TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts
and , along with regular guests on Gaza and AUKUS II, and on climate change.Special guest
talks about public sector job cuts this week and the Government’s big investment freeze at the end of the podcast.The six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:
Housing: A global survey by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) found surveyors in Aotearoa-NZ reported sharp contractions in activity and expectations for infrastructure and public housing in the March quarter because of project cancellations and funding freezes for councils by the new Government. See Thursday’s email.
Economy: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in construction activity after the new Government froze or reversed spending decisions on water, housing and transport investment. A drumbeat of state sector job losses and austerity rhetoric has further chilled retail spending and the housing market. See Wednesday’s email.
Politics: A 1News-Verian poll showed the collapse in business, consumer and voter confidence about the country’s direction in March and April has translated into the worst polling performance for any first-term Government since the introduction of MMP in 1996. See Monday’s email.
Housing: The Government’s hopes landlords would fund the building of new homes for rent and reduce rents from better after-tax returns from their existing rentals are falling on deaf ears, a survey landlords found this week. Investor intentions to build or develop new homes hit a record low in April, while more than 80% plan to increase rents in the next 12 months, back at pre-election levels. See Monday’s email.
Cost of living: Bus and train fares for teenagers jumped this week because of Government public transport funding cuts, adding to the inflation pressures generated by double-digit hikes in council rates, again because of Government funding freezes and cuts. The Government has also imposed road user charges for electric vehicle owners and has promised to reintroduce prescription fees, all of which are contributing to inflation pressure and keeping mortgage rates high for longer. See Monday’s email.
Politics: Labour called on PM Christopher Luxon to stand down Winston Peters as Foreign Minister after statements Peters made on RNZ about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr. In Parliament yesterday, after David Parker raised Peters’ description of Carr as “a puppet of China”, Peters then doubled down and referred to an AFR article that described Carr as a ‘pawn’ of China. Luxon said he thought Carr would see it as the usual ‘rough and tumble’ of politics. We discuss this in the podcast above from 30mins to 40mins.
What we talked about on ‘The Hoon’ on Thursday night
In this week’s podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers at 5pm on Thursday night:
5:00 pm - 5:10 pm -
and opened the show with a discussion about the economy and foxes.5:10 pm - 5:20 pm - Peter and Bernard talked with Cathrine about fresh revelations Big Oil is deliberately blocking a transition to carbon zero, as detailed in her weekly climate news wrap published yesterday.
5:20 - 5:50 - Peter and Bernard talked with
about a growing debate about whether Aotearoa-NZ should join AUKUS Pillar II, along with news yesterday Winston Peters faces defamation accusations from Bob Carr.5:40 - 6:00 pm - Peter and Bernard talked with Craig Renney about the job cuts in Wellington, the Government’s budget choices and a lack of investment.
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 things I did elsewhere
I produced an episode of When The Facts Change via The Spinoff, including this interview with Auckland University’s Deborah Levy about a paper she co-wrote on the growing financialisation of holiday homes in Aotearoa.
We also produce this 5 in 5 with ANZ daily podcast and Substack for ANZ Institutional in Australia, which you can sign up to via Spotify and Apple and Youtube for free.
Ka kite ano
Bernard
The Hoon around the week to May 3