Daily News Roundup – 29 March 2021

Housing
Bryce Edwards (Democracy Project): Political Roundup – Housing announcement a blow for those at the bottom
Hayden Donnell (RNZ) Investor-economist alliance dominates media’s housing response
Jack Tame (Newstalk ZB): Housing changes are a gamble
Peter Wilson (RNZ): Week in Politics: Property speculators under the hammer as new ‘political calculus’ emerges
David Hargreaves (Interest): It’s now ‘watch this space’ for the housing market
John Roughan (Herald): Three cheers for the Government’s changes to the property market (paywalled)
Gordon Campbell: On Labour’s less than radical housing package
1News: If we’re not building houses we’re ‘buggered,’ says economist
Geraden Cann (Stuff): Investor tax rule changes: Government ‘will take action’ if rents spike, Grant Robertson says
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Housing crisis: Govt won’t set target for ‘affordable’ housing
Kate Green and Ethan Te Ora (Stuff): ‘Not a priority’: Renters feel overlooked after Government’s housing announcement
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Housing tax changes – what happened when the UK tried the same thing, and how we’re doing it differently
Hamish Rutherford (Herald): Government’s shift on tax resurrects doubts it has battled to shake off (paywalled) (
Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): Housing package: this term’s oil and gas ban? (paywalled)
Damien Grant (Stuff): Housing rule changes hit retirement plans to help middle-class moaners
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Four reasons to feel sorry for property investors
Madison Reidy (Newshub): Government’s new housing rules seemingly spook some investors out of housing market
Liam Dann (Herald): The great New Zealand house-price delusion (paywalled)
Steve Braunias (Herald): The secret diary of the Prime Minister’s Office (paywalled)
Matt Heath (Herald): New Zealand, we need to talk about our real estate obsession (paywalled)
Terry Baucher (Interest): The Week in Tax: Unintended consequences
Hannah Kronast (Newshub): Investor demand for new builds rises following Govt’s targeted housing plan – property expert
Grant Robertson (Stuff): We have made some hard choices to help deal with the housing crisis
Brooke van Velden (Stuff): Government’s noble promises going by the wayside
Tracy Watkins (Stuff): Property investors aren’t doing themselves any favours
Greg Ninness (Interest): Mixed use residential/commercial development owners must wait & see if new rules apply to them
Tim Hunter (NBR): A housing policy on the hoof (paywalled)
Jenna Lynch (Newshub): Spooked investors, developers hitting pause on housing projects over Government changes
Siobhan Wilson (1News): Finance Minister ‘can’t predict’ effect Government’s housing package will have on rents
Ben Leahy (Herald): Investors stay away from South Auckland open homes after Govt housing shake-up
Scott Palmer (Newshub): ACT, Judith Collins on attack after Grant Robertson’s latest rent comments
Brent Edwards (NBR): Fact or Fiction: Housing, the bubble and Christopher Luxon (paywalled)
Liam Dann and Anne Gibson (Herald): How far do prices need to fall to make housing affordable? (paywalled)
Tom O’Connor (Stuff): It’s long past time to hose down the housing market fire
Hannah Kronast and Crystal Wu (Newshub): Rental advocates “horrified” at landlord threatening to kick renters out on coldest day of the year
Newstalk ZB: Green MP responds after Business NZ says housing package has other sectors worried
RNZ: Buyers and vendors unfazed by new housing rules, says real estate agency
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Housing crisis: Rent hike caps not on the agenda, but Government isn’t ruling them out
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Labour MP David Parker brushes off landlords’ threats to hike rents
Miriam Bell (Stuff): First Home Loan scheme changes: What can you get for the new price caps?
Miriam Bell (Stuff): Investor’s sleepless nights over prospect of ‘super negative’ cash flow
Anne Gibson (Herald): $500m-$1b more tax: How much new rental property rules could bring in
Eva Corlett (RNZ): Ending homelessness ‘still a significant priority’ but need for shelter ‘isn’t diminishing’
Katie Bradford (1News): Supercharged housing market sees boom in real estate salespeople
Brent Melville (BusinessDesk): Carter Holt stops supply to ITM, Bunnings and Mitre10
1News: Concern grows over impact of timber shortage on New Zealand’s house building industry
John Anthony (Stuff): Carter Holt Harvey supply shakeup could change the future of housing in New Zealand, federation says

Economy and work
Bruce Munro (ODT): An enduring imbalance
Esther Taunton (Stuff): Is it time to we all worked a four-day week?
Tina Morrison (Stuff): Accounting professor calls on Hallenstein Glasson to revisit its wage subsidy decision
Lynley Jenness (Stuff): Why NZ should introduce an optional retirement age of 60 years
Dennis Wesselbaum (Herald): Can we be happier with less? (paywalled)
Joel Maxwell (Stuff): $50 million Maori trades and training fund produces four jobs so far, since June
Joel Maxwell (Stuff): How do we look past supposed cold hard facts, face up to reality of M?ori unemployment?
Peter Enderwick (The Conversation): New Zealand businesses must adapt to a fragmented post-Covid global economy
Kate MacNamara (Herald): Reduced foreign labour in New Zealand’s fields a failed experiment (paywalled)
RNZ: Businesses reduced by more than 1000 since lockdown – Stats NZ
Melanie Carroll (Stuff): Lack of change by many small businesses after Covid called ‘deeply troubling’

National and Christopher Luxon
Stuff: Editorial – Putting some faith in politics
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Herald): Why Christopher Luxon may try National leadership tilt this term (paywalled)

Parliament and Government
Cathy Odgers: If Jacinda Ardern was in charge of a Suez Canal crisis
Audrey Young (Herald): Why National chose to target Trevor Mallard instead of housing (paywalled)
Claire Trevett (Herald): Beehive Diaries: Why Sir John Key bid big for Grant Robertson, Christopher Luxon’s maiden promos (paywalled)
Newstalk ZB: Barry Soper criticises Jacinda Ardern for protecting Trevor Mallard
Daniela Maoate-Cox (RNZ): MPs keep it local in special debate

Health
Francesca Rudkin (Newshub): Government needs to listen to health experts as ED crisis worsens
Cecile Meier (Stuff): Christchurch Hospital facing ‘tough’ winter as more patients than beds forecast
David Farrar: Remember Labour abolished the health targets

Covid
Luke Malpass (Stuff): Covid 19: A year on from lockdown, it’s time to don the personal armour
Luke Malpass (Stuff): Clarke’s clothes and sausage rolls: Jacinda Ardern’s lockdown and the plan to open New Zealand up
Yvette McCullough (RNZ): Covid-19: New Zealand needs vaccine target, National says
Lucy Warhurst (Newshub): Coronavirus: New Zealand could be model for world if trans-Tasman travel bubble opens – Michael Baker
RNZ: National wants answers after error in vaccination booking system exposes hundreds of patient details
Georgia Forrester (Stuff): By the numbers: A look at the $3.7m in overdue fees for managed isolation and quarantine

International relations; National security
RNZ: SIS’s more open approach makes risk appraisal easier – professor
RNZ: Foreign spy working in New Zealand says Security Intelligence Agency
Anne-Marie Brady (Interest): Transparency and NZ national security
Mark Quinlivan (Newshub): From ‘taking out the trash’ to ‘abdicating responsibilities’: Does Australia care about its relationship with NZ?

Racism
Colin Peacock (RNZ): Clamour to cancel TVNZ’s top popular cop show
Anna Bracewell-Worrall (Newshub): Asian Kiwis warn rising racism could turn to violence
Kerre McIvor (Herald): Everyday racism is alive in New Zealand (paywalled)

Law, justice and policing
David Farrar: Serious Assaults have doubled since 2017
Ben Strang (RNZ): Some frontline police refusing high-risk callouts prompts more training
Jenine Colmore-Williams (Stuff): New Zealand an ‘easy target’ for money launderers
LawFuel: The 2021 Twitter power list – New Zealand law’s Top 20 Twitter List

Environment and climate change
Richard Harman: Climate change proposals getting chilly reception (paywalled)
Nikki Macdonald (Stuff): Where is our next Fox River dump disaster?
Tina Morrison (Stuff): Big businesses under growing pressure to cut their environmental impact

Local Government
Felix Desmarais (RNZ): The ‘black hole’ of transparency: Secret council workshops under the microscope
Damian George (Stuff): Greater Wellington Regional Council undertaxes and overpays staff for nine years

Media
Colin Peacock (RNZ): Even more public money for journalism?
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Covid reporting has improved perceptions of the media, survey suggests

Other
Andrea Vance (Stuff): The social welfare net is threadbare – can Grant Robertson mend it?
Emile Donovan (RNZ): The think tanks that help shape public policy
Herald: Editorial: It’s important to fight for a New Zealand where people get a fair go (paywalled)
Maiki Sherman (1News): Rebuild of Oranga Tamariki underway following years of turmoil
Adam Hollingworth (Newshub): Controversy brewing over transgender children’s access to puberty blockers
Aaron Leaman and Ellen O’Dwyer (Stuff): Waikato’s $98m rail punt – will it get people out of cars?
Herald: School renames mufti day ‘be yourself day’ after students worry it’s culturally insensitive
Lana Hart (Stuff): Maxims of women’s movement now echo is schools and workplaces