TLDR & TLDL: This week the nation debated the Government’s apparent internal confusion about whether or how to end elimination next year. Everywhere, apart from Auckland, went down to level 2.5, which was too restrictive for many cafes, restaurants and events. Auckland looks set to stay in level 4 for a few more weeks, given the number of ‘mystery’ cases is stubbornly high. And house prices keep rising.
Overseas, Australia is divided between elimination states (Queensland and Western Australia) vs the ‘live with it’ states (Victoria and New South Wales), which is aiming to open up widely from mid-October when vaccination hits 70%. Also, Joe Biden mandated vaccination for over two million federal employees and companies such as Telstra and Qantas are increasingly mandating the vaccine.
In this week’s hoon webinar on Friday afternoon with over 50 particapants, Peter Bale and I talked about the ongoing lockdowns here and in Australia, the elimination debate here and Australia, Joe Biden’s problems, China looking at taking over America’s airbase at Bagram in Afghanistan, Brazil’s apparent descent into dictatorship, and other global issues. Peter produces a great weekly email briefing on geo-politics via the Spinoff (sign up here)
We also talked about housing later in the webinar, which included questions from participants. We aim to do this most Friday afternoons with a quiet chilled beverage.
From September 21, access to participate in these live webinars and the pieces below that were published Monday to Friday will only be for paying subscribers, while these weekend ‘wrap-ups’ with the podcasts will be for free for non-paying subscribers. Over 50 people joined the webinar on Friday afternoon.
I’ll be providing a special inaugural offer for all those on the currently free list. The regular cost will be $19/month or $190/year per subscriber. There will be group and corporate offers too. Watch this space and keep opening the The Kākā emails until September 21 to find the coupon to get that offer.
To get a sense of what I do for soon-to-be-paying subscribers Monday to Friday, I wrote these pieces this week:
Hoon: 'News Zealand Over The Horizon' with Peter Bale