Seymour sees more joy in faster driving, not accidents, road damage or emissions

Seymour said lower speed limits “drained the joy from life as people were forced to follow rules they knew made no sense.” File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The Kākā

TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, June 14 were:

1. The National/ACT/NZ First Government is proposing a 120km/hr speed limit without checking the human, financial or climate cost to the public and Crown accounts;

2. Coal burning to generate electricity rose 99% in the March quarter, but the jump in emissions was limited to 21.5% because of a surge in solar and wind generation;

3. More than half of the promised 500 increase in police numbers have already left for salaries in Queensland of up to A$130,000 and a A$20,000 moving bonus;

4. Banks here will face pressure to lower their fixed mortgage rates a bit this month after a slide in US interest rates this week because of lower-than-expected inflation there;

5. Battery prices have almost halved from China’s big factories in the last 18 months, creating an opportunity to electrify Aotearoa-NZ with solar and wind in a less volatile and cheaper way; and,

6. Job ads have fallen more than 30% in April and May from a year ago, sucking total ads down to levels not seen since 2016, outside of the covid lockdown weeks in 2020 and 2021.

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Six things to note this morning

1. Coalition proposes 120km/hr limit on some roads