Items of interest and importance today
HAMILTON WEST BY-ELECTION
Chris Trotter (Daily Blog): Who is pulling Sharma’s strings?
Jenna Lynch (Newshub): Wealthy businessman Roshan Nauhria willing to financially back Gaurav Sharma
Peter Dunne: Will Sharma have the last laugh?
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Gaurav Sharma has left Parliament, but did he really need to?
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): The Sharma drama by-election nirvana: Winners, losers and predictions
Russell Palmer (RNZ): Hamilton West by-election: Labour, National play down chances of winning
GOVERNMENT AND PARLIAMENT
Jo Moir (Newsroom): ‘Tough process’ to get acceptable co-governance plan to Cabinet
Mike Hosking (Herald): Another 10 reasons this Government won’t get a third term(paywalled)
Josh Van Veen (Democracy Project): Racial separatism is not the path to victory for NZ First
Morgan Godfery (Stuff): Peters’ 5% strategy won’t wash with Luxon or Ardern in 2023
Kiri Gillespie (Herald): Tauranga byelection candidates donations and expenses: Sam Uffindell gifted nearly $180k
Audrey Young (Herald): 50 years of diplomats – the best and the worst political appointments (paywalled)
Claire Trevett (Herald): National’s Christopher Luxon on when voters will see final tax plan, and Wayne Brown’s Three Waters showdown
Bernard Orsman (Herald): Auckland light rail: National slams ‘gravy train for consultants’, Government defends $16m bill (paywalled)
David Farrar: Greens on Campus not keen on debate
Stephen Minto (Daily Blog): Labour’s refusal to debate Winston’s co-governance spite is weakness
Amelia Wade (Newshub): Government expects cross-party support for terrorism law changes
Richard Harman: Anti terrorism Bill could hit anti-vaxers (paywalled)
Ripu Bhatia (Stuff): Government’s immigration changes ‘hurtful’ to low-income migrants, union says
Zarina Hewlett (Today FM): National’s tax cut for the rich: Has Luxon made same mistakes as Britain’s Liz Truss?
Michael Neilson (Herald): PM Jacinda Ardern to visit Antarctica, Scott Base to see redevelopment and climate change research
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Ardern to travel to Antarctica for two days on the ice
ECONOMY, EMPLOYMENT AND INEQUALITY
Rebecca Stevenson (Interest): Inland Revenue taxes multinationals $33 million for wage subsidy
Newshub: Prime Minister’s office apologises for misleading comments about New Zealand’s child poverty figures
John MacDonald (Herald): Food bank queues about to get longer
Herald: Editorial: Hungry for answers on child nourishment (paywalled)
Jonathan Milne (Newsroom): Labour costs drive building firms to the wall: ‘The guys all have kids to feed’
Rae Julian (Herald): Fifty years since we adopted the Equal Pay Act (paywalled)
RNZ: Inflation now embedded in economy – National Party
CLIMATE AND TRANSPORT
Justin Wong (Stuff): Protests in Wellington continue with Groundswell tractors replacing rail activists
Herald: Groundswell protest: Thousands expected in major centres this morning
Kirsty Frame (RNZ): Wellington rail protests risk doing more harm than good – critics
Karl du Fresne: What history tells us about long-distance passenger trains
Rebecca Howard (BusinessDesk): Agriculture emissions tax: what the heck does it all mean? (paywalled)
John Minto (Daily Blog): How refreshing – hats off to the Wellington climate change activists
LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND ELECTIONS
Joanne Naish (Stuff): By-election prompted by resignation of Westland councillor after 10 days
Karanama Ruru (Stuff): Majority of people who didn’t vote in local elections regret not doing so
Todd Niall (Stuff): Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown makes first public appearance but sidesteps Stuff
Todd Niall (Stuff): Mayor Wayne Brown has a lot to say to the PM – will she listen (and will he)?
Marcus Roberts (Herald): Time to make voting mandatory?
Jake Kenny (Stuff): Council assets manager denies taking $77,000 in bribes in exchange for lucrative contracts, court hears
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND DEFENCE
Jenna Lynch (Newshub): Former New Zealand Defence Force personnel working for company allegedly recruiting people to train Chinese armed forces
Herald: Four former NZDF staff could now be training Chinese military
Rachel Smalley (Today FM): How hard is it for Jacinda Ardern to condemn Iran’s treatment of women?
Nicholas Khoo (Newsroom): Three lessons for New Zealand from the Ukraine war
CREATIVE NZ AND SHAKESPEARE FUNDING
Emile Donovan (RNZ): The Sheila Winn saga – much ado about funding
André Chumko (Stuff): Is the Government listening to Creative New Zealand’s pleas?
Eda Tang (Stuff): Queer artists respond to Creative New Zealand funding cuts
HOUSING
Kelly Makiha (Herald): Rotorua emergency housing motels: Locals make heartfelt pleas to commissioners to end ‘chaotic’ system
1News: New Rotorua mayor says emergency housing costing city millions
HEALTH
Tova O’Brien (Today FM): I’m just really disappointed with Health Minister Andrew Little
Ian Powell: Professor Baker is right; New Zealand needs pandemic political leadership
MEDIA
Annamarie Jamieson (Stuff): Why Stuff chose to become a B Corp
Karl du Fresne: More desperate floundering at Stuff
OTHER
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Human Rights Commission received ‘ad credit’ from Facebook, Instagram to promote campaign telling people to be kind online
Gabrielle McCulloch (Stuff): Thousands of charges laid over ramraids, youth offending in Auckland and Waikato
Lynn Charlton (Stuff): If farmers are serious about animal welfare, they should give up on rodeos
