Daily News Roundup – 19 April 2021

Housing crisis
Reuters: ‘Explosion of wealth inequality’ as housing boom leaves many behind – economist
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Housing crisis: Price falls coming, but ‘nothing compared to’ how much they’ve risen – economists
Miriam Bell (Stuff): What will happen if house prices fall?
Tara Shaskey (Stuff): Poverty will cripple Maori if housing crisis is not addressed – iwi leader
Janine Starks (Stuff): What the comments section can tell you about rental power dynamics
1News: Shortage of building materials prompts warnings of another leaky home crisis
Miriam Bell (Stuff): Govt changes likely to drive investors to new properties
Nona Pelletier (RNZ): House prices set to fall, bank losses to remain low – S&P Global Ratings
Ashley Church (One Roof): The hidden cost of the Government’s ‘war’ on landlords
RNZ: Housing shortage forces tenants to rent from bad landlords – advocate
RNZ: ‘We need a building ministry’: doco reveals high-rise horrors
Judi Keith-Brown (Stuff): It’s unjust and inaccurate to blame individuals for leaky buildings

Government subsidies for Amazon
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): National calls on Government to release full advice on Amazon deal
RNZ: Government questioned after $100 million boost for Amazon’s Lord of the Rings filming
RNZ: Otago hopes to reap benefits from Amazon’s Lord of the Rings filming: ‘You can’t not invest’
Newstalk ZB: Economist criticises Government signing new film subsidy deal with Amazon
1News: Government to give global giant Amazon over $100m boost for Lord of the Rings filming
RNZ: Government to give Amazon over $100 million boost for Lord of the Rings filming

Covid: Vaccinations programme and border
Jack Tame (Newstalk ZB): Border issues are utterly unacceptable
Derek Cheng (Herald): Labour’s indefensible, cynical behaviour leaves us all poorer (paywalled)
Michael Morrah (Newshub): Govt’s failure to analyse border worker testing data until two weeks ago ‘worrying, incompetent’ – Chris Bishop
Jason Walls: Border worker testing register – Government could have moved earlier, Hipkins admits
Jane Clifton (Listener/Herald): Vaccine resistance not the only festering mood (paywalled)
Adam Pearse (Herald): Rawiri Jansen: No Maori age priority in Covid-19 vaccine rollout a ‘complete failure’
Chris McDowall (Herald): Ministry of Health vaccine rollout chart ‘illustrative’ only (paywalled)
Peter Wilson (RNZ): The Week in Politics: Pandemic response under stress
Luke Malpass (Stuff): The trans-Tasman bubble that couldn’t come soon enough
Stuff: Trans-Tasman travel bubble: Australian and NZ PMs hail ‘world-leading’ deal
Richard Harman: Riding the border under the threat of xenophobia

Animal welfare (Live animal export ban; Greyhound review)
Bryce Edwards (Democracy Project): Political Roundup – The Government’s historic ban on live animal exports
Jane Nixon (1News): ‘Two years is too long’ – SAFE asks Govt to make live export ban immediate, calls for air export ban
1News: Sunday investigates the recently banned live animal export industry
Mike Watson and Jane Matthews (Stuff): Live animal exports to continue at Port Taranaki until 2023
Kristin Hall (1News): Nearly 50 greyhound deaths not recorded in industry’s annual report, prompting calls for transparency
Herald: Racing: Government announces review into greyhound racing following welfare pleas and ‘recent incidents’
1News: Government ‘not satisfied’ with greyhound racing industry’s attempts to improve animal welfare
RNZ: Greyhound racing ban the only answer, say animal welfare advocates

Mental health crisis
Dougal Sutherland (The Conversation): Road to nowhere: New Zealanders struggle to get the help they need, 2 years on from a funding boost for mental health services
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Tertiary student mental health fund announced last year hasn’t spent a cent
RNZ: Grieving father sues health authorities over mental health rights
Lucy Xia (Stuff): Asian mental health neglected by government policies, charity says
Kendall Hutt (Stuff): More than 50% of transgender youth report struggling with mental health

Health
Andrew Little (Stuff): Our health system is under stress – things must change
Don Brash: One more attempt to “fix” the healthcare system
Joel Maxwell (Stuff): Health Minister Andrew Little to reveal Maori health authority details
Dan Satherley (Newshub): More work to be done’ just ahead of Maori Health Authority announcement – Associate Minister of Health Peeni Henare
Martin Van Beynen (Stuff): Time to smoke the cannabis referendum
RNZ: Drug use among older adults a ‘hidden epidemic’
Damien Grant (Stuff): Meddling bureaucracy has decided it knows what’s best for us when it comes to smoking
Nicholas Jones (Herald): Pregnant women may have to pay for urgent doctor visits under plans for maternity shake-up (paywalled)

Media
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): The Government media bailout – who got what
Karl du Fresne: Why we should be sceptical about Kris Faafoi’s grand broadcasting project
Mike O’Donnell (Stuff): Why future-proofing public media will be no easy feat
Stuff: Stuff partners with Substack on local newsletter experiment

Speech regulation
David Farrar: Labour wants to jail people for three years for speech that targets political opinion
Don Franks (Redline): Hate speech bad, hate economics acceptable

National Party
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Herald): The return of Simon Bridges (paywalled)
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Former National leader Simon Bridges insists he doesn’t want ‘worst job in New Zealand’ back

Government
Steven Joyce (Herald): Labour drifting along on a road to nowhere (paywalled)
Monique Poirier (Kiwiblog): Promises, promises

Local Government
Georgina Campbell (Herald): Wellington City Council review finds council in need of a circuit breaker
Bernard Orsman (Herald): Former National MP Maurice Williamson toying with a return to politics on Auckland Council (paywalled)
Jamie Gray (Herald): NZ councils’ infrastructure spend could erode credit ratings – S&P (paywalled)
Cherie Sivignon (Stuff): Word on the street indicates dam cost closer to $300m: McNamara
Denise Piper (Stuff): Northland farmers query proposed rate hike of 30 per cent: ‘How is this fair?’

Parliament
Audrey Young (Herald): Act’s David Seymour set to capitalise on National’s trouble (paywalled)
Stuff: Parliament’s desperately needed new building escapes politics
Vita Molyneux (Newshub): Judith Collins apologises to Nicola Willis on behalf of ‘sexist slug’ after distasteful period jab

Economy and work
Tina Morrison (Stuff): Companies should collaborate with China, not withdraw, academic says
Liam Dann (Herald): Time for big spending is over – now policy making gets tough (paywalled)
Jenee Tibshraeny (Interest): What’s behind sky-high electricity prices
Liu Chen (RNZ): Unite union’s ‘Hospo Help’ initiative seeks to educate workers about their rights
Melanie Carroll (Stuff): Are minimum wage rises passed on to customers, as business groups claim?
Hamish Rutherford (Herald): Government was preparing to directly subsidise Rio Tinto’s transmission costs (paywalled)

Climate change
Alex Johnston (Stuff): Delay is the new climate denial — what the Government needs to do to step up our ambition
Matt Burrows (Newshub): Coastal erosion: The sea level rises putting thousands of New Zealand homes at risk – and how the Govt decides who foots the bill
Catherine Harris (Stuff): Farewell to carbon: the clean fuels in NZ’s future
Jon Johansson (Stuff): Young climate strikers could do with a dash of doubt to go along with their commitment

Migrant separations
Maxine Jacobs (Stuff): Immigrants desperate for action as no light shed on when families will be reunited
Catherine Harris (Stuff): Migrant worker ponders move to Australia to reunite family

Transport
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): It’s official – the Hamilton to Auckland train is a disaster

Other
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Newstalk ZB): Will gang shootings lead to arming of police?
Jason Walls (Herald): Government warned new anti-terror law may lead to disproportional surveillance (paywalled)
Phil Pennington (RNZ): State surveillance body cautions over police facial recognition technology
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Whanau Ora Minister has no issue with National Urban Maori Authority donation to Maori Party
Holly Walker (Herald): Building a less lonely world (paywalled)
RNZ: The lasting, shameful legacy of the Dawn Raids
Te Rina Triponel (Herald): ‘Shameful stain on NZ history’: Polynesian Panthers push for dawn raids apology
Joel Maxwell (Stuff): ‘There will always be an Oranga Tamariki’: Sir Wira Gardiner on trust, the Treaty, and true partnership
Polly Gillespie (Stuff): I thought Covid would make us better people: I was wrong
Paul Conway (Stuff): How do we bridge the digital divide?
Michael Macaulay (The Conversation): Workplace whistleblowers deserve more protection than NZ’s new law will deliver