Today’s content

LABOURS TAX POLICY
Craig McCulloch and Russell Palmer (RNZ): Tax experts respond to GST-free fruit and vegetables: ‘Populist’ and ‘stupid’
Gordon Campbell: On the “GST off fruit and vegetables” saga
Herald: Removing GST from food and veges is not a solution for Māori or poorer communities
Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): Can a regulator really monitor a GST cut? (paywalled)
Jo Moir (Newsroom): Hipkins reaches back into his hat after ‘boondoggle’ policy
Thomas Manch (Post): Labour’s GST policy troubled by $250m error, ignored evidence, and a guessing game (paywalled)
Duncan Garner (NBR): How taxing: fighting over small scraps is underwhelming (paywalled)
RNZ: Labour’s policy of removing GST from fruit and veges slammed, but voters support it
John Weekes (Herald): Supermarkets on political hit list respond to claims they’ll pocket GST cuts
Ryan Bridge (Newshub): Prime Minister Chris Hipkins shunning advice from tax experts Labour paid $2m
1News: Robertson defends GST plan, teases more cost of living measures
Spinoff: Hipkins simmers at Baby-Beet inquisition
RNZ: Labour stands by publicly released GST policy costings
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): GST policy document contained mistake, but Labour says there’s no ‘hole’
Tova O’Brien (Stuff): Labour’s GST own goal the gnarliest we’ve seen all FIFA Women’s World Cup
Felix Desmarais (1News): ACT: Labour’s GST off fruit and vege a ‘huge own goal’
Seni Iasona (Newshub): Labour’s tax policy leaves sour taste for Green Party, ACT
Terry Baucher (Interest): Te wiki o te tāke: Labour’s GST proposal comes at a cost for commercial property owners
Brent Melville (BusinessDesk): Removal of commercial tax write offs – Labour makes another major U-turn (paywalled)

GOVT ENDS COVID RESTRICTIONS
Derek Cheng: The downstream impacts of the pandemic will reverberate indefinitely (paywalled)
Luke Malpass (Post): Hipkins calls time on Covid-land: A game of two halves for Labour (paywalled)
Derek Cheng (Herald): Covid 19: Government ditches all remaining restrictions, as case hospitalisations rise
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): The end of Covid measures: Chris Hipkins ‘longed for the day’, but some are worried
Jody O’Callaghan (Stuff): Lifting Covid isolation will make life more isolated for vulnerable
No Right Turn: A murderous election gimmock
Adam Pearse and Jamie Morton (Herald): Final Covid-19 restrictions banished as experts assess future approach
Jenna Lynch (Newshub): Sir Ashley Bloomfield’s text to the minister upon latest COVID-19 news
RNZ: Covid-19 update: 5372, 20 further deaths and 171 in hospital
RNZ: Watch: Prime Minister Chris Hipkins speaks as government scraps remaining Covid-19 restrictions
Felix Desmarais (1News): Govt to dump all remaining Covid-19 restrictions

ELECTION, PARLIAMENT
Simon Wilson (Herald): Stuck in the middle with Labour’s GST plans and National’s mobile phone obsession (paywalled)
Adam Pearse (Herald): New Talbot Mills poll – Labour in 30s, National/Act can still govern
Tova O’Brien (Stuff): Labour’s pollsters show National-ACT can govern (just)
Rob Campbell (Newsroom): Winston, the master opportunist
Henry Olsen (Washington Post): New Zealand is showing what a viable libertarianism looks like
Ben McKay (Spinoff): Male and stale? Predicting the gender split of the next parliament
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): The Left are losing youth
Paul Moon (Post): Far from perfect, but still better than the alternatives (paywalled)
Newshub: Steven Joyce’s advice to National on its Winston Peters conundrum
1News: Q+A: Possible Nats-ACT-NZ First coalition would ‘survive’ – Steven Joyce
Toby Manhire (Spinoff): The Steven Joyce guide to winning elections
No Right Turn: The Greens’ clean power policy
RNZ: Green Party’s new clean power policy is affordable, Shaw says
Ian Llewellyn (BusinessDesk): MPs begin their last session of this Parliament with one eye on keeping their jobs (paywalled)
Amelia Wade (Newshub): How Chris Hipkins being Prime Minister is strangling his hopes of becoming PM
Ben Bell (Stuff): It looks like minor parties are leading the way in election policies
Seni Iasona and Rachel Sadler (Newshub): Politicians urge vandals against defacing billboards after multiple damaged over weekend
RNZ: Electoral Commission reminds people who have moved house to update their details to vote
Damien Venuto (Herald): The Front Page: National’s Jacqui Dean and Greens’ Jan Logie reflect on their political careers
Verity Johnson (Stuff): Most men, except Sam Uffindell, don’t see domesticity as something that deserves a medal

LABOUR’S PAID PARENTAL LEAVE POLICY
Claire Trevett (Herald): Labour’s offer for new parents is four weeks’ paid leave for partners on top of paid parental leave
1News: 4 weeks of Paid Partner’s Leave: Labour’s big election pledge
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Labour promises paid parental leave for partners, after clashing with National over policies
Rachel Sadler (Newshub): Labour promises to increase paid parental leave for partners
Brent Edwards (NBR): Labour’s election bid for parental support (paywalled)
RNZ: Labour promises four weeks’ Paid Partner’s Leave for new parents

BLACKROCK DEAL, ENERGY, CLIMATE CHANGE
1News: Q+A: Reason for caution over BlackRock climate investment – expert
The Standard: We Need to Talk About Blackrock
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Post): Contact Energy warns of $1b sting in tail to consumers from higher interest rates (paywalled)
Tim Hunter (NBR): Contact warns on looming lines company charges (paywalled)
Nona Pelletier (RNZ): Too costly to achieve 100% renewable energy with current tech – Contact Energy
Timothy Welch (Herald): Creating ‘sponge cities’ to cope with more rainfall needn’t cost billions – but NZ has to start now

PUBLIC SERVICE
Aaron Smale (Newsroom): Corrections deputy left suddenly after behaviour claims
Felix Desmarais (1News): Corrections deputy chief exec resigned amid conduct allegations
Herald: Corrections deputy chief Topia Rameka quits amid concerns about conduct
André Chumko (Post): Election Watch: Ministry staff ‘under pressure’ organising pōwhiri for new boss (paywalled)
RNZ: Ministry for Culture and Heritage reviewing how it works, kaimahi asked for input 

ECONOMY
Liam Dann (Herald): Grim verdict for NZ: No respite from downturn this year – global research group BMI (paywalled)
RNZ: Economic activity picks up but headwinds loom – Infometrics
David Hargreaves (Interest): Some experts on NZIER’s ‘Shadow Board’ think higher rates are needed
Gyles Beckford (RNZ): Reserve Bank expected to hold OCR steady as it assesses state of inflation

MIGRATION
RNZ: Migration net gain of 86,800 in year to June is largest in three years
Liam Dann (Herald): Immigration: Biggest loss of Kiwi citizens in a decade but Stats NZ says migrants still coming (paywalled)
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Net immigration back near record high as revolving-door syndrome strengthens

HEALTH
Brian Easton (Punidit): There Are Wider Lessons To Be Learned From The Failures In The Management Of The Health System
Cécile Meier (BusinessDesk): Health agency’s ‘excessive’ comms team unlikely to be reduced by much as restructure begins (paywalled)
Mana Wikaire-Lewis (Whakaata Māori): Iwi and global pharmaceutical firm sign deal to merge modern medicine and Māori practices
ODT Editorial: Ronald McDonald House (paywalled)

EDUCATION
Kate MacNamara (Herald): Public Purse: Why so many of NZ’s neediest school children could be missing out on a free school lunch (paywalled)
The Hui (Newshub): ACT wouldn’t allocate separate funding for Māori education body – David Seymour
John Gerritsen (RNZ): Fewer Year 8 children enjoy maths than they did five years ago – study
John Gerritsen (RNZ): High school principals face high level of psychological distress – survey
Dave Armstrong (Post): Phone ban will keep schools hanging … on the line (paywalled)
Emma Willis (Newsroom): The show must go on: theatre education in crisis

HOUSING
Rayssa Almeida (RNZ): Kāinga Ora puts Auckland housing development on ice after community backlash
RNZ: Ten new Kāinga Ora one-bedroom homes in Blenheim
Penny Wardle (Marlborough Express): Kāinga Ora opens 10 one-bedroom homes in Blenheim
Greg Ninness (Interest): The latest figures suggest the recent surge in immigration is putting pressure on Auckland housing
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Rent rises pick up: ‘Government seems hell-bent on punishing residential landlords’
Geraden Cann (Stuff): House prices to rise post-election, more so if National win, experts say

CRIME, JUSTICE
Anusha Bradley (RNZ): RNZ investigation reveals 11 alleged paedophiles active within the Jehovah’s Witnesses
Anusha Bradley (RNZ): Jehovah’s Witness elder alleges order to destroy evidence in child abuse cases
Amelia Wade (Newshub): National’s Mark Mitchell accuses Chris Hipkins of personal responsibility for crime, will resign if it doesn’t improve under him
Katie Ham (Stuff): String of fatal shootings sees NZ reach half its annual gun deaths in 17 days
Jordan Dunn (RNZ): So much crime in central Auckland that it has become normal for locals, resident says
Fuimaono Dylan Asafo (Whakaata Māori): Act’s pledge to abolish cultural reports is racist and inhumane – law lecturer
Yvette Tinsley (Newsroom): The problem with jury trials

BUSINESS
RNZ: Record $3.675m One NZ fine under Fair Trading Act a ‘real deterrent’
Brianna McIlraith (Stuff): One NZ cops biggest Fair Trading Act breach fine for misleading customers
Matthew Dallas (Manawatū Standard): Dignity in the aisles: First social supermarket in Palmerston North opens

PRIMARY INDUSTRIES, CONSERVATION
Andrew Bevin (Newsroom): Fishery’s sustainability more important than commercial interests, says court
Isobel Ewing (Newshub): Fishers lash out at Green Party over calls to halt longfin eel fishing
Rachael Kelly (Stuff): Environment Southland carries out second winter grazing flight
Tina Morrison (Stuff): Fonterra is getting ready to tackle its biggest source of emissions – farmers

NELSON TENTHS
Samantha Gee (RNZ): Long-running Nelson Tenths Māori land case back in High Court in Wellington
Tracy Neal (Open Justice): Nelson Tenths Reserves: Losses to Māori from broken promises over land purchases estimated at more than a billion dollars

TRANSPORT
RNZ: Let’s Get Wellington Moving staff paid on average twice what other Wellingtonians earn
Anneke Smith (RNZ): Wellington’s half-price transport fares to end next month
Jonathan Killick (Stuff): Auckland rail crossings will be closed 45 mins an hour during peak commute

OTHER
Gavin Ellis: Feathers will fly as Willie puts the cat among the kiwis
John Braddock (World socialist website): New Zealand intelligence report targets China over “foreign interference”
Lyric Waiwiri-Smith (Stuff): Jacinda Ardern recalls ‘netball knickers’ at gender equity panel