Items of interest and importance today
VOTING AGE
Henry Cooke (Guardian): New Zealand’s supreme court has forced voting age on to agenda, exposing absurd arguments for status quo
Henry Cooke: The only reasonable argument for retaining the voting age
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Local election voting age looks set to change after poll of MPs reveals strong support
Nick Munn (The Conversation): Parliament now has to justify keeping the voting age at 18 – it’s a hard argument to make
Liam Hehir (The Blue Room): The significance of turning 18 for… dummies (paywalled)
Bernard Hickey: A chance to close our democratic deficit
Wyatt Ryder (ODT): Parties self-interested on voting age: prof
Herald Editorial: Voting age pulled from the too-hard basket (paywalled)
Russell Palmer (RNZ): Labour considers voting age change for council elections
Imogen Wells (Newshub): What MPs had to say about lowering voting age – and who said 16-year-old males aren’t ‘fully functioning’
Anna Whyte (Stuff): Voting age judgment ‘intruding’: National says leave it to Parliament
RNZ: National says no ‘logic’ in lowering voting age from 18 to 16
John MacDonald (Newstalk ZB): What’s so bad about 16-year-olds voting?
Deborah LaHatte (Whakaata Māori): They pay taxes, let them vote – Far North District mayor
Kate Hawkesby (Newstalk ZB): If we’re going to devote time to young people, there are bigger issues to address
Molly Swfit (Newshub): Teenagers divided on lowering voting age after Supreme Court ruling
HEALTH
Jenna Lynch (Newshub): New Zealand has same number of acute mental health beds as when Labour came to power
1News: 1 in 4 Kiwis considered suicide or self harm in past year – survey
Herald: Data shows despite Govt’s $1.9b mental health budget no improvement in total beds for patients
Rowan Quinn (RNZ): Cards giving health minister’s contacts were nurses’ response to abuse – union delegate
Rowan Quinn (RNZ): No crisis? Nurse gives minister’s contact details to frustrated mum after Wellington ED ordeal
RNZ: When your child is terrifyingly ill and the word ’emergency’ ends up a sick joke
1News: Govt doing all it can to support GPs – Andrew Little
Cécile Meier (BusinessDesk): GPs need funding increase of up to 231% to be viable, review finds
Rachel Thomas (Stuff): Wellington’s paediatric surgical team won’t be fully staffed for two years
RNZ: Review finds number of workers exposed to asbestos grossly underestimated
Gianina Schwanecke (Stuff): ‘Small service with a mighty impact’: Wellington Free Ambulance turns 95
Jamie Morton (Herald): Michael Baker: Why (and how) to avoid catching Covid for Christmas
Ella Morgan (Stuff): Was a child under 10 killed by Covid? What the data tells us
Duncan Allen (Spinoff): Long Covid is on the rise and employees need to know their rights
Stuff: Nurse suspended, censured over sharing Covid-19 vaccine ‘misinformation’
HOUSING
Luke Malpass (Stuff): Government to regulate property managers, extends Kainga Ora healthy homes deadline
Bernard Hickey (Interest): Megan Woods announces delay in healthy homes standards launch by one year to July 1, 2025, but to regulate property managers
Newshub: Rental reform package: Crackdown on property managers, Healthy Homes extension
Brent Edwards (NBR): Stoush over plans to regulate rental market (paywalled)
RNZ: Property managers to be regulated, meth testing changes, and healthy homes extension announced
Miriam Bell (Stuff): ‘Shellshocked’ property managers want more information on regulation plan
Felix Desmarais (Local Democracy Reporting): Mayor concerned as Kāinga Ora suggests high rises in Rotorua suburb
Greg Ninness (Interest): The challenge for aspiring first home buyers now the toughest in the 18-year history of our Home Loan Affordability Report
Philippa Tolley (Stuff): Negative equity: What is it and should you care if you’re in it?
Mana Wikaire-Lewis (Whakaata Māori): No help for rangatahi Māori hit hardest by housing crisis
Jonathan Milne (Newsroom): Housing intensification is up-ending our lives in ways we never imagined
ECONOMY
Dileepa Fonseka (Stuff): Adrian Orr’s Summer of Scrooge approaches
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Who makes the call on the official cash rate?
Bridie Witton (Stuff): Why the official cash rate is important
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Inflation situation: Could we ever see a return of the 1980s’ 20% rates?
Maria Slade (NBR): Sitting ducks: Homeowners brace for ‘jaw-dropping’ interest rates (paywalled)
Rebecca Howard (BusinessDesk): Is a 75-basis-point rate hike necessary? (paywalled)
PARLIAMENT
Brigitte Morten (NBR): Will NZ finally get a crossbench with Winston Peters? (paywalled)
Toby Manhire (Spinoff): ‘I confronted mortality, face up’: Kiri Allan on five years in parliament
Jonah Franke-Bowell (Stuff): Better off without him? Hamilton lavished with spending since Sharma’s expulsion
EDUCATION
Jo Moir (Newsroom): National’s policy no-show on rising school truancy
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Chris Hipkins backs encouraging parents to get kids to school after Christopher Luxon’s remarks
Jane Patterson (RNZ): National Party Christopher Luxon unapologetic calling for parental responsibility on school attendance stance
William Hewett (Newshub): Truancy: AM hosts react to Christopher Luxon’s get-tough approach to New Zealand’s poor attendance rates at schools
John Gerritsen (RNZ): Despite pent-up demand, schools play the waiting game on foreign student enrolments
Lee Kenny (Stuff): Te Pūkenga looks like it was set up to ‘do everything wrong’, former deputy says
HATE SPEECH REFORMS
Adam Pearse (Herald): Disinformation should be regulated, but not outlawed – Human Rights Commission
Karl du Fresne: ACT should make abolition of the Human Rights Commission a bottom line
Katie Harris (Herald): Human Rights Act: Petition calls for women, queer and disabled people to be protected
Ted Greensmith-West (Stuff): Hate-speech backdown is a sign of a govt unwilling to stand by LGBTQ people
THREE WATERS
Graham Adams (The Platform): The stealth manoeuvre taking Three Waters to Five Waters
Thomas Cranmer: Cabinet loses grip of Five Waters
Steven Walton (Press): Government water regulator ‘closely’ watching Christchurch and Waimakariri
Cherie Sivignon (Stuff): Disappointment as top of south plea on three waters fails to gain traction
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Todd Niall (Stuff): Wayne Brown could become Auckland’s first $5 million mayor
Todd Niall (Stuff): Auckland port: ‘Disappointment’ at mayor’s poke at a board he hasn’t met
Bernard Orsman (Herald): Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has ‘lost confidence’ in Ports of Auckland board and plans changes (paywalled)
Nicholas Boyack (Stuff): Porirua mayor calls for compulsory exams for councillors
Craig Ashworth (Local Democracy Reporting): Ambitious iwi-council multiuse centre inches closer
RNZ: Construction of new museum and art gallery in Invercargill to be sped up
Brendon McMahon (Local Democracy Reporting): $26m West Coast visitor centre development progresses
RNZ: Gore mayor to not claim travel costs for his private personal assistant
FOREIGN AFFAIRS, REFUGEES
Anna Whyte (Stuff): First refugees arrive in New Zealand as part of years-long offer to Australia
Ben Doherty and Tess McClure (Guardian): First refugees from Nauru to be resettled in New Zealand arrive nine years after deal offered
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Ukraine invasion: Jacinda Ardern, National, ACT disagree with Rawiri Waititi calling New Zealand ‘puppet’ of United States
Jane Patterson (RNZ): National Party ‘absolutely’ backs opportunity for MPs to hear Ukraine PM Volodymyr Zelensky speak
Katie Scotcher (RNZ): ‘Are we hearing from Palestine?’ – Greens demand consistency over Zelensky invite
Nevil Gibson (NBR): From buddy to bully: Kiwis’ encounters with China
ENVIRONMENT, CONSERVATION
Danika Hotham and Injy Johnstone (Newsroom): NZ can’t lecture other countries on being ‘climate smart’
Caroline Williams (Stuff): Owner of $16.5m Auckland mansion fined $52k for chopping protected pōhutukawa
BUSINESS, EMPLOYMENT
Susan Hornsby-Geluk (Stuff): Should employers pay staff when they go on strike?
Geraden Cann (Stuff): ‘Digital nomad’ visa for roving tech workers could be in New Zealand’s future
Maria Slade (NBR): Waipareira joins forces with Indigo/Manaaki to help Māori firms (paywalled)
Andrew Bevin (Newsroom): Men taking paid parental leave triples in five years
RMA, INFRASTRUCTURE
Richard Harman (Politik): Parker’s plans greeted with scepticism (paywalled)
Debbie Ngarewa-Packer (Herald): Why we will oppose reforms to the RMA
James Perry (Whakaata Māori): Te Pāti Māori won’t support RMA reforms
Jono Sylvester (Newsroom): Nature sidelined in new environment bill
Eric Crampton (Newsroom): Council versus Govt: the perils of RMA reform
Chris Bishop (Herald): Results of underinvested infrastructure in plain sight (paywalled)
Tim McCready (Herald): Infrastructure: Women are a powerhouse in New Zealand (paywalled)
Sapeer Mayron (Stuff): KiwiRail loses bid to stay judicial review into south Auckland train station
Maxine Jacobs (Stuff): Rotorua iwi signs memorandum of understanding with airport
James Perry (Whakaata Māori): Ngāti Uenukukōkapo and Rotorua Airport reach significant agreement
OTHER
Sharon Brettkelly (RNZ): The stoush in Te Urewera that’s about more than just huts
Sally Murphy (RNZ): More live cattle forecast to be exported in 2022 than 2021
Jem Traylen (BusinessDesk): Ngāi Tahu suing Māori fisheries trustee and the crown (paywalled)
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Labour changes to car standards – this time with National support
Duncan Greive (Spinoff): NZ Herald pulls paid Chinese government-linked propaganda after reader backlash
Raphael Franks (Herald): Mushrooms grow from walls of Auckland’s leaky Balmoral fire station
Tom Taylor (RNZ): Enforced bootcamps would make kids targets – Abuse in Care lawyer
Wyatt Ryder (ODT): Sophie Elliott’s mother and domestic violence campaigner Lesley Elliot dies
Rachel Maher (Herald): New Zealand records highest ever number of gang members, grew by 338 in two months
Martin Devlin (NBR): Black Ferns’ bonuses a cheap exercise in political point scoring (paywalled)
Esther Taunton (Stuff): Women in sport still getting shortchanged on pay and prize money
David Farrar: Anne Salmond on the Treaty and race
RNZ: Archives NZ reinstates online search tool after data mishap
RNZ: Veteran photographer’s life work starting to decay with no solution in sight
Tova O’Brien (Today FM): I’ve been duped by Jan Tinetti
