The Hoon

I spoke with Green Co-Leader Chloe Swarbrick last night in a Substack Live Video for over 150 subscribers about the urgent need to decarbonise & provide housing, along with challenging the bipartisan assumptions about the size of Government and Government debt to GDP — the ‘30-30’ rule. We also talked about migration policy and population growth.

The full interview is above for all.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Context Setting

07:22 Fuel Crisis and Government Response

10:43 Housing Crisis and Emergency Solutions

13:20 Economic Policy and the 30-30 Rule

19:19 Debt Management and Economic Stability

24:15 Electrifying the Economy and Climate Change

27:28 Population Growth and Migration Policy

Cheers

Bernard

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey & Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics here, along with special guest historian and author Jonathan Lyons.

This week:

* Bernard and Peter began with a discussion about deaths of a record 129 journalists reported in 2025 by the Committee to Protect Journalists, mostly in Gaza, and the risks of it worsening in an extended war in the Middle East.

* Bernard and Peter talked about New Zealand’s lack of resilience to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz for both diesel and fertiliser.

* Bernard, Peter and Cathrine talked about the impending dropping of clean car standards and the connections between war and climate change.

* Bernard, Peter, Robert and Jonathan talked about the implications from the widening war in the Middle East, including Israel’s role and Iran’s history.

Jonathan has written these books on Iran: The House of Wisdom: How the Arabs Transformed Western Civilization, and, Islam Through Western Eyes: From the Crusades to the War on Terrorism.

The Hoon’s podcast version above was recorded on Thursday night during a live webinar for over 200 paying subscribers and was produced and edited by Simon Josey.

The Hoon won the silver award for best current affairs podcast in last year’s New Zealand Podcast awards.

(This is a sampler for all free subscribers and anyone else who stumbles on it. Thanks to the support of paying subscribers here, we’re able to spread my public interest journalism here about housing affordability, climate change and poverty reduction other public venues. Join the community supporting and contributing to this work with your ideas, feedback and comments, and by subscribing in full. Remember, all students and teachers who sign up for the free version with their .ac.nz and .school.nz email accounts are automatically upgraded to the paid version for free. Also, here’s a couple of special offers: $3/month or $30/year for under 30s & $6.50/month or $65/year for over 65s who rent.)

Ngā mihi nui.

Bernard

This week I hosted a ‘Hoon’ on Substack Live previewing The Reality of Everything symposium to be held at Victoria University of Wellington on June 26, which will examine the interconnected crises of climate change, energy, water & food constraints, economic instability & public health.

I was joined by regular Hoon guest Cathrine Dyer, substacker and symposium facilitator Catherine Knight, conference speaker and epidemiologist Professor Alistair Woodward from the University of Auckland, and fellow public health specialist Associate Professor Caroline Shaw from the University of Otago.

We started by talking about the need for the Symposium and referring to the National Emergency Briefing held in the UK last year, including an address by Professor Hugh Montgomery, a Professor of Intensive Care Medicine at University College London. The video of his address is below via Youtube.

We talked about the intersection of public health and climate change, emphasizing the urgent need for a comprehensive approach to public health in the face of climate, resource and economic crises.

We talked about tobacco control as a precedent for health policy, the social determinants of health, and the benefits of e-bikes. The conversation concludes with recommendations for policymakers to prioritize health and well-being in climate action.

Here’s Catherine’s substack post announcing the conference.

And a follow-up post with the latest details.

Here’s the chapters in the video above:

00:00 Introduction to the Reality of Everything Symposium

02:43 Understanding the Interconnected Crises

05:36 Climate Change and Health Risks

07:18 Tobacco Control as a Model for Climate Action

11:41 Social Determinants of Health and Climate Change

15:29 Transport, Health, and Climate Change Solutions

18:10 Rethinking Emergencies and Public Health

19:05 Transport Policies and Health Implications

21:20 Access Over Infrastructure: A New Perspective

22:19 The Hidden Health Costs of Transport

24:23 E-Bikes: A Healthier Alternative

25:34 Policy Solutions for Health and Climate Change

29:18 Public Health as Climate Action

31:48The Economic Case for Climate Action

Thank you Susan St John, Mike Joy, Paul Singh, Melanie, Brian Rathbone, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.

This week a speculative post on Substack by Citrini about ever-faster AI tools creating a self-reinforcing doom loop of fewer jobs & lower wages for humans -- while AI owners win big -- shook global stocks. A link to the post is below.

So I decided to have a Substack Live with Ben Reid, who writes about tech and AI for Memia. The resulting chat is above.

Thank you James Wilkes, Nicola Francis, Summerhaze, David, Elaine, and many others for tuning into my live video with Ben Reid! Join me for my next live video in the app.

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey & Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Elaine Monaghan about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics here, along with special guest Associate Professor Polly Atatoa Carr from Waikato University’s Te Ngira Institute for Population Research.

This week:

* Bernard and Peter debated the Clerk of Parliament deciding to stop using X.

* Bernard and Cathrine talked about a paper showing climate policy inconsistency depresses economic growth and employment, along with another paper showing the social cost of carbon at over US$1,000/tonne, and a survey for The Post-$ showing voters here want flood protection projects, rather than motorways.

* Peter and Elaine talked about covering autocracies in Eastern Europe and Donald Trump’s State of the Union address.

* Bernard, Peter and Polly talked about how the Government’s ‘move-on’ orders are likely to affect young homeless people, and why ramping up Housing First by even more would be a better solution.

The Hoon’s podcast version above was recorded on Thursday night during a live webinar for over 200 paying subscribers and was produced and edited by Simon Josey.

The Hoon won the silver award for best current affairs podcast in last year’s New Zealand Podcast awards.

(This is a sampler for all free subscribers and anyone else who stumbles on it. Thanks to the support of paying subscribers here, we’re able to spread my public interest journalism here about housing affordability, climate change and poverty reduction other public venues. Join the community supporting and contributing to this work with your ideas, feedback and comments, and by subscribing in full. Remember, all students and teachers who sign up for the free version with their .ac.nz and .school.nz email accounts are automatically upgraded to the paid version for free. Also, here’s a couple of special offers: $3/month or $30/year for under 30s & $6.50/month or $65/year for over 65s who rent.)

Ngā mihi nui.

Bernard

Independent economist David Skilling gave a stark public presentation to Treasury officials and others yesterday that painted a brutal picture of New Zealand’s labour productivity and real wage catastrophe since 2010, pointing out our economy remained stuck in a low-investment rut with weakening trade connections.

Skilling’s presentation in video form below is a must-watch and should be seen as a landmark moment ‘calling b******t’ on at least three decades of economic reforms focused on squeezing down the size of Government and keeping capital gains tax free at all costs.

I spoke with David in a Substack Live this morning, referencing his presentation below.

Thank you Ant O'Brien, Michael Sharpe, Steve Glicken, MD, James Wilkes, John Smart, and many others for tuning into my live video with David Skilling! Join me for my next live video in the app.

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey & Peter Bale talking with regular guests Robert Patman and Cathrine Dyer about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics here, along with special guests Simplicity Chief Economist Shamubeel Eaqub and Coalition for More Homes Spokesman Scott Caldwell.

This week:

* Bernard, Peter and Cathrine talked about the week’s news in climate change, including criticism of the Government’s climate non-action by outgoing Tower Insurance Chair Michael Stiassny, Marc Daalder’s piece for Newsroom on climate preparedness, the US move to wipe out a climate change finding and remove all regulation of emissions, and the impending shutdown of the Ministry of the Environment here.

* Bernard, Peter and Robert talked about Donald Trump’s ‘coercive’ approach to diplomacy with Iran, and the risk of imminent US strikes on Iran, which would trigger damaging Iranian counter-attacks on Israel.

* Bernard, Peter, Shamubeel and Scott talked about Chris Bishop’s watering down yesterday of housing intensification plans in Auckland and the Infrastructure Commission’s final 30-year plan presented earlier this week.

The Hoon’s podcast version above was recorded on Thursday night during a live webinar for over 200 paying subscribers and was produced and edited by Simon Josey.

The Hoon won the silver award for best current affairs podcast in last year’s New Zealand Podcast awards.

(This is a sampler for all free subscribers and anyone else who stumbles on it. Thanks to the support of paying subscribers here, we’re able to spread my public interest journalism here about housing affordability, climate change and poverty reduction other public venues. Join the community supporting and contributing to this work with your ideas, feedback and comments, and by subscribing in full. Remember, all students and teachers who sign up for the free version with their .ac.nz and .school.nz email accounts are automatically upgraded to the paid version for free. Also, here’s a couple of special offers: $3/month or $30/year for under 30s & $6.50/month or $65/year for over 65s who rent.)

Ngā mihi nui.

Bernard

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey & Peter Bale talking with New Zealand journalist Andrew Gunn in Kiev and Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey in central Otago.

We talked about:

* Bernard’s time at the NZ Association of Economists’ forum at the University of Waikato on Thursday and Friday;

* Nicola Willis’ announcement of a new inquiry into the RBNZ’s actions over Covid;

* The Government’s announcement of a levy on all electricity consumers to pay for LNG import infrastructure;

* Whether solar panels and batteries would do a better job than LNG.

The Hoon’s podcast version above was recorded on Thursday night during a live webinar for over 200 paying subscribers and was produced and edited by Simon Josey.

The Hoon won the silver award for best current affairs podcast in last year’s New Zealand Podcast awards.

(This is a sampler for all free subscribers and anyone else who stumbles on it. Thanks to the support of paying subscribers here, we’re able to spread my public interest journalism here about housing affordability, climate change and poverty reduction other public venues. Join the community supporting and contributing to this work with your ideas, feedback and comments, and by subscribing in full. Remember, all students and teachers who sign up for the free version with their .ac.nz and .school.nz email accounts are automatically upgraded to the paid version for free. Also, here’s a couple of special offers: $3/month or $30/year for under 30s & $6.50/month or $65/year for over 65s who rent.)

Ngā mihi nui.

Bernard

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey & Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman, along with special guest David Farrar, talking about his Op-Ed in the The Post-$ arguing it’s time New Zealand became the seventh state of Australia.

We talked about:

* The water treatment plant problems in Christchurch and Wellington;

* The gutting of the Washington Post’s newsroom;

* The effects of climate change on biodiversity, including the deaths of dugongs in Thailand, the deaths of bats in Western Australia, the freezing of iguanas in Florida;

* Insurance retreat in New Zealand; and,

* Rare earth minerals and a possible deal between New Zealand and the US;

The Hoon’s podcast version above was recorded on Thursday night during a live webinar for over 200 paying subscribers and was produced and edited by Simon Josey.

The Hoon won the silver award for best current affairs podcast in last year’s New Zealand Podcast awards.

(This is a sampler for all free subscribers and anyone else who stumbles on it. Thanks to the support of paying subscribers here, we’re able to spread my public interest journalism here about housing affordability, climate change and poverty reduction other public venues. Join the community supporting and contributing to this work with your ideas, feedback and comments, and by subscribing in full. Remember, all students and teachers who sign up for the free version with their .ac.nz and .school.nz email accounts are automatically upgraded to the paid version for free. Also, here’s a couple of special offers: $3/month or $30/year for under 30s & $6.50/month or $65/year for over 65s who rent.)

Ngā mihi nui.

Bernard

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey & Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman, along with special guest historian and author Jonathan Lyons.

We talked about:

* Likely issues in Election 2026 due on November 7, including anti-migration comments from Winston Peters and his comments backing Donald Trump on withdrawing from the World Health Organisation;

* The dramas this week in Global Financial Markets around the reserve currency status of the US dollar and another stalling in the New Zealand economy;

* The fallout from this month’s extraordinary weather events made worse by unaddressed climate change, and some solutions, including this EECA report on shifting power demand off-peak and this Manu Caddie post;

* Donald Trump’s latest threats to attack Iran, along with the history of revolutions in Iran and the situation there now, including Jonathan and Robert. Jonathan has written these books on Iran: The House of Wisdom: How the Arabs Transformed Western Civilization, and, Islam Through Western Eyes: From the Crusades to the War on Terrorism.

The Hoon’s podcast version above was recorded on Thursday night during a live webinar for over 200 paying subscribers and was produced and edited by Simon Josey.

The Hoon won the silver award for best current affairs podcast in last year’s New Zealand Podcast awards.

(This is a sampler for all free subscribers and anyone else who stumbles on it. Thanks to the support of paying subscribers here, we’re able to spread my public interest journalism here about housing affordability, climate change and poverty reduction other public venues. Join the community supporting and contributing to this work with your ideas, feedback and comments, and by subscribing in full. Remember, all students and teachers who sign up for the free version with their .ac.nz and .school.nz email accounts are automatically upgraded to the paid version for free. Also, here’s a couple of special offers: $3/month or $30/year for under 30s & $6.50/month or $65/year for over 65s who rent.)

Ngā mihi nui.

Bernard