Briefly in Aotearoa’s political economy on Monday, January 12:
The Lead: Research published over the weekend showed global warming heated the world’s oceans to their hottest-ever levels in 2025, pumping in the energy equivalent of 12 Hiroshima bombs each second of each day for 365 days. (Paper)
The Sidebar: Record-high heat waves swept across parts of New Zealand yesterday, reinforcing the effects of climate change now and illustrating how little is being done here to reduce emissions. RNZ See and hear more detail and analysis below and in the podcast above.
Elsewhere in the news today: Donald Trump ordered the US military to draw up plans to invade Greenland, while Denmark and its NATO allies said such an invasion would destroy NATO, which is one of Vladimir Putin’s major long-term aims. Reuters
In the Scoop of the Day, Russell Palmer reports for RNZ the Government has backtracked on plans to charge patients $20 to renew prescriptions each year, rather than $5 initially indicated. He reports the back-track was “revealed in a series of Health Ministry documents proactively released three days before Christmas, titled "Cabinet material: Rescinding a prescription co-payment decision.”
In the Chart Pack of the Day below, we have detail on a 40% rise in tourist arrivals to Queenstown, relative to pre-Covid levels, and a long-term drop in the wage share of NZ’s economy.
Today’s Deep-dive of the Day is from Melanie Early from RNZ on Auckland’s stalled housing developments.
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