Tuesday's Chorus: Visas for sale in our churn and burn economy

More revelations have emerged about the dark side of our churn and burn economy. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The Kākā

TL;DR: The key news in Aotearoa’s political economy today includes:

• More details have emerged about how the Accredited Employer Work Visa scheme was used by a bankrupted man with fraud convictions to bring in 232 migrant workers from India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and that he was offered cash for ‘coupons’ to onsell the visas;

• Winston Peters is saying a Government could be formed quickly after the declaration of the final result at 2pm on Friday, pointing to some key meetings in coming weeks that a foreign minister might have to attend;

• Red-stickered properties deemed unliveable after the storms in January and February are selling like hotcakes to people who plan to build on them again;

• ANZ has loosened its lending rules for landlords and owner-occupiers taking on boarders;

• Police are leaving in droves for Northern Territory and Queensland after learning of $100,000 starting salaries, $20,000 relocation bonuses and free rent;

• The Reserve Bank published data showing New Zealand’s banks had grown net interest margins by the most in the world since the beginning of 2020.

Paying subscribers can see more detail below the paywall fold and hear more of my analysis in the podcast above.

Inside our ‘Churn and Burn’ economy