Mōrena. The six things to know this morning in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate are:
MSD yesterday published its review1 of how it missed $2.55 million worth of benefit and Winter Energy Payments for 16,270 people, including details of how rushed legislation and staffing shortages led to the underpayments. Labour and the Greens demanded2 PM Christopher Luxon and Social Development Minister Louise Upston explain and apologise for the errors, as well as issue compensation3. See Quote of the Day below
The Post-$4 leads this morning with detail of how Health NZ has underspent $690 million hospital infrastructure in the first nine months of the current financial year. See Front Page of the day below
Lifeline says health sector underfunding was responsible for 60% of the calls to its hotline not being answered, RNZ5 reported last yesterday.
ANZ’s Truckometer measure6 of car and truck movements on roads, which is a useful leading indicator of consumer demand and production respectively, found sharp falls in outright seasonally adjusted terms in August, with even bigger falls in per-capita terms. See Chart of the Day below
Withdrawals from KiwiSaver by retirees, first-home buyers and contributors in financial hardship topped $6.8 billion last financial year, leaving 1.42 million members or 41.3% of total membership who are no longer contributing, according to the annual FMA report7 released yesterday. Withdrawals for home deposits rose to $2.2 billion by more than 50,000 members, while 51,609 members withdrew $531.5 million for financial hardship reasons. See Chart Pack in updated article below online
Global bond yields surged to 19-year highs overnight as Brent crude oil prices rose another 6% to US$107/barrel. The came after Donald Trump promised to pay every voter US$5,000 if they voted for Republican candidates in the November 3 mid-term elections, and after Houthi rebels captured a key Red Sea port8. See Chart Pack in updated article below online
