Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.  Click here to subscribe to Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup and New Zealand Politics Daily.

Today’s content

1News-Colmar Brunton Poll
1News: Labour keeps strong lead as Collins plunges further in first 1 News-Colmar Brunton poll of 2021
Claire Trevett (Herald): PM’s drop in popularity will not worry her as National stays off its foils (paywalled)
Jessica Mutch Mckay (TVNZ): Opinion: Saying goodbye to landlines in 2021’s first 1 NEWS-Colmar Brunton poll
Jason Walls (Herald): 1News/Colmar Brunton poll: Support for Jacinda Ardern slips since historic election win
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Labour on top in new poll, but Jacinda Ardern suffers personal popularity crash
Newstalk ZB: Jacinda Ardern dealt personal blow in first opinion poll of the year

National Party
Chris Trotter (Interest): Playing by the new rules of the game
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): National must focus on diverse MPs, with board taking more control of selecting new candidates: review
Richard Harman: National’s review: Don’t blame me, says Bridges (paywalled)
Jo Moir (Newsroom): National’s finance disappearing act

Speech regulation after Christchurch
Chris Trotter (Daily blog): Sticks And Stones – And Bullets
David Bromell (The Guardian): After Christchurch, hate speech policy should focus on harm, not offence taken
David Bromell (Victoria University of Wellington): The terrorist attack on Christchurch mosques and the Christchurch Call
David Bromell (Victoria University of Wellington): ‘Hate speech’: Defining the problem and some key terms
David Bromell (Victoria University of Wellington): Challenges in regulating online content

Christchurch mosque attacks
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Christchurch terror attack: Jacinda Ardern says Government can’t expand ACC cover for traumatised victims
Elle Hunt (Guardian): New Zealand: Ardern flags further gun control reforms after firearms charges peak
Alexander Gillespie (The Conversation): Two years on from the Christchurch terror attack, how much has really changed?
Kurt Bayer (Herald): Christchurch mosque attacks anniversary: Imam Gamal Fouda releases personal message
Mark Quinlivan (Newshub): Jacinda Ardern denies Christchurch Call has failed as intelligence expert remains ‘concerned’ about online extremism two years on
TVNZ: Government urged to take more action to stop viewing, sharing of mosque shootings video
Faisal Al-Asaad (The Pantograph Punch): Post-Massacre Reality: Why We Shouldn’t Move On
Anjum Rahman (Spinoff): Two years on, there are still pockets of hate. And there are beams of light
1News: Christchurch terrorist attack survivors call on Govt for further support — ‘The PM promised us’
Kaysha Brownlie (Newshub): Calls for ACC changes 2 years on from Christchurch mosque attacks

Housing
ODT: Editorial – Labour’s housing nightmare
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Housing crisis requires crisis response
Katie Bradford (1News): Courage needed to solve the housing crisis, Reserve Bank Governor says
Anne Gibson (Herald): Blacklisted tenants: Privacy Commissioner launches landlord probe (paywalled)
Ruchir Sharma (Financial Times): Opinion: By targeting house prices, New Zealand shows the way (paywalled)
Jenny Ruth (Business Desk): Dive in net migration may calm housing market – eventually (paywalled)
Rachel Sadler and Heather McCarron (Newshub): Rotorua locals fed up being used as ‘dumping ground’ for New Zealand’s homeless – National’s Todd McClay
John Boynton (Newshub): Soaring house prices leaving more people without a home in Bay of Plenty’s Ōpōtiki

Australia’s deportee policy
Luke Malpass (Stuff): Mates or mugs? The Australian relationship is now frosty on several fronts
Anna Whyte (1News): Ardern seeks more information after 15-year-old deported from Australia
RNZ: Ardern seeks more detail over 15yo Australian 501 deportee to NZ
RNZ: Australia’s deportation of 15-year-old heartbreaking – Green MP
Calla Wahlquist (The Guardian): Minor deported to New Zealand under Australian program Peter Dutton
Jason Walls (Herald): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern ‘only now made aware’ a minor among deported Kiwis from Australia

Wellington
Danyl Mclauchlan (The Spinoff): The Wellington syndrome
Andrew Dickens (Newstalk ZB): Wellington’s problems the result of the ratepayer model
Dave Armstrong (Stuff): Mixed messages from Wellington City Council and the airport
David Farrar: How the WCC Crs vote
Rachel Thomas (RNZ): Wellington authorities putting an end to ‘getting trolleyed’ at bottomless brunches
Georgina Campbell and Jack Crossland (Herald): Police and council crack down on bottomless brunches in Wellington
Ethan Te Ora (Stuff): Wellington City Mission plans to refurbish night shelter, as council apologises about previous squalid conditions

Local government
Monique Poirier (Local Government): Fixing local government: get the basics right 
Gianina Schwanecke (Herald): Wairoa fears being left behind in Three Waters reforms
Nikki Preston (Herald): Council considers paying elected members’ grandparents for childcare

Immigration
Tom Hunt (Stuff): Labour branch secretary calls out own party’s working visitor ‘absurdities’
Ankur Sabharwal (Stuff): The sad, sick joke of who we’ve allowed into New Zealand during the pandemic
Greg Ninness (Interest): Population growth from migration down 57% in January year

Covid
Claire Trevett (Herald): Is the window closing on a transtasman bubble, and is it New Zealand’s fault? (paywalled)
TVNZ: Jacinda Ardern hasn’t ‘given up’ on making two-way trans-Tasman bubble a reality
Herald: China claims virus found on NZ frozen meat, Ardern says ‘not our beef’
Lana Andelane (Newshub): Jacinda Ardern denies accusations Cabinet stalled alert level announcement
Herald: Editorial: A long period of challenges and pressures ahead over vaccines (paywalled)

Slave labour and ‘ethical’ capitalism
Louisa Cleave and Paula Penfold (Stuff): Push for law to stop products from forced labour being sold in NZ
Jason Walls (Herald): Finance Minister Grant Robertson asks Super Fund to ‘ethically invest’ its $55 billion
Stewart Sowman-Lund (The Spinoff): Close to a hundred NZ companies sign letter calling for ‘modern slavery’ law
Louisa Cleave and Paula Penfold (Stuff): NZ business and political links to blacklisted Chinese company iFlytek

Economy
Brent Edwards (NBR): Treasury’s lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic (paywalled)
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): GDP figures this week should change odds on NZ being in recession
David Hargreaves (Interest): GDP settles down on the surface, but plenty going on under the hood
Jenée Tibshraeny (Interest): Another bank makes $500 million drawdown from RBNZ Funding for Lending Programme
Terry Baucher (Interest): The Week in Tax: Loss carry-backs and benefit abatements
Greg Ninness (Interest): IRD is on the trail of real estate agents who overclaim expenses

Diabetes
Emma Russell (Herald): ‘Urgent priority’: Dire diabetes price tag expected to blow out to $3.5 billion a year by 2040
Bridie Witton (Stuff): Diabetes to become epidemic that will ‘bankrupt’ health system – expert
Sally Murphy (RNZ): Numbers with type 2 diabetes could almost double in two decades – report
Rosie Gordon (Newshub): New Zealand’s Type 2 Diabetes epidemic looking to get worse – report

Health
Cecile Meier (Stuff): Christchurch man waiting 17 months to access best cancer treatment
Newstalk ZB: Govt urged to investigate other policies if they won’t introduce sugar tax
RNZ: Sugar taxes work overseas, and can here – Dental Association

Media
Stephen Parker (Newsroom): TVNZ/RNZ merger: Who holds the cards?
Mark Jennings (Newsroom): TVNZ aggressively chasing growth
Gavin Ellis (Knightly Views): That interview and its no-go-zones

Cannabis
Shane Te Pou (Herald): Why we need to decriminalise cannabis (paywalled)
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Cannabis: Green Party pushing for cross-party decriminalisation bill that would skip members’ ballot
Zane Small (Newshub): Jacinda Ardern does not view decriminalisation of cannabis as rejection of referendum
David Farrar: Decriminalisation possible?
Baz Macdonald (Re News): Why did Labour and the Greens vote against a medical cannabis bill?

Education and training
Phil Pennington (RNZ): Ministry of Education accused of ‘stealing’ a Taihape teaching farm
Emma Hatton (RNZ): Schools which contract own bus services not told of safety issues
Emile Donovan (Newsroom): The Detail: Latin unceremoniously abolished from the New Zealand curriculum
Simon Collins (Herald): Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki buys land under Macleans College for $97m (paywalled)
RNZ: Trades training for Māori youth: Government announces $5.5m spend

Justice, law and order
Herald: Prime Minister on growing gang gun violence: ‘It’s going to take time to turn around’
Stuff Editorial: A balancing act on prison violence
Christine Rose (Daily Blog): The violence and victims behind the news

Other
Benedict Collins (1News): Jacinda Ardern says she’s not ‘the right person’ to judge whether Labour MPs have been overcharging taxpayers
David Cohen (RNZ): Redress, tangible compensation critical for those abused in state, faith-based care
Tom Logan (Stuff): We must be strategic in planning our cities
Esther Taunton (Stuff): Pig farmers in limbo over farrowing crates
Hirini Matunga (Stuff): Decolonising our cities – why colonial era statues must be toppled
Tamsyn Parker (Herald): New financial advice regime doesn’t go far enough, Consumer says (paywalled)
Zane Small (Newshub): NZ Defence Force grapples with more than 50 illicit drug use and supply infringements in two years
Ian Llewellyn (Business Desk): Officials warn carbon neutral public sector by 2025 not feasible (paywalled)
TVNZ: NZ’s coal imports highest in 14 years, but Energy Minister berates ACT’s ‘utterly false’ suggestion why
Calida Stuart-Menteath (NBR): Retirement village laws well overdue an overhaul (paywalled)
Anne Salmond (Newsroom): Thinking through Whakapapa: Aotearoa New Zealand histories in schools
Caitlin Ellis (Newshub): Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown coming to New Zealand, the first international leader to visit since COVID-19 pandemic
Nile Bijoux (Stuff): This is how powerful the New Zealand licence is