Public sector pay freeze
Stuff: Editorial – Pay freeze stretches public sector loyalty
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Newstalk ZB): Pay freeze shows Government can’t manage the books
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Pay freeze controversy enters second day, with Greens and National pressing Labour
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Do people really earn more in the public sector?
David Farrar: Robertson and Hipkins become honorary members of the Taxpayers’ Union
Zane Small (Newshub): Chris Hipkins rebukes Mark Mitchell for classing border staff ‘bureaucrats’ as Greens rip into pay freeze
Caryn Wilkinson (Stuff): Educators slam three more years of pay restraint for public servants
Kerre McIvor (Newstalk ZB): Public sector pay freeze rightly labelled ‘bombshell’
Frances Cook (Herald): Of course I go to work for money, and so do you (paywalled)
Richard Wagstaff (BusinessDesk): Public sector bargaining must be in good faith
China and New Zealand
Matthew Hooton (Herald): Loose words raise risk of war (paywalled)
Chris Trotter: With Friends Like These …
John Bishop (Stuff): Wanting nations to behave in line with our values is foolish
ODT: Editorial – New Zealand, China and realpolitik
Michael Neilson (Herald): China lashes out after New Zealand Parliament makes Uighur declaration over ‘severe human rights abuses’
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Jacinda Ardern not surprised by China’s angry response to Parliament declaring ‘severe human rights abuses’ in Xinjiang
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Xinjiang: China blasts New Zealand Parliament for ‘severe abuses’ declaration, warns of potential ‘harm’ to relationship
Jane Patterson (RNZ): Where will New Zealand stand in rising tensions between China and other allies?
RNZ: Parliament human rights vote ‘gross interference in China’s internal affairs’
He Puapua document and Maori self-determination
Karl du Fresne: The He Puapua affair makes Labour look shifty
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): What are the govt’s plans with He Puapua?
Chris Lynch (Herald): Will He Puapua unite New Zealanders as the authors have claimed?
Parliament’s Speaker Trevor Mallard
Peter Dunne: It is time for Speaker Trevor Mallard to go
Kate Hawkesby (Newstalk ZB): How long ’til Mallard goes?
1News: MPs using sexual assault as ‘political football’ not leading by example: Marama Davidson and charity founder
Housing crisis
Jane Patterson (RNZ): Police, MSD not collecting data on crime at emergency housing
Brian Fallow (Herald): Choose your weapons in housing fight (paywalled)
Ashley Church (One Roof): Housing market lessons from a Hollywood apocalypse
Anne Gibson (Herald): Housing crisis: Data shows record number of consents for new houses
Economy, Budget, and work
Bernard Hickey (Spinoff): Lower debt in, cutting child poverty out: Bernard Hickey on financial priorities
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Less than half of ‘shovel-ready’ projects begun by deadline
Max Rashbrooke (Stuff): Labour still haunted by economic ‘loser’ tag
Herald: Editorial: How Covid-19 has heated up NZ’s economy (paywalled)
Hamish Rutherford (Herald): Reserve Bank hints new lending tool might be worthwhile, even if only applied to investors (paywalled)
Brent Edwards (NBR): Finance Minister’s balancing act will continue in May budget (paywalled)
Chris Leitch (Herald): A social solution to the giant money merry-go-round (paywalled)
Caitlin Ellis (Newshub): Understanding of Te Ao Maori a core skill for all New Zealand business directors – Reserve Bank assistant governor
Tamsyn Parker (Herald): BNZ half year profit up 80% to $660 million
David Hargreaves (Interest): Businesses’ rising cost expectations ‘are off the charts’
Health
Herald: Doctor burnout: One in two suffering – specialist told patients would die if she took a sick day
Emma Russell (Herald): Auckland hospitals overloaded: Patients waiting in corridors as demand skyrockets
Alice Angeloni (RNZ): Nursing shortage leads to temporary stop on joint surgeries in Gisborne
Tim Brown (Stuff): Southern DHB ‘fails our patients at multiple stages’ – oncologist
Media
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): Media have brought distrust on themselves – but there is hope
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): RNZ’s Susie Ferguson and Corin Dann narrowly beat Mike Hosking in latest radio results
Herald: Newstalk ZB topples RNZ National as biggest talk station in NZ
Covid and border
Derek Cheng (Herald): Border blind spot: Number of unvaccinated workers outside MIQ unclear
Thomas Manch (Stuff): New Zealand to support effort to waive Covid-19 vaccine patents, after United States backs WTO bid
Other
Josh Van Veen (Democracy Project): The Muller Trap
Michael Neilson, Claire Trevett and Jason Walls (Herald): National received nearly $3m in political donations in 2020 – nearly double Labour
Mike Mather (Stuff): Hamilton ratepayers stuck with 8.9 per cent rates hike and a parking u-turn
Esther Taunton (Stuff): Union calls for audit of KiwiRail trains amid slave labour concerns
David Farrar: A trade union you should join
Te Aorewa Rolleston (RNZ): Gangs in NZ: ‘Talking to those ready to embark on that path is important’
Please share this article so that others can discover The BFD
