The main issue in NZ politics today is the debate about Labour's Best Start policy announcement, together with related issues of inequality, education, and welfare. [Read more below]
Today’s links
Labour’s ‘baby bonus’
Brian Rudman (Herald): Oh baby, it must be election year
The Press: More to come in election year
Efeso Collins (Daily Blog): Alleviating poverty key to raising student achievement
Chris Trotter (Bowalley Road): No Speeches On The State Of The Capitalist System
John Armstrong (Herald): Fishhooks in the fine print for baby producers expecting a windfall
Peter Wilson and Dan Satherley (TV3): Best Start policy will save money – Ardern
Matthew Hooton (NBR): Cunliffe’s $9360 baby bribe will increase child poverty (paywalled)
John Lewis (ODT): Questions over Labour policy
Simon Wong (TV3): Labour: Parents won't be able to rort 'baby bonus'
Corazon Miller and Julie Moffett (Newstalk ZB): Children first policies a double edged sword
Gordon Campbell (Scoop): On David Cunliffe’s State of the Nation speech
Eric Crampton (Offsetting behaviour): Moar kids
David Farrar (Kiwiblog): MPs eligible for the baby bonus
David Farrar (Kiwiblog): No support for those who already have kids
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Cunliffe’s real safety net – $60 per week for beneficiary families
Peter Cresswell (Not PC): More middle-class welfare [updated]
Ele Ludemann (Homepaddock): How much is enough?
Radio NZ: Labour's baby policy applies to wealthy
Greer Berry (Stuff): Ella Lordes it over Cunliffe's reveal
Scott Yorke (Imperator Fish): A policy in tatters
Rob Salmond (Polity): Did yesterday actual happen?
Pete George (Your NZ): Better targeting the baby bonus
Rob Salmond (Polity): $60 a week says you want to care for my baby
Keeping Stock: Dickens on "uncool" Cunliffe
Tim Selwyn (Tumeke): State of the Nation: Kelston Cunliffed
Patrick Leyland (Progress Report): Well done NZ Labour!
Radio NZ: Child well-being tipped as election issue
Southland Times: And a child policy shall lead them
Simon Collins and Adam Bennett (Herald): Labour's baby bonus may produce less work, more babies: economists
Tracy Watkins (Stuff): Election year battle lines drawn
Chris Ford (Voxy): Labour selling itself short - and even doing it badly!
The Standard: On Best Start
Parliamentary attendance
Simon Wong (TV3): Wagging MPs to be held accountable
Adam Bennett (Herald): MP 'taking the mickey' over Parliamentary absences
Laura McQuillan (Newstalk ZB): Larger penalties for absent MPs
Radio NZ: Harawira upset at 'petty' absent remarks
Andrea Vance (Stuff): Hone Harawira defends his absences
TVNZ: Harawira 'taking the mickey' over absences – Key
TVNZ: 'I haven't been wagging' - Hone Harawira
First day of parliament
Tracy Watkins (Stuff): Parliament back for first time in 2014
Claire Trevett (Herald): Leaders kick off Parliamentary year trading insults
Holly Walker (Frog Blog): Mum in the House
Isaac Davison (Herald): Two new MPs sworn into Parliament
Hamish Rutherford (Stuff): Dunne, Lotu-Iiga sworn in
Paid parental leave
Adam Bennett and Claire Trevett (Herald): National hints at extending paid parental leave
Stuff: National may extend paid parental leave
Simon Wong (TV3): Govt may trump Labour's parental leave bill
Katie Bradford (TVNZ): National accused of 'playing politics' over paid parental leave
Patrick Gower (TV3): Parliament battles over babies
Radio NZ: Govt may extend paid parental leave
Rob Salmond (Polity): PPL U-turn approaching
Whaleoil DOS attack
Patrice Dougan (Herald): Blog site Whaleoil crashes after DoS attack
Pete George (Your NZ): Whale Oil woes
Pete George (Your NZ): The Whale Oil West Coast provocation
TVNZ: Blog site Whaleoil hacked
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): The repulsive comments that had Whaleoil attacked and taken offline
Radio NZ: Hackers shut down Whale Oil blog
David Farrar (Kiwiblog): Whale under attack
Radio NZ: Blogger believes death threats from West Coast
Helen Clark
Stacey Kirk (Stuff): Helen Clark, next UN secretary-general?
Teuila Fuatai (Herald): Former PM Helen Clark tipped for UN's top job
Jane Martinson (Guardian): Will Helen Clark be the first woman to run the UN?
Radio NZ: National would back Clark for top job
Claire Trevett (Herald): Govt will back Clark if she wants top UN job: Key
Fiscal policy
Newswire: A billion dollars extra in the Budget
Claire Trevett (Herald): Key: National to stick $1b spending limit
Tova O’Brien (TV3): Labour threatens Facebook ban over tax issue
Hamish Rutherford (Stuff): Technology threatening govt's tax
Pete George (Your NZ): Labour – pay more tax or ban Facebook
David Farrar (Kiwiblog): Labour jumps the shark
Rob Salmond (Polity): Facebook’s NZ future
Pete George (Your NZ): David Clark attacked from all sides on Facebook farce
No Right Turn: Not a credible solution
Ellipsister: Reviving Georgism: How the Greens could improve their taxation policy
Kim Dotcom
Bruce Wills (Stuff): Internet Party a strange beast
Tom Peters (WSW): New Zealand: Kim Dotcom to launch pro-business Internet Party
ACT
Michael Fox (Stuff): Banks' impassioned poverty plea
Felix Marwick (Newstalk ZB): Meeting to sound out the future of ACT
Pike River
Radio NZ: CTU may take action against Whittall
Deidre Mussen (Stuff): CTU seeking to overturn dropping of Whittall charges
Rebstock report
Tracy Watkins (Stuff): Govt defends Rebstock report
Laura McQuillan (Newstalk ZB): Govt defends inquiry into leaked details of MFAT
NZ First
3 News Online Staff (TV3): NZ First wants veteran disability claim inquiry
Morgan Godfery (Maui Street): The pot calling the kettle brown: why Winston Peters can't talk about "separatism"
Newstalk ZB: Political Report: Key and Peters
Audrey Young (Herald): Key: Power-sharing off the table
Felix Marwick (Newstalk ZB): Winston Peters promises to catch out PM
Education
Dan Satherley (TV3): Merit in opposing education policies – expert
Newswire: Another deal struck over leaky schools
Nicholas Jones (Herald): One third of schools too trusting – report
Stuff: Risky teachers hard to spot
Bronwyn Hayward (Growing-greens): What we cherish, we defend
Maori politics
Radio NZ: Iwi to reclaim Cape Reinga ownership
Lois Cairns (Stuff): Council wary of flag pick
Joshua Hitchcock (Ka Tōnuitanga): Economic Independence as an Expression of Sovereignty
GCSB
Ben Heather (Stuff): State will 'know everything about you'
John Minto (Daily Blog): The GCSB: the US portal for mass surveillance of our personal privacy
Lorde
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Why I think Lorde’s ‘Royals’ is a generational anthem
Peter Cresswell (Not PC): Talent will out
Other
Stuff: Today in politics: Wednesday, January 29
Michael Forbes (Stuff): Govt rejects cycle safety proposals
Josh Martin (Stuff): Defence deal baffles Goff
Stuff: Chinese corruption crackdown hits New Zealand paua industry
Matthew Backhouse (Herald): Marrying the missus – again
Isaac Davison (Herald): Party leader digs into his own coffers for funding
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): The green the Greens don’t want to spark up
Daily Blog: The Daily Blog Watch – 27/28 January
Alison McCulloch: Fighting to Choose: All the Reviews
Newswire: We can't force equal treatment – Key
No Right Turn: NZ's Universal Periodic Review
Paul Casserly (Herald): Henry, Hosking & Campbell
Bob Jones (Herald): Without humanities, science could destroy us
Will de CLeene (gonzo): Mazengarbling
David Farrar (Kiwiblog): Choice bad in Hamilton
