Top 10 for Tuesday, December 4

Adrian Orr says high migration and profit-led inflation keeping the OCR up; ETS auction failure set to cost new Govt $900m and hike petrol prices; Wellington needs $750m to keep trains running

The RBNZ governor is citing high net migration and profit-led inflation as factors in the bank’s hawkish stance. Photo: Lynn Grieveson

TL;DR: Here’s my pick of the top 10 news and analysis links elsewhere on the morning of Tuesday, December 5, including:

1. Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr says high net migration and profit-led inflation are factors in the bank’s hawkish stance;

2. The likely failure of the last carbon auction of the year tomorrow will cost the Government another $900 million in revenue and push up petrol prices;

3. Local scoop of the day: Wellington’s rail network requires an extra $750 million from the new Government or dozens of services will have to be cut, further starving the CBD of workers, business and retail sales;

4. Global scoop of the day: The head of COP 28 thinks phasing out fossil fuels would mean humans would have to go back to living in caves;

5. Deep-dive of the day: Gerald Hensley on a drunk Robert Muldoon’s ‘chat’ with Paul Keating;

6. Column of the day: Michael Ryan on whether Nicola Willis has gone overboard with her accusations about Labour ‘cooking of the books’;

7. Thread of the day: Katherine Hayhoe on what’s happening at COP 28 that really matters;

8. Op-Ed of the day: Mike Joy on the problem with carbon offsets;

9. Gift link of the day: EVs are way more expensive to repair and insure, often more than offsetting the cheaper fuel and maintenance costs, the WSJ reports; and,

10. Substack of the day: Dave Heatley on The Productivity Commission’s demise and how to avoid a repeat.

The full detail, links, excerpts and analysis is below the fold for paying subscribers.

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Orr cites profit-led inflation & migration in hawkish stance