Briefly in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, February 4:
The Lead: The Government launched a review of insurance affordability last night that was focused on whether there was enough competition in the market and too much profitability after a trebling of home insurance costs in a decade. Paying subscribers can see more detail below the paywall fold and hear more analysis in the podcast above.
The Sidebar: That focus on competition is despite Treasury and other official advice that the effects of climate change are the key drivers, along with reinsurance costs driven by markets overseas.
News elsewhere: ANZ has raised its longer-term fixed mortgage rates again, house completion rates in Auckland hit a seven-year low in November and Labour MP Peeni Henare is retiring from politics.1
Chart Pack of the Day: Roy Morgan’s opinion poll in January found a rise in support for National and falls for Labour and the Greens, which saw the governing coalition extend its poll lead over the Opposition to eight percentage points.
Scoop of the Day: Kate Newton reports for RNZ this morning that Blenheim has become the third town that AA Insurance has decided not to write home insurance for.
Today’s Deep-dive of the Day is from Caron Copek and Poppy Clark from Stuff on David Farrar’s call yesterday in The Post-$ for New Zealand to join with Australia as the world slides away from a rules-based order to ‘survival of the biggest.’
Join us as a paying subscriber to get more analysis and detail below the paywall fold and in the podcast above. Paying subscribers can also comment below and join The Kākā community in webinars and our chat room. Paying subscribers also enable me to do this journalism. If paying subscribers ask in the comments below and ‘like’ the article more than 100 times, I will open it up for full public reading, listening and sharing later today.
