Stuff): Biggest cruise season looms, but NZ hasn't signed global treaty to reduce its ship emissions
Denise Piper (Stuff): Northland kiwi dying at 'appalling rate' on roads
Housing
Marta Steeman (Stuff): Questions are being raised about how big our housing shortage really is following the Census 2018 release
Isaac Davison (Herald): Mangere gets 30 new homes for homeless, with working parents among the first tenants
Vita Molyneux (Newshub): New housing opens in South Auckland for families in 'crisis'
1News: Jacinda Ardern to open 30 temporary housing units today in South Auckland
Duncan Garner (Newshub): Lack of emergency housing in Auckland shows how greedy we have become
Matthew Tso (Stuff): Lower Hutt to host worldwide homelessness charity event
Tuia 250: James Cook commemorations
Adam Dudding (Stuff): Tuia 250: I spent five days in a squeaky boat
Lisette Reymer (Newshub): 'Sharing this day in our history': Endeavour open day delights Gisborne locals
KiwiSaver
Rob Stock (Stuff): Shocking 13.5 per cent rise in KiwiSaver fund fees
Jamie Gray (Herald): KiwiSaver fees surge catches eye of the Financial Markets Authority
Māori land
John-MIchael Swannix (Newshub): Rebuilding the Kāinga: Architect Jade Kake on the struggles to develop Māori land
1News: Hokianga landowner at odds with Māori community over plans to build house on tapu land
Pacific
RNZ: New Zealand prepared to finance Tokelau airstrip
RNZ: Cook Islands confident of continued foreign aid
RNZ: UN Human Rights chief scorns Australian offshore detention
RNZ: Moruroa nuclear site could collapse, pro-independence MP tells UN
Social media
Alistair Knott (Newsroom): Getting ahead of the Christchurch Call
1News: Expert says stopping online hate is 'whack a mole', efforts must focus on real world first
Sport
Thomas Manch (Stuff): How much would free-to-air rubgy cost? Possibly too much to garner political support
RNZ: Pacific Islands Players boss wants availability issue cleared up
RNZ: Athlete sponsors given Olympic green light
Media
Mel Bunce (University of Auckland): Why do we need journalism?
RNZ: Video should not have been published
Super
Peter Cordtz (Interest): Over 65 tax scale a ‘blue sky proposition’ worthy of consideration
Peter Dunne: Zero chance of multi-party agreement on super tax
Other
Guyon Espiner and Kate Newton (RNZ): Austrian countess fined over NZ land purchase
Benedict Collins (1News): Exclusive: Taxpayers $1 billion out of pocket because of overpayments to beneficiaries
Tom Hunt (Dominion Post): Government powerless to shut down unofficial NZ passport sites
Claire Trevett (Herald): Che Wilson, the man trying to save the Māori Party (paywalled)
Mandy Te (Stuff): Wellington insurance taskforce suggests raising Earthquake Commission cap to $400,000
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Fishing, tourism groups to lose oil spill protections
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Here's why retailers are reluctant to let you pay with Paywave
Herald: Abortion law critics angered by handling of submissions
Derek Cheng (Herald): Judge to hold the key to protected information for reviews into wrongful convictions
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Kiwi Jihadi Mark Taylor could be released as US withdraws from Syria
Stuff: Jacinda Ardern and Dutch prime minister eat at trendy Ponsonby restaurant
Salient:“Once Were Students” aims at engaging young voters
Vita Molyneux (Newshub): 'Charming' US ambassador Scott Brown to host The AM Show
KnowYourStuffNZ: Opinion: Nine facts to dispel myths about drug checking
1News: Christchurch City Mission struggling with rocketing demand for food handouts
Jo Lines-MacKenzie (Stuff): Nicola Belworthy wants drug courts in Waikato after they saved her life
Donna-Lee Biddle (Stuff): Former Counties Manukau staffer claims bullying is 'rife' in police
Graeme Tuckett (Stuff): Capital in the 21st Century: Kiwi-created Thomas Piketty doco a thing well made
Taroi Black (Māori TV): Waikato Mongrel Mob President mindful of National's gang plan
Sam Stubbs (Stuff): I have reason to dislike Adrian Orr, but here's why I don't
Evan Harding (Stuff): Mobile coverage improves in rural Southland
William Ray (RNZ): The Aotearoa History Show: 2: Tangata Whenua
Derek Cheng (Herald): Southland MP Hamish Walker lends a lambing hand