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

Inequality and poverty
Tess McClure (The Guardian): Ardern faces calls to boost child poverty spending in budget amid glacial progress
Claire Achmad (RNZ): A brave and bold Budget 2021 is needed
Anna Whyte (1News): Child poverty report ‘grim reading’, says action group
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Child poverty report shows no measurable improvement in housing conditions, hospitalisations, food security
Michael Neilson (Herald): Child poverty: High housing costs, poor quality continue as factors, Government reports say
Zane Small (Newshub): Children going hungry: One in five Kiwi kids living in households where food runs out
Ellen O’Dwyer (Stuff): Principal on government lunch waste: ‘Schools, sort your systems out’
Jason Walls (Herald): Government spends $300,000 on My Food Bag for beneficiaries and food banks (paywalled)
Newstalk ZB: Child poverty: High housing costs, poor quality continue as factors

Political finance and donations
Sam Hurley and Jason Walls (Herald): Labour Party donations case: Solicitor and public servant among the six accused who allegedly created ‘illusion’
Zane Small (Newshub): Jacinda Ardern signals electoral law changes after Labour joins list of donation investigations
Catrin Owen (Stuff): Serious Fraud Office charges six people over 2017 Labour Party election donations
Sam Hurley (Herald): Serious Fraud Office charges six people in Labour Party donations case
Craig McCulloch (RNZ): SFO files criminal charges against six people in Labour Party donations case
Zane Small (Newshub): Serious Fraud Office charges six people over Labour Party donation
No Right Turn: Labour: Dirty and corrupt
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Electoral Commission chased Hutt South Labour for missing donation

He Puapua document and Māori self-determination
Chris Trotter (ODT): The He Puapua revolution
Chris Trotter (Daily Blog): Will Labour defuse the He Puapua time-bomb?
Jo Moir (Newsroom): Race-based rhetoric all the rage at Parliament
RNZ: Rawiri Waititi: Māori ‘sick and tired’ of being a political football
Abbey Wakefield (1News): Simon Bridges labels Māori Party co-leader’s haka in the House as ‘fun and games’
Zane Small (Newshub): How MPs reacted to Māori Party’s ‘racist rhetoric’ dispute
Martyn Bradbury (Waatea News): The hypocrisy of National’s fear mongering over Maori

Employment relations; Pay freeze and Fair Pay Agreements
Democracy Project: Union worker: Pay freeze was an attempt at intimidation by a government scared of strikes
Matthew Hooton (Herald): What’s really driving Government’s pay agenda? (paywalled)
Laura Meriluoto (The Conversation): As the government is learning, a ‘wage freeze’ can come with unintended consequences
RNZ: Fair Pay Agreements bring a shift in industrial relations
Brent Edwards (NBR): How did government botch public sector pay expectations? (paywalled)
RNZ: Grant Robertson says public pay sector restrictions do not amount to pay freeze
Hamish Rutherford (Herald): BusinessNZ claims its input on risks of FPAs is ignored in Cabinet paper (paywalled)

Budget 2021, economy and work
Brian Fallow (Herald): What about the workers, Grant? (paywalled)
Anne Gibson (Herald): Budget 2021: Assistance to help more Māori get into homeownership a new focus (paywalled)
Audrey Young (Herald): I’ll be tough and miserable says National’s Andrew Bayly but never boring (paywalled)
Dileepa Fonseka (Stuff): Post-Covid wishlist needs to be backed with action and money
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Here’s how New Zealand’s income tax take compares to other countries
Paul McBeth (BusinessDesk): How much longer do we keep superannuation universal? (paywalled)

Parliament and Government
Peter Dunne: Labour’s post-Ardern leadership
Peter Dunne (Newsroom): Kinder, gentler policies can have downsides
Kate Hawkesby (Newstalk ZB): Shocker of a week for the government
Bob Jones: The National Party’s Dilemma

Covid
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): PM: Vaccine stocks could run out before July surge
Derek Cheng (Herald): Covid 19 coronavirus: How will New Zealand open up to the world?
Derek Cheng (Herald): Government’s blunt message for general public vaccine walk-ins
Florence Kerr (Stuff): Are the “priority groups” just guinea pigs for everyone else?
John Hartevelt (Stuff): This is the whole truth about the Covid-19 vaccine
Dan Satherley (Newshub): ‘Dumb good luck’, not expert management, behind NZ’s Covid-19 success – expert
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Expert says call to ‘blow the health system up’ during Covid-19 vaccine rollout is bad timing
Mark Quinlivan and Dan Satherley (Newshub): Andrew Little hits out at medical expert for criticising timing of health sector reforms

Wellington City Council
Damian George (Stuff): Wellington City Council agrees to introduce Māori ward
Georgina Campbell (Herald): Wellington City councillors vote to establish a Māori ward
Georgina Campbell (Herald): Wellington councillors vote to investigate car-free central city by 2025
Georgina Campbell (Herald): Wellington Mayor Andy Foster’s fate to be decided in public
Damian George (Stuff): Councillors overturn plan to debate critical code of conduct findings behind closed doors
Tom Hunt (Stuff): Wellington Mayor commissions own legal advice saying he shouldn’t apologise to staff member, after critical report

Local government
Stuff: Editorial – ICC right to reject Māori ward but still faces tricky call over mana whenua seats
Tim Newman (Stuff): Māori Ward resolution ‘just the first step’ for Nelson
Tim Newman (Stuff): Mixed reaction to Nelson City Council’s Māori Ward decision

Housing crisis
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): What action is next from the Reserve Bank on housing?
Catherine Harris (Stuff): Is the housing market losing steam? Economists disagee
Miriam Bell (Stuff): House building costs have spiked as capacity constraints and supply shortages start to bite
Jane Patterson (RNZ): Emergency housing: Move to end ‘mixed-use’ motels practice in Rotorua
Leah Tebbutt (Herald): Govt’s $30m Rotorua motel emergency housing shake-up ‘not a solution’, says MP Todd McClay (paywalled)
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): More proof the Government has got it wrong on housing

International relations
Bernard Hickey (Spinoff): Why we shouldn’t be so afraid of Beijing – or so naive about how China Inc operates
Thomas Manch (Stuff): New Zealand raises international law violations with Israel, expresses ‘grave concern’ over escalating violence
Steven Cowan: Nanaia Mahuta: Failing the Palestinian people
Suzannah Jessep (Asia Media Centre): Reframing the India-NZ Relationship

Immigration
Branko Marcetic (Spinoff): ‘If you want to torture somebody, this is what you do’: Immigrants plead for end to family separation
Richard Harman: An end to large scale immigration (paywalled)
RNZ: Immigration Minister confronted at rally over border restrictions
Nadine Porter (Stuff): ‘Families need to be reunited’: Vigil highlights heartache over residency delays
Michael Neilson (Herald): Heartbreak, tears and frustration at protest to reunite migrant families
Jacques Steenkamp (BusinessDesk): Labour shortage at ‘crisis point’ (paywalled)

Health
David Williams (Newsroom): EY paid more than $2m for health review
Mike Houlahan (ODT): Outsourcing underscores SDHB failure: academic
Roxie Mohebbi (Spinoff): A night in the life of a nurse on the NICU

Justice
Daisy Hudson (ODT): Prisoner’s death prompts change
Harry Lock (RNZ): ‘We’ve got to stop bashing’: Politicians told to work together on Wellington safety
Mark Quinlivan (Newshub): New Zealand’s adoption, three strikes laws ‘dreadful’ – former Judge

Education
Edward O’Driscoll (Newshub): Pre-Budget 2021 boost: Hopes early learning teachers’ pay boost will pep up dwindling workforce
Ben Strang (RNZ): National hammers government over unclear gun buy-back estimates

Other
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Ministers spent contingency funds of $6.8b project, after warnings from Treasury
Zane Small (Newshub): Tens of millions of dollars spent on Auckland light rail despite no shovels in the ground
Glenn McConnell and Hamish McNeilly (Stuff): Newshub to close its Dunedin newsroom
John Gerritsen (RNZ): Taika Waititi fronts anti-racism campaign aimed at teachers
No Right Turn: Another captive agency
Imogen Wells (1News): Parliamentary inquiry finds lack of transparency in country’s uni hall sector
Olivia Wannan (Stuff): Is your school burning fossil fuels? Even the Government may not know