TLDR & TLDL: This week anti-mandate protests around Parliament dug in for the long haul, Russia manoeuvered to invade Ukraine, the Government prepared to loosen new restrictions on mortgage lending as house prices fell for a second month, the nation moved to ‘phase II’ of its omicron plan and Aotearoa-NZ is a week away from reopening its border — a bit.
In the podcast above of our weekly live ‘hoon’ (the plural for Kākā) webinar with over 100 paid subscribers, I talked with Peter Bale and special guest Professor Robert Patman of Otago University about:
the growing protests around Parliament;
why Russia is likely to invade Ukraine and what might happen next;
what it means for Aotearoa NZ; and, of course,
what happens next with the housing market and interest rates.
Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty Images
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Five things to note
1. The protestors dug in
The anti-mandate and anti-just-about-everything-else protest camp around Parliament blockaded off even more of the streets and parks around the nation’s seat of Government while the Police tried to chew their fingernails through their masks.
As of this morning, the Police are refusing to remove the cars and utes or enforce the law of trespass on Parliament’s grounds, agueing it might prompt violence. My view is the Police should enforce the laws with the lowest touch possible, including setting up cordons around the protest to prevent entry and re-entry, which would squeeze it out of existence.
2. Russia is set to invade Ukraine
Peter and I had a great chat with Professor Robert Patman from the University of Otago in our weekly hoon (in podcast form above) about why Vladimir Putin is pushing so hard and Eastern Europe is so fearful of an expansive Russia.
3. Turning the credit taps back on
David Clark reaffirmed this week the Government was working on regulatory tweaks to the CCCFA to allow the banks to resume normal service lending into the housing market, which has fallen 2.7% in the two months since the CCCFA kicked in.
4. Fletcher made hay while the inflation sun shone
5. Opening up as omicron peaks
Aotearoa-NZ is set to welcome home expats from Australia next Monday for them to home isolate for seven days. Australia (except for Western Australia) will open this Monday for everyone to isolate for just a day or two until they have a negative RAT. New South Wales and Victoria also announced the end of most of their Covid restrictions around venue capacity and indoor events.
Scoops and news of note
Useful longer weekend reads
Chart of the week
The Craic
Some fun things
Ka Kite ano
Bernard
The week that was for the week's end