Political Roundup: 21 October 2022

Items of interest and importance today

GOVERNMENT AND PARLIAMENT
Damien Venuto (Herald): Five years in, have Labour and Jacinda Ardern lost their stardust?
Matthew Hooton (Herald): Jacinda Ardern’s path to victory in 2023 (paywalled)
Peter Dunne (Newshub): Rules on political conflicts of interests must be updated urgently
Thomas Cranmer: Sidestepping conflicts – Wellington style
Chris Trotter (Daily Blog): Jackson’s trap
Josie Pagani (Stuff): ​​​​​​​Gibberish words in the public sector cover up lack of accountability
Anna Whyte (Stuff): ‘Shocking’ turnover in public servants a warning to Government, union says
Benedict Collins (1News): MPs weighed up decriminalising cannabis post-referendum
Chlöe Swarbrick and Zoe Madden-Smith (Re:News): NZ should wipe all cannabis possession charges
Richard Harman: Former Labour Party member in run for blue ribbon National seat(paywalled)
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): I hope Josh and Morgan are right about NZ First, but I don’t think they are
Brent Edwards (NBR): Make government spending more transparent by measuring outcomes (paywalled)
Tini Molyneux (Māori TV): Winston Peters starts his election campaign with a prediction
Phil Smith (RNZ): The E-team: Parliament and cyber security
Tess McClure (Guardian): New Zealand passes plain language bill to jettison jargon
Olivia Shivas (Stuff): Review panel seeks diverse views on how to improve electoral system

TREVOR MALLARD DEPARTS PARLIAMENT
Amelia Wade (Newshub): Trevor Mallard’s salary, perks in Ambassador to Ireland role revealed
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Trevor Mallard takes parting shot at ‘lazy, petty’ Opposition leaders in valedictory speech
Michael Neilson (Herald): Former Speaker and Labour MP Trevor Mallard delivers final speech in the House
Michael Neilson (Herald): Speaker Trevor Mallard’s highs and lows: From Covid protest and Macarena to moa restoration and making Parliament dog and child-friendly(paywalled)
1News: Mallard reveals ‘compromising’ Helen Clark moment in farewell speech
Russell Palmer (RNZ): Trevor Mallard makes final speech to Parliament
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Trevor Mallard’s valedictory speech – a broken legacy
RNZ: Former Speaker Trevor Mallard ‘unreasonable, irrational, unjustified’ in trespassing Winston Peters – High Court
Jane Nixon (1News): Mallard’s trespass of Peters ‘unreasonable’ and ‘irrational’

HAMILTON WEST BY-ELECTION AND GAURAV SHARMA
Lloyd Burr (Today FM): Gaurav Sharma wants even – That means Labour out of the Beehive
Adam Pearse (Herald): Hamilton West byelection: National and Labour wary of predicting victory in byelection
RNZ: Hamilton West by-election set for 10 December
RNZ: Gaurav Sharma expelled from Labour Party
Stephen Ward (Stuff): Hamilton West voters suggest Gaurav Sharma’s seat could be anyone’s to win

ECONOMY, EMPLOYMENT AND INEQUALITY
Herald: Savings up but net wealth falling as total household wealth plunges by almost $90 billion
William Hewett (Newshub): Leading economist Shamubeel Eaqub slams National, Labour for using tax policies as ‘cynical political ploy’
Jenée Tibshraeny (Herald): Should banks help taxpayers cover the cost of money printing? (paywalled)
Michael Reddell: A bad idea
Dileepa Fonseka (Stuff): Immigration changes create environment ‘worse than Middle East’ for some migrant workers, says immigration adviser representative
Mark Quinlivan (Newshub): Infrastructure New Zealand report finds ‘extraordinary amount of time’ spent on project decision making has cost country billions
Andy Fyers (BusinessDesk): We have a domestic inflation problem (paywalled)
Cameron Bagrie (BusinessDesk): Alarm bells are ringing, but is anybody listening?(paywalled)
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): What are Fair Pay Agreements and how will they work in practice?
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Economist: Why are nearly 100k on the benefit when unemployment so low?
RNZ: Rangatahi face high levels of exclusion and disadvantage, but the inequalities can be addressed – researchers
Robert MacCulloch: PM misreports child poverty. Now 4,000 children in Emergency Housing are called a “margin of error”
Katie Doyle (Stuff): Research reveals Māori on the back foot in retirement years
Joseph Los’e (Stuff): The Retirement Commission says a Māori voice must be heard in policies
Eric Crampton (Herald): Supermarket competition is in the national interest: Why won’t the Government tell the Overseas Investment Office (paywalled)

AUCKLAND COUNCIL
Toby Manhire (Spinoff): Letters from Wayne
Duncan Greive (Spinoff): Wayne Brown has found a unicorn issue that unites Auckland
Todd Niall (Stuff): Wayne Brown says meeting with PM was ‘friendly and constructive’
Nick Truebridge (Newshub): Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown’s Three Waters rhetoric ‘clickbait politics’ – ex-councillor
David Farrar: Wayne Brown gets it dead right
Kate Hawkesby (Newstalk): Do we need our mayors to work well with media?

LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Hamish McNeilly (Stuff): Aaron Hawkins likens losing the Dunedin mayoralty to a ‘very public divorce’
Jonah Franke-Bowell (Stuff): FPP or STV, Paula Southgate wins Hamilton mayoralty
Stephen Ward (Stuff): Women, environment and te ao Māori stand out in new Hamilton council line-up
Max Frethey (Stuff): Council staff feeling ‘used’, PSA union bargaining for better pay

HOUSING
RNZ: Data shows $90b wiped off Kiwi households’ net worth in 3 months
Miriam Bell (Stuff): Most people think now is a good time to buy a house, Trade Me says
Megan Wilson (Herald): Rotorua emergency housing motels: Local resident and business install fences, security systems

CLIMATE
Bill Hickman (Stuff): The issues that bind the group behind Wellington’s disruptive protest action
Ben Leahy (Herald): Groundswell protest: Low turnout blamed on busy farmers being flat out
Russell Palmer and Kirsty Frame (RNZ): Politicians respond to ’embarrassing’ Groundswell protests
RNZ: ‘All voices need to be heard’ in emissions pricing consultation process – Fonterra
No Right Turn: Farmers need to earn their social licence

JUSTICE
Sharon Brettkelly (RNZ): Jayden Meyer: Why a teen rapist is doing time at home
Cherie Howie (Herald): Why did High Court appeal against rapist Jayden Meyer’s sentence of home detention fail? (paywalled)
James Halpin (Stuff): Youth crimewave: How the rise in ramraids resulted in a crisis and thousands of charges
Gabrielle McCulloch (Stuff): Thousands of charges laid over ramraids, youth offending in Auckland and Waikato
Jared Savage (Herald): Operation Cobalt: Police issue 15,000 traffic tickets to gang members in disruption tactic (paywalled)

HEALTH
Stephen Forbes (Local Democracy Reporting): Te Whatu Ora criticised for ‘lack of action’ over Middlemore’s dysfunctional ED
Nick Truebridge (Newshub): Patient suffering brain bleed waited hours in ED as new figures reveal some regions short 50 ED nurses

OTHER
Anne Gibson (Herald): Foreigners double appetite for NZ land: buy area same size as Arthur’s Pass National Park (paywalled)
Michelle Duff (Stuff): Two more adults tried to save Malachi. Oranga Tamariki did not act, family say
Marty Sharpe (Stuff): Why did Oranga Tamariki let boy go back to parents who nearly killed him?
Phil Pennington (RNZ): Axon evidence-storing system full of flaws, lawyer says, as police consider expansion
Gabrielle McCulloch (Stuff): More Māori youth achieving higher, but systemic change still needed – report
Sarah Nealon (Stuff): Local documentary Web of Chaos looks at the internet’s dark side
Hanna McCallum (Stuff): Sex worker calls out ‘unfair treatment’ of migrant sex workers in petition before Parliament
RNZ: MBIE tight-lipped over not consulting Privacy Commissioner on using spy firm Cobwebs
No Right Turn: A problem of oversight
Mike Hosking (Newstalk): Creative New Zealand’s week gets worse
Bruce Munro (ODT): Call for NZ to be bolder on world stage