Covid
Nick Wilson & Michael Baker (The Conversation): With COVID-19 mutating and surging, NZ urgently needs to tighten border controls
Craig McCulloch (RNZ): Government’s latest Covid measures described as both too strong and too weak
RNZ: Covid-19: Ban on UK flights should be considered – Professor Nick Wilson
Jason Walls (Herald): Covid 19 coronavirus: NZ still exposed to mutant strain, despite tightened border
George Block (Stuff): Covid-19 quarantine system ‘couldn’t cope’ with sustained community outbreak
George Block (Stuff): Covid-19: Govt defends lack of quarantine capacity for large community outbreak
Derek Cheng (NZ Herald): Covid 19 coronavirus: Contact tracing falls well short for Auckland, Christchurch clusters (paywalled)
Rachel Sadler (Newshub): Coronavirus: New Zealand not entering planned lockdown on January 15 – officials
Kristin Hall (1News): Government probing use of computer programmes to get managed MIQ vouchers for returning Kiwis
Luke Kirkness (Herald) Covid 19 coronavirus: Tracer app use not high enough if there were to be an outbreak (paywalled)
Craig McCulloch (RNZ): Government expands pre-departure Covid-19 testing rules
Jason Walls (NZ Herald): Covid 19 coronavirus: Government announces new Covid testing rules
Tom Hunt (Stuff): Strict new border rules as New Zealand fights to hold back new Covid strains
Anna Whyte (1News): Extension of pre-departure Covid test likely ‘within the next few weeks’ – Hipkins
Anna Whyte (1News): Amid fears over highly infectious new Covid strains, extra testing extended to most travellers to NZ
Jason Walls (Herald): Government poised to announce new wider-ranging pre-departure Covid-19 testing rules
Liam Hehir (Democracy Project): Do as I say – the ongoing risks of covid hypocrisy
Housing
Jonathan Mitchell (RNZ): Urgent government intervention needed to address housing supply shortage – economists
Tony Alexander (One Roof): Six reasons why house prices are rising
Brent Melville (BusinessDeck): Auckland housing will cook for next 12 months: Thompson
Geraden Cann (Stuff): Wait lists for tiny homes double as house prices soar
Anne Gibson (Herald): Rental reform: $13m landlord’s fears for ‘borderline’ tenants (paywalled)
Jenée Tibshraeny (Interest): Value of NZ’s housing stock up 11% in a year to $1.28 trillion – four times that of the country’s annual GDP
Jamie Morton (Herald): Rising tide: How will climate change hit NZ property values? (paywalled)
Parliament and Government
Grant Robertson (Stuff): We can be a nation of sweet moderation – but only if we keep working at it
Audrey Young (Herald): Meet the Minister: Michael Wood – Transport and Workplace relations (paywalled)
Katie Doyle & Te Aorewa Rolleston (RNZ): No politicians at R?tana in 2021 as celebrations made exclusive for church adherents
Helmut Modlik (Stuff): Citizens, not governments, are the change-makers
Vaimoana Tapaleao (Herald): Parliament attack: Axe-wielding man smashes glass panels
Reserve Bank cyber breach
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Reserve Bank hack has brought its capabilities into question
Nicholas Pointon (RNZ): Reserve Bank warned of cyber vulnerability weeks before breach
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Reserve Bank hack: bank may not have applied patch in time
Chris Keall (NZ Herald): Data breach: RBNZ insider warned about underinvestment in security (paywalled)
US politics and NZ; International relations
Lucy Hu (Stuff): Despite the Capitol riots, New Zealand can still learn from America
Rachel Sadler (Newshub): ACT rescinds support for Chris Liddell’s nomination as OECD Secretary-General after ‘failure to denounce’ riot at US Capitol
Richard Prebble (Herald): Increasingly authoritarian China has silenced New Zealand (paywalled)
Economy and work
Anuja Nadkarni and Andre Chumko (Stuff): Job numbers drop for the first time in a decade, women and youth feel the hit
Sherry Zhang (The Spinoff): Unpaid internships: foot in the door or labour exploitation?
Debrin Foxcroft (Stuff): Minister ordered supermarket study done faster
David Chaston (Interest): Comparing capital support levels at our banks
Rob Stock (Stuff): Bankrupts ‘treated worse than convicts’, minister told
Local government
Don Brash (Stuff): Nothing democratic about race-based wards — Don Brash
Christina Persico (Stuff): Taranaki mayoral forum goes in to bat for Maori ward law change
Felix Desmarais (RNZ): Councils, district health board meeting catering costs $225,000 in two years
Prisons
John Weekes (Herald): Waikeria riot: Climbing prisoner numbers collide with fires wiping out 250 beds
Nicholas Boyack (Stuff): A former probation officer’s view: A paper war that kicks ex-prisoners when they’re down
Riley Kennedy (RNZ): Prison worker ‘ashamed’ to have worked for Department of Corrections
Other
Jamie Morton (NZ Herald): ‘Warm years are piling up’: 2020 was NZ’s seventh hottest
Bob McCroskrie: Gender curriculum rejected, support for opt-in sex ed – poll
Christian Fuller (Herald): Oranga Tamariki made aware of Nevaeh Ager in Hawke’s Bay – 20 months before her murder
Cate Broughton (Stuff): Rural health workforce could ‘implode’ as cry for help over MIQ costs goes ignored
Josephine Franks (Stuff): Auckland University academics angry at uni’s membership of libertarian think-tank
1News: ‘Outrage’ at Puhoi Pub’s wall hanging bearing offensive term for a black person
Emma Dangerfield (Stuff): Mayoral apology after mosque victim’s family subjected to racist rant
Gavin Evans (BusinessDesk): High winter power prices loom as gas supply dwindles (paywalled)
