This week's hoon of wonks

TLDR & TLDL: Parliament resumes this week as the Government’s handling of omicron and the future of MIQ reaches a crucial moment. On Friday afternoon I talked with NZ Herald political reporter and columnist Thomas Coughlan about the beginning of the year in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy.

We talked about:

• National’s caucus retreat in Queenstown;

• Christopher Luxon’s initial decisions to commit to National’s previous policies on extending the retirement age;

• Luxon’s initial use of a corporate style of leadership;

• the sharp rise in PM Jacinda Ardern’s unfavourability ratings;

• the rise in inflation as a political issue and the role of duopoly-driven price increases;

• the unmooring of political connections among younger cohorts of voters; and,

• the prospects for the first week of Parliament.

Every week when Parliament is sitting I’ll record one of these ‘hoons’ (the way to describe a group of Kākā) with one or more of the Parliamentary Press Gallery’s reporters and editors with a particular focus on the economy, and fiscal and monetary policy. We are all based in the Press Gallery and will often record these hoons there. We’re the hoon of wonks.

This group of wonks includes:

• Thomas Coughlan, who I’ve worked with at Newsroom in the Parliamentary Press Gallery and who has worked as a reporter and columnist at Stuff as well;

• Luke Malpass, who is Stuff’s Political Editor and previously worked as the Australian Financial Review’s Editorial Page Editor; and,

• Jenee Tibshraeny, who is Interest.co.nz’s political reporter in the Press Gallery.

I welcome the questions and comments of paid subscribers below about this hoon and ahead of next week’s hoon. In particular, we welcome suggestions for topics of interest and questions for ministers and the opposition.

This weekly hoon will be regularly open to all subscribers and the public given the public interest and issues involved. I welcome you all as full paid subscribers to support this type of accountability, explanatory and solutions journalism on the climate inaction, housing unaffordability and child poverty crises. Full paid subscribers can comment and get full access to all my emails and podcasts, along with invites to subscriber-only webinars and ‘Ask Me Anything’ threads.’