Auckland faces 25% water inflation shock

Govt scrambling to stop 25% Watercare rate hike; Climate event cancels 100 flights and cuts rail to Dunedin & Invercargill; US fears imminent Iranian attack on Israel; Wellington in insurance hole

Three Waters became a focus of anti-Government protests under Labour, but its dumping by the new Government hasn’t solved councils’ funding problems and will eventually hit the back pockets of everyone. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty Images

TL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me at 8:06 am today are:

1. The Government is scrambling to pass makeshift legislation to block a 25.8% hike in Watercare charges from July 1, which Auckland Council blames on the Government’s repeal of Labour’s Three Waters’ reforms, which would have allowed Watercare to borrow more. (See more detail below) RNZ

2. An extreme climate event cut the South Island’s main rail line and forced the cancellation of almost 100 flights on one of Air NZ’s biggest days yesterday. Yet reporting via RNZ, 1News, Newshub and Stuff didn’t mention such events will become more frequent and extreme due to human-induced and accelerating climate change. (See more details and video below)

3. US officials believe an Iranian attack on Israel itself is imminent within 48 hours and are rushing ships to the region to defend Israel, the Wall St Journal reported this morning. WSJ-gift US officials are warning citizens not to go to central Israel. France advised all citizens not to travel to Iran or Israel. Lufthansa stopped flights to Iran.

4. Annual food price inflation slowed in March to its lowest level in almost three years, Stats NZ reported yesterday. This was largely due to a 13.3% fall in fruit and vegetable prices in the last year.

5. Wellington City Council’s uninsured risk from a 1-in-1,000 year climate or earthquake disaster has more than quadrupled to $2.7 billion in the last three years, partly because insurers are becoming more nervous and hiking their prices, The Post-$$$’s Erin Gourley reported this morning. The Council has proposed selling assets such as its Wellington Airport stake to create a self-insurance fund. (See more details below)

6. Melissa Lee’s office gave a Cabinet paper on media reforms that might have saved Newshub to Winston Peters on March 11, undermining his suggestion Lee had tried to go around the NZ First leader, Tova O’Brien reported this morning for Stuff. She also suggested Lee’s office wanted to publicly call out Peters, but was blocked by Christopher Luxon’s office.

(Paying subscribers can see more detail and analysis below the paywall and in the podcast above. We’ll open it up for public reading, listening and sharing if they give permission by getting over 100 likes.)

The inflationary effects of repealing Three Waters