Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.

Today’s content

Waitangi 
Eleanor de Jong (Guardian): Waitangi Day: New Zealand Labour’s Māori members arrive amid Covid measures
Peter de Graaf (Herald): Labour returns to Waitangi’s Te Tii Marae after three-year absence
Claire Trevett (Herald): Labour MPs return to Te Tii marae, but Jacinda Ardern’s first visit as Prime Minister is another question (paywalled)
Lloyd Jones, Shane Jones (Herald): Treaty of Waitangi and race relations in today’s New Zealand (paywalled)
Joel Maxwell (Stuff): No PM yet, but Labour Māori caucus heads on to Te Tii Marae at Waitangi
Māni Dunlop (RNZ): MPs back at Te Tii Marae as week of commemorations for Waitangi Day begin
1News: Judith Collins says National wasn’t invited to Waitangi’s Te Tii Marae as Labour makes its return
Herald: Waitangi Day: Labour’s Māori caucus met with small protest over land sale at Te Tii Marae
Rawiri Taonui (Waatea News): Happy White Waitangi Day
RNZ: Uncertainty around ministers returning to Te Tii marae in future
Tim Worrall (Newsroom): Waitangi week: words of a Ngai Tūhoe tohunga

Māori wards in local government
Zane Small (Newshub): National’s Judith Collins describes plan to abolish veto of Māori wards in councils as ‘quasi-constitutional’
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): The case against Maori wards
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): Why scrapping Māori ward referendums actually makes sense
Zane Small (Newshub): ACT opposes ‘divisive’ plan to end veto of Māori wards in councils, described as ‘racist’ by Labour
Jody O’Callaghan (Stuff): No Māori ward for Christchurch City Council
Mandy Te (Stuff): Wellington City Councillor files notice of motion to establish Māori ward
Georgina Campbell (Herald): Notice of Motion filed to establish Māori Ward in Wellington
RNZ: Motion filed for Māori ward in Wellington
Newstalk ZB: Local Government NZ says establishment of Maori wards will make a big difference
Robin Martin (RNZ): Andrew Judd ‘absolutely’ vindicated by Māori wards decision
Josh Robertson (Re: News): New law makes it harder to overturn Māori wards
Alice Angeloni (RNZ): Māori wards: East Coast MP backs dumping of ‘grossly inadequate provision’

Retirement homes
Stuff: Consumer NZ warns of retirement villages’ ‘financial sting’
Anne Gibson (Newstalk ZB): Retirement Villages Association pushes back against call for regulation overhaul
Anne Gibson (Herald): Retirement village regulations need overhaul: Consumer NZ
RNZ: Retirement village contracts unfairly favour providers – Consumer NZ
RNZ: Retirement villages and residents clash over contracts, government to consider review
Calida Stuart-Menteath (NBR): Retirement villages hit back at Consumer NZ criticism (paywalled)

Climate change
Emile Donovan (Newsroom): Climate changes and you
Melanie Carroll (Stuff): Choosing gas for new homes could be money down the drain, says Consumer NZ
David Williams (Newsroom): Australia a handbrake on clean car ambitions
Debrin Foxcroft (Stuff): Expect car prices to go up with new standards, Motor Industry Association says
Southland Times: Editorial – Climate change is historic record
ODT: Editorial – The politics of climate change
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Climate report sets up fight over herd sizes
Ellen O’Dwyer (Stuff): Shaw: Farmers can cut herds and still make a profit
Guy Trafford (Interest): Own-goal can be avoided
Newstalk ZB: Todd Muller: Why farmers should remain calm about climate change report
Nick Truebridge (RNZ): Climate Change report: What’s the future of gas?
Newstalk ZB: Finance Minister confident climate change measures will be affordable
Julie Iles (NBR): Climate Change Commission joins chorus of voices calling for EV incentives (paywalled)
Debrin Foxcroft (Stuff): Expect car prices to go up with new standards, Motor Industry Association says
Eye Of The Fish: Climate goals
Livia Esterhazy (Newsroom): Our voices can unlock climate action

Economy and work
Debrin Foxcroft (Stuff): Can businesses be shamed into paying back the wage subsidy?
Newstalk ZB: Charity calls for Pascoe Group to repay wage subsidy
David Hargreaves (Interest): Unemployment set to rise further – but again to nothing like the levels earlier feared
Tina Morrison (Stuff): Farmers department store must step up and pay workers the living wage, Union says
Liam Dann (Herald): Why good jobs data could point to higher interest rates (paywalled)
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Don’t let the Reserve Bank just give the Government money, Treasury warns
John McDermott (NBR): Top 10 reasons for slowing economies (paywalled)
Grant Bradley (Herald): Tourism Export Council’s wishlist for Government ministers (paywalled)

Health
David Williams (Newsroom): The funding figure that hampers our hospitals
Sarah Dalton (Newsroom): Staring down the barrel of NZ’s doctor crisis
Hannah Martin and Cecile Meier (Stuff): Cancer in NZ: Survival rates up, but inequities persist
1News: Patient advocate slams cancer agency report over ‘wall of silence’ on Pharmac funding
1News: Māori twice as likely to die from cancer than non-Māori, new report finds
Stephen Forbes (Stuff): Increased threat of armed violence on DHB’s agenda

Housing
Greg Ninness (Interest): The average value of NZ homes increased by $17,184 in January
Greg Ninness (Interest): Overseas owners selling NZ residential properties at twice the rate they’re buying
Brooke van Velden (Herald): My solutions to the housing affordability crisis (paywalled)
Kylie Klein-Nixon (Stuff): How to buy five houses in one year during a pandemic
Georgina Campbell (Herald): Home ownership is the Kiwi dream, but not like this (paywalled)
Cira Olivier (Herald): Emergency Housing clients throw rental opportunities to stay in cheaper accommodation, rental agent says (paywalled)
Hannah Kronast (Newshub): Investors to sell their ‘crap’ houses while housing frenzy lasts – economist
RNZ: Wealth of trouble: Average house price eclipses $800k and growing
Miriam Bell (Stuff): Housing heat spreads: Christchurch records sharpest growth in 17 years
Ethan Teora (Stuff): Wellington flat compared to ‘dungeon from Parasite’
Anne Gibson (Herald): NZ’s biggest builder wins consent to buy 20ha Riverhead site for vast housing project
Lana Andelane (Newshub): Emergency housing: Youth in emergency accommodation felt ‘safer on the streets’ than in NZ’s motels – Lifewise

Local government
Michael Neilson (Herald): Water crisis: Estate owned by Auckland rich-listers controls more water from Waikato River than city itself
Dave Armstrong (Stuff): Wellingtonians caught in a sea of PR muck
Matt Shand (Stuff): Anne Tolley to chair Tauranga commission to replace dysfunctional councillors
1News: Former National MP to chair commission to replace dysfunctional Tauranga City Council
Justin Latif (Spinoff): Meet the fascinating bunch running to represent a South Auckland community
Bernard Orsman (Herald): Candidates deny voter interference in Māngere-Ōtāhuhu Local Board byelection
Tom Hunt (Stuff): Cool is uncool, Wellington warned a decade after embracing coolness

Covid
Jamie Morton (Herald): Covid-19 vaccines: The 10 big questions answered
George Block and Simon Plumb (Stuff): Breakers star Tom Abercrombie’s family do MIQ at $3m home after complaining about hotel
Steven Walton (Stuff): Critically ill dad and teenage son separated by MIQ application limbo
Newstalk ZB: No guarantee Pfizer vaccine will be approved in New Zealand
Ayesha Verrall (The Spinoff): Why the shaming of people with Covid-19 must stop

Parliament and government
Aaron Dahmen and Courtney Winter (Newstalk ZB): Govt urged to move on banning conversion therapy; Collins labelled ‘ignorant’ for taking no position
Richard Prebble (Herald): Boring Judith Collins won’t beat caring Jacinda Ardern (paywalled)
Whatitiri Te Wake (Māori TV): If Nats want to win Māori seats, they must first apologise to Māori – former National MP

Education
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Newstalk ZB): There is something fundamentally wrong in NZ’s teaching
Newstalk ZB: Expert panel called in to shake up how maths is taught in schools
Herald: Editorial: Mathematics failing is hard to figure (paywalled)

Other
Tim Brown (RNZ): Government to pay half of bill for Mataura mill toxic waste removal
Damien Rogers (Herald): How to restore public confidence in intelligence agencies (paywalled)
Pattrick Smellie (Spinoff): The risky PR play of Eric Watson and Chris Liddell
Phil Pennington (RNZ): Young Muslims want more than ‘tick-box’ exercise from govt
Māori TV: Constitutional reform vital for Māori – Professor Makere Mutu
RNZ: Government unveils $150m Ngāpuhi Investment Fund
Amelia Wade (Herald): $150m fund established for Ngāpuhi while negotiating Treaty of Waitangi claims