PODCAST

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey

Bernard Hickey

Bernard Hickey and friends explore Aotearoa’s political economy together. thekaka.substack.com

news politics

All Episodes

11:12

Hipkins challenges long-held Labour view Government...

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/09/08

Mōrena. Long stories short; here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday, September 9:* Chris Hipkins widens Labour’s tax debate to include the 30% limit on the size of Government.* Chris Bishop wants plenty of bipartisan infrastructure investment, but remains a small Government and pro-markets guy, which makes that hard.* In solutions, National’s $1.8 billion investment of borrowed Government money to kick-start the Ultra Fast

23:41

Dead even tie for hottest August ever

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/09/06

Long stories short, 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:* The month of August was 1.49˚C warmer than pre-industrial levels, tying with 2023 for the warmest August ever, according to the EU’s Copernicus climate dataset. This is despite the absence of El Niño’s heat amplifying effects that were present last year.* The Government’s National Land Transport

57:42

The Hoon around the week to Sept 7

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/09/06

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking about the week’s news with:* The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer on the latest climate science on rising temperatures and the debate about how to responde to climate disinformation;* Robert Patman and special guest Helen Clark on the latest from Gaza and AUKUS, plus Helen Clark on the moves to restrict iwi claims on the Foreshore and Seabed; and,*

18:14

The professionals actually think and act like our...

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/09/05

Mōrena. Long stories short; here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, September 6:* The Government keeps arguing its cuts on spending in real-percapita terms in health, education, child welfare, housing and public transport are needed to both pay for ‘income tax relief due to a cost of living crisis’ and to deal with ‘the dire state of the Government books we inherited.’ It also argues there’s ‘no money left’ when saying it will

11:21

No new funding for cycling & walking

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/09/03

Mōrena. Long stories short; here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:* Simeon Brown is cutting planned investment on cycling and walking over the next three years to $460 million from the $1 billion planned from 2021-24, but there is actually no new funding for 2024-27 as the $460 million is coming from money not spent over the last three years. * Waka Kotahi-NZTA has disclosed that Brown’s shift to spending more on motorways will increase

21:06

Ditch the climate double speak and get real

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/08/29

Long stories short, 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:* The Government announced changes to the Fast-Track Approvals Bill on Sunday, backing off from the contentious proposal to give final say on development projects to just three government Ministers. Instead they now propose to allow the expert panel (selected by a government-appointed convenor) to make

57:21

The Hoon around the week to August 30

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/08/29

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking about the week’s news with:* The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer on the latest science of changing sea temperatures and which emissions policies actually work;* Robert Patman on the latest from Ukraine, Gaza and AUKUS II;* Journalist and author Aaron Smale talking about his book just published by BWB called: Tairāwhiti: Pine, Profit and the

16:59

Disabled now have to commit crime, be insane or in...

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/08/28

Mōrena. Long stories short; here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, August 29:* A quietly-administered and arbitrary freeze on funding ordered by Social Development Minister Louise Upston effectively means disabled people currently living with carers will only have a chance of getting into residential care if they’ve committed a crime, are leaving mental health care or hospital and have no appropriate place to go, or have

22:43

Starting The Kākā Project of 2026 for 2050 (TKP 26/50)

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/08/27

Kia ora.The Sunday before last I proposed restarting The Kākā Project work done before the 2023 election as The Kākā Project of 2026 for 2050 (TKP 26/50), aiming to be up and running before the 2025 Local Government elections, and then in a finalised form by the 2026 General Elections. That would give us time during 2024 to:* Ask six fundamental questions about what Aotearoa wants and how to get there;* Discuss those questions and possible solutions with a range of people in a series of interviews

16:48

Labour revisiting 30/30 fiscal rules. Good.

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/08/26

Mōrena. Long stories short; here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, August 27:* Chris Hipkins says Labour is revisiting its decades-long and bipartisan commitment to Government spending and debt being less than 30% of GDP.* Economists overseas are also challenging the austerity thinking of the last 40 years designed to reduce the size of Government.* In solutions news, electricity gentailers face competition from lines

7:24

'Those spending cuts will go into the bone'

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/08/22

Mōrena. Long stories short; here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, August 23:* Medical specialists have called for an independent inquiry into health funding, warning $1.4 billion of cuts by Health NZ commissioner Lester Levy will cut into the bone of a health service underfunded for decades.* New research shows elderly poverty now rising in New Zealand at the fastest rate in the world as two decades of falling home ownership

11:24

PM lectures councils he needs help from

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/08/21

Mōrena. Long stories short; here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, August 22:* PM Christopher Luxon appeared to torpedo his own ‘Government of Infrastructure’’s agenda for ‘Going for Housing Growth’ with an angry rant of a speech telling mayors and councillors they would have to build half the infrastructure to deal with rapid population growth without any more Government cash.* Those councillors and mayors were shocked at

14:07

An electricity crisis after a lost decade

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/08/20

Mōrena. Long stories short; here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, August 21:* Winstone announced yesterday it would close its pulp mill and sawmill near Ohakune permanently because wholesale electricity prices tripled since July 1, costing 230 jobs and escalating a nationwide manufacturing and exporting crisis.* New profit margin data published by the Electricity Authority shows the gentailers (including the big four of

8:51

The ugliness inside our churn and burn economy

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/08/19

Mōrena. Long stories short; here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, August 20:* The Human Rights Commission reports Aotearoa’s biggest visa scheme for temporary migrants “may be enabling potential human trafficking, with signs of systemic migrant exploitation and modern slavery”.* A international report calling for a ‘feather-light’ Spanish-style wealth tax on the richest 0.5% has found it would raise US$2.1 trillion per year

4:03

Cutting funds now, but increasing costs later

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/08/18

Mōrena. Here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday, August 19:1. When the myopia of cutting now is more expensiveHow Oranga Tamariki’s night of the long knives is counter-productiveThe last week has been dominated by Oranga Tamariki contractors telling media about how they were being told without warning or reason that their funding was being cut, often with hours notice and well after the expiry of previous contracts. Children’s

41:38

Introducing The Kākā Project of 2026 for 2050 (TKP...

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/08/18

Kia ora.I got up yesterday morning to write my usual end-of-the-week reflections of the six main things that happened in our political economy in the last week or so, and why they mattered. Lately, my daily emails and weekend ‘soliloquies’ have become laundry lists of policy vandalism, where I point to the most obvious announcements from the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government that are set (usually) to worsen Aotearoa’s already awful housing, climate and poverty situations. It has begun to

11:26

The longer recession the RBNZ and the Govt decided we...

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/08/14

Kia ora. Long stories short: * The RBNZ was forced to make a dramatic about-turn yesterday, cutting rates after the slowdown it wanted was turbocharged into a recession by the Government’s abrupt closure of construction pipelines for state-funded building of homes, schools, hospitals and water networks, and its slashing of thousands of public sector jobs shocked parts of the economy to a standstill.* The forecast of a longer and deeper recession came as Civil Contractors NZ said its 2024 survey

12:15

How not to win friends and tax people

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/08/12

Morena. Long stories short: * Simeon Brown is pushing ahead with a congestion charging plan that centralises control in Wellington and fails to first show the benefits to drivers or offer public transport alternatives, guaranteeing an easy policy-killing ‘brand new tax’ backlash.* Louise Upston has launched an evidence-free new toughening of benefit sanctions and plans electronic controls of half of benefit spending, just as the Reserve Bank is deliberately engineering higher unemployment to offset

9:04

Deficits are not the constraint we think they are

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/08/11

TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Monday, August 12:1. Thinking differently about what mattersI attended a two-day seminar in Auckland over the weekend called Economics for Sustainable Prosperity that was run by Steven Hail, a professor at Torrens University in Australia, in which he talked about Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and Ecological Economics. I found it enlightening and thought-provoking. Regular readers may recall this

15:51

Willis screws down fiscal lid even tighter

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/08/07

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 tighterDirective to public service freezes spending at current Budget baselinesFinance Minister Nicola Willis issued a Workforce Policy Statement yesterday through the Public Service Commission that effectively stops the health, education, social development, child protection, economic, primary industries and every other ministry

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The Kākā by Bernard Hickey

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