Focus on Politics

In today's Focus on Politics podcast, Deputy Political Editor Craig McCulloch details the latest Covid-19 outbreak, the government's response, and how that's been received by the public and politicians alike.

"Just as we successfully stayed home and saved lives last year, I'm asking the team of five million to unite once more to defeat what is likely to be this more dangerous variant of the virus." - Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

Having gone 170 days without community transmission and 477 since the last alert level four lockdown, New Zealand reset the clock on Tuesday after a new case of Covid-19 was found in Auckland and Coromandel.

In response, the government expounded its now well-worn mantras: go hard, go early; stay home, save lives. With the threat of the Delta variant, it meant a return to the strictest lockdown, nationwide.

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Overseas media focused on the rapid escalation of restrictions over a single case, but the public were quick to support the moves.

National leader Judith Collins also threw a full-throated endorsement behind the measures.

"There's so much uncertainty and we know that this spreads extremely quickly, so obviously it's the only thing to do."

Rapidly rising case numbers in the following days bore out the government's caution, and the virus - carried by young people living busy lives - leading to more than 150 locations of interest and over 1000 close contacts. It came from the New South Wales outbreak in Australia.

Read more:

NZ to remain at alert level 4 until Tuesday night

Covid-19 update: 11 new cases in the community, including three in Wellington

Covid-19 outbreak linked to case which came from Australia

By Friday, the outbreak was found to have spread to Wellington, inevitably leading to an extension of level 4 lockdown for the entire country until at least Tuesday night.

The outbreak - and Delta - has raised the stakes. Police have been taking a less permissive approach, arresting protesters and rule-breakers alike, and the government has expanded mandatory mask use to more locations. But the government is still facing criticism over vaccines, and testing.

National's Covid-19 response spokesperson Chris Bishop thinks more could be done to smooth out testing for those who most need it.

"I'd an email last night from somebody who got a ping ... the testing centre closed and they hadn't been tested. So they were there all day - and these are people who are required by law to get a test…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

In today's Focus on Politics podcast, Long Form Journalist Te Aniwa Hurihanganui explores the harm caused when politicians question Māori values and language.

"For Māori people to see words like Aotearoa or te reo Māori and its use in general to be thrown around so lightly and so harmfully, I think it's dispiriting for a lot of people in that they start to disengage from the debate as well." - Morgan Godfery

Political commentator Morgan Godfery says that to be told your name for your country is wrong can be harmful, as it shows deeply cultural and deeply personal issues that go to the heart of their identity can be up for debate.

With National Party leader Judith Collins demanding the debate on whether the name Aotearoa should be put to a referendum, Māori are again experiencing a heightened level of racist attacks - and the harms are not trivial.

National MP Stuart Smith's suggestion there be a referendum on the use of the name Aotearoa caused division between politicians and New Zealanders alike, and party leader Collins was quick to lend her support to the idea.

Collins has been accused of dog-whistle politics and race-baiting, she's also been praised for standing up to wokeness and voicing New Zealanders' fears. She told RNZ the call for a referendum was not coming from her but - no matter her motivation - she set a wave of harm in motion.

Read more:

National's call for Aotearoa referendum 'absurd' and 'ridiculous'

National Party leader Judith Collins 'very happy' to call the country Aotearoa

National Māori Authority chair Matthew Tukaki received a racist letter at his home, from an unknown sender. He believes it's no coincidence that the letter arrived in the thick of the debate around the name Aotearoa.

"This is politicians who are creating an operating environment that emboldens these racists and this nonsense sort of conversation."

He's not the only one. Law student Phoebe Sullivan was sitting in a study room on her phone, when the racism rolled in and says the debate felt like an attack on her cultural identity, her language, and her people.

RNZ broadcaster Māni Dunlop is used to waves of racist texts whenever a Māori issue hits the headlines. Sometimes she laughs them off, other times it feels personal.

Research suggests that when comments move from debate to racism, the impact is much greater than just hurt feelings, it has a consistent link with health - particularly mental health.  …

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Legislation banning gay conversion therapy, a practice described as monstrous and traumatising, is making its way through Parliament but not everyone is on board.

"I was sent to a counsellor who told me that I could change my sexuality ... if you have people who are telling you that you need to change something which is actually fundamental to who you are, it does do lasting damage."

Paul Stevens has first-hand experience of so-called conversion "therapy" - the harmful practice of trying to change someone's sexuality - first hand, but moves to ban it so far have seen confusion and division envelop both Labour and National.

Justice Minister Kris Faafoi introduced the Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Bill last Friday.

Justice Minister Kris Faafoi

The bill creates a pathway for civil redress, as well as two new criminal offences:

Up to three years in prison for performing conversion practices on people under 18 years old or with impaired decision-making capacity

Up to five years for conducting conversion practices that cause serious harm

In an interview just hours later however Faafoi struggled to explain it, and did not rule out parents being criminalised for preventing their children from taking hormone blockers.

It was a communications blunder that recalled his disastrous approach to hate speech legislation, and has commentators questioning whether he's just had enough.

Faafoi himself believes he has been clear enough in selling the bill's intention.

"I think we've made it clear what the intent of the bill , it's to make sure we're preventing harm."

The bill is no godsend for National either.

Read more:

Former victim of gay conversion therapy lauds government's move to ban it

Conversion therapy ban legislation passes first reading at Parliament

Young Nats break with party over conversion therapy vote

The trip wires in legislation banning conversion therapy

ACT, National warn of conversion therapy bill 'risk'

Leader Judith Collins signalled in April the party supported a ban, but ahead of its first reading on Thursday justice spokesperson Simon Bridges said the party would not back it without changes, a move that prompted outcry from the party's youth wing.

Political commentator and National Party member Liam Hehir says social issues will always be a sore spot for the party because of its very nature.

"The National Party ... it's a conservative party and a liberal party so there's not going to be a high degree of consensus ... that's just an outcome of being a big-tent party of a broad-church party." …

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In today's Focus on Politics podcast, Māori News Journalist Jamie Tahana and Education Correspondent John Gerritsen look at a suite of new initiatives being brought in to improve Māori achievement, reduce racism in the system and to teach history.

"We're making sure that every Māori child can see themselves and their language and their culture valued in the education system ... it's basically what non-Māori children see in the education system already."

Associate Education Minister (Māori education) Kelvin Davis says the suite of initiatives to meaningfully embed te reo Māori and tikanga into the education system should have been done decades ago.

As part of a series this week, RNZ has been looking at efforts to ensure schools and teachers value and use te reo and tikanga Māori every day.

The government is spending millions on courses for te reo, tikanga, Māori culture, and systemic racism. The Teaching Council has also made te reo and tikanga a condition for certification, with 34,800 teachers confirming their compliance and just 300 falling short.

Teachers widely back the moves, saying te reo Māori is making them better educators, and awareness of unconscious bias is improving achievement. More than 300 schools or groups of schools have applied for cultural capability training this year alone.

Davis - who is also Māori-Crown Relations Minister and the Minister for Children - says the government is enabling the aspirations of what Te Tiriti o Waitangi promises.

Read more:

The schools walking the Treaty talk

Racism in schools: Calls for cultural competency in the classroom

Māori teachers optimistic about scale of change

Teachers say learning te reo is making them better at their jobs

Racism in schools: Principals and teachers back Māori cultural training

Burden of history: Iwi, hapū struggle with demand for school support

Decades of achievement data shows that - except in immersion schools, where students achieve extremely well - Māori and Pasifika are behind other populations on nearly every measure, including NCEA pass rates and school retention.

Hastings Girls High School principal Catherine Bentley says school systems have been built so a portion of the population - predominantly New Zealand Europeans - can thrive.

"If you change that, of course that's not gonna sit well with everyone. But it's not about pleasing everyone - it's about doing what's right - that's where the courage comes in."

In New Plymouth, Spotswood College principal Nicola Ngarewa says even basics like pronouncing Māori names correctly helps students feel like they belong at school…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

In today's Focus on Politics podcast, Political Reporter Anneke Smith explores how the conversation on hate speech shifted - from an effort to curb terrorism to a political bunfight - and what the minorities the law change aims to protect want to happen next.

"We want to avoid the whole politicisation of hate speech ... because at the end of the day our communities suffered greatly and politicising it is actually demeaning. So what we're really wanting is effective change."

Federation of Islamic Associations chair Abdur Razzaq says people have forgotten what the hate speech proposals are about.

Confusion over the government's proposed hate speech law changes have been fuelled by the absence of the minister, and left minority communities worried it leaves space for misinformation to fester.

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Razzaq says it's not a simple legislative change and people want to know how it relates to other law.

"We're not having any chance to discuss that, face to face ... understand and ask questions about the proposed changes and have a robust discussion but not get into a politicisation."

New Zealand Jewish Council spokesperson Juliet Moses can't understand why the government is missing in action.

"If you want to get these proposals through ... you need to bring people along with you," she says.

"They're saying the purpose of those laws is to enhance social cohesion. I think what we're seeing right now is actually the opposite, if anything - I think we're seeing a lot of division."

Read more:

Silence over hate speech laws has allowed misinformation in, minorities say

Hate speech laws translated from legalese: What you need to know

Human rights lawyer and disabled person Dr Huhana Hickey (Ngāti Tāhinga, Whakatōhea) worries it risks ruining a necessary conversation about hate speech in New Zealand.

"Make your statements, keep them professional and do the job ... they're not doing that, they're 'just start the conversation, get into a bit of a bug hole' and then they end up in this big problem where they don't know how to explain it and so they disappear. And that's not a good sign for any politician of any party.

"People get that as meaning to say he's afraid, he's running away, or 'they don't want to engage, they just want to stop free speech' and that's when all the rumours start, all the toxic conversations start."

Meanwhile, Razzaq wants the government to give communities more time by extending consultation on the proposed reforms. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

The Government is feeling the heat from those left in the cold. RNZ political reporter Charlie Dreaver takes stock of New Zealand's not-so-healthy homes and the standards meant to improve them.

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The National Party is back in the headlines for all the wrong reasons, with revelations former leader Todd Muller was pressured to retire after being dobbed in for anonymously criticising a colleague. RNZ Political Editor Jane Patterson breaks down the latest in a long list of problems for the opposition.

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Leaked footage of a young person being manhandled at an Oranga Tamariki care and protection unit has put the agency back under the microscope. RNZ political reporter Katie Scotcher examines the events that followed.

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In Focus on Politics, RNZ political editor Jane Patterson digs into Labour's plan for the Defence Force, now it is unshackled from last term's coalition constraints.

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This week brought some more clarity to the country's Covid-19 vaccine programme as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern revealed the first details of the wider roll-out to the general population. RNZ deputy political editor Craig McCulloch takes a look at the Government's plans for "Stage Four".

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details