Wednesday's pick o' the links
Recent buyers of seaside homes in Hawkes Bay surprised by sea level rise warning and want compensation; Singapore eyes bigger taxes on the wealthy; 53% of 18-24 year olds have <$1k savings; The Craic
TLDR: Here’s a collection of the scoops and news of note I’ve spotted elsewhere for paid subscribers between 4am and 10am today. Fill yer boots…below the paywall fold.
Scoops and news of note here in Aotearoa
Sign of the times - Seaside residents at risk of rising sea levels at Whirinaki near Napier are considering selling and moving to Australia rather than retreating.
“People have bought out there recently and are talking about possibly losing everything with the proposed possible retreat. There are people talking about selling immediately and moving to Australia, getting the hell out of it, because they don’t see any future where they are.” Local resident Doug Dickson told committee members via Stuff.
He’ll have to hope any buyers don’t check their LIMs first, or google his name. It might be difficult to find a buyer. Or insurer. Or banker.
This is the key line.
Earlier this month, the Government released its first plan for coping with climate hazards. However, the plan doesn’t declare who will pay when property is lost or damaged and insurance won’t cover it, or when whole communities have to move.
The Government’s reluctance to assign responsibilities to individuals, councils or central Government will create this sort of unsettling free-for-all game of hot potato.
I did a podcast last Friday via The Spinoff last week on the climate adaptation plan, in which I interviewed James Shaw about these issues around moral hazard, and ultimately how we pay to reduce emissions and mitigate within our self-imposed 30/30 fiscal rules. Spoiler alert: it’s not possible.
By the way, some of the key players in the debates at council and Government level will be the climate, covid and treaty deniers in Voices For Freedom...
Just briefly
Councils are worried about foreign interference in upcoming elections, with China seen as the main risk. Stuff
Voters are also worried about Voices For Freedom candidates being economical with their disclosures. Stuff
Scoops and news of note overseas
Something to emulate? - Singapore, which National Leader Christopher Luxon has cited as a potential source of new policy ideas, may impose more taxes on the wealthy as it seeks more inclusive growth, its next prime minister Lawrence Wong signaled in an interview with Bloomberg-$$$ News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait.
Taxes Singapore could increase or introduce include higher income taxes for the wealthiest, windfall taxes on company dividends, capital gains taxes (!) and estate taxes.
Just briefly
Australian waiters and dishwashers are being offered A$5k sign-on bonuses, the AFR-$$$ reported this morning.
Electric golf carts are the way of the future. Slate
Useful longer reads and listens
Number of the day
53% - ASB research out yesterday found 53% of all 18-24-year-olds had less than $1,000 available to them in savings to deal with a crisis, compared to 41% of all those surveyed.
Chart of the day
There is no wage price spiral
This Reserve Bank-commissioned quarterly survey by Research NZ of 1,002 households done from July 18 to July 22 found a smaller proportion expected significant earnings increases than in the previous quarter.
“The median has stayed at 0%, whereas the mean has decreased to 6.2% from 12.7% last quarter. This shows households are on average expecting lower growth in their earnings compared with last quarter.” Reserve Bank commentary on survey by Research NZ.
Quote of the day
For those who wonder if I read widely enough
"Markets are expecting a pivot, and the Fed cutting next year. To me that sounds delusional." Nouriel ‘Dr Doom’ Roubini told Bloomberg TV on Monday
Spookies, profundities, curiosities and feel-goods
Thread of the day
Cartoon of the day
The Craic
Ka kite ano
Bernard
Great interview with Minister Shaw. He absolutely does know his climate stuff. I think there should be fairly obvious to most of us now, that buying/building a seaside dwelling isn't really too sensible these days. I still don't understand why that floating carpark was ever given consent on Waiheke but hey, the community spent years trying to stop that. I am wondering what will happen to sea sprawl generally and where seawalls will be built. Chlõe definitely was on the island last Friday. I know as I took her to the site of the dolphin stranding. It was an extraordinary gathering of community and Rose Davis wrote a beautiful article about it on RNZ.
I bought a 100yo seaside bach on the South Coast 18ya & I worried then about sea-level rise even tho it’s 100m away from the shore at almost 5m elevation! I finally sold it because I knew insurance would become an issue within 5-10 years & there was no point retrofitting it or building on the back section. None of this information on managed retreat & the danger of rising sea levels is new or should come as a surprise to anyone with access to news in the last 3 decades. It’s willful ignorance of a collapsing climate & a colonialist arrogance that society should bail them out when their multimillion $$ homes become worthless. A lot of folks in Aotearoa are going to have to grapple with this issue asap as it’ll definitely not go away & our already-unequal society which is massively skewed towards home owners really can’t afford to bail them out.