The Kākā by Bernard Hickey

Long stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday, February 17 are: * Engineering New Zealand CEO Richard Templer said yesterday hundreds of engineers are losing their jobs and leaving the country as work dries up due to stalling infrastructure projects; * Templer pleaded for the Government to free up funds to restart stalled proje...

Long stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty in the week to Sunday, February 16 were: * Leading and lagging indicators showed the economy is struggling to get out of its three-year-long recession in per-capita terms, with some green shoots in manufacturing and trucking being over-shadowed by another fall in retail spending and confirmation of...

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 the latest from Donald Trump’s administration over Gaza and Ukraine; * Cathrine Dyer on the week in climate news, incl...

Long stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, February 13 are: * The coalition Government’s early 2024 ‘fiscal emergency’ freeze on funding, planning and building houses, schools, local roads and hospitals helped extend and deepen the economic and jobs recession through calendar 2024, as evident in concrete production figure...

Long stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 12 are: * Business frustration is growing about a lack of economic growth, with some arguing certainty and confidence is needed on Government-funded anchor projects such as hospitals, roads and railways as a priority, rather than deficit and public debt reduction; * The...

Long stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, February 11 are: * Polls out overnight from Curia and Verian confirmed last week’s reading from a Talbot Mills ’ poll that combined support for the governing coalition of National, ACT and New Zealand First fell behind the combined support for Labour, Green and Te Pāti Māori in th...

Long stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday, February 10 are: * A loosening of rules to entice rich foreigners to invest more here is unlikely to “turbocharge our economic growth,” as claimed by the Government, because they will still have to rent when they live here, and most of the money will be lent to the Government in bo...

Long stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty in the six days to Saturday, February 8 were: * The Government announced it was stopping building new state houses to reduce its deficit and cut $5 billion of borrowing, but the housing market remains in crisis and reliant on the private sector to flood the market with affordable housing, which it h...

Long stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, February 7: * PM Christopher Luxon and Finance Minister Nicola Willis are set to announce another apparently splashy growth policy on Sunday of offering residence visas to wealthy migrants, but like the Invest NZ foreign direct investment policy announced last month, it is another low-imp...

Long stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 5 are; * Housing Minister Chris Bishop yesterday announced Kāinga Ora would be stripped of its ‘non-core’ activities of developing new land, managing First Home loans and KiwiSaver withdrawals and consenting its own projects; * Bishop detailed plans to add a net 145 new homes...

Long stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, February 4 are: * Social Development Minister Louise Upston yesterday announced a toughening of sanctions on jobseekers to force them into work, but job ads, beneficiary numbers and new employment data show those being sanctioned are trying to find work when there are fewer job ads and e...

Long stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday, February 3 are: * Donald Trump unveiled 25% across-the-board tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada on Sunday, plus a new 10% across-the-board tariffs on imports from China; * Canada and Mexico hit back with their own tariffs and China warned it was considering similar measures, with T...

Long stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty this week were: * PM Christopher Luxon and Transport Minister Chris Bishop announced the immediate reversal of the previous Labour Government’s 100 km/hr to 80 km/hr speed limit reductions on 38 sections of state highway, saying it would save around 3 minutes per trip on average; * Luxon trumpeted t...

Long stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, January 30: * Climate Change & Energy Minister Simon Watts announced the Government’s new Paris Agreement target for emissions reductions last night, extending the targeted reduction to 51-55% by 2035 from 50% by 2030, which experts described as “shockingly unambitious” and out of step wi...

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 the latest from Donald Trump over Gaza and Ukraine. Health expert and author David Galler on health funding cuts, Health NZ’s restructures a...

Long stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, January 29 are: * PM Christopher Luxon has either allowed himself or has been forced into a politically unpopular debate ahead of next year’s election about privatising state houses, parts of the health sector, power companies and polytechs; * Luxon and Finance Minister Nicola Willis h...

Here’s the six things I think mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to January 27 around housing, climate and poverty: * PM Christopher Luxon bought himself another six months of National caucus peace and tried to reassure an increasingly restive business community by massively reshuffling his key personnel in the big-spending ministries after just a year in charge; * Luxon then ref...

Long stories short, the six things of interest in the political economy in Aotearoa around housing, climate and poverty on Friday January 24 are: * PM Christopher Luxon ’s State of the Nation speech in Auckland yesterday, in which he pledged a renewed economic growth focus; * Luxon’s focused on a push to bring in foreign sovereign wealth funds to pay for new motorways through Public Private Partne...

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: * Cathrine Dyer on Donald Trump ’s first executive orders to reverse Joe Biden’s emissions reductions policies and pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement (again). She also highlight...

Last night I spoke about the second inauguration of Donald Trump with Peter Bale in a ‘pop-up’ Hoon live video chat on the Substack app on phones. Here’s the summary of the lightly edited video above: * Trump's actions signify a shift away from international law. * The imposition of tariffs could lead to increased inflation in the US. * Media trust is at an all-time low, affecting public perceptio...

Long stories short in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Tuesday, January 21: * PM Christopher Luxon presented his new Cabinet this week as refreshed and refocused on hustling for economic growth, but again did so without any new strategies or policies beyond doubling down on extracting and selling resources and assets to prop up a housing market with bits tacked o...

Long story short: I chatted last night with Greater Auckland ’s Connor Sharp on the substack app about the appointment of Chris Bishop to replace Simeon Brown as Transport Minister. We talked through their different approaches and whether there’s much room for Bishop to reverse many of the anti-cycling measures Brown adopted. Our chat was based on this post yesterday from Connor: Join me for my ne...

Last night I chatted with Northland emergency doctor Dr Gary Payinda on the substack app for subscribers about whether the appointment of Simeon Brown to replace Shane Reti as Health Minister. We discussed whether the new minister can turn around decades of under-funding in real and per-capita terms. Our chat followed his publication of this post: After our chat, he posted this piece on his backgr...

Long stories short to start the year in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate: * Christopher Luxon fired Shane Reti as Health Minister and replaced him with Simeon Brown , who Luxon sees as National’s most politically effective minister, but who will have to manage hospitals and health with the same budget; * Luxon said the reshuffle was all about re-focusing the Governm...

Mōrena . Long stories short, the six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty in the week to Saturday, December 21 ( Gravy Day ) are: * Nicola Willis pledged this week to cut public spending even harder to reduce public indebtedness after learning the first year of austerity had already helped cause New Zealand’s worst recession since Ruth Richardson...