Kia ora
Welcome to the Substack version of “NZ Politics Daily”. You will continue to receive these emails each morning, Monday to Friday, from this address. We hope that the change will go smoothly, but thanks in advance for your patience as we shift platforms.
In addition, the Democracy Project puts out two other occasional email newsletters about New Zealand politics, which will be part of this Substack account. My “Political Roundup” columns are a deeper look at topical issues, and Geoffrey Miller analyses New Zealand’s foreign policy and other geopolitical issues in his “Foreign Policy Briefing”. You can subscribe or unsubscribe to any of these three email newsletters.
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Dr Bryce Edwards, Political Analyst in Residence, Victoria University of Wellington
Today's content
ELECTION, PARLIAMENT, WEEK IN POLITICS
Chris Trotter (Interest): The practice of New Zealand politics, and the reporting of it, has changed, and the voters have noticed
Derek Cheng (Herald): Why don’t voters trust National leader Christopher Luxon - and does it matter(paywalled)
John Campbell (1News): Beth and Taxes in election la-la-land
Vernon Small (Stuff): National trumpets turning back the clock, as Labour ignores the recent past
Liam Dann: Christopher Luxon wants to bring NZ’s mojo back - but what is mojo? (paywalled)
Andrea Vance (Post): Why we really need to start using the L word (paywalled)
Luke Malpass (Post): The subterranean theme of Election 2023: competence versus diversity (paywalled)
Luke Malpass (Post): Labour's risky game of cost of living whack-a-mole (paywalled)
Newshub Nation: Political panel highly critical of National and Labour's policy announcements before general election
Toby Manhire (Spinoff): These are the box-office electorate battles in election 2023
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): The political divide drowns out Chris Hipkins, splits families in Ōtara
Jenna Lynch (Newshub): Fringe groups threaten to hijack election campaign as minor parties open up divisive debates
1News: Chris Hipkins heckled by protesters at Auckland market walkabout
Steve Braunias ((Herald): The Secret Diary of ... ‘Shipwreck’ Chris Hipkins (paywalled)
Mike Munro (Herald): It’s values that win votes when times are tough (paywalled)
Felix Desmarais (1News): 1News Verian Poll out tonight as election campaign heats up
Herald: On the Tiles: Political polls: All you need to know
Michael Wagener (The Blue Review): Polling 101 - Chapter One: Sample Sizes
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): The latest charts and data on Election 2023
Grant Duncan: Is a red–blue coalition all that absurd?
1New: Q+A: TOP proposes new investor visa to fund climate refugee intake
Herald: Shane Jones appeals to Northland voters through TikTok song
1News: Watch: Shane Jones appeals to voters with rendition of rock classic
Seni Iasona (Newshub): The National Party and satisfying cake-cutting videos - expert breaks down the link
Joseph Los'e (Herald): Te Pāti Māori Party billboards vandalised in ‘racist attack’, Pākehā donate thousands for repairs
Casper McGuire (1News): Winston Peters proposes to make English an official language
Katie Harris (Herald): Bye bye Barbie: Green Party deletes political Barbie memes from social media
Dewi Preece (1News): Minor party initiative scrutinised by Electoral Commission
Janine Rankin (Manawatū Standard): Manawatū manifesto asks politicians for overdue support
Hamish Bidwell (Hawkes Bay Today): Labour Party candidate Mark Hutchinson opts out of televised Napier electorate debate
Victor Billot (Newsroom): An Ode for .. David Seymour
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): This Parliament is begging for its own dissolution (paywalled)
Herald: Sacked Cabinet minister Stuart Nash reveals new corporate role when he leaves Parliament
Brent Edwards (NBR): Former minister thanks mates who funded his campaigns (paywalled)
Greg Presland (The Standard): Later Stuart
Conor Knell (Stuff): Paul Eagle to move to Chatham Islands as council chief executive
Mike Houlahan (ODT): Stepping back with no regrets
Mike Houlahan (ODT): Dunedin MP Clark recalls career, warts and all, in valedictory
Herald: Beehive Diaries: Stuart Nash’s work wives, will Mike Hosking honour bet, who won Chris of the week? (paywalled)
Audrey Young (Herald): Best and worst of the week in politics (paywalled)
Peter Wilson (RNZ): Week in Politics: NZ First gains traction while GST-free produce fails to hit the sweet spot
NATIONAL PARTY LIST, MPs
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Christopher Luxon does his best to diversify National - why it won’t be enough (paywalled)
Richard Harman (Politik): Luxon living dangerously (paywalled)
Mike Houlahan (ODT): Commitment to Dunedin questioned
Jo Moir (Newsroom): National’s list starts to reflect Luxon’s wish for diversity
RNZ: National Party seeks to improve its line-up's gender diversity before election
Mike Houlahan (ODT): Local MP all but departs
Craig McCulloch (RNZ): National MP Michael Woodhouse announces departure from politics after low list ranking
Scott Palmer (Newshub): Michael Woodhouse out, multiple MPs plummet in National Party's new election list
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): National Party announces election list, minus Michael Woodhouse
David Farrar: National’s 2023 List
Tony Wall (Stuff): Searching for Sam: Why is National shielding Tauranga MP Sam Uffindell from the media?
Jessie Gurunathan (Herald): Uffindell is ‘internet-famous for all the wrong reasons’
Finn Hogan and Gray Gibson (Newshub Nation): National MP Chris Penk shares his Backstory and talks about struggles of politics, Twitter
LABOUR CAMPAIGN FOR MĀORI VOTE, MĀORI CAUCUS, KORONEIHANA
Michael Neilson (Herald): Analysis: Ugly campaign could be on cards as Labour mellows Māori message (paywalled)
Michael Neilson (Herald): Labour’s Māori caucus revs up after tough few months with campaign launch (paywalled)
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Labour makes a promise-free plea to Māori: 'We are in the fight of our lives'
RNZ: Labour launches party's Māori campaign and manifesto - but no major announcements
Michael Neilson (Herald): Politicians attempt to charm Māori at Kiingi Tūheitia koroneihana - allegations of ‘race-baiting’; Luxon has a dance
Wena Harawira (Whakaata Māori): ‘Don’t treat Māori as a political football’, political parties told
Te Aniwa Hurihanganui (1News): Māori leaders unleash on politicians at Koroneihana celebrations
Jo Lines-MacKenzie (Post): Māoridom has a message for political parties, amongst banter and dancing (paywalled)
Wena Harawira (Whakaata Māori): Diplomatic status should be given to Kīngi Tuheitia: Rawiri Waititi, Te Pāti Māori
Karanama Ruru (Stuff): Māori King chooses council at Koroneihana celebrations
TE PĀTI MĀORI LIST
Felix Desmarais (1News): Te Pāti Māori list: 20-year-old ranked at number four
Spinoff: Te Pāti Māori set to bring youngest MP to parliament for 170 years
RNZ: Te Pāti Māori announces list, may elect NZ's youngest MP, aged 20
Joseph Los'e (Herald): Te Pāti Māori promotes youth to Parliament list alongside its three experienced MPs
ACT ON PUBLIC SERVICE, MINISTRY OF PACIFIC PEOPLES
Julie Jacobson (Post): Planned public service cuts death knell for Wellington? (paywalled)
Anna Whyte (Post): ACT wants more than 10,000 public service jobs on the chopping block, but National?(paywalled)
Hillmarè Schulze (NBR): Is our government too big? (paywalled)
Thomas Manch (Stuff): ACT promises to set public service targets and 'KPIs' for government chief executives
Mark Quinlivan and Perry Wilton (Newshub): ACT promises performance pay for Government department chief executives
Felix Desmarais (1News): ACT calls for public performance reviews for public service bosses
Tom Hunt (Post): Back to the future as ACT ramps up against public service (paywalled)
ODT Editorial: Engage brain before opening mouth
Tina Ngata: What David Seymour Teaches Us
Will Trafford (Whakaata Māori): Seymour slammed over Ministry for Pacific Peoples comment
Amelia Wade (Newshub): Police don't identify offence after ACT leader David Seymour referred for Ministry for Pacific Peoples remark
Seni Iasona (Newshub): ACT leader David Seymour refuses to apologise for 'clearly not serious' Guy Fawkes 'joke'
Anneke Smith (RNZ): Ministry for Pacific Peoples says staff were abused, lodges police report
Tova O'Brien (Stuff): Incident at Ministry of Pacific Peoples leaves staff rattled, police called in
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Post): Union in talks after Stats NZ requests staff take more leave over Christmas (paywalled)
TRANSPORT, TAXES
1News: Q+A: Congestion tax: National wants to 'rapidly' legislate for system
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): National gets story straight on fuel taxes, after saying it could contemplate putting them up next year
1News: InterCity buses better than Govt's $105m regional trains pitch - National
Newshub: Transport Minister David Parker defends fuel tax increase, says there's 'no difference' with National's plan
Eric Crampton: Transport GPS
Kaysha Brownlie (Newshub): Fuel company CEO calls for audit of fuel tax expenditure
Todd Niall (Stuff): Cost blowout on Auckland rail rebuild raises question about final stage
Matthew Scott (Newsroom): Speed bumps on Auckland’s road to zero deaths
REMOVING GST ON FRUIT AND VEGETABLES
Craig McCulloch (RNZ): Labour's GST-free fruit and vege strategy falls foul of the experts
Janet Wilson (Post): Labour’s win ugly strategy may be a loser (paywalled)
Ripu Bhatia (Stuff): Labour's GST removal will help whanau put healthy kai on the table - economist
Sasha Borissenko (Herald): The tangled, weird world of GST food basket cases (paywalled)
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Herald): Chris Hipkins’ GST policy on fruit and vegetables is rotten (paywalled)
Eric Crampton: GST carveouts
MIGRANT WORKER EXPLOITATION
Giles Dexter (RNZ): Immigrant exploitation should have already been reviewed, say stakeholders
RNZ: Immigration NZ under fire for 'flawed' principle, inadequate visa process checks
Hayden Donnell (RNZ): Mediawatch: Migrant exploitation finally in the media spotlight
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Andrew Little’s migrant exploitation arrogance gets bashed (and it ain’t pretty)
Gaurav Sharma (RNZ): Indian High Commission outlines avenues of redress for migrant workers facing exploitation
FOREIGN AFFAIRS, DEFENCE, TRADE
Geoffrey Miller (Democracy Project): Should New Zealand build bridges with the BRICS?
Gordon Campbell: On why China isn’t a real military threat
Thomas Manch (Post): Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta no longer headed to Palestine (paywalled)
Gaurav Sharma (RNZ): New Zealand to host first Indian naval vessels since 2016
Whanganui Chronicle: Defence Minister Andrew Little welcomes fourth and final P-8A Poseidon to Ōhakea air base
Alecia Rousseau (Stuff): P-8A Poseidon: Final aircraft joins maritime surveillance fleet
RNZ: France aims to increace 'Francophone influence' in Fiji
RNZ: Photo essay: Vietnam Veterans Day commemorated in Wellington
CLIMATE CHANGE, PRIMARY INDUSTRIES
Kirsty Johnston (RNZ): Crown vs Cow part three: Why farming reneged on its deal to cut emissions
David Williams (Newsroom): The price of failure on farm emissions
Michael Daly (Stuff): Delay to farm-level reporting of climate change emissions, pricing
RNZ: Government announces $370m plan to help farmers reduce emissions
Brent Edwards (NBR): Green Party not happy with farm emissions scheme (paywalled)
Herald Editorial: Co-operation better than point-scoring with future challenges (paywalled)
Newshub Nation: National MP Simon Watts responds to School Strike 4 Climate activist's scathing criticism of party's infrastructure plan
Simon Wilson (Herald): Climate crisis: The great divide - will technology solve the biggest issue facing humanity? (paywalled)
Kevin Norquay (Post): Voters worry about climate change, but many can’t afford to help pay for a cure (paywalled)
Damien Grant (Stuff): Freedom to speak, and to listen, are rights we should cherish
RNZ: Scientists call for investment in climate change research in Southern Ocean
No Right Turn: Climate Change: Labour grovels to the mighty cow
Tina Morrison (Stuff): Former Beef and Lamb chairperson Mike Petersen and 'ethical' carbon farming
Sneha Johari (Southland Times): Federated Farmers executive defends farmer of Southland sheep caked in mud
ENVIRONMENT
Jonathan Milne (Newsroom): Last-ditch bid to push through contentious Kermadec ocean sanctuary
Will Trafford (Whakaata Māori): ‘Repugnant’, Iwi interests slam alleged gov’t move to push through Kermadec Sanctuary before election
Maia Hart (Local Democracy Reporting): Mixed feedback on proposal to recognise significant marine sites in Marlborough
Craig Ashworth (Local Democracy Reporting): Parihaka hopeful drillers will be kept off historical lands
RNZ: Activists call on political parties to commit to protecting tree coverage
Cam MacKay (Post): Landfill still polluting waterway (paywalled)
HOUSING
Mary Williams (ODT): Landlord tries to evict homeless from former hotel
Phil Pennington (RNZ): Half of low-cost Auckland accommodation have fire safety deficiencies, council finds
Phil Pennington (RNZ): Auckland, Wellington and Queenstown Lakes told to improve building warrant of fitness systems
Zane Small (Newshub): Auckland's Te Mātāwai apartments are Government's largest public housing development so far
RNZ: Housing investors likely to ramp up buying if National wins election - economist
Ethan Te Ora (Post): ‘Win wine’ and find out where your former tenants live, ‘bad tenant’ register tells landlords (paywalled)
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Property manager regulation step closer, but not for private landlords
EDUCATION
William Hewett (Newshub): Brad Olsen praises Labour's financial literacy policy as great way to get young people ready for real world
Felix Desmarais (1News): Financial literacy advocates give Labour policy thumbs up
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Labour promises compulsory financial literacy lessons for school children, National backs the idea
Felix Desmarais (1News): National also aiming to make financial literacy compulsory in schools
Rachel Sadler and Caley Callahan (Newshub): Labour promises teaching financial literacy to be compulsory in schools
Anneke Smith (RNZ): Financial literacy in schools draws interest from political parties
Gianina Schwanecke (Stuff): Changes to school board eligibility and wānanga after Bill passes
Alison Mau (Post): Education policy will be critical, no matter who wins the election (paywalled)
Anna Sargent (RNZ): Education sector says international students flooding back into country
Luisa Girao (ODT): SIT to keep zero-fees next year (paywalled)
Kate Nicol-Williams (1News): Opinion: We owe it to students to improve teacher negotiation process
Kate Nicol-Williams (1News): Call for changes to teacher pay and conditions negotiation process
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Eddie Clark (Post): New constitutional process protects rights without leading to full-on rule by judge(paywalled)
Rituraj Sapkota (Whakaata Māori): Will 16-year-olds be able to vote in local elections?
Alisa Evans (Local Democracy Reporting): 'Disregard for democracy' – speakers denied access to public forum
Matt Porter (Mountain Scene: Legal action stalls Queenstown fluoride move
RNZ: Three-year rates holiday on the cards for Wellington earthquake-prone property owners
CYCLONE GABRIELLE
Rebecca Wright and Gray Gibson (Newshub Nation): Minister Kieran McAnulty denies high turnover of regional Cyclone Recovery Ministers is disruptive
Andrea Vance (Post): Red-zoned: Six months after Cyclone Gabrielle, Pākōwhai locals face awful choice (paywalled)
Gianina Schwanecke (Post): Cyclone schools: The estimated cost of repairs to those hit by CycloneGabrielle (paywalled)
JUSTICE, CRIME REPORTING
Jarrod Gilbert (Herald): How an opportunity for world-best crime reporting was missed (paywalled)
Michael Cugley (Herald): Is the portrayal of crime fair to Māori?
K Gurunathan (Post): As election billboards sprout, the preying on the public mind begins (paywalled)
Mark Quinlivan (Newshub): National's Erica Stanford tells Ginny Andersen to worry 'about reducing crime' after criticising MP
ALAN HALL WRONGFUL CONVICTION
Cushla Norman (1News): "We have the truth': The full story of Alan Hall's miscarriage of justice
RNZ: Review body may help establish other wrongful conviction cases, professor says
ODT Editorial: Justice delayed (paywalled)
1News: Alan Hall's supporters seek Royal Commission into wrongful conviction
1News: Alan Hall's family on 'bittersweet' Crown apology, compensation
Cushla Norman (1News): Alan Hall to get $5m payout for wrongful murder conviction
RNZ: Alan Hall to receive $5m from government for wrongful conviction