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

Housing crisis
Hamish Rutherford (Herald): Government’s fix for its housing problems are just a game of whack-a-mole (paywalled)
Amelia Wade (Newshub): Even if house prices fell 20 percent, three-quarters of renters still couldn’t afford one
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Govt crunches numbers to reveal property investors’ incomes
Vita Molyneux (Newshub): ‘I feel ill’: 1995 Wellington house prices nauseate distressed millennials
Melanie Carroll (Stuff): Increasing housing supply the key to affordability, minister advised
Katie Bradford (1News): Low socio-economic areas feeling the pain of soaring house prices
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Low interest rates get Govt blame for rising house prices
Miriam Bell (Stuff): Early signs heat coming out of auctions
Miriam Bell (Stuff): Rent controls would a big mistake – NZ Initiative
Jenny Ruth (BusinessDesk): Govt ignored HUD advice on measures to deter landlords (paywalled)
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Government asked for advice on temporary rent controls as it prepared massive housing package
Jason Walls (Herald): Government is mooting prospect of rent controls, new documents reveal
Zane Small (Newshub): Government considered capping rents to stop landlords passing on increased costs
Jenée Tibshraeny (Interest): Robertson wasn’t joking when he said he’d take action if rents soared
Brent Edwards (NBR): Officials warn no quick fix to housing crisis and question tax changes (paywalled)
1News: Ardern: Govt ‘keeping an eye on’ rent increases, as median prices continue soaring
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Low interest rates get Govt blame for rising house prices
Aaron Hendry (Spinoff): Youth homelessness is a crisis – stop the finger-pointing and fix it
Hamish Cardwell (RNZ): Emergency accommodation support services lack a ‘moral failure’ by government – social housing provider
Andrew Dickens (Newstalk ZB): Emergency housing issues another example of public sector failure
Newstalk ZB: ‘Wanton disregard for taxpayer dollars’: Cost for damage to emergency housing motels unknown

International relations
Geoffrey Miller (Democracy Project): Nanaia Mahuta’s foreign policy reset: the first six months
Geoffrey Miller (Democracy Project): New analysis of Nanaia Mahuta’s statements offers clues to her foreign policy agenda
Zane Small (Newshub): Aussie journalist Jonathan Swan, who went viral for grilling Donald Trump, takes on Jacinda Ardern over China, Five Eyes
Audrey Young (Herald): Jacinda Ardern: We are not choosing between US and China
Michael Reddell: Economic coercion
John Anthony (Stuff): Jacinda Ardern speaks after meeting with US Chamber of Commerce to discuss NZ-US relationship
Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): NZ and US should ‘quickly deepen’ relationship: Ardern (paywalled)
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Labour Party undecided on parliamentary motion on ‘genocide’ in Xinjiang, China
Newstalk ZB: Ardern: Labour caucus to debate ‘genocide’ in Xinjiang

Economy and work
Bernard Hickey (Spinoff): Mortgage lending needs restricting, whether banks like it or not
Liam Dann (Herald): The three reasons Covid couldn’t knock down the Kiwi economy – ASB report (paywalled)
Tina Morrison (Stuff): Reserve Bank Governor ‘incredibly comfortable’ with changes
Brian Fallow (Herald): How far will Grant Robertson move into Reserve Bank’s territory? (paywalled)
Josie Adams (Spinoff): Feeling the burnout: More than 1 in 10 New Zealanders are stressed at work
Rob Campbell (Herald): Tackling mental wellbeing in the workplace (paywalled)
Kate MacNamara (Herald): New research submitted to the Commerce Commission claims anti-competitive behaviour by supermarkets (paywalled
Catrin Owen (Stuff): Tackling of money laundering ‘adequate’ but more can be done, watchdog finds
Sam Hurley (Herald): Abuse of NZ shell companies and trusts highlighted in global money laundering report
Gareth Vaughan (Interest): Probe of NZ’s anti-money laundering efforts recommends a register for our hundreds of thousands of trusts

Health reforms: Māori Health Authority
Matthew Hooton (Herald): Judith Collins takes aim at the wrong target (paywalled)
Chris Trotter (Daily Blog): Can Judith Collins make Don Brash’s ‘Nationhood souffle’ rise twice?
Tina Morrison (Stuff): Deputy PM ‘deeply disappointed’ to hear Māori health initiative labelled ‘separatist’

Government and Parliament
Claire Trevett (Herald): Grant Robertson interview: A Labour Budget and how he deals with PM Jacinda Ardern (paywalled)
Audrey Young (Herald): Labour’s manifesto now has the teeth it lacked last term (paywalled)
David Farrar: More on the laziest Ministers

Media, communications and information
Colin Peacock (RNZ): We’ve got trust issues – with news
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Fewer than half of New Zealanders trust the news, AUT study suggests
Richard Harman: Peeps at Parliament and other Press Gallery observations over 150 years (paywalled)

Local government
Tom Hunt (Stuff): Developer’s $10 million plan to end 24-week-and-counting Shelly Bay standoff
Todd Niall (Stuff): Auckland mayor’s closest aide switches to Sky City
Georgina Campbell (Herald): New chief of staff appointed in Wellington mayor Andy Foster’s office
Bernard Orsman (Herald): Auckland Council running up a big repair bill for rundown and unsafe buildings (paywalled)

Covid: Vaccinations programme and border
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Vaccine ‘risk’ to New Zealand economy
ODT: Editorial – A question of compulsory vaccination
Piers Fuller (Stuff): GPs critical of planning around Covid vaccine rollout

Health
Adam Jacobson (RNZ): Government told to include fully-funded ambulance service in health reform
Jenna Lynch (Newshub): Pharmac’s budget hole hundreds of millions of dollars deep
Cate Broughton (Stuff): Under-resourced bowel cancer screening a ‘national disgrace’
Kerre McIvor (Newstalk ZB): I support funding GP visits – but who will pay for it?

Other
Tina Morrison (Stuff): Iwi haven’t given enough back to their people, says Māori Economic Development Minister
Karl du Fresne: Kowtowing to censorious “stakeholders”
Sarah Robson (RNZ): Government’s winter energy payment due to kick in – but it’s still not enough, some say
Nikki Macdonald (Stuff): Police national headquarters fails to answer more than half of OIA requests on time
Peter Williams (Magic Talk): How can the National Party fix itself?
Peter Dunne (Newsroom): As normal Transmission resumes, problems will be forgotten
Daisy Hudson (ODT): Need to give safe abortion care
RNZ: Number of parents smacking children drops by half in 15 years
David Farrar: Junk Maths from NZTA
Gordon Campbell: On how the animals fare within a racing industry in decline
Doug Sellman and Ian Hutson (Stuff): Frustrated at process and outcome of cannabis referendum
Brent Edwards (NBR): Race could dominate political debate again, heading into election 2023 (paywalled)
George Heagney (Stuff): Māori want a say over protecting New Zealand’s waterways
Anuja Nadkarni (Newsroom): 60,000 to be quizzed in first public sector Census, starting in May