Bernard’s pick 'n' mix for Tuesday, May 7
Scoops of the day; Deep-dives of the day; Op-Eds & columns of the day, plus cartoon of the day. Hamas agrees to ceasefire; Nelson hospital rebuild cut back; OECD suggests breaking up gentailers
TL;DR: Hamas has just agreed to Israel’s ceasefire plan. Nelson hospital’s rebuild has been cut back to save money. The OECD suggests New Zealand break up network monopolies, including in electricity. PM Christopher Luxon’s news conference on a prison expansion announcement last night was his messiest yet.
Here’s my top six ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 7:26 am on Tuesday May 7:
Breaking: Hamas agrees to Israel ceasefire proposal, but Israeli position unclear as of 7am NZT: Reuters
Scoop: Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand has quietly changed the plan for the rebuild of Nelson Hospital to a "series of smaller builds", rather than one large acute services building, 1News’ Jessica Roden reported from Nelson last night.
Scoop: The Colombian cocaine smugglers who infiltrated New Zealand: They got up early, milked cows and fed pigs on Canterbury farms. In their down-time they steadily imported $45m worth of cocaine from a cartel in Medellin, Colombia. The Press-$$$ Jake Kenny
Deep-dive: The OECD published its bi-annual survey of the New Zealand economy, recommending tighter fiscal policy, tougher competition policy and various measures to improve productivity. Newshub Simon Shepherd NZ Herald Jenee Tibshraeny 1News
Poverty: PM Christopher Luxon and Corrections Minister announced in a stuttering series of statements, corrections and clarifications the Government planned to build an extra 810 beds at Waikeria Prison at a cost of $1.9 billion or $2.2 million per bed. Newshub Jenna Lynch, RNZ Jo Moir and Craig McCullough, NZ Herald Adam Pearse Stuff Tova O’Brien
Deep-dive: Global housing shortages are crushing immigration fueled growth in Canada, Australia, US and New Zealand, Bloomberg-gift’s Randy Thanthong-Knight, Swati Pandey, and Tom Rees reported.
(Articles with -$$$ in the publication name are paywalled. Paying subscribers can see a full collection of news and opinion links relevant to Aotearoa’s political economy, especially around housing, transport, climate, poverty and politics, below the paywall fold.)
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