NZ POLITICS DAILY: May 20 2014

The main issues in NZ politics today are housing, John Banks, Labour Party, the Budget, GCSB and drones.

Today’s links

Housing

TVNZ: Labour slams Government's housing policy

Michael Fox (Stuff): Overvalued houses could force rents up

Rob Salmond (Polity): Minister of Buck Passing

Scott Yorke (Imperator Fish): There is no housing crisis

Newswire: Key 'out of touch' over housing crisis

Adam Bennett (Herald): Housing crisis worse under Clark's Government

TV3: Nick Smith on NZ's house price crunch

TVNZ: Govt shelves policy to speed up building consents

Winston Peters (RadioLIVE): Our homes are selling like hotcakes

Vernon Small (Stuff): Labour keen to manage new arrivals

Jerram Watts (TV3): Key, Cunliffe at odds over 'housing crisis'

Andrea Vance (Stuff): Planning law overhaul stalled

Chris Trotter (Daily Blog): Housing The People: Will the next Labour Government be as economically inventive as the first?

Stuff: Houses more expensive to build

Niko Kloeten (Stuff): Homes too dear? 'Only in Auckland and Christchurch'

3 News Online Staff (TV3): Key 'out of touch' on housing crisis - Opposition

Duncan Garner (RadioLIVE): PM – Property Crisis? What Property Crisis?

The Standard: Denial

Gordon Campbell (Scoop): On the government’s inadequate housing policy

Peter Cresswell (Not PC): Housing: Crisis, What Crisis?

Rob Salmond (Polity): Madness: Our house

Fundamentally Useless: What Left parties now stand for

John Banks

David Fisher (Herald): Defendant brushes off mud and says not guilty

Dylan Moran (TV3): Kim Dotcom to give evidence at Banks' trial today

David Fisher (Herald): Estranged Dotcoms have a date as witnesses in John Banks trial

Radio NZ: Dotcom to give evidence in Banks trial

Jimmy Ellingham (Herald): John Banks coated with mud on way to court

James Fyfe (TV3): Banks 'wilfully blind' in donation saga - Crown

Jimmy Ellingham (Herald): John Banks stands trial for filing false electoral return

Nathan Smith (NBR): Trial delayed after protester covers John Banks in mud

The Standard: “Banks vs Mud”

Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): A brief word on kicking John Banks when he is down

Newswire: Banks' treasurer says return was correct

Labour Party

Herald: Wilcox won't stand as Labour candidate

Michael Fox (Stuff): Julian Wilcox won't stand for Labour

Laura McQuillan (Newstalk ZB): Labour forced into rethink on Tamaki Makaurau candidacy

Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Has Tamaki Makaurau just opened up for Marama Davidson?

David Farrar (Kiwiblog): Wilcox says no to Labour

Hamish Rutherford (Stuff): Dyson not to be one of Labour list MPs

Isaac Davison (Herald): Labour thin on ground for Tamaki Makaurau after Wilcox says no

Budget 2014

Herald: Editorial: Repaying debt should take precedence over tax cuts

Don Brash (NZCPR): National’s Sixth Budget

Colin James (ODT): The China factor in English’s bright new world

No Right Turn: A rising tide lifts all boats?

Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Critiquing the media Budget spin

Brian Easton: Is John Key Flakey?

Frank Macskasy (Daily Blog): Budget 2014 – What deceits lie in this document?

GCSB

No Right Turn: Are the GCSB murderers?

Steffan Browning (Frogblog): Is Key misrepresenting us over Five-Eyes?

Radio NZ: GCSB may have helped drone attacks

Simon Wong (TV3): Key won't say if more Kiwis killed in drone strikes

Andrea Vance (Stuff): No NZ spy role in drone strike – Key

Isaac Davison (Herald): GCSB data may have been used for drone strikes – PM

Radio NZ:  PM insists intelligence sharing with US is legal

Laura McQuillan (Newstalk ZB): PM "totally comfortable" with Kiwi intel being used in drone strikes

Alcohol and drugs

Bob McCoskrie (Stuff): Marijuana use damaging to health

Sarah McDougall (Newswire): Doctor: Govt missed alcohol reform opportunity

David Farrar (Kiwiblog): An alcohol report that got little publicity

Russell Brown (Hard News): The problems inherent in the system

Justice

Radio NZ: Contempt of court laws 'vague'

Simon Wong (TV3): Proposals could penalise jurors for Googling

Isobel Ewing (Stuff): Glocks inquiry call by Labour

Economy

Claire Trevett (Herald): PM 'hopeful' India's new leader will kickstart FTA talks

Isaac Davison (Herald): Labour and Greens support law change

Susan Hornsby-Geluk (Stuff): Demotion still beats losing job altogether

Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Second internet cable planned

Rob Salmond (Polity): Unbalanced growth leaves workers behind

David Farrar (Kiwiblog): Can the most rural 25% of NZ really get fibre for $200 million

Other

Stuff: Today in politics: Tuesday, May 20

Ben Heather (Stuff): Hospital staff asked to cut costs

Steve Braunias (Stuff): I know how Lorde feels

David Farrar (Kiwiblog): Electric Cars

Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): The new candidates that should excite Progressives this election

Keith Locke (Daily Blog): McCully comes to the rescue of Sri Lankan regime

Brittany Mann (Stuff): Cartoonist doubts 'glass ceiling' tales

Russell Brown (Hard News): Softly, softly

Eric Crampton (Offsetting Behaviour): Wellington-bound

Eric Crampton (Offsetting Behaviour): Things I wish TradeMe Property could do

James Dann (Rebuilding Christchurch): A Brighter Future in Christchurch! (Some conditions apply)

David Farrar (Kiwiblog): Air quality up

Deborah Hill Cone (Herald): Tis a tangled web we weave in our online lives

Stacey Kirk (Stuff): Key to meet President Obama

Marta Steeman (Stuff): Ngai Tahu out of Ruataniwha dam

Radio NZ: Green candidate makes sense of politics

Pete George (Your NZ): Will Greens target Tāmaki Makaurau?

Scott Hamilton (Reading the Maps): Talking nonsense tonight on Native Affairs

The Ruminator: The Terror of procreation

David Farrar (Kiwiblog): Mr Key goes to Washington