Nau mai, haere mai - welcome to your newsletter.

The sentencing hearing for the Christchurch terrorist begins next week and, given he has pleaded guilty to all charges, he will be going to jail for a long time - at massive expense to the New Zealand taxpayer. Law professor Alexander Gillespie makes the case that a proper prisoner transfer agreement between Australia and New Zealand would allow for the killer’s deportation to serve out the sentence handed down here, but at Australia’s expense. In the process, such a deal might also help resolve the festering trans-Tasman prisoner problem and offer a way for both countries to move forward.

Ultimately that is a political question, but politics right now is anything but normal. By delaying the election for four weeks, Jacinda Ardern took into account opposition party claims that the level 2 and level 3 alerts currently operating due to COVID-19 community transmission meant they couldn’t physically campaign. But as political analysts Jennifer Curtin and Lara Greaves outline, voters get very little of their information from the conventional canvassing methods of door-knocking, meetings and kissing babies. So maybe it’s time politicians’ campaign tactics moved on too.

From election campaigning to everyday tasks, COVID-19 continues to disrupt our lives. If you’re feeling more anxious or even angry, rest assured this is a normal reaction during uncertain times, and as clinical psychologist Dougal Sutherland writes, allowing yourself some dedicated “worry time” could ease the intensity of these feelings. Meanwhile, genome sequencing of the virus has now revealed a new case, thankfully at the border, that is not part of the new cluster, and if you’re still unsure about wearing a mask, you’ll enjoy our story about pandemic etiquette.

Many thanks for reading. You’ll find a lot more on the New Zealand homepage - until next time, take care, noho ora mai.