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The Kākā by Bernard Hickey

Bernard Hickey

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

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16:05

How Aotearoa's political economy works

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/08/06

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 2024This 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 failure to include its election cancer drug promise in Budget 2024. It turns out PM Christopher Luxon and Finance

21:48

Inside NZ's Housing Theory of Everything

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/08/05

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 expect the US Federal Reserve will have to cut its Fed Funds Rate, the base for global interest rates and

7:33

The week the mask came off an Austerity Government,...

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/08/01

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;* Unfortunately and often tragically, the spending cuts and various politically-driven (ie evidence-lite) decisions

16:26

Health NZ directors accuse PM of disinformation

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/07/31

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 former Health NZ director was anonymously scathing this morning, calling Luxon’s comments about directors not

11:03

The day our health system crumbled

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/07/29

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 health and not enough given back in tax cuts;* Our economy is a housing market with bits tacked on and now

6:26

'Let's build a motorway costing $100 million per km,...

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/07/24

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 the plan or worked out the per-vehicle or per-kilometre cost for only lightly-used roads, which would be

30:50

Solutions Interview: Steven Hail on MMT & ecological...

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/07/22

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 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 weekend of August 10-11, which I’m attending. Here’s the detail and his announcement via X. I wanted to find out a bit

10:04

Why we have to challenge our national fiscal assumptions

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/07/21

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 administrators, council water network operators, consenting officers are all now chasing their tails,

24:58

Weekly Climate Wrap: A market-led plan for failure

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/07/18

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 reduction budget, and admitting that ‘more work will need to be done’. The discussion document shows that while

65:30

The Hoon around the week to July 19

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/07/18

TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:* The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;* University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von Hippel, the Director General of RUSI, the Royal United Services Institute in London, talk about what the attempted assassination of Donald Trump means in

18:03

Govt flounders while ocean temps soar

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/07/12

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 storms like Cyclone Gabrielle and the ones that recently hit the East Coast are expected to grow even higher

68:36

The Hoon around the week to July 12

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/07/11

TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers features co-hosts and talking with:* The Kākā’s climate correspondent 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 and special guest Helen Clark talking about the NATO summit, the debate about Aotearoa joining AUKUS II and how MFAT, DPMC and security

56:01

The Hoon around the week to June 14

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/06/13

TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers features co-hosts and talking with:* The Kākā’s climate correspondent 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;* about the visit by China’s Premier Li Qiang to Wellington yesterday this week, what it means for Aotearoa-NZ’s relations with our largest trading partner, and whether we can (or should) join AUKUS II; and,*

18:11

Climate policy axed in broad daylight, while taxpayer...

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/06/13

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 entirely by pastoral sector participants who will recommend what, if any, contribution the sector should make to

21:41

Farmers get free pass on climate AND get subsidies

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/06/11

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 liability or the impact on trade deals requiring us to meet our Paris goals, which we’re currently on track

5:38

Bernard's Dawn Chorus and pick 'n' mix for Monday,...

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/06/09

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 announced a reversal of the Labour-Green ban on offshore oil and gas exploration and plans to water down cleanup

23:34

Bernard’s Saturday soliloquy and weekend Pick ‘n’ Mix...

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/06/07

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 breaking various pre-election promises on cancer drugs, first home buyer grants and sick leave are set to

23:55

Did we boil the oceans by cutting pollution?

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/06/06

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 claims that the abrupt reduction in sulphur aerosols from marine shipping has inadvertently created a

12:21

Cancer charities excoriate Government

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/06/03

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 more cases reported this morning of ‘penny wise and pound foolish’ decisions by the Government to freeze or

17:55

Falling monkeys and 'kitty cat' storms

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey ·

2024/05/31

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 year of record-breaking surface temperatures has spawned a month of global extreme weather chaos in May, including howler monkeys falling dead from trees in Mexico during a ferocious heatwave that is also threatening to run Mexico City dry of water* Meantime, Brazil has more water than it can handle as

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