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

Parliamentary debates on race
Jane Patterson (RNZ): Policies can be called racist but not MPs, Speaker rules
Tess McClure (The Guardian): Māori party co-leader ejected from parliament after performing haka in racism row
Richard Harman: Behind Parliament’s “racist” row (paywalled)
Meriana Johnsen (RNZ): Māori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi ejected from Parliament
Anna Whyte (1News): Māori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi performs haka in Parliament, ordered to leave
Zane Small (Newshub): Māori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi booted from Parliament after protesting against ‘racist’ views
Jenna Lynch (Newshub): Parliament’s day of protests: From moving hikoi calling for life-saving drugs to Māori Party decrying racism

He Puapua document and Māori self-determination
Audrey Young (Herald): Kelvin Davis gives the speech that Jacinda Ardern should have given (paywalled)
Audrey Young (Herald): Why the latest foreshore and seabed decision is important (paywalled)
Zane Small (Newshub): National leader Judith Collins not backing down from co-governance debate in face of Māori Party protests
Jane Kelsy (Herald): Cynics clutching at straw men over indigenous rights report (paywalled)
Meriana Johnsen (RNZ): Iwi to be consulted on proposed Department of Conservation policy changes
Terry Dunleavy (BFD): He Pua Pua? Or Should That Be “Hey! Poor Poor”?
Rodney Hide: Reserve Bank Theocracy

Public sector pay freeze and employment
Ben Thomas (Stuff): If the Jacinda Show wants another season, it can’t afford any more stumbles
Jo Moir (Newsroom): Government’s fight for ‘absolutely no gain’
Stephen Forbes (Stuff): Public sector wage freeze: Doctors and nurses ‘abandoned by the government’
Lana Andelane (Newshub): Unions delighted public sector pay freeze off the table after crisis talks with Government
1News: Govt’s softer stance on public sector pay freeze ‘a pretty stunning reversal’ — Collins
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Newstalk ZB): Govt can’t spin their way out of pay freeze backlash
Stephen Forbes (Stuff): Union says public sector wage freeze could impact surgery waiting lists
Lois Williams (Stuff): Public sector pay freeze worries West Coast health board
Newtalk ZB: Unions: Pay freeze will affect hundreds of thousands of workers
Newstalk ZB: Minister defends public sector pay freeze, says private sector is struggling too

Economy and work
Bryce Edwards (Democracy Project): Political Roundup – Have billions been incorrectly paid out in the wage subsidy scheme?
Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): Time for a fresh debate on public debt: Robertson (paywalled)
Esther Taunton (Stuff): Buzz around four-day work week building to a roar
Tamsyn Parker (Herald): Is this the end of ‘No Paywave’ signs? Govt to clamp down on merchant fees
Daniel Dunkley (Stuff): Modern slavery: Government slow to act on needed legislation

Local government
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Nanaia Mahuta keen on local government election centralisation – just not yet
Georgina Campbell (Herald): Hutt City Council restructure: 56 roles disestablished, 11 redundancies
Damian George (Stuff): Councillors to take first steps towards fixing dysfunction as review recommendations debated
Stuart Smith; Arena Williams (Stuff): Local government lacks the innovation driven by necessity to keep costs down

Climate change and transport
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Official warning: Boris Johnson doesn’t get NZ climate targets
Olivia Wannan (Stuff): Time’s up for the gas guzzler as country opts for green transport
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Department of Conservation caught charging plug-in hybrid EV with diesel power
1News: Hundreds of EVs to be added to Govt’s fleet, but minister admits there’s still a long way to go
Geraden Cann (Stuff): Government spent $34.8m on Auckland light rail project before ‘fresh start’
Brent Melville (BusinessDesk): Wood denies using fuel tax to fund light rail (paywalled)

International relations
Mark Quinlivan (Newshub): Israel-Gaza: Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta says violence ‘needs to de-escalate’
John Minto (Daily Blog): Sorry Nanaia – your tweet doesn’t cut the mustard
Ford Hart (Stuff): NZ’s values make differences with Beijing inevitable
Parmjeet Parmar (Herald): Covid 19 coronavirus outbreak in India needs our help (paywalled)
RNZ: NZ govt urged to speak out on West Papua

Health
Denise Piper (Stuff): Parents delay rushing kids to hospital due to lack of care for siblings — study
Ian Powell: New branch of specialist medicine poses challenge and opportunity for NZ’s health system
RNZ: 100,000-strong petition calls for overhaul of Pharmac
George Heagney (Stuff): Pharmac funding ‘affects all New Zealanders’
Lois Williams (Stuff): West Coast DHB mulls free Māori health checks

Education
Sharnae Hope (Stuff): Waikato University aims to become New Zealand’s first ‘anti-racist institute’
Helen May and Anne E Meade (Newsroom): Pay parity for early learning workers is just the start
RNZ: Government bankrolls pay rises for early childhood teachers
Laura Wiltshire and Henry Cooke (Stuff): Pay parity: Government to fund early childhood centres to pay qualified teachers what they would earn in kindergartens
Brianna Mcilraith (Stuff): Shovels ready at Green School New Zealand as $11.7 million expansion project begins

Justice
Georgina Campbell (Herald): Packed room for public meeting on crime and harassment in Wellington
Georgina Campbell (Herald): Public meeting to be held on crime and harassment in Wellington
Russell Palmer (RNZ): Gun laws and gangs in New Zealand: What you need to know

Parliament’s Speaker Trevor Mallard
Jason Walls (Herald): ‘Outrageous;’ ’embarrassment’: Judith Collins and Jacinda Ardern trade letters over Trevor Mallard saga
RNZ: Judith Collins sends letter to PM asking her to sack Speaker

Housing crisis
Tony Alexander (One Roof): My message to Kiwis who have given up on buying a house
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Reserve Bank says research not clear low interest rates increase inequality

Other
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Over 3500 general election votes cast from prison in 2020
Nadine Porter (Stuff): First national hui on counterterrorism to be held in Christchurch in June
Susan St John (Daily Blog): Running a gender lens over our sacred social policies
Spinoff: They said the changes would help the most vulnerable. Here’s what happened to me
Charlotte Jones (Stuff): Tūhoe hapū continue to ask for tribal leadership resignation
Gordon Campbell: On the compelling case for meatless meat
Alan Eggers (Stuff): A lack of scientific credibility to opposition to seabed mining in New Zealand
Kerry Harvey (Stuff): Ryan Bridge talks tears, joy and being outed on national television
Amelia Wade (Newshub): Government coming under pressure to fix yet another immigration anomaly
Matthew Rosenberg (ODT): Southland mayors join forces to defend journalism
Julia de Bres (Spinoff): How more inclusive language could improve Aotearoa for everyone
John Palenthorpe (Newsroom): Take that rope from around your neck