Preview & invite to Substack Live of Bernard's Chorus at 12 midday
Full Picks n’ Mixes & Preview of Chorus Live at 11am: 'C'-day for Luxon; Govt delays climate cost-sharing decision to after election; Insurers calls for urgent & systemic climate action; FTA trouble
I’ll be doing a Chorus here on Substack Live for paying subscribers at Midday that includes these six things:
PM Christopher Luxon will meet the rest of a restive National Caucus today for the first time since “five moaning and frustrated” MPs anonymously called for a leadership debate. Luxon’s net approval rating in a 1News/Verian poll taken last week was minus 23%. He said the meeting would focus on tightening up on “loose lips and ill discipline.” He refused to say yesterday if he had ghosted National Whip Stuart Smith, who also refused to comment.1
The Government has quietly delayed making a decision about cost-sharing between the Crown and councils when paying for climate event damage. Climate Change Minister Simon Watts confirmed Cabinet had agreed to his proposal to delay the decision until after the election, RNZ’s Kate Newton reported this morning2. Meanwhile, the Insurance Council has called for an ‘urgent and systemic’ response to invest in climate resilience, just as IAG noted there had been a damaging storm once every eight days in the last year, up from once every 19 days in the previous 15 years.
NZ First Deputy Leader Shane Jones has railed against the Government’s FTA with India, saying it would unleash “unfettered” immigration that drove down wages, clogged up roads and overwhelmed the health system. “I don’t care how much criticism we get. I am just never going to agree with a butter chicken tsunami coming to New Zealand,” he said3. Luxon described the comments as scaremongering and wrong, while Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said the comments were racist and unacceptable.
However, the Government is pressing ahead with plans to sign the FTA in New Delhi next Monday, despite not having a majority in Parliament to legislate the agreement because NZ First opposes it. National will need Labour’s support, which is not guaranteed as it still has unanswered questions. Hipkins said: “Signing a free trade agreement if you don’t have the majority support in Parliament, and at this point they don’t, would be recklessly irresponsible.4”
Scoop of the day: Treasury initially opposed the Government’s plan to provide a Crown loan for the successful bidder for the Public Private Partnership (PPP) to build and run the $2.95 billion to $3.75 billion Warkworth to Te Hana stage of National’s Northern Corridor Road of National Significance (RONS), Thomas Manch reported this morning for BusinessDesk-$. Treasury said the loan, which is needed because debt markets are too thin for any PPP’s bespoke bonds, would distort the private funding incentives and deliver effective public subsidy.
Deep-dive of the day: Just 1.4% of $1.4 billion of foreign investments pledged to win ‘Active Investment (Golden) Visas’ for residency are actually being invested actively here, Kate MacNamara reports this morning for NZ Herald-$.
Here’s the slide presentation I’ll use in the Substack Live at this link at Midday today. It’s in PDF form rather than Powerpoint/Keynote form. The recorded video version is sent out soon after via email to paying subscribers. Please comment below with questions and I’ll try to answer them in the Substack Live. Subscribe as a paying subscriber to join the Substack Live and see the presentation preview.
