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

Travel bubble announced with Australia
Luke Malpass (Stuff): Trans-Tasman bubble brings palpable relief to Parliament
Audrey Young (Herald): Jacinda Ardern manages expectations over transtasman bubble (paywalled)
Herald: Editorial: Bubble a significant and welcome step
Jo Moir (Newshub): The public handbrake on an Aussie bubble
Hannah Martin (Stuff): Public health experts welcome ‘cautious’ trans-Tasman travel bubble
Tess McClure (The Guardian): Trans-Tasman travel bubble between New Zealand and Australia to start on 19 April
John Anthony and Debbie Jamieson (Stuff): Trans-Tasman bubble: Timing of opening could hurt some regions, economist says
Michael Plank and Shaun Hendy (The Conversation): A quarantine-free trans-Tasman bubble opens on April 19, but ‘flyer beware’ remains the reality of pandemic travel
No Right Turn: Afraid of a trans-Tasman bubble
Gordon Campbell: On how the tourism industry pressured the government to create the travel bubble

Kiri Allan diagnosed with cancer
Stuff: Editorial – A Minister’s personal, powerful message
Emma Russell (Newshub): Labour MP Kiri Allan praised by Cancer Society – specialists say NZ urgently needs to change screening method
Herald: Support flows for Labour MP Kiri Allan after cervical cancer diagnosis
Tess McClure (The Guardian): New Zealand minister Kiri Allan to take medical leave after cervical cancer diagnosis
Joel Maxwell (Stuff): ‘Nui te aroha ki a koe’ – Labour Māori caucus rallies behind Kiritapu Allan
Herald: Kiritapu Allan receives widespread support after revealing cancer battle
Māori TV: Kiri Allan encourages wāhine to get smear test after cancer diagnosis

Mental health crisis
Oliver Lewis (The Guardian): The gap between NZ Labour’s soaring rhetoric on mental health and the reality is galling
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Judith Collins says heads should roll over ‘sanitised’ Government mental health report
No Right Turn: Hostile to transparency
Cherie Howie (Herald): The parallel pandemic: Covid-19 and the mental health impacts on New Zealand young people (paywalled)
Ireland Hendry-Tennent (Newshub): Nicky Stevens’ mother accused Labour MPs Andrew Little, David Clark of fobbing her off
RNZ: Waikato mental health campaigner’s long wait to meet minister over concerns
Anan Zaki (RNZ): Christchurch terror attack witness urges more mental health support

Housing crisis
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Housing ‘whack-a-mole’: ASB reveals new prediction for house prices
Dan Satherley (Newshub): Housing crisis: Fall in prices ‘possible’ thanks to landlord tax crackdown – ASB
Tony Alexander (One Roof): The era of big house price rises is over
Brent Melville (BusinessDesk): NZ’s rampant house prices ‘validate’ govt moves (paywalled)
Ashley Church (One Roof): Around 40% of Kiwis rent so why are landlords being punished?
David Hargreaves (Interest): ASB economists warn on rent controls
Matt Burrows (Newshub): Struggling business owner urges Government to introduce rent hike caps after ‘ludicrous’ 25 percent increase

Economy and work
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Do public service bosses earn too much?
RNZ: Fishing sector recruitment campaign would be half paid for by taxpayers – documents
Liam Dann (Herald): US push for global tax rules could catch New Zealand’s film industry (paywalled)
Dan Satherley (Newshub): GDP figures ‘undoubtedly going to be negative’, but recession already over – economist
Nikki Mandow (Newsroom): One giant leap for New Zealand-kind
Susan Hornsby-Geluk (Stuff): A new agency to deal with workplace bullying

Health
Richard Harman: Government to take knife to DHBs (paywalled)
Brooke van Velden (Herald): Our decrepit health care remains mired in paperwork (paywalled)
Rowan Quinn (RNZ): Funding for self-screening cervical cancer test delayed again

Parliament
Richard Prebble (Herald): Why Judith Collins is politically a dead leader walking (paywalled)
Claire Trevett (Herald): Let them drink pints: Labour MP Kieran McAnulty’s push to scrap Easter, Christmas, Anzac alcohol restrictions
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Labour MP Kieran McAnulty to put forward bill abolishing restrictions on selling alcohol over Easter
Richard Harman: Whatever happened to Darren Hughes (paywalled)

Migration
Selwyn Manning (Evening Report): Bureaucratic silence surrounds Immigration New Zealand deportation move – Is this a case of human trafficking + black labour?
Thomas Manch (Stuff): MIQ vacancies ‘a measure of how unwanted we are’: Migrants separated from family for more than a year protest at parliament
Jason Walls (Herald): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called on to ‘be kind’ by migrant workers separated from families

Local Government
Christina Persico (Stuff): Taranaki Regional Council votes to establish Māori constituency
Georgina Campbell (Herald): Audit New Zealand warns Wellington City Council is risking more burst pipes
Bernadette Basagre (Stuff): Auckland central city library closure leaves homeless with no winter shelter

Public transport
Bernard Orsman (Herald): Auckland’s $4.4b City Rail Link could be delayed by light rail (paywalled)
Kirsty Lawrence and Ellen O’Dwyer (Stuff): The race to Auckland – can a car beat the new Te Huia train?

Other
Chris McDowall (Herald): Why is the Govt not sharing vaccination data with the public? (paywalled)
Ruth Hill (RNZ): Astroturfing more difficult to track down with social media – academic
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): New Zealand experts not yet finished analysing World Health Organization Covid-19 origins report a week on
Phil Pennington (RNZ): Toxic waste buried at Tiwai Point aluminium smelter, former staff say
Catherine Iorns (The Conversation): Managing retreat: why New Zealand is drafting a new law to enable communities to move away from climate risks