Political Roundup: 13 December 2022
NOTE TO SUBSCRIBERS:
We still need your help to keep Political Roundup going. If you value this service and can afford to contribute, please do consider donating via Victoria University of Wellington.
The only funding we get for this service is from subscribers. We don’t have the luxury of any funding from government sources, private business, or even the University. But the University has set up a fundraising page and a bank account to help us. Please go to: https://bit.ly/VUWDemocracyProject
The service is run on a shoestring budget, and any donations we receive do make a big difference in keeping the service going. We are trying to provide a free service – “for the public good” – and so if you agree with this aim, please help us.
Bryce Edwards
Lecturer and Political Analyst
Democracy Project; School of Government
Victoria University of Wellington
Items of interest and importance today
THREE WATERS
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Nanaia Mahuta’s sage advice - Minister received officials’ views on Green MP’s letter one month before entrenchment vote
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Three Waters: Officials warn water bills could increase ‘significantly’ without regulation
Will Harvie (Press): Three Waters entity expected to take control of swath of Christchurch red zone
PARLIAMENT
Damien Venuto (Herald): A look back at a tough year in the polls for Labour
Richard Harman: After Hamilton West – the political reset (paywalled)
Jem Traylen (BusinessDesk): Open government partnership not so open for procurement (paywalled)
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Ardern asks Cabinet ministers to consider priorities over summer
RNZ: PM Jacinda Ardern on plans for next year: 'Making sure the economy is our priority'
Tess McClure (Guardian): Jacinda Ardern vows to ‘focus on economy’ after months of poor polling
Giles Dexter (RNZ): Green Party leaders: 2022 went 'phenomenally well'
HAMILTON WEST BY-ELECTION
Luke Malpass (Stuff): Hamilton-West by-election good win for National, but low voter turnout limits too many lessons
Tim Dower (Newstalk ZB): What do we read from the by-election itself?
Mana Wikaire-Lewis (Māori TV): Crime the big issue for newly elected Tama Potaka to tackle in Hamilton West
Bryan Gould: Hamilton West
IMMIGRATION, MIGRANT WORKERS
Jane Patterson (RNZ): Immigration changes for nurses, teachers 'should have happened a year ago' - National
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): By the numbers: What the latest immigration changes mean
Glenn McConnell
1News: Explainer: Will the Govt's immigration changes attract more nurses to NZ?
Jenna Lynch (Newshub): Revealed: How many nurses have arrived in NZ under Govt's controversial visa pathway
Michael Neilson (Herald): Immigration announcement: Sectors ‘welcome’ changes, focus now on improving pay
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Government changes immigration rules for nurses, teachers and bus drivers
1News: Nurses, midwives added to fast-tracked residency list
RNZ: Nurses eligible for immediate residency under immigration changes
Bernard Hickey (Interest): Govt loosens migration settings again
Brent Edwards (NBR): Government alters immigration settings to target labour shortages (paywalled)
Melanie Carroll (Stuff): NZ's annual net migration loss continues to shrink, Kiwis still fly the coop
----------
Irra Lee (1News): Govt: Changes on the way for RSE scheme after damning report
RNZ: RSE worker treatment like 'slavery', says Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner
Kristy Frame (RNZ): Major culture shift needed in treatment of RSE workers, immigration lawyer says
Kate McVicar (NBR): Seeka 'startled' by Human Rights Commission suggestions (paywalled)
COVID-19, MIQ ALLOCATION
Amelia Wade (Newshub): Jacinda Ardern doesn't apologise over MIQ lottery system as documents reveal Govt considered imprisoning Kiwis who used loophole
1News: MBIE acted 'unreasonably' over MIQ allocation - Chief Ombudsman
Michael Neilson (Herald): MBIE acted ‘unreasonably’ over MIQ managed isolation allocation - Chief Ombudsman
RNZ: MBIE acted 'unreasonably' over managed isolation allocation system - Chief Ombudsman
Sophie Harris (Stuff): Ombudsman's criticism of MIQ virtual lobby 'doesn't go far enough'
Sapeer Mayron (Stuff): Explainer: How many Covid-19 infections really are out there?
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): What will 'third wave' of Covid mean for the economy?
Lee Kenny (Stuff): Are New Zealand's holiday hotspots ready for an influx of sick people?
Matthew Slaughter (Stuff): Difficult Conversations: What did you think of the Government's Covid-19 response measures?
Charlie Mitchell (Stuff): Liz Gunn and the 'purebloods': How the baby blood donor story unfolded
Sasha Borissenko (Herald): Despite all of life’s suffering, vaccinations have become so polarising for so many (paywalled)
Catrin Owen (Stuff): Police receive suppression complaint regarding baby in donor blood case
MEDIA
RNZ: National's Nicola Willis says PM has sounded 'death knell' for $370m public media merger
Tom Pullar Strecker (Stuff): 'Good chance' TVNZ-RNZ merger will be shelved, says economist
Gavin Ellis: By Dickens, what a year it has been
Duncan Greive (Spinoff): Willie Jackson on that Q+A interview – and what his media reforms are really about
David Farrar: NZ journalists lean heavily left
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Simon Wilson (Herald): The art gallery, the budget and the tough-guy mayor (paywalled)
Todd Niall (Stuff): Auckland's council budget: The tug of war between dollars and values
Todd Niall (Stuff): Auckland port company questions mayor's plan for it to be gone by 2040
Oliver Lewis (BusinessDesk): Wayne Brown sets timeline for returning Ports of Auckland land (paywalled)
NBR: Unions reject 'attack' on port workers in Chch council report (paywalled)
Nicholas Boyack (Stuff): United Hutt funding remains unclear, even after disclosure deadline
Debbie Jamieson (Stuff): Losing Queenstown Lakes mayoral campaigns funded by rich-listers
Janine Rankin (Stuff): Sitting councillors claim vote-for-change election message was unfair
ECONOMY, TRADE
Cameron Bagrie (BusinessDesk): Why we'll get lollies when we need a lentil diet (paywalled)
David Hargreaves (Interest): GDP figures looking solid - the gloom and doom can wait
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Is the time right for tax cuts?
David Hargreaves (Interest): Economists sharply mark down their view of the NZ economy - in three years' time
Jonathan Mitchell (NBR): Glass half full: consumer spending inched up in November (paywalled)
Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): MPs lash officials over ‘misleading’ trade analysis
BUSINESS
Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): What Rio Tinto is really saying about the Tiwai Pt smelter? (paywalled)
Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): Tiwai Point smelter ‘very unlikely to generate material value’: Rio Tinto (paywalled)
Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): Vic Crone's legal threat as Indigo saga escalates (paywalled)
Ian Llewellyn (BusinessDesk): Critical minerals list coming too late, says Straterra (paywalled)
HEALTH
Aaron Dahmen (Newstalk ZB): Exclusive: British American Tobacco threatens legal action over Government vaping review (paywalled)
Wilhelmina Shrimpton (Today FM): People will always take drugs, so why not make it safe for them?
Duncan Garner (NBR): Vape crisis makes a mockery of Smokefree NZ 2025 (paywalled)
Frances Chin (Stuff): Understaffed healthforce pushes hospice to take only urgent referrals
Michael Fallow (Stuff): Healthcare system 'collapsing', says quitting Southland ED nurse
Hannah Martin (Stuff): Lead absorption still a 'significant issue': Older men, Pacific peoples most affected
Denzel Chung (Newsroom): What the data doesn’t show about Asian health
Ripu Bhatia (Stuff): Alcohol harm high among rainbow students, study finds
Emma Hatton (Newsroom): Pharmacy ownership changes could creep into new legislation
Brittany Keogh (Stuff): Postcode lottery: Some new mums wait months for mental health help
Kate Green (RNZ): Hospital quake standards: More than 100 buildings rate below the threshold
Joanne Naish (Stuff): 13% of Government health care facilities deemed earthquake prone
ENVIRONMENT
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Lower bar for subsidies for carbon polluters
Andrea Vance (Stuff): The Māui dolphin seafood ban is a rare win for conservationists – but just how significant is it?
Mildred Armah (Stuff): 74 tonnes of airborne microplastic dropping on Auckland every year, study finds
Rod Oram (Newsroom): NZ needs to show same leadership in biodiversity as climate crisis
Vaneesa Bellew (Newsroom): Cruising for a bruising: $$$s v nature in Milford Sound
TREATY OF WAITANGI, LAND CONFISCATION
Te Aniwa Hurihanganui (1News): Govt to block Wairarapa Māori from having power station returned - report
No Right Turn: Bad faith all the way down
RNZ: Otuihu pā site sold to Crown with expectation it's returned to Ngāti Manu
Kelvin McDonald (Whakaata Māori): Ngāti Manu celebrate major step in return of Otuihu Pā after 177 years
Morgan Godfery (Spinoff): Do the English and Māori texts of The Treaty of Waitangi actually reconcile?
Herald: Tiriti and trade – it’s ‘Māori business’
CRIME, JUSTICE, CORRECTIONS
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Labour, Greens and Act join up to save legal aid from ‘collapse’ (paywalled)
Joseph Los'e (Herald): Labour MP and Government minister Aupito William Sio hits back at National leader Christopher Luxon’s South Auckland garage comment
1News: Ardern says Luxon 'stereotyped generation' with garage comment
Ema Tavola (Spinoff): In celebration of my South Auckland garage
1News: NZ needs to get tough on causes of youth crime – judge
Tess McClure (Guardian): ‘The community is 100% scared’: shop owners of Auckland’s Little India at centre of national crime debate
Aaron Hendry (Herald): Why Christopher Luxon is right on youth crime, and also wrong (paywalled)
Kirsty Johnston (Stuff): How cogs are being tossed into the already clunky wheels of justice
Emma Hatton (Newsroom): Police roll out changes for rural staff
CHILD WELFARE
Katie Doyle (Stuff): Report reveals 'dangerously low' staffing levels, 'pecking order' at Oranga Tamariki residence
Jacqui Southey: Now is the time to stop NZ’s horrific child abuse legacy (paywalled)
EDUCATION
Katy Jones (Stuff): Teaching will 'look quite different' next year as education reforms introduced
Jenny Ritchie (Newsroom): Climate change education needed to better engage pupils
Gabrielle McCulloch (Stuff): Graduate teachers hit by $460 fee before starting work: 'It's a strain'
HOUSING
RNZ: Average house price drops more than $100k this year, latest figures show
1News: House prices down 19% in major city in 2022
ENERGY
Tom Pullar Strecker (Stuff): Ministers push back next call on Lake Onslow power scheme until the new year
Ian Llewellyn (BusinessDesk): Onslow pumped hydro decision delayed (paywalled)
TRANSPORT
Todd Niall (Stuff): Roading is writ large in Wayne Brown's plans for Auckland Transport
Emma Vitz (Spinoff): Auckland rail closures will waste more than a million hours of commuters’ time in 2023
OTHER
Chris Trotter (Interest): It would be wrong to think that the triumph of misinformation and disinformation is a new thing
Josephine Varghese (Democracy Project): What the media did not pick up in the Ardern-Marin press conference
Oliver Lewis (BusinessDesk): Jacinda Ardern approves intelligence law review extension (paywalled)
Gordon Campbell: On steps to reduce the racing industry’s cruelty
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): The Daily Blog 2022 New Zealander of the Year – Police Commissioner Andrew Coster
Susan Wardell and Fairleigh Gilmour (Newsroom): Social media admins on the frontlines of hate speech
Manawatū Standard: Massey reveals best quotes of the year
Kelvin McDonald (Whakaata Māori): Erebus Memorial: Local board orders removal of security fences
Holly Thorpe (Spinoff): What Sport NZ’s new transgender guidelines say, and why they matter
Nevil Gibson (NBR): Bill Andersen’s impossible dream (paywalled)