The Kākā by Bernard Hickey

TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Thursday, August 8 are: 1. Willis screws down Govt share of GDP even tighter Directive to public service freezes spending at current Budget baselines Finance Minister Nicola Willis issued a Workforce Policy Statement yesterday through the Public Service Commission that effectively stops the heal...

TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, August 7 are: 1. Willis ‘does the right thing’ (after a political backlash) OIA trail shows nothing done on cancer drugs for Budget 2024 This is a brilliant tick tock analysis via NZ Herald-$$$ from Derek Cheng of the OIA trail on the National-ACT-NZ First Government ’s strange failur...

TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Tuesday, August 6 are: 1. Global markets rout to accelerate lower mortgage rates Markets now see 100 bps of Fed buts by end of 2024 Yesterday’s 13.5% fall in Japan’s stock market was its biggest one-day fall since the 1987 crash and US stocks are down nearly 3% this morning. Global markets now e...

TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking about revolts against the Government over austerity and disinformation by directors and staff alike at Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ , adding to the Kāinga Ora board revolt last month They also spoke to: * The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer on a big n...

TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above between Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer : * A new study published this week in the journal Frontiers in Science shows methane emissions are growing much faster than projected and that rapid reductions are necessary if the world is to stay on track to limi...

TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are: * The National-ACT-NZ First ’s budget cuts are now clearly biting into front-line services and staff across the hospital and welfare system, contrary to promises made before the election that tax cuts would be paid for by painless ‘back office’ cuts to spending; * Unfortuna...

TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are: * Two former directors of Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ have publicly accused PM Christopher Luxon of trying to mislead the public over the merged entity’s finances, including one who worked as an executive with him at Air NZ and a former Medical Council chair. Also, another forme...

TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are: * Decades of underfunding, a botched organisational reform, massive emigration of skilled staff to Australia, Covid and the usual winter flu cases have morphed into a systemic crisis in the health system, which is overwhelming a new Government still thinking too much is spent on heal...

TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above between Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer : * A draft report from a UN taskforce on the use of carbon offsets was leaked this week, revealing the UN plans to reject companies’ use of carbon credits from the voluntary market, following a seemingly endless ru...

TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Care report released this week, and with: * The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and the rapid crumble of the Thwaites Glacier; * University of O...

TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are: * Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei by 2038, but he hasn’t included climate emissions costs in t...

TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises. Associate Professor Steven Hail runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising a two-day seminar in Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau on the we...

TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are: * Decades of underinvestment at the same time as record-high population growth have stressed housing, water, education and health infrastructure to breaking points all over the motu, which the new Government’s spending freezes are exposing and worsening; * School principals, hospital...

TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer . A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed. * The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP), revealing Aotearoa is no longer on track to meet its third emissions reduct...

TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking with: * The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan; * University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor Robert Patman and special guest Dr Karin von Hippel...

TL;DR : Here’s the top six items of climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer , most of which they discussin the video above. * According to experts , the rate of ocean surface warming around New Zealand is “outstripping the global average threefold in some areas and twice on average”. They warn that the severity of sto...

TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers features co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking with: * The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s climate strategy ‘pamphlet’, its watering down of Clean Car Standards and its general lack of coherence; * University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor Robe...

TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers features co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking with: * The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s moves this week to take farming out of the ETS and encourage more mining and oil and gas drilling; * Robert Patman about the visit by China’s Premier Li Qiang to Welli...

TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above between Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer : * This week, the coalition Government announced moves to ensure Agriculture does not enter the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) next year. * Instead, they will launch a new industry consultation process, run entirel...

TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, June 12 were: * The Government exempts farm emissions from the ETS, but announces $400 million of subsidies for farmers to reduce emissions by an indeterminate amount over no particular time period. No analysis was released of the impact on Aotearoa-NZ’s climate emissions, our Paris li...

TL;DR: The six things to note in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty in the past day to 8:36 pm on Monday, June 10 were: * 20,000 protested against the Fast-track approval bill on Saturday in Auckland, but PM Christopher Luxon says ‘sorry, but not sorry’ about the need for faster development. Shane Jones says: “We have to mine our way to the future.” * Jones announc...

TL;DR: On reflection, the six things to note in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty this week were: * The Government-driven freeze in building new classrooms, local roads and water networks in order to save cash for tax cuts is frustrating communities facing massive population growth that has not been planned or invested for; * Backlashes to Budget 2024 decisions br...

TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers features Bernard Hickey talking with: * The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer talking about the latest reports on a warming climate and the UN ’s call this week to ban fossil fuel advertising; * Robert Patman talking about the growing disquiet globally over the United States’ support for Israel in Gaza, plus the...

TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above between Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer : * New evidence is increasingly pointing at efforts to reduce marine pollution being the main cause of abrupt increases in ocean temperatures experienced since 2023. A new study in the academic journal Nature claim...

TL;DR: The Government is now being engulfed in a firestorm of protest over its decision not to fund 13 cancer treatments in this year’s Budget, breaking a clear election promise that will cost the lives of people who changed their votes to National on the basis of that promise. An open letter today from 15 cancer charities to PM Christopher Luxon is politically devastating. Meanwhile, there are mo...