Mōrena. The six things to know this morning in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate are:
Michael Morrah has the front page scoop this morning in the NZ Herald1 on how another patient collapsed with a heart attack in Waikato Hospital’s ED after waiting too long. The man was triaged to be seen within 30 minutes on August 26, but had a ‘cardiac incident’ after waiting 40 minutes, and had to be revived with CPR in the ED waiting room.
Paula Penfold has an excellent deep-dive in Stuff2 this morning that uses the reporting from a detailed video she did on Paddy Gower has Issues on the crisis in our hospitals. It was aired on 3Now3 on Tuesday night. (See quote of the day below.)
Also in news showing how the housing and health system crises connect, Amy Williams reported yesterday via RNZ4 how Auckland Hospital discharged a homeless man in a hospital gown after a stroke damaged his voice and mobility. He was sent to a homelessness charity not funded to support him.
Overnight, the Brent crude oil price rose over US$100/barrel for the first time since July after Iran and the U.S. both struck oil tankers in the biggest wave of attacks on shipping since the war began5.
In our housing market with bits tacked on, ASB’s economists have forecast6 a 15% recovery in nominal prices back to the 2021 peak by 2029, which would mean the recovery gap would be almost twice as long as the five years it took nominal prices to recover during the Global Financial Crisis from late 2007 to late 2012.
The National-led Government’s ‘Local Water Done Well’ reforms may be about to come back to bite its dairy farming supporters on the cow’s rear end. RNZ7 reported last night the Government’s new water regulator, Taumata Arowai, is looking at imposing strict nitrate limits, taking over from regional councils that had been stymied by local dairy lobbyists and are about to be downgraded by the Government. ‘Almost a year on from the previous Canterbury Regional Council declaring a nitrate emergency, a new report pointing to high nitrate levels across the region has been presented to councillors. The council also heard from Greenpeace, Health New Zealand and the water regulator, Taumata Arowai, who proposed an additional limit on nitrate to protect people from possible long-term health effects,’ writes Keiller Macduff.
