ELECTORAL REFORM
Jonathan Milne (Newsroom): Attorney-General rules her own Govt’s voting crackdown breaches human rights
Andrew Geddis (Spinoff): Changes to electoral law will disenfranchise thousands – and may not save any time
Press Editorial (Post): A step backwards for democracy (paywalled)
Herald Editorial: Dropkicks? Shouldn’t we make it easier for people to vote? (paywalled)
ODT Editorial: Better late than never
Giles Dexter (RNZ): 'Blunt tool': Government to strengthen election 'treating' offences
Hayden Donnell (Spinoff): All the dropkicks who shouldn’t get to vote
Mike Smith (The Standard): Gerrymander alert – Government running scared
HEALTH
Jessica Roden (1News): Postcode lottery persists three years after creation of Health NZ
John Lewis (ODT): Peters challenged on tobacco links
Anna Whyte (Post): Critics warn of two-tier system as private health contracts expand (paywalled)
Post: An open letter to the auditor general (paywalled)
Nikki Macdonald (Post): ‘Irresponsible and dangerous’: Health NZ patient safety staff cut by 30% (paywalled)
Nikki Macdonald (Post): Health NZ told to restart axed reports on healthcare harm (paywalled)
Sam Egger (Herald): Youth vaping is a problem, let’s look at the evidence (paywalled)
Maddy Croad (Press/Post): The Dementia Crisis: Dementia will double in the next 20 years... New Zealand isn’t ready (paywalled)
Herald Editorial: Childhood illnesses surge: Rebuilding trust key to tackling vaccine hesitancy (paywalled)
Mariné Lourens (Press/Post): GP funding shake-up hailed as ‘incredibly positive’ (paywalled)
Elsie Williams (Press/Post): ‘Huge blow’ as fewer than half of graduate nurses get hospital jobs (paywalled)
Eric Crampton (Post): Cutting through the confusion on low-risk drinking guidelines (paywalled)
David Farrar: The Radio NZ campaign of misinformation continues
RNZ: Social media age restriction needed to protect young people from harm - researcher
Tatiana Gibbs (Press/Post): Your surgery may be off: 36,000 health staff striking this week
Cecilia Robinson (Herald): Pharmac must shift from being a gatekeeper of cost to an enabler of health (paywalled)
RNZ: Government removes barrier in bid to increase counsellors in public mental health workforce
Alka Prasad (Post): ‘Chilling, dangerous’: Industry slams new medicinal cannabis advertising guidelines
RNZ: Hysteroscopy outpatient service at North Shore Hospital to speed up diagnosis
PARLIAMENT, PUBLIC SERVICE
Luke Malpass (Post): Why FamilyBoost is frickin’ emblematic of National’s problems (paywalled)
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Both sides reckon the election is in the bag, one of them is wrong (paywalled)
Chelsea Daniels (Herald): Front Page: Labour’s Chris Hipkins questions MMP system, seeks balance in power
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Despite ongoing ‘cuts’, the public service isn’t really smaller
Phil Pennington (RNZ): Ministry for Culture and Heritage confirms 80 percent cut in senior historian roles
Brian Easton (Pundit): Politicos Vs Wonks
Nik Dirga (RNZ): How and why artificial intelligence is being used to process your submissions to politicians
Josie Pagani (Post): The problem with elites, and how cultural snobbery has hurt the left (paywalled)
Shane Te Pou (Herald): Tāmaki Makaurau byelection a chance to test out campaign machine (paywalled)
Brent Edwards (NBR): Butter, homelessness, a new medical school, dropkicks, water (paywalled)
Mike Houlahan (ODT): Space Bill debate: I think it’s gonna be a long, long time (paywalled)
Jessica Hopkins (RNZ): Tāmaki Makaurau candidate Peeni Henare says government playing 'silly games'
Russell Palmer (RNZ): Te Pāti Māori announces Ikaroa-Rāwhiti candidate
Steve Braunias (Newsroom): The Secret Diary of the .. Coldplay affair scandal
Damien Grant (Stuff): July has become Ardern Reflection Month
ECONOMY, COST OF LIVING, BUTTER
Andrea Vance (Sunday Star Times): Spread too thin: Butter, blame and a government under pressure (paywalled)
Vernon Small (Sunday Star Times): Will the cost of butter grease the wheels of policy change? (paywalled)
Fran O’Sullivan (Herald): Government should cut GST on food if it’s worried about butter price (paywalled)
Laura Walters (Newsroom): Butter saga a smear on grocery competition and social licence
Kelly Dennett (Sunday Star Times): What butter tells us about life in NZ right now (paywalled)
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Herald): We are being irrational about the price of butter (paywalled)
Susan Edmunds (RNZ): 'Brought to its knees': Why NZ can't shake the recession
Dita De Boni (Post): South Island leads economic recovery, Kiwibank report finds (paywalled)
1News: South Island pulls ahead as regional divide widens — economist
Juliet Speedy (Stuff): The south surges while north stalls: Kiwibank warns of growing economic divide
Dan Brunskill (Interest): Scaredy-cats are spoiling the economy
Cameron Bagrie (BusinessDesk): OCR steals the show but long-term rates do the heavy lifting (paywalled)
John Braddock (World Socialists): Alarming levels of poverty and hardship reported in New Zealand
RNZ: Kiwis 'lucky' to have 'premium' butter as only option, but have to pay market price for it - Federated Farmers
Blayne Slabbert (Press/Post): Why the price of butter hurts more than it should (paywalled)
Amelia Wade (Sunday Star Times): The butter meltdown: Why are South Islanders paying more? (paywalled)
Alan Renwick (The Conversation): Butter wars: 'Nothing cures high prices like high prices' - but will market forces be enough?
ENERGY
Raphael Franks (Herald): As Kiwis battle rising electricity bills, campaigners call for change – Power to the People, part 1
Julie Jacobson (Post): Energy hardship ‒ the rising cost of keeping the home fires burning (paywalled)
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Minister seeks advice on restricting seabed mining
Craig Ashworth (Local Democracy Reporting): Taranaki mayors want hydrogen kick-start from Wellington
TRANSPORT
Brent Edwards (NBR): Treasury raised conflict of interest concerns on KiwiRail board (paywalled)
Phil Pennington (RNZ): NZTA has not developed national tolling plan
Phil Pennington (RNZ): Billboard camera footage used by transport agency to spot cars and trucks
Julia Gabel (Herald): Road cone hotline: Traffic management expert doubtful new scheme will work (paywalled)
RNZ: Funding to councils to be throttled for using too many road cones
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Transport minister vows to cut funding for extraneous road cones
Oliver Lewis (BusinessDesk): Transport Minister Chris Bishop 'exploring options' to refresh critical freight study (paywalled)
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Andrew Bevin (Newsroom): Local bodies to sign off $100k contracts with councillors, before independent scrutiny
Herald Editorial: Local government reform debate heats up (paywalled)
Susan Edmunds (RNZ): Can council rates keep rising like they have?
Jonathan Milne (Newsroom): Cash-strapped councils set to slash spending on water infrastructure
Megan Wilson (Bay of Plenty Times/Herald): Tauranga City Council cocktail party: Ombudsman recommends invite list be publicly released (paywalled)
David Farrar: 19 Councils have increases rates more than 40% this triennium
Jonathan Killick (Sunday Star Times): Anti-helipad campaigners hit back at perceptions they are ‘jealous lefties’ (paywalled)
Thomas Manch (Post): Hawke's Bay council warns water reforms could cost households $7000 a year (paywalled)
Grant Miller (ODT): Council staff recommend sale of former theatre site
WELLINGTON
Tom Hunt (Post): Clowns to the left, jokers to the right: Wellington’s wildest mayoral race yet? (paywalled)
Tom Hunt (Post): Election countdown: Ghost road cone complaints and sexual innuendo from Auckland (paywalled)
Harriet Laughton (Post): Rates are up - here's what councillors are paying (paywalled)
Emma Ricketts (Stuff): More than 40 Wellington City Council-owned buildings deemed earthquake-prone
Verity Johnson (Stuff): I’ve never figured out what is behind a certain man’s hatred of Tory Whanau
RNZ: Wellington mayoral candidate Ray Chung avoids code of conduct investigation after sending 'false and malicious' email about Mayor Tory Whanau
1News: Spat over mayoral candidate's email resolved — chief executive
Tom Hunt (Post): Wellington City Council won't pursue 10 complaints about Ray Chung (paywalled)
Andrea Vance (Post): The fixer behind Sir Peter Jackson wants to help fix Wellington (paywalled)
Harriet Laughton (Post): From promise to plan: Wellington scales up city safety investment (paywalled)
EDUCATION
Ruby Shaw and Debbie Porteous (ODT): New med school to save $50m a year, govt claims
Ian Powell: New Waikato Medical School: Poor process, ‘chumocracy’ and ‘cosyism’ means likely poor outcome
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Waikato med school business case beats Auckland and Otago – but only just
Ruby Shaw (ODT): Business case flawed: Brooking (paywalled)
1News: Q+A: Job cuts as part of Govt's polytech reform necessary - Simmonds
1News: Q+A: Top teacher: Why standardised testing, streaming doesn't work
John Gerritsen (RNZ): Schools in literacy crisis, advocacy group warns
Laine Priestley (ODT): Some ECE rule changes ‘dangerous’ (paywalled)
David Farrar: Academics who argue there is no free speech problems, are like whites who argue there is no racism against blacks
Ara Alam-Simmons (E-Tangata): Business as usual for racism in schools
BUILDING
Russell Palmer (RNZ): Will the government's changes bring down building costs?
Catherine McGregor (Spinoff): Gib monopoly faces heat as building-product floodgates open
Luke Malpass (Sunday Star Times): Government to halt building code changes for three years (paywalled)
RNZ: Government looks to allow more overseas materials in bid to bring down building costs (paywalled)
Luke Malpass (Post): Chris Penk gets out the competition crowbar (paywalled)
Luke Malpass (Stuff): Penk moves to open building product markets with ‘good dose of competition’
Herald: Government making thousands more building products available in New Zealand
Lane Nichols (Herald): High Court appoints administrators to oversee $240m repairs at St Lukes Gardens, NZ’s biggest leaky building
IMMIGRATION, MIGRANT WORKERS
Jamie Ensor (Herald): Winston Peters immigration comments labelled ‘divisive rhetoric’, ‘cynical politicking’
Jamie Ensor (Herald): Winston Peters: ‘Careless’ immigration ‘transforming cities’, Nigel Farage’s Reform ‘compelling’ (paywalled)
Keith Woodford (Interest): New Zealand needs to give a lot more thought to the specifics of a population policy
Mildred Armah (Stuff): From nine years in refugee camp to fresh struggle with NZ’s high unemployment rate
RNZ: Submissions for bill criminalising migrant exploitation set to close
MEDIA
Richard Harman (Politik): Dirty politics and the Integrity Institute and the media (paywalled)
David Farrar: Pay for play media
Colin Peacock (RNZ): Mediawatch: Media milking butter battle