TL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā for paying subscribers in the last week included:
David Parker’s decision to give up the Revenue portfolio after PM Chris Hipkins’ ruled out the wealth tax switch he and Grant Robertson put together for Budget 2023. Wednesday’s email
Kiri Allan’s resignation as Justice Minister and decision not stand for re-election in the East Coast electorate after she was arrested on Sunday night and charged with careless use of a motor vehicle and refusing to accompany a police officer. Monday’s email
The torching of a 48-home Kainga Ora housing development in East Tamaki on Monday night that Police and the Fire Service are investigating as suspicious, after angry protests by neighbours worried it would lower their property values. Friday’s email.
The publishing of a paper in Nature suggesting an early collapse of a key North Atlantic sea current because of climate change. Friday’s post from new correspondent Cathrine Dyer.
Te Pāti Māori announcing a suite of wealth taxes and income tax changes to pay for a tax cut for the bottom 90% of income earners, alongside Labour appearing set to announce a policy of taking GST off fresh food. Friday’s email.
What we talked about on ‘The Hoon’ on Friday night
In this week’s podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers at 5pm on Friday night:
5.00 pm - 5.15 pm - Bernard and Peter Bale opened the show with a summary of the news domestically and internationally, including the latest on the string of climate records in Europe and elsewhere, and more on a concerning new paper predicting an early collapse of the AMOC in a chat with The Kākā’s new correspondent Cathrine Dyer.
5.15 pm - 5.35 pm - University of Otago ProfessorRobert Patman
about how damaging the replacement of President Xi Jinping’s foreign minister is for China and the outcomes of visits to Aotearoa by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Australian PM Anthony Albanese.
5.35 - 6pm - Bernard and Peter wrap the show with a discussion of the week in politics with columnist for The Post, Josie Pagani.
The Hoon’s podcast version above was produced by Simon Josey.
This is a sampler for all free subscribers. Thanks to the support of paying subscribers here, I’m able to spread the work from my public interest journalism here about housing affordability, climate change and poverty reduction around in other public venues. I’d love you to join the community supporting and contributing to this work with your ideas, feedback and comments.
Other places I’ve appeared this week
My podcast for The Spinoff this week
This week in my weekly podcast, When The Facts Change, I looked at open banking. I talked with Josh Daniell at FinTech firm Akahu about what’s being done in Aotearoa to accelerate the move to open banking, something already well advanced in Europe, the UK and Australia.
Ka kite ano
Bernard
The Hoon around the week to July 29