The Kākā by Bernard Hickey

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking with regular guests Robert Patman & Cathrine Dyer about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics. This edition also included discussions with special guest: * Green MP for Wellington Bays and Green Transport Spokesperson Julie Anne Genter , ta...

It’s just not working. We’ve known this for a long time, but we felt it being seared into the body of our political economy all over again yesterday. The Reserve Bank tightened monetary policy to slow economic activity again. It wasn’t a mistake. It hiked the key interest rate in order to reduce jobs and wages growth, as well as investment. All because it has one blunt tool, the Official Cash Rate...

Aotearoa’s decades-long housing crisis is now deep into another winter of discontent. Last week’s events show the Government’s cuts to state house building and emergency housing in motels through 2024 have come home to roost even harder in 2026 than seen in the winter of discontent in 2016, when Te Puea Memorial Marae in Māngere opened its doors to Auckland’s homeless in the absence of Government...

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking with regular guests Robert Patman & Cathrine Dyer about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics. This edition also included discussions with special guest: * Author and journalist Rebecca Macfie about the gutting of safety reforms put in plac...

The New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services (NZ CCSS) published a report this morning showing measures of the number of people in Aotearoa who are hungry and living in poverty has risen over the last year to their worst-ever levels. One in six households are living in income poverty after housing costs, just over one in ten have to go without essential items regularly, and one in three ho...

Ganesh R Ahirao published a proposal today for a new Government to pass an Economic Governance Act within 100 days of the November 7 election. It would put ‘Being a good ancestor’ at the heart of Government & supplant the current primacy of the Public Finance Act & the RBNZ’s inflation target. I spoke to Ganesh today about what an Economic Governance Act would aim to achieve and what’s wrong with...

Labour Leader Chris Hipkins gave a stirring speech over the weekend ahead of the election in 137 days time, pledging a warm home, secure jobs and accessible healthcare for all. He even declared ‘Neoliberal, trickle-down economics is a hoax.’ But he remains wedded to neoliberalism’s guide rails in New Zealand - the 30:30 rule limiting the size of Government and public debt to a third of GDP. Withou...

This morning I highlight another case where the 30-30 rule adhered to by both National and Labour means infrastructure growth can’t keep up with population growth. In essence, despite the claim over the years by MPs, Mayors and councillors, growth doesn’t pay for growth. Elsewhere in the news this morning: more MPs are exposed for taking accommodation allowances for living in Wellington, and there...

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking with regular guest Robert Patman from Dunedin about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics. This edition also included discussions with special guests: * Author Jonathan Lyons, PhD , who publishes the Signal to Noise: History. Philosophy. Co...

Today in the news from Aotearoa and elsewhere about our political economy around housing, climate and poverty: * Tax Minister Simon Watts says he doesn’t have a view about the fairness of global tech giants arranging their finances so they don’t have to pay $600 million per year in taxes in New Zealand, Jenée Tibshraeny reports this morning for the front page of the Weekend NZ Herald-$ (See more b...

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer from Wellington and Robert Patman from Dunedin about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics. This edition also included discussions with special guests: * Transport analyst Connor Sharp talking about Greater...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thekaka.substack.com Here’s this morning’s top news from around Aotearoa and elsewhere about our political economy around housing, climate and poverty. * The Lead: New Zealand’s most prominent lobbyist and former National Party staffer, Matthew Hooton , has been named to edit the Capital’s daily newspaper and New Zealand’s longest-runni...

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey talking with regular guest Cathrine Dyer from Wellington about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics. This edition also included discussions with special guests: * BusinessDesk-$ podcaster and Listener tech columnist Peter Griffin on SpaceX ’s float and what it m...

Here’s the key news in Aotearoa’s political economy over the last day or so around housing, climate and poverty, along with analysis and detail in the video and podcast above, and in the PDF of the presentation attached below, for paying subscribers: * The Lead: Watercare published new maps this morning detailing where new housing can’t be built in and around Auckland because of staged investment...

Here’s the key news in Aotearoa’s political economy over the last day or so around housing, climate and poverty, along with analysis and detail in the video and podcast above, and in the PDF of the presentation attached below, for paying subscribers: * The Lead: Auckland Council opted last night to recommend its two least intense housing supply plans for local boards to consider, which its economi...

This evening I spoke with I spoke with Victoria Coleman about the Disability Support Services Bill , which will gazump a court ruling that parents working as carers are full-time employees of the Government. Victoria works full time as a carer for her son, who has autism, Down Syndrome and two rare bowell disorders. She is campaigning against the Bill and has launched a petition against the bill....

Here’s the key news in Aotearoa’s political economy over the last day or so around housing, climate and poverty, along with analysis and detail in the video and podcast above, and in the PDF of the presentation attached below, for paying subscribers: * The Lead: The Government has convinced the nation that a scary ghost story about public debt from the days of Rob Muldoon and Ruth Richardson is st...

I spoke with Victoria Crockford from the Coalition to End Women’s Homelessness this evening. She detailed the findings of the Coalition’s latest report , ‘ Children and Young People Experiencing Homelessness ,’ published today, including: * there are 33,000 children and young people experiencing homelessness and they face significantly higher rates of harm across multiple areas of their lives; * C...

Here’s the key news in Aotearoa’s political economy over the last day or so around housing, climate and poverty, along with analysis and detail in the video and podcast above, and in the PDF of the presentation attached below, for paying subscribers: * Households slammed by rampant electricity, fuel and government charges inflation are being forced to cut back on discretionary spending on going ou...

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer from Wellington and Robert Patman in Dunedin about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics. This edition also included discussions with Louisa Wall , a former Labour MP and member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on Chin...

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thekaka.substack.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thekaka.substack.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thekaka.substack.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thekaka.substack.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thekaka.substack.com/subscribe