The Kākā by Bernard Hickey

TL;DR: The podcast above features co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale , along with regular guests Robert Patman on Gaza and AUKUS II , Merja Myllylahti on AUT’s trust in news report , Awhi’s Holly Bennett on a watered-down voluntary code for lobbyists, plus special guest Patrick Gower on the closure of Newshub . The six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spok...

TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon between Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer : * Antarctic researchers have been shocked by the speed of events unfolding there over the past two years. A new paper outlines the evidence supporting their belief that a ‘reg...

TL;DR: These six things stood out to me over the last day in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy, as of 7:06 am on Thursday, April 11: * The Government has refused a community housing provider’s plea for funding to help build 42 apartments in Hamilton because it said a $100 million fund was used up, the Waikato Times ’ Stacey Rangitonga reported. It currently spends 40 times that each year on housing...

TL;DR: The six news items of note for me in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy as of 9:06 am on Monday, April 8 are: * PM Christopher Luxon announcing “nine ambitious Government targets to help improve the lives of New Zealanders.” Seven would return results to pre-Covid levels and one is adopted from Labour. Only one is newly ambitious: 80% school attendance. ( See and hear more detail and analysis...

TL;DR: The six news items of note for me in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy as of 9:06 am on Monday, April 8 are: * The Government is setting up its own experts group to review the goalposts for farmers to reduce methane emissions by as much as 47% by 2050, effectively side-stepping the Government’s official advisors at the Climate Commission . * The experts are expected to adopt a new measure cal...

TL;DR: The six news items of note for me in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy on Friday, April 5 included: * Just as the Government freezes infrastructure spending and grants to councils and slashes public R&D and science spending, ASB economists cite forecasts that Aotearoa-NZ faces an infrastructure bill of $1 trillion and call for cross-party consensus on user pays, along with more Government bor...

TL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included: * Confidence in the Government, as measured by Roy Morgan ’s ‘Right Track/Wrong Track’ survey, collapsed in March by more than it fell for Labour in any one month of the late-2021 lockdowns in Auckland. See Thursday’s email....

TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded this afternoon between Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer : * A recent surge in oil and gas development activity is threatening to overwhelm climate goals, with plans already approved that would quadruple new developments by the end of the...

TL;DR: The six news items of note in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy on Thursday, April 4 included: * A Roy Morgan poll taken last month and published last night shows confidence in whether the country is on the right track or wrong track collapsed by 17 percentage points in March from February, which is more than it fell during any of the covid lockdown months in Auckland in late 2021. * But the...

TL;DR : My top six news items of note on the morning of Tuesday, April 2 include: * A review of council borrowing has found central Government-driven debt limits are strangling big councils’ ability to borrow to build enough infrastructure for growth, although some councils are further tightening the reins with even lower self-imposed limits and by over-playing fears of credit rating downgrades (...

TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer :   * An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bay concluded  “that the current national emergency management system is not f...

TL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included: * Finance Minister Nicola Willis unveiled a Budget Policy Statement that showed the new Government will have to borrow up to $15 billion to replace the same amount of tax revenue reduction from a slowing economy, unless it c...

TL;DR : My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include: * The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to economists for Westpac and ANZ . * Despite growing calls from the Government’s usual supporters for delays to the tax cuts,...

TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include: * Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, an analysis of GDP data for 2023 showed yesterday, emphasising Aotearoa Inc’s lack of productivity progress since the Global Financial Crisis (See chart of the day below); * Our low-to-no productivity growth is thanks to...

TL;DR : My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include: * Simeon Brown threatening intervention if councils refuse reasonable Three Waters-style mergers of water assets off their balance sheets; 1News Q+A (See more detail and analysis below) * Chris Bishop detailing four phases of RMA reform in two years to planners in a speech , then telling them politicians make better consent d...

TL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included: * Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit interviews and delivering a valedictory speech in Parliament where he again called for a tax on capital and wealth and...

TL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included: * PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who would be grateful for the lower rents it would produce. But his comments are at odds with official research and t...

TL;DR: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport , but they’re not, and the history of interest rates halving from 2009 to 2021 while rents...

TL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included: * The new National-ACT-NZ First coalition Government completed the 49 tasks it set itself in its 100-day plan on Friday, using urgency in Parliament more than any recent Government to pass repeals of RMA, Smokefree, Three Wa...

TL;DR: A CTU analysis of Government spending and investment has found already gaping holes in promised public services and infrastructure will widen by as much as a further $22.1 billion over the next four years if the population keeps growing at recent rates, and as the new Government screws down a real spending sinking-lid even tighter. I spoke with CTU Economist Craig Renney about the Investing...

TL;DR : In an effort to save $340 million a year, the new Government plans to slash the number of motel vouchers given out to homeless families, arguing many could and should stay with friends and family instead. Critics said the moves would just push people out onto the streets and living in cars and sheds unless more social homes are built, which the National-ACT-NZ First coalition is considerin...

TL;DR: The new coalition Government’s zeal in its first 100 days for freezing and cutting spending and investment at the central Government level is having an unintended and unpromised effect. It’s pushing more inflation out and up into the wider economy through new fees, user pays charges, rates hikes, higher rents and a slather of hidden taxes from both councils and Government agencies. This wee...

TL;DR: Aotearoa-NZ’s utterly broken, expensive and unhealthy housing market is at the heart of our economic, social and political problems. It distorts our behaviour, dominates our aspirations and complaints, and has again taken centre stage in our political economy in the most personal and stark way. PM Christopher Luxon’s decision to claim $1,000/week in expenses from taxpayers for living in his...

TL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included: * Newsroom’ s Marc Daalder reported on Friday PM Christopher Luxon was claiming $52,000 a year in rental costs from the taxpayer for living in his own apartment in Wellington when he could have lived in Premier House , as pr...

TL;DR: Housing, Infrastructure and RMA Reform minister Minister Chris Bishop gave the new Government’s most important and ambitious speech of its first 100 days yesterday, pledging to flood cities with land for homes and help give councils new revenue to pay for the water and transport infrastructure needed to build on that land. In the process, Bishop set the most substantial housing affordabilit...