Three pages and five bullet points is not a strategy

TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so on the morning of July 11 are:

1. Climate: Climate Change Minister Simon Watts issued the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government’s climate strategy yesterday, including a three-page document with five bullet points, no specific actions or targets and vague suggestion of an emission reduction plan in a few weeks. The strategy was ridiculed as a ‘pamphlet’ and as useless as ‘tits on a bull.’

2. Health: Climate scientists and public health academics were scathing about the lack of detail in the strategy and a failure to acknowledge a cavalcade of policy moves since the Coalition’s election that are set to increase emissions by millions of tonnes and ramp up the Crown’s carbon liability under the Paris Agreement by billions of dollars, assuming that any Government in place in 2030 does not renege on the deal.

3. Economy: Business leaders warned 80% of Aotearoa’s exports were now at risk because they are subject to clauses about meeting our Paris Agreement commitments on emissions reduction.

4. Population: Emigration of Aotearoa’s youngest skilled workers to Australia and the rest of the world hit a fresh record high in May. The annualised rate of this brain drain is equal to almost 4% of the population, 50% higher than the previous annualised peak in 2011.

5. Health: Whangārei Hospital ED nurse Rachel Thorn has warned patients are likely to die as budget cuts force untrained staff into dangerous situations.

6. Climate solution: Aotearoa has an enormous opportunity to quickly and cheaply decarbonise our transport fleet and create enough battery storage to replace gas and coal-fired electricity, while also moderate the volatility of wind and solar. If only we could massively double down on importing batteries, panels and EVs from China, where battery prices have fallen 51% over the last year and two thirds of car sales are now EVs that are cheaper than petrol cars. The opportunity will only get bigger as the United States and Europe put tariffs on these Chinese battery, panel and car exports to protect their own industries, leaving massive supplies to be sold cheaply to Aotearoa.

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A batch of new EVs ready for export from Suzhou. Photo: Getty Images.

Top Six Things to note on July 11:

1. Simon Watts’ three pages of bullet points