Dawn Chorus: 90% NZ-wide not likely until late Dec

PM will have to decide on Nov 29 whether to let Auckland go ahead with 'red' traffic light and hard borders, and whether Auckland's 'borders' can open up for Christmas and summer travel before 90%

TLDR & TLDL: The vaccination programme is proceeding at a rate that would not see the remaining 807,988 second doses delivered until late December. That means the Government will have to decide whether to open Auckland’s hard borders before Christmas and the summer with other DHBs nationwide still below 90%. (See more below in numbers of the day)

The Government faces some hard decisions about how to implement the ‘traffic light system’ when vaccination rates are so variable across the country. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/TheKaka

PM Jacinda Ardern even suggested in a Stuff interview over the weekend Auckland’s borders would remain hard through summer, with only double-vaccinated people with negative tests able to pass through, either incoming or outgoing.

Elsewhere, National’s Nicola Willis proposed a Boost Build-to-Rent Housing bill to allow tax and overseas investment exemptions so large local and overseas fund managers would launch big new build-to-rent apartment developments. ACT’s David Seymour proposed changes to last week’s Labour-National housing accord to wind back the zoning changes and allow Councils to get a share of GST on building materials.

Coming up today, watch out for a post-cabinet news conference at 4pm that I’ll attend, including possible detail on shorter MIQ stays, targeted income support for low income earners, questions about vaccination certificates and news around the Government’s Three Waters plans.

(From today, I’m publishing and emailing the first four ‘TLDR’ paragraphs of all these articles to both paid and free subscribers, with paid subscribers getting the post in full below the fold. Feel the FOMO? :) I’d love free subscribers to upgrade to paid to make my accountability and explanatory journalism on affordable housing, climate change and inequality financially viable. Here’s a special one year offer available for just the next 24 hours to celebrate the start of this new feature. FYI Substack is having some issues uploading podcasts this morning. I’ll add today’s podcast later today.)