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

Public sector pay freeze
Stuff: Editorial – Pay freeze stretches public sector loyalty
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Newstalk ZB): Pay freeze shows Government can’t manage the books
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Pay freeze controversy enters second day, with Greens and National pressing Labour
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Do people really earn more in the public sector?
David Farrar: Robertson and Hipkins become honorary members of the Taxpayers’ Union
Zane Small (Newshub): Chris Hipkins rebukes Mark Mitchell for classing border staff ‘bureaucrats’ as Greens rip into pay freeze
Caryn Wilkinson (Stuff): Educators slam three more years of pay restraint for public servants
Kerre McIvor (Newstalk ZB): Public sector pay freeze rightly labelled ‘bombshell’
Alex Braae (Spinoff): Furious feedback: Bulletin readers respond to public sector wage freeze
Frances Cook (Herald): Of course I go to work for money, and so do you (paywalled)
Richard Wagstaff (BusinessDesk): Public sector bargaining must be in good faith

China and New Zealand
Matthew Hooton (Herald): Loose words raise risk of war (paywalled)
Chris Trotter: With Friends Like These …
John Bishop (Stuff): Wanting nations to behave in line with our values is foolish
ODT: Editorial – New Zealand, China and realpolitik
Michael Neilson (Herald): China lashes out after New Zealand Parliament makes Uighur declaration over ‘severe human rights abuses’
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Jacinda Ardern not surprised by China’s angry response to Parliament declaring ‘severe human rights abuses’ in Xinjiang
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Xinjiang: China blasts New Zealand Parliament for ‘severe abuses’ declaration, warns of potential ‘harm’ to relationship
Jane Patterson (RNZ): Where will New Zealand stand in rising tensions between China and other allies?
Gordon Campbell: On yesterday’s big parliamentary air kiss to China
RNZ: Parliament human rights vote ‘gross interference in China’s internal affairs’
Anuja Nadkarni (Newsroom): One country, two faces: How NZ businesses deal with China

He Puapua document and Māori self-determination
Claire Robinson (The Guardian): Judith Collins’ comments on Māori health policy are a diversion
Chris Trotter (Daily Blog): Hiding He Puapua from Winston may cost Labour dearly
Karl du Fresne: The He Puapua affair makes Labour look shifty
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): What are the govt’s plans with He Puapua?
Chris Lynch (Herald): Will He Puapua unite New Zealanders as the authors have claimed?

Parliament’s Speaker Trevor Mallard
Peter Dunne: It is time for Speaker Trevor Mallard to go
Kate Hawkesby (Newstalk ZB): How long ’til Mallard goes?
1News: MPs using sexual assault as ‘political football’ not leading by example: Marama Davidson and charity founder

Housing crisis
Jane Patterson (RNZ): Police, MSD not collecting data on crime at emergency housing
Brian Fallow (Herald): Choose your weapons in housing fight (paywalled)
Ashley Church (One Roof): Housing market lessons from a Hollywood apocalypse
Anne Gibson (Herald): Housing crisis: Data shows record number of consents for new houses

Economy, Budget, and work
Bernard Hickey (Spinoff): Lower debt in, cutting child poverty out: Bernard Hickey on financial priorities
Peter Dunne (Newsroom): When the Government knows best
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Less than half of ‘shovel-ready’ projects begun by deadline
Max Rashbrooke (Stuff): Labour still haunted by economic ‘loser’ tag
Herald: Editorial: How Covid-19 has heated up NZ’s economy (paywalled)
Hamish Rutherford (Herald): Reserve Bank hints new lending tool might be worthwhile, even if only applied to investors (paywalled)
Jonathan Milne (Newsroom): Reserve Bank’s backyard war of independence
Brent Edwards (NBR): Finance Minister’s balancing act will continue in May budget (paywalled)
Jane Kelsey (Newsroom): US return to Trans-Pacific trade deal would open large can of worms for NZ
Chris Leitch (Herald): A social solution to the giant money merry-go-round (paywalled)
Caitlin Ellis (Newshub): Understanding of Te Ao Māori a core skill for all New Zealand business directors – Reserve Bank assistant governor
Tamsyn Parker (Herald): BNZ half year profit up 80% to $660 million
David Hargreaves (Interest): Businesses’ rising cost expectations ‘are off the charts’

Health
Herald: Doctor burnout: One in two suffering – specialist told patients would die if she took a sick day
Emma Russell (Herald): Auckland hospitals overloaded: Patients waiting in corridors as demand skyrockets
Alice Angeloni (RNZ): Nursing shortage leads to temporary stop on joint surgeries in Gisborne
Ian Powell: New Zealand complicit in Big Pharma control of vaccination costs
Tim Brown (Stuff): Southern DHB ‘fails our patients at multiple stages’ – oncologist

Media
Tim Murphy (Newsroom): RNZ National audience takes a tumble
Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): Media have brought distrust on themselves – but there is hope
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): RNZ’s Susie Ferguson and Corin Dann narrowly beat Mike Hosking in latest radio results
Herald: Newstalk ZB topples RNZ National as biggest talk station in NZ

Covid and border
Derek Cheng (Herald): Border blind spot: Number of unvaccinated workers outside MIQ unclear
Thomas Manch (Stuff): New Zealand to support effort to waive Covid-19 vaccine patents, after United States backs WTO bid
Tess McClure (The Guardian): New Zealand suspends quarantine-free travel from NSW over two Sydney Covid cases

Other
Josh Van Veen (Democracy Project): The Muller Trap
Michael Neilson, Claire Trevett and Jason Walls (Herald): National received nearly $3m in political donations in 2020 – nearly double Labour
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Pressure mounts against censoring internet without human rights protections
Mike Mather (Stuff): Hamilton ratepayers stuck with 8.9 per cent rates hike and a parking u-turn
Jo Moir (Newsroom): Leaker puts spotlight on Māori inequities
Esther Taunton (Stuff): Union calls for audit of KiwiRail trains amid slave labour concerns
David Farrar: A trade union you should join
Te Aorewa Rolleston (RNZ): Gangs in NZ: ‘Talking to those ready to embark on that path is important’
Simon Wilson (Herald): Revealed – how many people are on the average Queen St bus (paywalled)