Daily News Roundup – 28 May 2020

National Party
Tova O’Brien (Newshub): National sets up ‘intelligence unit’ to dig up info on political opponents during 2020 election campaign
Claire Trevett (Herald): Todd Muller’s sink or swim introduction to Leader of Opposition (paywalled)
Mark Longley (Newshub): Dear Todd, the honeymoon is over – welcome to political leadership in New Zealand
Bryce Edwards (Democracy Project): Political Roundup: Where is Todd Muller taking National?
Karl du Fresne: Muller could take a lesson from BoJo
Donna Miles-Mojab (Stuff): The MAGA hat is gone but important questions remain
Richard Prebble (NBR): My advice for Todd Muller (paywalled)
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): Could Todd Muller have had a worse start?
1News: National leader Todd Muller admits lack of detail for his Covid-19 economic recovery pitch
1News: Todd Muller rejects ‘great conspiracy theory’ he’s been campaigning to depose Simon Bridges for months

National Party – Maori and Pacific MP rankings, ethnicity
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Todd Muller quizzed on Maori MP rankings, says nothing wrong with being white
RNZ: Todd Muller defends lack of Maori on National front bench
Jane Patterson and Charlie Dreaver (RNZ): Judge National on actions, not ‘ethnicity on front bench’ – Paula Bennett
Jane Patterson (RNZ): Judith Collins ‘sick of being demonised’ for her ethnicity
1News: Judith Collins calls question about Treaty ‘stupid’, says she’s ‘utterly sick of being demonised for my ethnicity’
Rachel Sadler (Newshub): Dan Bidois defends Todd Muller over no Maori MPs on National’s frontbench
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Labour minister says National Party is ‘blind to Maori’
Zane Small (Newshub): Labour MP Peeni Henare blasts Todd Muller, Judith Collins for being ‘blind’ to Maori concerns
Jason Walls (Herald): National leader Todd Muller defends his deputy leader Nikki Kaye over Maori heritage gaffe
Michael Neilson (Herald): ‘Ngati Epsom’: National MP Paul Goldsmith’s true heritage revealed
Aziz Al-Sa’afin (Newshub): Paul Goldsmith’s Wikipedia gets changed momentarily

Welfare, job losses, financial distress
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Government accused of buying middle-class vote, as Kiwis struggle to pay mortgage and rent
Susan Edmunds Stuff): Income limit stopped 1000 benefit applications in April, data shows
Glen Scanlon (RNZ): WINZ says wrongly denied benefits due to ‘isolated practice issues’
Susan Edmund (Stuff): 12,000 headline-grabbing redundancies ‘tip of the iceberg’
Anna Whyte (1News): National ask if Government’s concerned ‘two-tier’ welfare will increase racial inequality
Steven Cowan: The Green Party’s polite ‘opposition’ to government policy
Andrew Dickens (Newstalk ZB): Labour isn’t as left as the Greens expected—
Brent Edwards (NBR): Coalition politics could stymie a social insurance scheme (paywalled)
Rob Stock (Stuff): Power companies resume disconnections again

Border exemptions, immigration
Amelia Wade (Herald): Border exemptions: Poo-pipe engineers, chair lift expert and Avatar film crew among foreigners allowed into NZ
Collette Devlin and Tom Hunt (Stuff): Film workers among 150 given exemptions to enter NZ amid border lockdown
Gill Bonnettt (RNZ): Immigration ‘lottery’: Avatar crew allowed in, America’s Cup crews out
Anna Bracewell-Worrall (Newshub): Immigration form blamed for separating overseas migrants from families in New Zealand

Government
Jason Walls (Herald): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern spoke with the world’s most famous Chinese businessman during lockdown (paywalled)
Fran O’Sullivan (Herald): Winston Peters needs to push Jacinda Ardern on Oz bubble (paywalled)
Stuff Editorial: Questioning our post-Covid-19 path is the best way forward
Bob Jones: Winston Peters talks sense
Derek Cheng (Herald): Jacinda Ardern stands firm on level 1 move despite Winston Peters’ call
Henry Cooke (Stuff): PM Jacinda Ardern brushes off Winston Peters’ comments against Covid-19 restrictions
Jason Walls (Herald): Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters accused of breaching Cabinet rules in revealing Jacinda Ardern’s views on level 1 move
Newstalk ZB:‘Far too long’: NZ should be at level 1, says Winston Peters
Zane Small (Newshub): Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters wants COVID-19 alert level 1 now
1News: Defying Ardern, Deputy PM Winston Peters says ‘we have been in lockdown far too long’
Melanie Carroll (Stuff): Hopes to get Trans-Tasman bubble flying by July
Alan Kenyon (1News): ‘Won’t be too long’ – PM says for trans-Tasman travel bubble after Peters’ criticism
Derek Cheng (Herald): Jacinda Ardern says wait for transtasman travel bubble not ‘too long’
RNZ: ‘Won’t be too long’ before trans-Tasman travel starts – PM
RNZ: The Cook Islands eye early welcome back for NZ tourists
Newshub: Comedian Melanie Bracewell reveals ‘extended cut’ of Jacinda Ardern’s earthquake interview

Elimination, contact tracing, quarantine
Ryan Boswell (1News): Cracks starting to show in NZ’s Covid-19 health response – 1 NEWS reporter in managed isolation in Auckland hotel
Rachel Sadler (Newshub): Ministry of Health considering plans for pre-departure testing, quarantine before travellers arrive in New Zealand
Michael Daly (Stuff): No one in a New Zealand hospital with Covid-19 but it’s not time to celebrate yet
Jamie Ensor and Emma Turton (Newshub): Privacy Commissioner warns COVID-19 app developers, businesses to only ask for ‘minimum’ information
Herald: Privacy Commissioner warns against over-collection of customer info
Lana Andelane (Newshub): New Zealanders having ‘difficulties’ scanning QR code posters with COVID Tracer app
Carolyne Meng-Yee (Herald): Grieving family believe St Margaret’s rest home resident died from Covid-19

Housing
Benedict Collins (1News): Buyers caught up in delayed Kiwibuild development wish they’d never heard of the scheme
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): KiwiBuild will take more than 400 years to reach original target
Ben Leahy (Herald): Why house prices must fall – and why the news isn’t all bad (paywalled)

Economy, rebuilding
Liam Dann (Herald): Where economists are looking for recession clues (paywalled)
Maria Slade (NBR): Economy may suffer from Covid until 2024 (paywalled)
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Unemployment will peak at 8.1 per cent in 2022, NZIER forecasts
Kate MacNamara (Stuff): New Zealand’s China dilemma: your money or your scruples
Stephen Jacob (Spinoff): We may not like it, but we need China’s money now more than ever
Gil Barbezat (ODT): Bettering status quo, informed by science
Lucie Greenward (Newsroom): Designs for a sane economy after Covid-19

Reserve Bank’s Financial Stability Report
Thomas Coughlan and Luke Malpass (Stuff): Cracks appear in coalition as Adrian Orr warns of further pain
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Insurers and non-bank deposit takers, Reserve Bank’s biggest worry
Tamsyn Parker (Herald): How bad could it get for banks? RBNZ spells out worst case scenarios
RNZ: Retail banks remain in strong position post Covid-19 – Reserve Bank
Jenée Tibshraeny (Interest): RBNZ: Banks ‘resilient to all but the most severe scenarios’
Michael Reddell: A mixed bag
Brent Edwards (NBR): Reserve Bank says worst case scenario might see falling house prices (paywalled)
David Hargreaves (Interest): RBNZ figures suggest house price falls in excess of 20% would start to produce large numbers of people in negative equity
Anne Gibson (Herald): Commercial property sector ‘vulnerable’, $40b bank exposure to sector: Reserve Bank warns
Greg Ninness (Interest): RBNZ says the banks have $40 billion of loans on commercial property with $5 billion of that in development projects
Jamie Gray (Herald): NZ agriculture faring well ‘but vulnerabilities remain’ – Reserve Bank
David Hargreaves (Interest): Reserve Bank says in the lead-up to the level 4 lockdown some $800 mln of extra cash was pumped into circulation

Business
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Loans and lending guarantees prove surprisingly hard to give away
Hamish Rutherford (Herald): ANZ asks contractors and suppliers to cut prices (paywalled)
1News: Pressure mounting on banks to slash payWave fees, explore alternative payment options for struggling businesses
Debrin Foxcroft (Stuff): Smiths City advertises for new staff days after making 115 redundant
ODT Editorial: Workday reset no silver bullet
1News: Mainfreight returns wage subsidy after making more money than expected in lockdown
Non Pelletier (RNZ): Mainfreight posts $148m profit but future is uncertain
Bonnie Flaws (Stuff): Fuji Xerox to axe 100 jobs as printing demand plunges after Covid-19
Melanie Carroll (Stuff): Fletcher Building likely to emerge weaker from Covid-19, analysts say
Debrin Foxcroft (Stuff): Spending bounced before and after lockdown

Health and disability
Phil Pennington (RNZ): Huge shortfall in public health investment, College of Public Health says
Ian Powell (Democracy Project): Too Many DHBs? The Wrong Question
Phil Pennington (RNZ): Government’s ‘buy local’ commitment questioned in new deal
Bridie Witton (Stuff): Maori and Pacifica given priority in elective surgery waitlists
David Farrar: Europeans placed at bottom of elective surgery waiting list
John Gibb (ODT): Age-based inequity in dental health concerning: professor
RNZ: Academics say winter flu ‘outbreaks’ looming
Newshub: How the pandemic has impacted disabled Kiwis
RNZ: GPs push for balance between remote and in-person consultation

Education
Josephine Franks (Stuff): Auckland Uni students could be moved from halls so foreign students can quarantine
Katie Scotcher (RNZ): Uni may move hall residents to accommodate international students
Lana Andelane (Newshub): New Zealand risks losing $1.5b over 6 months if borders aren’t reopened to international students – Eric Crampton
Kristin Hall (1News): Growing support for student accommodation inquiry after rent paid for empty rooms
Josephine Franks (Stuff): AUT students threatened with having grades, graduation withheld over unpaid bills
Jamie Morton (Herald): Massey bosses grilled over controversial Albany science shake-up
Ruth Hill (RNZ): Massey University science faculty cuts casual staff

Pay equity settlement for teachers aides
Simon Collins (Herald): Teacher aides win historic pay equity wage rises of 23 to 34 per cent
Rachel Sadler (Newshub): Ministry of Education, NZEI agree on teacher aide pay equity settlement
Stuff: Equity deal offer will see teacher aide pay rise up to 28 per cent
RNZ: ‘Milestone’ pay settlement reached for teacher aides
1News: Teacher aides get significant pay boost with pay equity settlement

Police
Daisy Hudson (ODT): Police allowed gang tangi during lockdown
1News: Armed Offenders Squad under major review, including whether it remains fit for purpose
RNZ: Police Commissioner: ‘High threshold’ for routine use of armed police

Justice, corrections
Mandy Te (Stuff): Ministry of Justice report projects increase of people on remand over the next 10 years
RNZ: Prison population: Those awaiting trial expected to outnumber sentenced offenders by 2029

Public service
1News: Public sector’s reputation in NZ reaches record high amid Covid-19 crisis, survey shows
Mandy Te and Joel MacManus (Stuff): Community ‘will die’ if Wellington civil servants continue to work from home, National MP says
Matthew Tso (Stuff): Bloomfield, public servants wined and dined by Governor-General

Local government
Bernard Orsman (Herald): ‘Horror show’: Auckland Council meets to slash $550m from budget (paywalled)
Georgina Campbell (Herald): False start: Wellington’s $200m library fix questioned
Hamish Cardwell (RNZ): Wellington council delays library decision to seek more advice
Stehen Forbes: Proposal to ferry cars from Ports of Auckland still on the table
Ellen O’Dwyer (Stuff): Hamilton city likely to help Auckland’s water woes
Susan Botting: Far North council considers Maori wards
Dominic Harris (Press): Zero rates plan scrapped as Christchurch council struggles to contain coronavirus fallout
Hamish MacLean (ODT): Council reaches rates rise compromise
RNZ: Dunedin councillors back motion to limit rates increases
Emma Perry (ODT): DCC reprioritises capital spending in wake of Covid-19
Emma Perry (ODT): Commuter rail trial called off
Daisy Hudson (ODT): Key player backs putting waterfront project on ice
Molly Houseman (ODT): $2 flat bus fare for city to be introduced as trial
Lawrence Gully (Waikato Times): Waitomo councillors throw cold water on mayor’s rates freeze plan
Jono Galuszka (Manawatu Standard): Proposal to give Palmerston North residents $10 spending money businesses rejected

Environment
Rachel Thomas (RNZ): Experts say vision needed for Budget’s 11,000 nature-based jobs
Jamie Morton (Herald): Govt’s ‘zero-deaths’ seabird plan needs cameras on boats, groups say
Rachel Thomas (RNZ): Plan to reduce death rate of seabirds launched

Primary industries
Selva Selvaraja (ODT): We must protect our our soil; it is precious
Amelia Wade (Herald: Cows’ welfare at stake if 1000 jobs aren’t filled, warn dairy farmers
James Fyfe (Newshub): National’s new agriculture spokesperson David Bennett accuses Government of using farmers to just ‘pay the bills’
Andrea Fox (Herald): Probe into Fonterra’s $50m farmer council asks the right questions (paywalled)

Transport
Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): Light rail decision coming; Phil Twyford won’t discuss cost blowout
1News: Air NZ adds flight times for Kiwis wanting to travel around country for work in Level 2

Other
Jonathan Mitchell (RNZ): Christchurch couple back in court despite winning Southern Response battle
Derek Cheng (Herald): Act’s David Seymour: Armed police enter family home seeking illegal firearm already handed in
Karl du Fresne (Dominion Post): Racial division in New Zealand is ‘permanently built in’
M?ni Dunlop (RNZ): Historic K?rewarewa urup? desecrated by Crown breaches, redevelopment – Waitangi Tribunal
RNZ: Covid-19 research: ‘I’m confident a vaccine will be found’
Mark Quinlivan (Newshub): Vaccine time frame like asking how long a piece of string is – Science, Research and Innovation Minister Megan Woods
RNZ: MediaWorks staff to hear details of proposed redundancies
Todd Niall (Stuff): UK media star Noel Edmonds hopes NZ radio network will aid recovery
1News: NZ Post apologises for delivery delays amid Covid-19, announces ‘massive push’ this weekend to catch up
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): NZ Post reveals two centres most affected by delays, and why
RNZ: NZ makes new Pacific diplomatic appointments
Hamish McNeilly (Stuff): ‘The curve crusher’: Bloomfield merch raises $140,000 for Women’s Refuge