GPJA's Blog

GPJA #4 – 17/11/23: Rallies and marches to Stop bombing Gaza! End the genocide! Ceasefire NOW!

Join your local rallies and marches taking place across the country this weekend. Citizens must step up where governments have failed.

PALESTINE SOLIDARITY

John Minto: Take action this weekend against complicity with genocide

Mare Haimona-Riki (Whakaata Māori): Māori Journalists Association condemns death toll of journalists in Gaza

RNZ: Two workers for NZ charity Relief Aid killed when homes bombed in Gaza
Katie Ham (Stuff): Call for ceasefire in Gaza sees thousands take to Auckland streets

Charlotte Muru-Lanning (Spinoff): New Zealand’s fractured response to the Israel-Hamas war

Madeleine Chapman (Spinoff): The language double standard

Scoop: Appeal for New Zealand to follow France and call for a ceasefire in Gaza

RNZ: Simplicity pulling shares from Israeli banks not ‘political stance’

Scoop: Unintended Ironies: Condemning The Armistice Day Marches

Jordan Dunn (RNZ): Vandalism of buildings a ‘minor inconvenience’ – pro-Palestinian group

RNZ: Muslim community asks government ministry to stop using Israeli company’s spyware
RNZ: Tory Whanau tells staff not to remove mural calling for a Gaza ceasefire

Melania Watson (Newshub): Survey suggests most Kiwis want Government to call for immediate Israel-Gaza ceasefire

GOVERNMENT

Bryce Edwards: Lobbyists helping and influencing the new National government

ECONOMIC

Dan Brunskill (Interest): A gaping infrastructure deficit and a growing population will pose a challenge to the incoming National-led government

Craig Renney (Herald): Difficult tax choices ahead for National in talks with NZ First and Act

Jonathan Milne (Newsroom): Power gentailers’ dominance helps consign 300,000 people to energy hardship

(A new official report quietly buried by the Labour Government in its final months in power identifies over 300,000 people are now living in housing and energy poverty so severe that they are unable to afford the power needed to stay warm in winter, have warm showers or cook their own food https://www.mbie.govt.nz/dmsdocument/27802-doia-2324-0860-response-for-publishing-pdf)

Colin Peacock (RNZ): Are the Irish twice as rich as us?

David Hargreaves (Interest): Wallets closed: ‘New Zealand’s retail sector is clearly turning down’

COST OF LIVING

Spinoff: Road charges creep closer for congestion-cursed Aucklanders

Eugene Bingham (Post): The $3.5 billion problem of debt to the Government that’s grinding down low-income earners (paywalled)

Jo O’Neill (ODT): More funding needed to ease financial pressure of vulnerable

1News: Why are Kiwi banks making so much profit at the moment?

Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Why do New Zealanders pay more for petrol than Australians do?

Gareth Vaughan (Interest): ANZ NZ annual profit holds above $2b despite higher loan impairments, CEO expects more stress among businesses & mortgage holders

Rob Stock (the Press): Retirement village residents deliver 18 boxes of submissions demanding ‘fairer’ laws

Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): Home ownership now ‘preserve of the rich’: ANZ boss (paywalled)

WORKERS

Stuff: Successful construction franchise under investigation over exploitation of Filipino workers

Radio NZ: Chinese migrant workers ensnarled in crowded Auckland accommodation

Trish Keeper (The Conversation): NZ workers have few protections if their employer goes bust – fixing the Companies Act would help
Shane Te Pou (Herald): Low wages won’t make workers or employers rich in long run (paywalled)

The Conversation: NZ workers have few protections if their employer goes bust – fixing the Companies Act would help

Mildred Armah (Stuff): High levels of non-compliance were found at the 85 businesses

Emma Stanford (RNZ): ‘Wrong on many levels’: Disinformation researcher criticises University of Auckland’s ‘silencing ‘ of Siouxsie Wiles

James Borrowdale (Spinoff): Modern slavery exists, and it exists in NZ

MAORI

Syd Keepa (Herald): Today is the day Māori men work for nothing, based on pay gap statistics

Anne Salmond (Newsroom): Why Act’s Treaty referendum is disrespectful and arrogant

Joel Maxwell (Stuff): Maybe those Māori voices on referendum impact aren’t making threat

Damien Venuto (Herald): Front Page: Where does this election leave Māori and Pasifika?

Morgan Godfery (Post): Te Pāti Māori’s successful election fight was not with Labour

HEALTH

Public Heath Communication Centre: Why we need an Aotearoa Centre for Disease Control (CDC)

Ian Powell: The glue that Primary Health Organisations provide primary care

Radio NZ: Progress report on Te Whatu Ora highlights shortfalls

Phil Pennington (Radio NZ): Report reveals new health system struggled with ‘confusion and delays’

NRZ: ‘Fifth wave’ of Covid-19 apparent as Kiwis fail to take up booster
Zane Small (Newshub): Health experts recommend people wear masks, celebrate Christmas outdoors amid another COVID-19 wave

Gordon Campbell: On why prescription fees are no way to fund cancer drugs

Stewart Sowman-Lund (Spinoff): Pharmacists back free prescriptions; Luxon remains determined to ditch policy

Isaac Davison (Herald): Brain drain: New Zealand’s hunger for more doctors and nurses leaves Pacific Islands short of medical workers (paywalled)

CLIMATE CHANGE, ENVIRONMENT
Mike Joy (Herald): Offsetting won’t work, stop emitting fossil carbon

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey: An ugly fight for African forest offsets NZ may have to buy

Marc Daalder (Newsroom): National’s diplomatic fossil fuel problem

Scoop: Forest & Bird Backs Action To Stop Coromandel Conservation Land Mining

Anneke Smith (RNZ): Climate activist seeking compensation payout after wrongful arrest

Jenée Tibshraeny (Herald): Government faces billion-dollar Emissions Trading Scheme hole (paywalled)

Scoop: Majority Of New Zealanders Want Public Transport Discounts To Stay

Mary Williams (ODT): Claim of ‘rife bullying’ by farmers

Waatea News: Assault on conservation land resumes

EDUCATION

Justin Wong (Post): AUT axed event booking after ‘nonsense’ email claiming group to be ‘criminal network’ (paywalled)

Mick Hall: Academics being smeared as antisemites and extremists after expressing criticism of Israel

Radio NZ: Auckland schools are ‘bursting at the seams’: PPTA

JUSTICE

Jarrod Gilbert (Herald): Gang patch ban could unintentionally help gangs, breach Bill of Rights (paywalled)

Tara Oakley and Rebecca Cupples (Spinoff): What are cultural sentencing reports and why does National want to scrap them?

James Perry (Whakaata Māori): New research project: How can shockingly large pre-trial prison remands be cut back?

Mike White (Post): Top Crown prosecutor ordered to pay $20,000 costs for "significant” failures

Phil Pennington (RNZ): Facial recognition: Government rolls out new tech despite racial bias concerns

REVIEWS

Newsroom: Book of the Week: Of course Māori got here first. A reissued 1938 classic smashes racist notions that Māori were not the first people to settle Aotearoa

Damien Grant (Stuff): Gareth Hughes’ biography on Jeanette Fitzsimons is poignant and powerful

1News: Mad on Meth: New book documents NZ’s history with methamphetamine