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

Budget 2021
Tova O’Brien (Newshub): Budget 2021: Newshub-Reid Research poll shows Kiwis are on board with expected benefit increase
Jane Patterson (RNZ): Budget 2021 set to deliver more money to NZ’s poorest and those hardest hit by Covid-19
Rachel Sadler (Newshub): Budget 2021: Benefit increases, rent reforms needed to tackle child poverty in New Zealand – experts
Luke Malpass (Stuff): Grant Robertson prepares for a Budget of balance, not transformation
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Grant Robertson’s ‘balanced’ Budget likely to raise benefits, but not pile on much more debt
Justin Giovannetti (Spinoff): The key things to look out for in today’s budget
Duncan Greive (Spinoff): The five factors which make this a budget like no other
Ireland Hendry-Tennent (Newshub): Budget 2021: Doubt there will be any major announcements as Government manages $105 billion of debt
Jason Walls (Herald): Today’s the day! Finance Minister Grant Robertson prepares to unveil Budget
Simon Wilson (Herald): Budget 2021: Three ways to measure ambition (paywalled)
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Infrastructure, income support, reversal of property investment changes
Jamie Gray (Herald): Budget 2021: What it will mean for NZ government borrowing
Melanie Carroll (Stuff): NZ businesses want more infrastructure spending in Budget, according to survey
Herald: Budget 2021: What I want to see – Paula Bennett, Sue Bradford, Neale Jones and Jon Stokes
David Searle (BusinessDesk): The Budget 2021 challenge
Stephanie Rodgers: Benefits, Budgets and b***s***
Jonathan Milne (Newsroom): NZ Govt challenged to match Australia’s spending on critical infrastructure
Irra Lee (1News): Budget 2021: What the Labour Government has promised so far
Claire Trevett (Herald): Cut & Thrust: National MP Shane Reti’s Budget dynamite flop, and who said the F word? (paywalled)
Richard Harman: Government too busy to let Robertson do much
Russell Palmer (RNZ): The Budget and why it matters: What you need to know
Dennis Wesselbaum (Newsroom): Outlook bleak with Finance Minister to deliver Stagflation Budget
Cameron Smith (Herald): Budget 2021: Businesses’ wish list as outlook gets gloomier
Craig McCulloch (RNZ): Budget 2021 has not much room for housing
Andy Fyers (BusinessDesk): Budget forecasts are no sure thing (paywalled)
Hamish Cardwell (RNZ): Climate activists hold low expectations for budget’s climate focus
Josie Adams (Spinoff): The ties tell all: How to predict the budget

Racism, He Puapua, and Māori self-determination
Graham Adams (Democracy Project): Judith Collins: The lady’s not for turning
Stuff: Editorial – When playing the race card doesn’t work
Jo Moir (Newsroom): Henare ready to fight Collins on Māori health
Anne Salmond (Newsroom): The answer is in Article 3
Shilo Kino (Newsroom): Wanted: A writers festival beyond the white and privileged

Immigration reset
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Newstalk ZB): New Zealand needs migrant workers more than we think
Melanie Carroll (Stuff): Making rich migrants give to charity won’t work, says recent NZ resident
Audrey Young (Herald): National MP Erica Stanford says focus on immigration is personal (paywalled)
Steven Cowan: Jacinda Ardern: Making New Zealand Great Again

Parliament
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Number of non-homeowning MPs falls further
Josh Robertson (Re: News): NZ’s 120 MPs own 247 properties between them
Michael Bassett: The Newshub-Reid political poll

Local government
Sharon Brettkelly (RNZ): Wellington is getting short of good days
Aaron Leaman and Mike Mather (Stuff): Kia ora, council: Hamilton leaders vote 12-0 for Māori wards
Marcus Anselm (RNZ): Masterton councillors to vote on Māori wards for 2022
Rachel Moore (Stuff): Haka erupts as Horowhenua District Council votes unanimously for Māori wards
Lawrence Gullery (Stuff): Establishing Māori ward for Waipā ‘just common sense’ says mayor Jim Mylchrest
Waatea News: Mau Whenua stands firm against Shelly Bay deal
Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): Goff ‘not convinced’ by water reforms proposal (paywalled)
Georgina Campbell (Herald): Wellington Water has exhausted all available front-line workers in the region

International relations
Leon Goldsmith (Newsroom): No room for naivety on the Middle East
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Now is the time for NZ to be brave, and stand up to Israel and China
Thomas Manch (Stuff): Green Party’s motion to declare Palestine a state fails in Parliament

Covid
Andre Chumko (Stuff): The extent of marketing behind Aotearoa’s Covid-19 health campaign
Luke Malpass (Stuff): Budget 2021: Covid-19 vaccine programme revealed to cost $1.4 billion
Matt Burrows (Newshub): Chris Hipkins admits he may be forced to scale down Covid-19 vaccine rollout as DHBs exceed targets
Nona Pelletier (RNZ): Public increasingly expect leaders to be honest and empathetic, survey indicates
Derek Cheng (Herald): Govt rejected expert advice to vaccinate 160,000 Māori and Pasifika earlier

NZ history curriculum
John Gerritsen (RNZ): Draft history curriculum misses 600 years of Aotearoa New Zealand’s past
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Chris Hipkins applauded in Parliament for saying he’s not ‘threatened by Māori history being taught in school’
1News: Education Minister says it’s ‘a damn good thing’ for students to learn influence of colonialism

Health
Ian Powell (Democracy Project): A very bureaucratic coup: Part Two
Chris Keall (Herald): DHB attack: Why Justice Minister Kris Faafoi won’t make it illegal to pay a cyber-ransom
Ben Leahy (Herald): New Zealand’s hospitals battle daily cyber attacks: Ministry of Health

Climate change
Will Harvie (Stuff): Hydrogen storage may be key to zero carbon NZ
Olivia Wannan (Stuff): Stop coal mine extensions now, says influential energy report

Economy and work
Richard Harman: New Zealand at centre of British trade row (paywalled)
RNZ: Bill to increase sick leave from five days to 10 days passes

Other
1News: Use of court sanction against beneficiaries explodes under Labour despite Ardern raging against it in 2013
Mike Hosking (Herald): Progressive politics in New Zealand is on borrowed time (paywalled)
Luke Kirkness (Herald): Gangs in NZ ‘crisis’: Bay of Plenty has most members in New Zealand, police figures reveal (paywalled)
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Government gets Christchurch rapid transit moving – slowly
Virginia Fallon (Stuff): Shame on those questioning who eats a free school lunch
Kristin Hall (1News): Former, current radio staff at MediaWorks fear ‘toxic culture’ won’t change despite review
Tony Alexander (One Roof): Rise and fall: Which way will house prices and mortgage rates go?
Monika Barton (Newshub): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern reveals she ‘has an idea’ for her wedding dress
Herald: Jacinda Ardern marriage: PM reveals wedding dress details, guest list dilemmas