Daily News Roundup – 24 March 2021

Housing announcement
Bryce Edwards (The Guardian): Targeting New Zealand’s property speculators is popular, but won’t fix the housing crisis
Henry Cooke (Stuff): The bets the Government is making with its sprawling housing package
Luke Malpass (Stuff): Labour takes its first big majority gambles on housing changes
Bernard Hickey: Not a single new home announced
Charlotte Fielding (Stuff): Sorry Jacinda Ardern, your housing policy isn’t likely to tilt the market for people like us
Richard Harman: The government ignores Treasury’s advice and goes its own way on property prices
Jenny Ruth (BusinessDesk): House prices may fall more than 10% – Westpac (paywalled)
Tony Alexander (One Roof): Winners and losers of the Government’s housing market fix
Hamish Rutherford (Herald): After months of FOMO, housing measures run the risk of a hard landing (paywalled)
Stuff: Editorial – Finally, Government moves to address housing crisis
Herald: Editorial – House prices need to fall and Kiwis need to get used to it (paywalled)
David Hargreaves (Interest): ‘The odds of house prices falling have risen’
Anne Gibson (Herald): Q&A: New Government housing policy explained, how homes for 1.5 million people are affected (paywalled)
Liam Dann (Herald): ‘Chilling effect’: Housing policy could hit wider economy, Westpac (paywalled)
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Housing changes: Don’t hold out for price crash, economists say
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Newstalk ZB): Government’s housing announcement is no grand plan
David Farrar: Govt announcement will increase homelessness
Liam Hehir: Labour gives up on housing
Geraden Cann (Stuff): Housing policies will advantage first home buyers — if they can afford current prices
Liam Dann (Herald): ‘Chilling effect’: New policies could hit house prices by 10pc, says Westpac (paywalled)
Miriam Bell (Stuff): Anger over Government moves against property investors
Kaysha Brownlie (Newshub): Renters could be worse off following Government’s new housing package – property investors
Liz McDonald (Stuff): New rules could tip market in favour of first time buyers – experts
RNZ: Government’s plan to help first-home buyers: What you need to know
Tamsyn Parker (Herald): What to consider if you have an investment property (paywalled)
RNZ: Housing Minister discusses new rules to cool housing market
RNZ: Government’s plan to help first-home buyers: What you need to know
Henry Cooke and Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Treasury suggested extending bright-line test for 20 years, pushed against interest deductibility, believes rents may rise out of new housing policy
Mark Quinlivan and Mel Logan (Newshub): Housing announcement: Landlords, commentators fume over Government changes
Hannah Kronast (Newshub): First-home buyers react to Goverment’s housing announcement
1News: When quizzed if housing announcement is ‘transformational’, Ardern says it will ‘make a difference’
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Housing policy: What do the changes mean for you?
Sam Sachdeva (Newshub): Bright line doubled, $3.8b ‘acceleration’ fund in Govt housing package
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Housing changes kick in from this weekend as Government unveils major policy
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Housing: Government to double bright-line test and end interest writeoff in war on property speculation, will spend $3.8b on new supply
Ethan Te Ora (Stuff): First-home buyers say housing policy changes won’t help soon enough, while experts call them ‘a mixed bag’
Ben Leahy (Herald): First-home buyers big winners in housing sector shake-up
Grant Duncan: Is Ardern going social-democratic?

Housing: Tax deductibility changes
Greg Ninness (Interest): Tax changes will ring in significant changes in the housing market
Jenny Ruth (BusinessDesk): House prices to fall, rents to rise (paywalled)
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Risk of ‘abrupt stop’ in housing market, economist says
Clint Smith (Stuff): Will the Government’s ‘big guns’ be enough to fix the housing crisis?
Terry Baucher (Interest): Govt action against interest deductions on residential property income the big change
Hamish McNicol (NBR): Property investor tax deductibility changes an ‘absolute nonsense’ (paywalled)
Ashley Church (One Roof): The Government just lit the fuse on a bomb that will blow up the housing market
Ben Leahy (Herald): Skyrocketing house prices could be halted by removal of investor tax breaks, pundits say
Anne Gibson (Herald): Landlord chiefs react to Government housing package
Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): Tax bombshell for property investors (paywalled)
Herald: Property investors react online to Government’s housing package

Housing: Ten-year bright line test extension
Audrey Young (Herald): Jacinda Ardern and Grant Robertson choose wrong way to handle broken tax promise (paywalled)
Tova O’Brien (Newshub): Jacinda Ardern and the mother of all broken promises
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Housing: Grant Robertson says he was ‘too definitive’ when he ruled out a change to the bright-line test. Judith Collins says he lied.
Jason Walls (Herald): Housing crisis: National leader Judith Collins says Grant Robertson lied to Kiwis over bright-line test
Jane Patterson (RNZ): Government removes blanket family home exemption for extended bright-line test
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): What’s a bright-line test, anyway?
Jason Walls (Herald): Government officials advised ministers against applying key measures of its housing plan
Zane Small (Newshub): Jacinda Ardern quotes National MPs to push back on claims bright-line test is a capital gains tax
Rachel Sadler (Newshub): Treasury advised quadrupling bright-line period to 20 years – report
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Newstalk ZB): Govt broke two promises with housing announcement

Housing: $3.8 billion infrastructure fund
Rob Stock (Stuff): Dusting off the ‘big gun’ to battle the housing crisis
David Hargreaves (Interest): $3.8 billion for housing infrastructure sounds great, but…
Zane Small (Housing): Housing Minister Megan Woods on the ‘stumbling block’ that’s prevented houses being built
Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): Strings attached to new $3.8b housing infrastructure fund (paywalled)

Housing: Income cap extensions
Dan Satherley: Housing crisis: How the new income and house price caps work
Priscilla Dickinson (Newshub): House price caps to increase – but is it enough to help first-home buyers?

Housing: General
1News: ‘Gone backwards’ — Northland family homeless again as housing crisis continues to bite
Georgia-May Gilbertson (Stuff): Napier’s long social housing waitlist – the highest per capita
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Housing crisis: Call for Commerce Commission to tackle ‘borderline disaster’ housing market
1News: Commentator Bernard Hickey doubts Government’s housing announcement will be ‘transformational’
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Don Brash praises Phil Twyford, says he understood how to fix housing crisis
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): Government still clueless over housing
RNZ: Calls made for separate Maori housing authority

Parliament and Government
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Exactly what is the politics of kindness?
Olivia Wannan (Stuff): The Insider’s guide to getting the laws you want
Richard Prebble (Herald): Poll is bad news for Jacinda Ardern and Judith Collins (paywalled)
Sophie Trigger (Herald): Australian rage, Jacinda Ardern, and why the language around female leaders matters

Economy and work
Melanie Carroll (Stuff): Progress on gender gap, long way to go for ethnic diversity: Champions of Change
Tamsyn Parker (Herald): Yawning gap on ethnic diversity in NZ’s major companies

SIS review of failure on Christchurch terrorist attack
Thomas Manch (Stuff): New Zealand’s national security apparatus remains shadowy, two years on from the March 15 terror attack
Phil Pennington (RNZ): Christchurch terror attack: SIS report fails to answer key questions – Islamic Federation
Mitchell Alexander (Newshub): New Zealand spy agency NZSIS intercepted multiple potential threats to 2020 general election

Climate change
Todd Niall (Stuff): Climate change: Lawyers say Commission error has set carbon levels too high
Joel MacManus (Stuff): Why the leaders of School Strike 4 Climate had to move on
Steven Walton (Stuff): Climate Change Commission’s ‘lack of ambition’ challenged
Ian Llewellyn and Andy Fyers (BusinessDesk): Govt’s 2025 carbon free target unreachable for vehicle fleet
Olivia Wannan (Stuff): Not just a phase: How Gen Z is changing climate politics

Health, drugs, abortion
Cate Broughton and Cecile Meier (Stuff): Emergency departments in ‘crisis’: Long, painful waits for patients, staff burnt out
Helen Clark (Stuff): We’re being left behind on drug laws

International relations
Thomas Manch (Stuff): New Zealand and Australia ‘welcome’ coordinated sanctions against China, but can’t join effort
Anna Whyte (1News): New Zealand says there is ‘clear evidence’ of severe human rights abuses against Uyghurs in China

Local government
Mike Mather (Stuff): Younger people getting more active in local government initiatives, survey reveals
Stuff: Hikoi calls for a seat a the decision-making table for disabled
Damian George (Stuff): City council investigation into mayor Wellington Andy Foster has cost ratepayers $12,600 in two months