The Kākā by Bernard Hickey

Mōrena. Long stories shortest: Standard & Poor’s has cut the credit ratings of 18 councils, blaming the new Government’s abrupt reversal of 3 Waters , cuts to capital grants & new unfunded mandates. The downgrades, with the potential for one more cut for Wellington Regional Council, Wellington City Council and Dunedin City Council , are likely to increase interest costs for ratepayers and restrict...

Mōrena. Long stories shortest: ACT’s renowned climate sceptic MP Mark Cameron has accused National of being 'out of touch' with farmers by sticking with New Zealand’s Paris accord pledges to reduce emissions. David Seymour downplays Cameron's comments, saying National is (happily) doing the bare minimum on climate. A fast-track panel rejects Contact’s plans for big wind farm. ( There is more detai...

Long stories shortest: David Seymour has denied a request from a Christchurch school and any other schools to be exempted from the Compass school lunch programme, saying the contract must be obeyed. Christopher Luxon’s net approval rating in his first year as PM is vastly lower than those of Helen Clark, John Key and Jacinda Ardern . Chris Bishop is (rightly) incensed that a consent for an 11-stor...

Here’s the excellent explainer on PPPs from Patrick Reynolds over at Greater Auckland that this chat was based on. Thank you Edward Miller , James Wilkes , Andrew , and many others for tuning into my live video with Patrick Reynolds ! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thek...

Long stories shortest: The Government’s international investment conference ignores the facts that PPPs cost twice as much as vanilla debt-funded public infrastructure, often take longer, and often have to be relitigated or bailed out later. The biggest projects pitched also make no economic or fiscal sense for taxpayers. Also, the school lunch scheme continues imploding and long covid is squeezin...

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts Bernard Hickey & Peter Bale talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: * Robert Patman on the week in geopolitics, including Donald Trump’s wrecking of the post-WW II political landscape; and * Health Coalition Aotearoa co-chair Lisa Te Morenga on school lunches...

Long stories shortest: The IMF says a capital gains tax or land tax would improve real economic growth and fix the budget. GDP is set to be smaller by 2026 than it was in 2023. Compass is flying in school lunches from Australia. 53% of National voters say the new school lunch system isn’t working. One school is feeding the lunches to pigs, which ACT said happened under Labour . David Seymour attac...

Long stories shortest: Christopher Luxon denies his Government caused a homelessness crisis documented by Auckland Council . Instead, he wants media to celebrate his achievements more. Libelle ’s collapse demonstrated how David Seymour has cut Erica Stanford out of the loop and how he ignored official concerns last year about Libelle and Compass . Donald Trump just doubled tariffs on Canadian stee...

Long stories shortest in Aotearoa’s political economy this morning: * National’s pollster finds Christopher Luxon has fallen behind Chris Hipkins as preferred PM for the first time, with Labour’s support high enough to govern with the Greens & Te Pāti Māori . * Asked about the polls, Luxon says fixing the economy will improve support for the Government, but a new survey shows voters, including Nat...

Long stories shortest in Aotearoa’s political economy this morning: * Within months and before Parliamentary approval is obtained, the Government plans to strip non-Maori landowners of the right to use the Environment Court to stop compulsory acquisition for fast-track projects and big new motorways. * The Government also wants to buy off landowners who volunteer to sell early by paying them up to...

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts Bernard Hickey & Peter Bale talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: * Robert Patman and Elaine Monaghan on the week in geopolitics, including Donald Trump’s wrecking of the post-WW II political landscape; and, * Cathrine Dyer on the week in climate news. The H...

Long story short: Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr has resigned unexpectedly and without explanation, three years before the end of his second five-year term. Finance Minister Nicola Willis and soon-to-be Deputy PM David Seymour never wanted the-then Labour Government to reappoint him in late 2022, arguing (with hindsight) his actions worsened the 2022-23 inflation shock by stimulating the economy...

In summary today: PM Christopher Luxon is increasingly at odds with leaders in other countries in saying he trusts Donald Trump and the United States as reliable partners, despite this week’s tariffs and alliance swaps that have shocked and alarmed both New Zealand’s allies and global financial markets. Meanwhile, Luxon is also being criticised as being out of touch with his support of David Seymo...

Long stories short, my top six news items in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, March 4 are: * The Government is widening its drive to turn public capital and investment costs into consumer price inflation that the Reserve Bank has to control with high interest rates. * In recent days a rash of Government-controlled and driven price setters have signalled...

Long stories short, my top six news items in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday, March 3 are: * The first national housing market data for February show new listings falling as unsold stock levels hit their highest levels in nearly 10 years, indicating an extension of the great standoff between buyers and sellers in the engine room of the economy is depressi...

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts Bernard Hickey & Peter Bale talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: * Robert Patman on the week in geopolitics, including Donald Trump’s wrecking of the post-WW II politicial landscape; and, * Cathrine Dyer on the week in climate news, including what Joe Rogan...

Long stories short, the top six things that stood out to me in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, February 26: * A crescendo of teacher, student and parent complaints is building over David Seymour’s cheap and nasty school lunch programme, with a cascade of ugly photos and reports of delays, allergy and halal failures, meal no-shows and evidence of nutrition-lit...

Long story short, I spoke to researcher and campaigner Kayli Taylor in the interview above about her ActionStation Aotearoa report into unmet need in dental care, which details the experiences of ten people unable to afford to go to a dentist, and just how damaging and debilitating it has been in their lives. The full report is available in PDF form below, as is the transcript of our discussion. T...

Long stories short, the top six things that stood out to me in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, February 25: * The slump in housing land prices has gone on for three years and the Reserve Bank last week further lowered its forecast for house prices, meaning prices aren’t expected return to their December 2021 peak until mid-2028 at the earliest; * That near-sev...

Long story short, I interviewed Reserve Bank of New Zealand Chief Economist Paul Conway yesterday in the full video above about: * the Monetary Policy Committee’s decision to cut the Official Cash Rate by 50 basis points to 3.75% last week; * the bank’s projection in its Monetary Policy Statement (MPS) for three more 25 basis point cuts over the next six months or so; * its forecasts for modest re...

Long stories short, the top six things that stood out to me in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday, February 24: * The Government is considering allowing the EQC to increase its levy tacked on to household insurance bills by around $400 per year or as much as 72%; * Inexorable Government pressure downwards on education spending growth and the exodus of skilled worke...

( My apologies. The version sent earlier this morning had the audio of last week’s podcast attached. It was good, but not that good. I have now updated with this week’s podcast. This is my error and please accept my apologies. ) The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts Bernard Hickey & Peter Bale talking about the week’s news with re...

Long story short, I spoke to Core Logic Head of Research Nick Goodall & Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) CEO Jen Baird for a 15 minute mini-Hoon last night after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand announced it had cut the Official Cash Rate 50 bps to 3.75% and projected another 75 bps of cuts this year. We also spoke in the video and podcast above about the REINZ's January sales data show...

After seeing yet-more-months of political debate and policy decisions to ‘go for growth’ by pulling the same old cheap migration and cheap tourism levers without nearly-enough infrastructure, or any attempt to address the same old lack of globally conventional tax incentives for investment, I thought it would be worth issuing a challenge to the opponents of tax reform in the form of an open letter...

Long stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, February 18 are: * A NZ Herald investigation published yesterday into the performance of EDs has found almost a third of a million patients were not seen within the recommended times in the first half of last year; * ED doctor Gary Payinda pointed in his substack post yesterday at...