Today’s content
POLITICAL FINANCE AND LOBBYING
Andrea Vance (Stuff): Why Labour is starting to look a little grubby
1News: Q+A: Allan defends decision not to declare Meng Foon conflict of interest
Benedict Collins (1News): Race Relations Commissioner donated thousands to Labour’s Kiri Allan
1News: Allan declares ‘perceived conflict of interest’ after Foon donation
1News: Who is Meng Foon and how does he know Kiri Allan?
1News: Nats say Govt doesn’t understand ‘public sector neutrality’
Craig McCulloch (RNZ): Race Relations Commissioner under fire for financial support of Labour MP
Bridie Witton (Stuff): Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon donated to both Labour and National
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon ‘comfortable’, believes he can be independent after donation to Labour’s Kiri Allan revealed
Jamie Ensor and Amanda Gilles (Newshub): Human Rights Commission ‘carefully’ assessing reports of Meng Foon’s political donations, Kiri Allan updates conflict of interest info
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon made $1000 donation to National in same month as money to Labour
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Kiri Allan vs Meng Foon vs Barbara Kuriger
Greg Presland (The Standard): Much ado about nothing
Sasha Borissenko (Herald): Will new rules address lobbying conflicts of interest? (paywalled)
Thomas Coiughlan (Herald): Government makes changes to Cabinet Manual: New lobbying and royal honours rules
ELECTION, PARLIAMENT
Vernon Small (Stuff): National is no friend of change, but the devil is in the detail
Toby Manhire (Spinoff): Purged, punted and pruned: the Chris Hipkins reprioritisation in full
Liam Dann (Herald): Money Talks: Raf Manji – The Opportunities Party leader on why he wants to do politics differently
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): The problem with using Identity as the only lens for the Green Party List selection
Steve Braunias (Herald): The secret diary of Green MP Elizabeth Kerekere (paywalled)
Shaneel Lal (Herald): ‘I am not convinced Christopher Luxon will serve all New Zealanders’
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Beehive Diaries: Christopher Luxon gets a dairy farm lesson and Prime Minister wins a bet
Peter Wilson (RNZ): Week in Politics: Education, agriculture and MPs behaving badly
Alison Mau (Stuff): The demise of Stephen Jack, and why words actually do matter
Andrew Gunn (Stuff): ‘Dear would-be candidate, do you pinky-promise that you are telling the truth?’
Nick Truebridge (Newshub): Otago locals react to National candidate Stephen Jack’s resignation after social media controversy
Jim Tucker (Taranaki Daily News): Voting and the trouble at the top end of political parties
Johnny Blades (RNZ): Long game: activism at Parliament
Newshub Nation: Labour MP Priyanca Radhakrishnan shares her backstory
TRANS TASMAN CITIZENSHIP DEAL
Fran O’Sullivan (Herald): Jacinda Ardern’s Australian campaign delivers for Kiwis (paywalled)
Felix Desmarais (1News): Analysis: Citizenship rights for Kiwis in Aus will benefit Kiwis at home
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Trans-Tasman testiness over citizenship resolved, but nuclear sensitivities remain
Michael Neilson (Herald): Hipkins, Albanese bond over sausage diplomacy after citizenship deal, but tough questions remain (paywalled)
Michael Neilson (Herald): Citizenship pathway for Kiwis signals new chapter in trans-Tasman ‘family’; Australia makes moves on indigenous rights (paywalled)
Felix Desmarais (1News): Analysis: Aus citizenship pathway a massive win for fairness
Jo Moir (Newsroom): The days of politely begging for better Kiwi rights in Oz are over
Tracy Watkins (Stuff): The very big fish hook in Aussie’s trans-Tasman citizenship deal
Jack Tame (Newstalk ZB): The hidden pitfall in the citizenship deal for Kiwis in Australia
Jessica Mutch McKay (1News): Hipkins at ease on Australia trip
William Hewett (Newshub): Brad Olsen believes new Australia citizenship deal doesn’t ‘move the dial’ enough to see brain drain
Molly Swift (Newshub): Australia’s major visa changes could open floodgates for Kiwis to migrate across the ditch – commentators
1News: Fears of brain drain downplayed with lure of Australian citizenship
Amelia Wade (Newshub): Chris Hipkins and Anthony Albanese deny citizenship changes for Kiwis in Australia will lead to New Zealand brain drain
Grant Duncan: ANZAC Day
Felix Desmarais (1News): Kiwis in Australia will have pathway to citizenship
Amy Remeikis (Guardian): Chris Hipkins hails ‘biggest in a generation’ citizenship reforms for New Zealanders in Australia
Giles Dexter (RNZ): ‘Injustices have been reversed’: Citizenship pathway reveal met with elation
Felix Desmarais (1News): ‘New Australian Kiwis optimistic for those who follow
Felix Desmarais (1News): ‘A weight lifted off my shoulders’: Kiwi in Aus on citizenship changes
Thomas Manch (Stuff): ‘Blimmin’ good day’: PM Chris Hipkins celebrates Australia citizenship for Kiwis
1News: Hipkins: ‘Blimmin’ good day for Kiwis living in Australia’
1News: Hipkins welcomes drop in Australian 501 deportations
1News: Hipkins and Albanese meet after historic citizenship announcement
RNZ: Prime ministers Chris Hipkins and Anthony Albanese speak in Brisbane: ‘True friends have equal relations’
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Newshub Nation: New Zealand has ‘no plans for AUKUS at this point in time’ – Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni
Matthew Hooton (The Australian): Trade, AUKUS more important to Chris Hipkins than NZ crims in Australia (paywalled)
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): The New OZ/NZ relationship as war drums sound in Pacific: Winners, Losers & Predictions
Thomas Manch (Stuff): UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly cancels Wellington meetings over Sudan crisis
Tess McClure (Guardian): Britain’s top diplomat James Cleverly skips part of Pacific tour to focus on Sudan
Mihai Sora (Guardian): British foreign minister’s belated visit to the Pacific a welcome counter to Chinese influence
THREE WATERS
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Herald): Kieran McAnulty admits Three Waters is undemocratic (paywalled)
John Roughan (Herald): There’s something murky in the water reform (paywalled)
Brian Easton (Pundit): Watering Down Three Waters?
Connie Buchanan (E-Tangata): Carwyn Jones: The value of sharing the decision-making
Steven Joyce (Herald): Three Waters ‘reform’? It’s like arguing that black is white (paywalled)
Todd Niall (Stuff): Auckland Council loses $381m cash payout in Three Waters change
Diane McCarthy (Local Democracy Reporting): Ōpōtiki to lose over $14 million in funding after Three Waters changes
Rob Scott (Southland Times): ‘Even the hardest puzzles have a solution’
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Erin Gourley (Dominion Post): Wellington mayor’s first six months: No sign yet of the promised transformation
Damien Grant (Stuff): You may not love him, but at least Wayne Brown is trying to do what he said he would
Erin Johnson and Todd Niall (Stuff): Wayne Brown proposes big changes to how Auckland is governed
RNZ: Government may be forced to intervene in Gore council stoush – expert
Vaneesa Bellew (Newsroom): Gore council war could outlast inquiry
Rachael Kelly (Southland Times): Gore mayor Ben Bell says he felt like ‘a council of one’, CEO Steve Parry says their relationship is ‘irreparable’
Kurt Bayer (Herald): Gore Mayor Ben Bell and rift with CEO: Inside the relationship breakdown tearing a town apart (paywalled)
Jared McCulloch (1News): ‘Shambolic’ – Details emerge of public-excluded Gore Council meeting
Rachael Kelly (Southland Times): Former Gore mayor Tracy Hicks will not stand in by-election
Hamish McNeilly (Stuff): Leaked emails reveal tension between councils after ‘basket case’ comments
Laura Smith (Local Democracy Reporting): Rotorua Lakes Council jobs on the line under draft Annual Plan, confidential report shows
Craig Ashworth (Local Democracy Reporting): Iwi owner keen on co-management of beach reserve
TAX, BUDGET
Max Rashbrooke (Stuff): What’s really going on behind the scenes of the latest tax battles?
1News: Q+A: Expert: Some parts of NZ tax system unfair ‘by design’
Claire Trevett (Herald): The enemy PM Chris Hipkins has to avoid – confusion over Labour’s tax plans (paywalled)
Terry Baucher (Interest): Shots fired in the debate over the true tax burden in New Zealand, and lessons from FATCA
Herald: On the Tiles: What can we expect from Budget 2023?
ECONOMY, COST OF LIVING
Jenée Tibshraeny (Herald): Reserve Bank’s attention turns to Government’s tax and spend plans (paywalled)
Susan St John (Daily Blog): A prayer to the god of small things
Dileepa Fonseka (BusinessDesk): Degrowth is not glamorous (paywalled)
Gareth Vaughan (Interest): Auckland University’s Tim Hazledine offers a range of suggestions to help the Reserve Bank fight inflation
Warren Couillault (BusinessDesk): The R Word: bad news, NZ, this is what’s coming (paywalled)
RNZ: ‘Inflation in New Zealand has peaked’ – Kiwibank economist
Cameron Bagrie (BusinessDesk): A credit rating adjustment wake-up call likely on the horizon for NZ (paywalled)
Oliver Hartwich (NZ Initiative): Supercharge NZ with supply-side reforms
Tina Morrison (Stuff): Fuel tax subsidy won’t be extended beyond June deadline, Robertson says
Conor Whitten (1News): Cost of living hitting pensioners in the pocket
Annabelle Parata Vaughan (Critic Te Ārohi): Opinion: The System Isn’t Broken
EDUCATION
Kevin Norquay (Stuff): Covid’s created a long-tailed education crisis, says AUT vice chancellor Damon Salesa
Annabelle Parata Vaughan (Critic Te Ārohi): Crushing the Critic and Conscience: How Neoliberalism and Inadequate Funding is harming Higher Education
Hamish MacLean (ODT): Bosses to blame, say Otago University staff
RNZ: Otago University ‘just doesn’t have any financial resilience’ – union
Hamish McNeilly (Stuff): ‘The hard work starts now’: Otago University yet to confirm which jobs on chopping block
Lee Kenny and Hamish McNeilly (Stuff): Several hundred jobs to go at University of Otago as student numbers plunge
Hanna McCallum (Stuff): Wellington’s Victoria University not ruling out redundancies as enrolments fall
Sam Sacheva (Newsroom): Victoria University grilled by US regulator over political predictions site
Iris Hehir (Critic Te Ārohi): Faux Poverty
Virginia Fallon (Stuff): Students caught cheating with ChatGPT offered amnesty for confession
Gavin Brown (Stuff): Not worse, but not better: The challenge of raising student achievement in Aotearoa
Finlay Dunseath (Stuff): Primary school principals to begin 2-month ban on after hours work
Gabrielle McCulloch (Stuff): ‘Exhausted’ teachers tired of being ‘political footballs’ as election looms
Lee Kenny (Stuff): Rolling strikes, home learning still on cards as teachers’ pay dispute rumbles on
RNZ: Strikes loom as students head back to secondary classrooms
Gabrielle McCulloch (Stuff): Kids still ‘trickling’ into school as term 2 set to start
HOUSING
David Hargreaves (Interest): NZ housing crises – bring on the next one
Sam Stubbs (Stuff): Would a land tax help solve our housing problem?
Anne Gibson (Herald): Environment Minister allows Auckland Council reprieve on Government intensification push after floods, cyclone (paywalled)
EMPLOYMENT, MIGRANT WORKERS, BUSINESS
RNZ: Almost half of employers pay KiwiSaver as part of total wages – survey
Bridie Witton (Stuff): Death by dust: New Zealand may be on the cusp of a silicosis epidemic
Liam Dann (Herald): Is immigration the biggest policy U-turn in NZ history? (paywalled)
RNZ: Accredited work visa businesses have until July to deal with immigration matters – lawyer
HEALTH
Martin Van Beynen (Stuff): Health contractor already paid over $1m earns another $600k filling interim management roles
Maddison Gourley (Stuff): Gore and Lumsden drinking water samples breach nitrate standards
1News: Q+A: Kiri Allan says further alcohol law reforms not off the table
Ian Powell (BusinessDesk): Rob Campbell: a good person trying to make a bad system work (paywalled)
Sophie Trigger (Herald): Nurses plead for more staff as violence and abuse surge in hospitals
Jan Rivers (Herald): Questions mount around the use of puberty blockers for children (paywalled)
Dale Husband (E-Tangata): David Tipene-Leach: I wanted to make change
Katie Stevenson (1News): Dame Sue Bagshaw steps aside after 28 years leading Chch youth health centre
Siouxsie Wiles (Stuff): Low immunisation rates mean measles is on the march
COVID, PARLIAMENT PROTEST
Seni Iasona (Newshub): Police Commissioner Andrew Coster reveals why conversation with politicians about Parliament occupation made him ‘uncomfortable’
1News: ‘We got complacent’ – Police Assn president on Parliament protest
Hamish Cardwell (RNZ): Officers sent to quell Parliament protest with ‘gardening gloves’, borrowed gear
Anna Whyte (Stuff): Potential for violence if Ardern had talked to Parliament protesters: Expert
David Farrar: So what is undue influence?
Herald Editorial: Parliament protest a wake-up call (paywalled)
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): The IPCA review into the Parliament Lawn violence is a white wash
Stuff: Most unvaccinated teachers lost jobs, haven’t returned to profession, court told
MEDIA
Hayden Donnell and Colin Peacock (RNZ): What’s the government’s post-merger media plan?
Colin Peacock (RNZ): New regional news network seeks reporters and backers
Duncan Greive (Spinoff): The big dreams and cursed history of NZ’s abandoned youth media brands
Heald: What the Actual?! NZ Herald launches Gen Z news service – exclusive to social media
Katie Harris (Herald): Today FM’s latest ‘consultation’ meeting: Journalists, newsreaders told to reapply for jobs
PRIMARY INDUSTRIES, FORESTRY SLASH
Newshub Nation: National MP Nicola Grigg defends controversial live animal export policy
Reuters: Last live animal export shipped as ban takes effect
Rod Oram (Newsroom): The planet burns on a bonfire of farming regulations
David Williams (Newsroom): Councils’ winter grazing approach raises concern
Katie Doyle (Stuff): Land rights group takes forestry concerns to UN
Jessica Roden (1News): Marlborough Sounds homeowners pay to remove logs that destroyed properties
Jem Traylen (BusinessDesk): Fishing industry calls for wider inquiry into impacts of erosion (paywalled)
Rebecca Howard (BusinessDesk): Relief may be coming for farmers as costs ease (paywalled)
JUSTICE, CRIME
Newshub: Police Minister Ginny Andersen says she doesn’t feel unsafe going out
Mark Quinlivan (Newshub): Government pumps another $9 million into small retail crime prevention programme as ram raids continue
Jamie Ensor and Ashleigh Yates (Newshub): Government plans new legislation to support victims of sexual violence in courts
1News: More support for sexual assault victims in court – Govt
Emma Hatton (Newsroom): Government considers funding child UN complainants
ENVIRONMENT
David Hall (Stuff): What if we think about native forests as public infrastructure?
Catherine Hubbard (Stuff): Concern over decline in third of Tasman district’s monitored waterways
Benjamin Plummer (Herald): ‘It’s time to take action’: Greenpeace and Forest & Bird protest bottom trawling in Hauraki Gulf at Auckland’s Mission Bay
RNZ: Protesters take aim at bottom trawling in Hauraki Gulf
Kelvin McDonald (Whakaata Māori): Protest against bottom trawling of Hauraki Gulf gets underway
Deena Coster (Taranaki Daily News): Watchdog gives big tick for compliance at controversial city site
Brendon McMahon (Local Democracy Reporting): Stop banks ‘strangle’ West Coast river over 60 years
Maia Hart (Local Democracy Reporting): Strong push’ from community pays off as air quality monitoring stations approved for Picton
Benn Bathgate (Stuff): Climate change risks to Bay of Plenty spelt out in region’s first report
EXTREME WEATHER
Adam Pearse (Herald): Will you live in your cyclone-hit home again? Minister details three categories to decide future
Fiona Connor (1News): Why has Red Cross spent just $3m of $21m Cyclone Gabrielle cash?
DEFENCE
Whena Owen (1News): With retention rates plummeting, how can NZ keep soldiers?
Aaron Smale (Newsroom): Nuclear test veterans seek recognition
Kim Baker Wilson (1News): NZ Defence Force contingent heading to London for King’s coronation
TRANSPORT
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): New Auckland Harbour crossing may not include extra traffic lanes
Erin Gourley (Dominion Post): Supermarket giant threatens legal action over Wellington cycleways
RNZ: Seafarers rally over Maersk decision to pull New Zealand coastal service
OTHER
1News: Q+A: Kiri Allan insists she’s committed to hate speech laws
Janet Wilson (Stuff): Retirement village life may be happy, but it’s not necessarily fair
Newshub Nation: Woman reveals harrowing realities of online gambling addiction as Government faces pressure to regulate
Moana Maniapoto (E-Tangata): Rob Campbell: We know the problem and we know the solution
James Perry (Whakaata Māori): UN forum hears concerns about slow progress of UNDRIP in Aotearoa
Ross Palethorpe (Spinoff): The Sunday Essay: The longest month
