NZ Politics Daily: 24 May 2021 (final)
Budget: Benefits increase and poverty
Janet McAllister (Stuff): Budget did not go far enough to fix child poverty
Max Rashbrooke (The Guardian): Jacinda Ardern’s budget made progress on poverty, but it’s not mission accomplished
Simon Wilson (Herald): Chewing over the Budget with Judith Collins and poverty researchers (paywalled)
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Jacinda Ardern defends lack of middle-income measures in Budget, says Working For Families reform coming this term
1News: More required post-Budget if NZ wants ‘welfare state that really works’ – Children’s Commissioner
Sarah Robson (RNZ): Budget 2021: Are the benefit increases really enough to keep up?
RNZ: Benefit increases welcomed but some community groups need more
Brent Edwards (NBR): Fact or Fiction: Budget 2021 benefit rises and the big debt mountain (paywalled)
Kerre McIvor (Newstalk ZB): Benefit increase money well spent, if it works
Bay of Plenty Times: Budget 2021 reaction: Benefit rises aid some in Bay of Plenty, others missing out
Dan Satherley (Newshub): ‘Not a broken promise’: Grant Robertson says new unemployment insurance will be paid via levy, not a tax
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Accommodation Supplement ends up ‘going towards landlords’, is under review – Grant Robertson
Jason Walls (Herald): Government has ‘no plans’ to implement rent control policy, Robertson says
Jo Moir (Newsroom): Ex-beneficiary gets biggest Budget win
Peter Williams (Magic talk): Labour not helping anyone – including the poor
Budget: General
Luke Malpass (Stuff): Grant Robertson’s Budget aimed squarely at middle New Zealand
Claire Trevett (Herald): Budget won’t be talked about for long (paywalled)
Luke Malpass (Stuff): The Oliver Twist Cartoon — how Jacinda Ardern remembers ‘the Mother of all Budgets’
Andrea Vance (Stuff): As Labour looks to its historic foundations, National needs to start letting go of the past
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Herald): Labour’s timid and cautious approach (paywalled)
Liam Dann (Herald): Economic future so bright, you gotta wear shades (paywalled)
Kerre McIvor (Herald): Labour returns to its roots – but who will pay? (paywalled)
RNZ: Socialism in South Dunedin? Seymour slammed over Hillside North Korea jibe
Dan Satherley (Newshub): ‘Fewer people at the table’: Grant Robertson all smiles at no longer having to please Winston Peters
Meriana Johnsen (RNZ): Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer blasts Whānau Ora cuts as ‘inexcusable’
Mark Quinlivan (Newshub): ‘Ironic’ of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to recollect 1991 ‘Mother of all Budgets’ when she would have been 11 years old – Peter Dunne
Haimona Gray (Herald): Budget 2021 and the end of the Māori Separatism conversation? (paywalled)
Herald: Editorial: ‘Benefits not Jobs’ Budget 2021 gives Judith Collins air (paywalled)
Terry Baucher (Interest): Changes to income tax thresholds remain on ice
Guy Trafford (Interest): The verdict: the opposite of ‘transformational’
Claire Trevett (Herald): PM Jacinda Ardern on border re-opening, Covid fund, benefits boost
Stephen Bartos (The Conversation): Australia v NZ: You can tell a lot about a country by the way it budgets
Jenée Tibshraeny (Interest): Asset owners are still receiving more support than beneficiaries
Michael Neilson (Herald): Budget 2021: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern hits back at jobs, middle New Zealand criticism
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Money for music, tax for the rich — what you missed in Budget 2021
Peter Wilson (RNZ): Parliament polarised by the benefits of a deep-red Budget
RNZ: Budget 2021 expectations vs reality: What you need to know
Liz Gordon (Daily Blog): A moral and practical budget
Melanie Carroll (Newshub): Negative Budget 2021 says ‘this is as good as it gets’: Judith Collins
Zane Small (Newshub): From funding euthanasia to managing ‘people of extreme risk’: Budget 2021’s overlooked bits
Michael Cullen (Herald): Wellbeing at the core of balanced Budget (paywalled)
Nadine Porter (Stuff): Farmers concerned funding calls will reverse economic reforms
Stuff: Points of Order: A blockbuster Budget and the morning after
Phil Smith (RNZ): Gone by lunchtime – Budget urgency
RNZ: Budget 2021: Finance minister defends New Zealand’s ‘strong balance sheet’
Cass Marrett (Re News): I don’t understand the Budget so I got an economist to explain it to me – 2021 edition
Proposed unemployment social insurance
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): What we know about how social unemployment insurance might work
Paul McBeth (BusinessDesk): Details to be ironed out in social insurance (paywalled)
Vanessa Cole (Spinoff): The problem with social unemployment insurance
Parliament
Sam Hurley (Herald): Political parties under a cloud of criminal cases (paywalled)
Claire Trevett (Herald): MPs’ expenses: What PM Jacinda Ardern and Judith Collins election campaigns cost taxpayers (paywalled)
Colin Peacock (RNZ): Media make and break leadership in volatile times
Brian Easton (Pundit): The Class Of Labour
Brent Edwards (NBR): Should opinion polls matter as much as they do in politics? (paywalled)
Bill Ralston (Listener/Herald): When media training politicians fails (paywalled)
Mitchell Alexander (Newshub): Parliament paranormal: Newshub investigates rumours of ghosts in the Beehive
Act’s four year parliamentary term proposal
Andrew Geddis (Spinoff): Some thoughts on David Seymour’s ‘democracy policy’
Dan Satherley (Newshub): David Seymour wants four-year parliamentary terms, but with a catch
RNZ: Act’s push for four-year parliamentary term, with a Select Committee catch
RNZ: Act proposes four year Government term in Members Bill
Act Party
Katie Scotcher (RNZ): Act leader confident 250,000 more people will support party by 2023
Claire Trevett (Herald): Act leader David Seymour and National’s Judith Collins wrestle over who leads Opposition (paywalled)
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Seymour chases broad base to double caucus in 2023
National Party
Fran O’Sullivan (Herald): Judith Collins’ tightrope act deserves more applause (paywalled)
Steve Braunias (Herald): The secret diary of the Collins Gang (paywalled)
Victor Billot (Newsroom): An ode for the National Party
Racism, He Puapua, and Māori self-determination
Peter Dunne (Newsroom): Labour’s inaction, National’s crassness letting us down
Richard Harman: National dials the Treaty campaign back and returns to basics (paywalled)
Joel Maxwell (Stuff): Caution is the superfood of institutional racism
John Minto (Daily Blog): Working alongside Māori to improve our democracy
Rodney Hide: Racist stats
Economy and work
Catherine Harris (Stuff): Are wages too low to attract hospitality workers?
Dileepa Fonseka (Stuff): Ready, set, restructure: A look at the new wave of restructures
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Treasury can’t rule out ‘lost’ aluminium smelter agreement
Imran Ali (Herald): Cut red tape to speed up projects and money for Northland, Shane Jones says
Siobhan Wilson (1News): Finance Minister Grant Robertson to keep close eye on interest rates following Budget announcement
Claire Breen (ODT): Uproar over public sector pay restraint hides deeper problem
Bernard Hickey: Will the RBNZ flinch?
Aimee Shaw (Herald): 2020’s wild ride: Retail spending in the year of Covid (paywalled)
Justin Latif (Spinoff): Boost to vocational training to help tackle youth unemployment
Mark Fowler (Herald): Are interest rates really heading up? (paywalled)
Brad Olsen (Stuff): What being a young economist has taught me about money
Jade Kake (Stuff): Māori have colonisers to blame for concept of individual debt
Housing
Jenna Lynch (Newshub): Newshub-Reid Research poll shows Kiwis don’t think Government is doing enough to fix housing crisis and want prices to fall
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Accommodation supplement propping up rental market by $30m a week
Nadine Porter (Stuff): A home for life: A new way to look at social housing
Aaron Leaman (Stuff): Hamilton’s housing crisis: leaders size up new $3.8b fund
Steven Joyce (Herald): The magical assumptions around house prices (paywalled)
Catherine Smith (One Roof): Will house prices really come to standstill in less than 12 months?
Mike O’Donnell (Stuff): Prices not the only obstacle for house buyers
Michael Neilson (Herald): Māori housing boost ‘will make a difference’ for most vulnerable
Local government
Tara Shaskey (Stuff): Māori ward decision ‘not guaranteed’ and legislation still needed, says ex-New Plymouth mayor Andrew Judd
David Farrar: A nonsense poll
Puna Wano-Bryant and Dan Lander (Stuff): Māori wards a step along road to a better, more inclusive, future
Chloe Ranford (Stuff): Haka, tears as Marlborough councillors vote for Māori ward
Charlotte Jones (Herald): Whakatāne District Council votes to establish Māori wards
Jane Matthews (Stuff): Ka pai councillors: Stratford District Council votes aē to Māori ward
Ethan Griffiths (Herald): Whanganui mayor sought advice on last-minute Māori wards vote meeting
Lois Williams (ODT): O’Connor warns regional council leadership crisis could cost ratepayers
Alice Angeloni (Herald): Gisborne councillors question “huge” rates increase for rural townships before voting it in
International relations and defence
1News: ‘It costs nothing’ – Govt should have passed motion recognising Palestine as nation state, Q+A panel says
Geoffrey Miller (Democracy Project): Foreign affairs funding largely on ice as new priorities emerge
Damien Grant (Stuff): Vitriol and double standards are directed against Israel
Jane Clifton (Listener/Herald): How Australia’s trade stance can materially affect us (paywalled)
Paul Foster-Bell (Newsroom): No prosperity without freedom of travel
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Government will rewrite Defence Force’s priorities, possibly signalling ‘leaner years’
Health
Conan Young (RNZ): Calls for ‘precautionary approach’ after study links nitrate levels to preterm births
Katarina Williams (Stuff): Māori Health Authority funding should be ‘at least’ proportionate to population, commentator says
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Pharmac got what it was promised – Grant Robertson
Francesca Rudkin (Newstalk ZB): Government missed a chance to properly fund Pharmac
Ian Powell: A fleeting health system consensus
Lee Kenny (Stuff): Vaping problem in schools at ‘almost epidemic proportions’
Andrew McRae (RNZ): Cyber attack: Hundreds more to miss out on surgery as Waikato DHB rebuilds IT system
Caitlin Ellis and Lucy Warhurst (Newshub): Waikato DHB cyber attack: Chief executive refuses to pay ransom
Paul Skirrow (Newsroom): Time for a national psychology service?
Immigration
Dileepa Fonseka (Stuff): A ‘once in a generation opportunity’ to throw migrant workers under the bus
Andrew Barnes (Herald): What Govt should demand of wealthy investors coming to NZ (paywalled)
John Braddock (World socialist website): New Zealand Labour government targets rich investors in immigration “reset”
ODT: Editorial – Immigration reset unclear
Bruce Cotterill (Herald): Migrants welcome — we need you (paywalled)
Dita De Boni (NBR): It’s not about us wanting immigrants – it’s about them wanting us (paywalled)
Education
Katie Scotcher (RNZ): Act wants to give principals power to give high-performing teachers bonuses
Stuff: ACT leader calls for bonus pay for high-performing teachers
Alison Mau (Stuff): It’s madness that we don’t teach our ākonga the history of Aotearoa
Sinead Gill (Stuff): Iwi booklet aspires to contribute to Māori history curriculum
Environment and climate change
Robert McLachlan and Paul Callister (The Guardian): The climate crisis deserves more than small change in New Zealand’s budget
RNZ: Government’s commitment to putting cameras on commercial fishing boats questioned
Nadia Lim (Stuff): Something must be done about New Zealand’s shocking soft plastic recycling efforts
David Williams (Newsroom): Irrigation closing in on conservation land at spit
Covid
Chris Keall (Herald): $35m Covid vaccine software overspend? Orion Health CEO says Ministry memo, released under OIA, helps prove his case (paywalled)
John Roughan (Herald): Cabinet gave the vaccination programme entirely to the Ministry of Health, it won’t turn out well (paywalled)
Tracy Watkins (Stuff): Government has task on its hands with vaccine hesitancy
Adam Pearse (Herald): Rest home vaccine delay causing anxiety and frustration
Media
Katie Harris (Herald): Five people reported for harassment or sexism at state broadcaster Radio New Zealand
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Calls for Newshub boycott, after Three axes its Otago reporter
Other
Bryce Edwards (Democracy Project): The State of the political left (in the Age of Outrage)
Martin Van Beynen (Stuff): Columnist dubbed thinking man’s redneck bows out after 17 years
Jenny Nicholls (Stuff): To those accustomed to privilege, equality can feel like oppression
Cherie Howie (Herald): The new New Zealand – move over Boomer, the rise of the Millennial (paywalled)
Ben Leonard (Newsroom): Budget spend on Māori data ‘too little, too late’
Lisa Tumahai (Stuff): As a country, as South Islanders, as Ngāi Tahu, we all face huge challenges: we must face them together
Bernard Orsman (Herald): Safety lessons from Pike River mine being applied at Auckland’s City Rail Link project (paywalled)
Moana Jackson (E-Tangata): Colonisation has always been separatist
Joris de Bres (E-Tangata): The Dawn Raids: Why apologise?
Kennedy Warne (E-Tangata): The legal force of tikanga
RNZ: ‘Distressing signals’ found in survey on feelings of safety in NZ
Geraden Cann (Stuff): How the public helped police seek out white supremacists after mosque shootings
Max Tweedie (Spinoff): After an underwhelming budget for rainbow communities, it’s time for a new ministry
Anne Gibson (Herald): Retirement village contracts, complaints system need reform: Minister Poto Williams (paywalled)
Miriam Burrell (Herald): Gang violence: Fatal shooting and violent brawl as survey reveals gang fears