Items of interest and importance today
BANKS
Rob Stock (Stuff): By the numbers: Here’s why some people think banks are making too much money
Gareth Vaughan (Interest): How the RBNZ, Payments NZ & the Government have contributed to holding back competition in NZ banking
Bridie Witton (Stuff): National seeks to claim position as the cost-of-living party with call for banking inquiry
Russell Palmer (RNZ): Labour leaning towards Commerce Commission for bank profits inquiry
Felix Desmarais (1News): All parties keen for select committee banking inquiry except Labour
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): National calls for ‘short, sharp’ banking inquiry, Greens on-board
Jenée Tibshraeny (Herald): Bank profits: Grant Robertson says select committee ill-equipped to conduct an inquiry (paywalled)
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): National wants inquiry into bank profits – Greens say time for excess profits tax
Rob Stock (Stuff): National says ‘short, sharp’ inquiry into banking competition needed
Riley Kennedy (BusinessDesk): Nat’s Willis calls for select committee inquiry into retail banking
Jenny Ruth (BusinessDesk): Banks ‘welcome’ prospect of an inquiry (paywalled)
Gordon Stuart (Stuff): Where the focus of a banking inquiry really needs to go
Lane Nichols (Herald): ANZ bank offers $19k settlement to pensioner who lost $36k to scammers, acknowledges victim’s stress
PUBLIC SERVICE
Peter Dunne: Government looking more and more erratic
William Hewett (Newshub): Peter Dunne slams Government over ‘remarkable inconsistency’ over way three senior public servant cases handled
Bryce Wilkinson (Herald): What ails the public service and why? (paywalled)
Grant Duncan (The Conversation): NZ has a history of prominent public servants who were also outspoken public intellectuals – what’s changed?
Robert MacCulloch: Let’s put the game the Government & Public Service Commission are playing out there on the table
Tova O’Brien (Today FM): The most remarkable political verbal acrobatics I’ve ever seen
Merepeka Raukawa-Tait (Herald): Rob Campbell’s faux pas did not require his removal (paywalled)
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Public Service Commissioner provides advice on Pharmac chair Steve Maharey after political comments, has been asked to write to chairs about impartiality rules
Craig McCulloch and Russell Palmer (RNZ): Former Labour MP Ruth Dyson caught up in political neutrality crackdown
Adam Pearse (Herald): Fire and Emergency NZ’s Ruth Dyson challenged over social media comments about National Party Opposition
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Former Labour MP Ruth Dyson to ‘review’ social media over concerns about political tweets while in Fire and Emergency role
Jenna Lynch (Newshub): Public health boss in Labour ad: Why no rules may have been broken
Anna Whyte and Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Steve Maharey breached impartiality rule but will keep jobs, as another chair faces scrutiny
Russell Palmer (RNZ): Steve Maharey will not lose jobs despite political comments – Hipkins
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Pharmac chair Steve Maharey not being sacked over political comments
Richard Harman (Politik): Simeon Brown and Peter Hughes clash over the state of the public service (paywalled)
William Hewett (Newshub): Christopher Luxon says pay freeze on public servants might need to go, but they need to perform better
Anna Whyte (Stuff): Public Service Commissioner questioned by MPs as pay restraint nears three years
CONSULTANTS, CONTRACTORS
Phil Pennington (RNZ): Luxon confuses health agency with ministry when putting comms staff in firing line
RNZ: Christopher Luxon says health comms staff ‘a good place to start’ in public service cuts
William Hewett (Newshub): Christopher Luxon says PM Chris Hipkins wrong about business advisory council hiring consultants
Jonathan Mitchel (NBR): National questions ‘massive’ spend on consultants at WorkSafe (paywalled)
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Labour’s reliance on consultants part of their cultural Professional Managerial Class capture
PARLIAMENT
Brent Edwards (NBR): Reporting election issues more important than the race (paywalled)
Karl du Fresne: Please remind me – who’s Jacinda?
Ripu Bhatia (Stuff): New Zealand’s voting system ‘one of the best’ – US academic
Gary Hamilton-Irvine (Hawke’s Bay Today): Once a political force: Social Credit Party deregisters, vows to rebrand in 2024
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Chloe drags the Greens back to economic justice – will it be enough?
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Right’s reliance on Billionaire donations part of their cultural capture
Joseph Los’e (Herald): Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni off work after her son breaks his leg
Te Aorewa Rolleston (Stuff): From marae lawns to the Beehive: Hamilton West MP Tama Potaka delivers maiden speech
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Michael Curreen (ODT): New minister implied Three Waters changes: Gore District Council CE (paywalled)
Justin Hu (1News): Invercargill mayor unapologetic for saying n-word, says it again
Michael Fallow (Stuff): Nobby Clark – those weren’t my words
Luisa Girao (ODT): Nobby Clark called out for use of ‘n-word’
Sam Brooks (Spinoff): Bleak: Invercargill’s mayor just used the n-word
Shilpy Arora (Stuff): Auckland budget: Proposed cuts would have ‘devastating impact’, community leaders say
BusinessDesk: Brown hires former Molloy spin doctor (paywalled)
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Co-governance with Māori is preferable to Co-governance with Corporations (but 3 Waters is still a problem)
Glenn McLean (Taranaki Daily News): Council rejects New Plymouth homeowner’s plea for help with crumbling cliff
RNZ: Wellington convention centre a catalyst for more development in capital, mayor says
Susan Botting (Local Democracy Reporting): Whangārei District Council’s new $59 million civic centre leaking monstrosity – former mayoral candidate
Robin Martin (RNZ): Council decides against paying to help stabilise landslip next to New Plymouth home
TRANSPORT
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Who cuts emissions if not road users? (paywalled)
Bernard Hickey: Young prefer wealth tax to fuel tax, while the old oppose such taxes
Damien Venuto (Herald): The Front Page: What has caused the many Cook Strait ferry failures?
Chris Schulz (Spinoff): Approved, cancelled, on standby: A ‘horrific’ 24 hours trying to board the Interislander
CENSUS
Michael Daly (Stuff): Census website reports 2.6m individual forms completed by the end of census day
Lucy Xia (RNZ): Census officials aim for most inclusive survey to date
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Why Census will be a flop
Kahu Rapira-Davies and Lucy Hu (Stuff): Why the ‘New Zealand European’ tick-box on forms like the census has to go
HOUSING
Mildred Armah (Stuff): Kāinga Ora to demolish 27 flood-damaged homes in West and south Auckland
Stephen Forbes (Local Democracy Reporting): Street’s future hangs in the balance amid plan to demolish homes after flooding
Matthew Scott (Newsroom): Housing crisis: Fresh blows from Gabrielle
Miriam Bell (Stuff): House prices remain nearly 25% higher than pre-pandemic
Piers Fuller (Stuff): Wellington house prices continue to drop, wiping out huge pandemic gains
RNZ: House prices drop further with Rotorua topping list
Miriam Bell (Stuff): Online property seekers are not rushing to buy this year
CHILD WELFARE
Bridie Witton (Stuff): Outgoing children’s commissioner raises serious concerns about new system
Adam Pearse (Herald): Minister Kelvin Davis warns Oranga Tamariki officials over shoddy information sharing
Jimmy Ellingham (RNZ): Lake Alice survivor wants memorial created at water tower on site
No Right Turn: Can our government really hold itself to account for torture?
HEALTH
Ian Powell: Health New Zealand turns to Star Wars and the Ancient Sith; what would Yoda say?
Danica MacLean (Herald): Majority of health professionals approved for immigration pathway already in NZ
Kate Green (RNZ): Minister expects hospitals to plan for increased demand during winter
Rachel Smalley (Today FM): If this was an organisation in the private sector, Maharey would be long gone
Kristie Boland (Stuff): ‘The whole system is failing’: Five anaesthetic technicians leave Christchurch Hospital in three weeks
Stuff: Vaccine mandate case victory agreed for family caregivers
Rachel Thomas (Stuff): Rooftop ward green-lit at Wellington Hospital, work continues on leaky pipes
Kelly Burrowes (Newsroom): Women aren’t exactly from Venus, but they are different
Rachel Thomas (Stuff): Hub for hapū māmā opens in Porirua in effort to improve access to maternity care
Herald: Always ‘lurking’: Nationwide increase in meningococcal cases prompts warning for students to be vigilant
Herald: 18-year-old student admitted to Christchurch Hospital with meningococcal disease
RNZ: Student confirmed as third case of meningococcal disease in Canterbury this year
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Covid spreading in university halls
Mac Gardner (ODT): To avoid a fate worse than death, change assisted-dying law
EXTREME WEATHER, CIVIL DEFENCE, INFRASTRUCTURE
RNZ: What regions need, three weeks since Cyclone Gabrielle
Martin Brook (The Conversation): The red and yellow sticker dilemma – how do we balance safety with the desire to return home after a disaster?
Morgan Godfery (Stuff): Marae are an integral part of our civil defence infrastructure
Lianne Dalziel (Newsroom): Red zoning isn’t a quick and easy solution – I should know
Chris Keall (Herald): Is Chorus wrong to stop selling ‘reliable’ old copper lines in an age of wild weather? (paywalled)
CLIMATE CHANGE, ENVIRONMENT, RMA
William Hewett (Newshub): What Labour needs to do on the climate to get Greens’ support, according to Shaw
Anna Whyte (Stuff): Two years after promise, DOC phase-out of coal still 3 years away for ‘investigation’
RNZ: Downing trees for Marlborough airport carparks ‘epic fail in fight against climate change’
Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): Why the Infrastructure Commission isn’t submitting on RMA reforms (paywalled)
Lindsay Wood (Newsroom): Cyclone will cost over 2% of our GDP – less than cost of properly tackling climate crisis
Byron Clark (Newsroom): Pandemic madness ‘just a rehearsal’
FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND TRADE
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Senior government analyst accused of reporting to Chinese government by Security Intelligence Service
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Exclusive: Government briefs Australia on efforts to avoid China economic freeze (paywalled)
Gordon Campbell: On using the trade weapon against China
Nicholas Khoo and Alex Tan (The Diplomat): The Political Case for a New Zealand-US Free Trade Agreement
MEDIA
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Willie Jackson defends spending millions on RNZ-TVNZ merger, hopes it can go ahead one day
Jane Patterson (RNZ): RNZ/TVNZ merger: Minister defends ongoing payments on scrapped project
Duncan Greive (Spinoff): Australia is moving boldly with a ‘Netflix quota’. Will New Zealand follow?
Stewart Sowman-Lund (Spinoff): After three years away, Stuff has (accidentally?) returned to Facebook
BUSINESS
Graeme Peters (Stuff): How can we secure our electricity networks for the future?
Herald: Breaking the glass ceiling: 10 of the most powerful women in NZ business
GENDER EQUALITY
Julia Gabel and Chris Knox (Herald): Interactive: Where gender diversity is getting worse in NZ — check how your profession is doing
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Newstalk ZB): Cancel the opinion piece, women need accessible early child care
1News: ‘More work to do’ on gender equality in NZ – Jan Tinetti
PRIMARY INDUSTRIES
RNZ: Processing forestry slash on-site an immediate solution – Scion chief executive
Sally Rae (ODT): Bearing the brunt of‘ wave of policies and proposals’
GEORGINA BEYER
David Herkt (Herald): Georgina Beyer: The courageous wahine toa with generous spirit
Piers Fuller (Stuff): Georgina Beyer to get Carterton street named after her
EDUCATION
Gavin Brown (Newsroom): We have to face the truth – our kids aren’t good at writing
Penny Simmonds (Stuff): Problems mount for polytechnic mega-merger
OTHER
Hamish Cardwell (RNZ): Police lawyers advised photographing youth likely breached UN protections for children
Nona Pelletier (RNZ): Clubs urged to make sure they are complying with new law
Andrew Bevin (Newsroom): Liquor trusts acknowledge community returns inadequate
RNZ: New Pike River images showing ‘considerable damage’ will help investigation
