The Kākā by Bernard Hickey

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman about the global economy, local and international politics, climate change and the future of trade. This week’s special guest is Ganesh R Ahirao.

This week’s Hoon featured:

* A discussion between Peter and Bernard about homelessness and helicopters, along with RNZ’s pivot to focusing on older listeners and the SIS’s annual security report. We referred to an analysis by Sanjana Hattotuwa via BlueSky and his own wordpress post about how 10,000 public sector job cuts threaten New Zealand’s national and human security.

* A discussion with Cathrine about new evidence of ice loss in the Arctic and Antarctic, gas shortages in Aotearoa and the Government’s decision announced yesterday to further loosen emissions standards for vehicle imports.

* A discussion with Robert about Donald Trump’s ‘Alaska Catastrophe’ summit with Vladimir Putin, New Zealand’s purchase of helicopters and jets announced yesterday, and Israel’s imminent invasion of Gaza.

* A discussion with Ganesh about the Reserve Bank’s decision this week to cut rates and promise more, the Government’s economic (non) strategy of relying on rate cuts and Treasury’s ‘Back to the Future’ Long Term Fiscal strategy document published last week that focused utterly on debt reduction. We referred to Ganesh R Ahirao’s substack post on the Government’s dismemberment of the public sector.

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 this 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 is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thekaka.substack.com/subscribe

Briefly in my Daily Chorus for all subscribers on Monday August 18, the top news, scoops and deep-dives in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate are:

* The Lead: Senior figures in the business community are openly questioning the Government’s 1991-style strategy of restraining Government spending to create space for lower interest rates to stimulate household spending and business investment. Via Amelia Wade for The Sunday Star Times-$

* The Sidebar: That post-recession strategy worked in 1992, in 2002, in 2011 and 2016 because, back then, households had low debt, banks had lower capital requirements and fewer lending restrictions, and they still actively wanted to lend to businesses. Lower interest rates encouraged more borrowing and business investment, which in turn sparked jobs growth, wages growth and then fresh housing booms, pushing house prices and household wealth to ever-higher record highs.

* The first Number of the Day: $165 billion. This time around, households are feeling collectively $165 billion poorer because of an extended 10-20% slump in house values and ongoing increases in mortgage borrowing from first home buyers in particular. Also, unlike in previous recoveries from recessions, real disposable incomes for most workers who spend most of their incomes are falling again, thanks to wage restraint, fewer hours worked and new profit-driven inflation in food and electricity prices.

* The second Number of the Day: 3.5 percentage points. That’s the amount of bank capital requirement increases yet to be implemented and now under active review by the Reserve Bank. Cancelling the increase would be one obvious way for the Government to give a boost to mortgage lending in the next year.

* The Quote of the day is from Auckland Chamber of Commerce CEO Simon Bridges via Amelia Wade for the Sunday Star Times-$ on business leaders losing faith in Christopher Luxon: “We don’t want to leave it to chance. A few more bad months after a few bad years isn’t good enough. I think there should be an urgency in government around intervention.”

* The Chart of the Day shows household term deposits are growing again at record-high rates of $17 billion a year, which is as high as when small business-owning recipients were banking the proceeds from wage subsidies. Contrary to the drumbeat of the daily news narrative that everyone is suffering with a ‘cost of living crisis’, the chart shows older homeowners are repaying debt and saving the benefits of tax changes at record-high rates into term deposit accounts, which is holding back consumer spending and extending the retail sector’s four-year long recession.

Paying subscribers can always hear more detail and my commentary in my Daily Chorus podcast and video above and in text and chart form below the paywall fold, while non-paying subscribers just get this opening brief intro. But I have decided to release this immediately to all, given the topicality of the questions about the Government’s strategy.

Chart of the day: Not everyone is doing it tough

Cartoons of the day

Hoping voters can’t see or hear what’s happening in the economy

Rare actual footage of a doormat rolling out a carpet

Timeline-cleansing nature pic

Ka kite ano.

Bernard

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thekaka.substack.com/subscribe

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman about the global economy, local and international politics, climate change and the future of trade.

This week’s Hoon featured:

* A discussion between Peter and Bernard about how ACT continues to dominate the agenda of the Government, and that ACT voters are the happiest with the Government’s performance on the economy and cost of living.

* A discussion with Cathrine about whether Road User Charges and an Auckland Congestion Charging scheme will actually reduce climate emissions (spoiler: they won’t).

* A discussion with Robert about the upcoming meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, and a look at New Zealand’s position on the recognition of Palestine.

* A discussion with trade expert and former MFAT diplomat Steph Honey about the future of trade agreements in the wake of Donald Trump’s tariff policies.

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 this 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 is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thekaka.substack.com/subscribe

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking with special guests Felicity Roxburgh, the executive director of the New Zealand International Business Forum, and Patrick Reynolds, the transport activist and Auckland Council candidate.

This week’s Hoon featured:

* A discussion between Peter and Bernard about the dismantling of Kāinga Ora and the history of socal housing, given Peter’s feature about Kāinga Ora is due to be published in The Listener this weekend.

* A discussion with Felicity about Donald Trump putting a 15% tariff rate on New Zealand exports and the future of globalisation.

* A discussion with Patrick about Chris Bishop’s announcement this week about the replacement of fuel taxes with Road User Charges, and another blowout in the cost of the Ōtaki to north of Levin Road of National Significance to $2.1 billion.

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 this 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 is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thekaka.substack.com/subscribe

Briefly in my Picks ‘n Mixes and Dawn Chorus for full subscribers on Friday August 8, the top news, scoops and deep-dives in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate are:

* The Lead: Auckland Chamber of Commerce CEO Simon Bridges has electrified the political and economic landscape by calling for Government stimulus to help Aucklanders struggling with 6.1% unemployment.

* Bridges was effectively calling time on Auckland Inc’s patience over the Government’s pray-for-GDP-growth-from-OCR-rate-cuts strategy. See more analysis and detail below the paywall fold and in the video and podcast above.

* Finance Minister Nicola Willis said she was “open to suggestions for actionable insights,” but gave no indication the Government would backtrack on its adherence to its tight budget policy to achieve surplus and debt reduction in the next four years, in order to cut mortgage rates. See The Lead below.

* Former National PM John Key put his finger on the economy’s ‘problem’ in comments to Auckland business leaders recently, saying: “The guts of what’s wrong is that the housing market is going down, not up.”

* In my view, it’s not going up because of the wealth effect of the four-years-long-and-counting 10%-20%-plus slump in prices freezing the market, along with restrictions on bank lending. Essentially, our economy, which has relied on mortgage lending booms to restart after the last three recessions, can’t handle the truth of a balance sheet recession because of a frozen market and shackles on bank lending.

* Coincidentally, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins also nailed the problem, saying: “Let’s be really frank. We have an over-emphasis on the housing market. We can’t get rich as a country by buying & selling houses from one another.”

* Hipkins is holding a mid-winter offsite strategy meeting with the Labour caucus in Queenstown this weekend, where it is expected Labour will sign off (again) on a policy of a Capital Gains Tax beyond the family home.

* In my view though, that won’t work to change the incentives that turned our economy into a housing-market-with-bits-tacked-on because households will still see opportunities for massive tax-free and leveraged capital gains on their own homes, and there is still no incentive to save more in productive real assets. A wealth or land tax would be much simpler, more effective and fairer, in my view, along with incentives to save in pension funds, as are used overseas.

* The Scoop of the Morning is from Steve Kilgallon for Stuff: Left in faeces, blood under nails - daughter ‘appalled’ at mum’s hospital stay

* The Must-Read Deep-Dive of the day is from Adam Burns for RNZ: 19-year-old cyclist Fyfa Dawson's death largely due to flawed traffic management - coroner

Paying subscribers can usually hear more detail and my commentary in the podcast and video above and get the links from the Picks ‘n Mixes below the paywall, while non-paying subscribers just get this opening brief into. I have decided this morning to open this one up immediately and fully for public reading, listening and sharing as part of our public interest mandate. Thanks in advance to paying subscribers.

The Lead: Auckland calls time on failed economic strategy

Yesterday’s intervention by Simon Bridges has shifted the landscape of our political economy, revealing in public the growing private frustration among business leaders, big and small, about the failure of the Government’s strategy of cutting spending to lower interest rates to get the housing market going again.

It’s not working because bank lending is restricted and the housing market is frozen in time near its 2022 lows, cementing in a wealth-effect wet blanket on spending, which is being worsened by falling real wages for renters. The market is frozen because of a standoff between sellers waiting for the inevitable rebound and buyers worried they might buy and then see more falls evaporate their leveraged equity. See the quote below from from a recent buyer, Jason Walls, to get a sense of the mood.

Quote of the day: ‘I caught the falling knife and it hurt’

“I’m looking down the barrel of a massive loss in the house that I own, and we’ve got a lot of my friends that are moving overseas. A lot of it is getting quite personal now, and people vote on the personal.

“If you start seeing some of your friends, some of your colleagues losing their jobs as we see unemployment ticking up, that starts to become a problem, and people want to look for someone to blame.” NewstalkZB Political Editor Jason Walls on why the National-led Government is in damage control mode, via NZ Herald.

Further reading:

* Interview with Simon Bridges on RNZ Morning Report: 'Pretty grim': Bridges calls for government to help Auckland

* RNZ Morning Report: No simple solution to stimulate economic growth - Minister for Auckland

* Deep-dive on the jobs drought by Pretoria Gordon for RNZ: Workers moving towns in desperate quest for jobs

The Sidebar: ‘It’s not working. We need to change it.’

Labour Leader Chris Hipkins talked up the need to change the incentive at the heart of our housing-market-with-bits-tacked-on, which is the lack of a capital gains tax on residential land. He didn’t say Labour had chosen to adopt such a policy (again,) but the drums are beating in that direction after Labour’s policy council was reported last weekend by former Labour Ministerial adviser Vernon Small to have opted for a Capital Gains Tax beyond the family home over a wealth tax.

* RNZ: Labour leader Hipkins hints at capital gains tax

* Analysis by Anneke Smith for RNZ: Labour MPs inch towards a tax policy

My Picks ‘n Mixes for Friday, August 8

Other Scoops this morning

* Investigation by Guyon Espiner for RNZ: Officer made claims about things that 'did not happen' in fatal shooting

* Glenn McConnell for Stuff: Govt emails hacked to send scams to 56,000 people

* Anna Whyte for The Post-$: One in five roles could go at the Reserve Bank

* Jamie Ensor for NZ Herald-$: Labour declined offers for NCEA briefings

* David Williams for Newsroom Pro-$: Health NZ’s parking income tops $22m

* Todd Niall for Newsroom: Wayne Brown firm faces delisting over regs omission

* Andrea Vance for The Post-$: Security warnings dismissed in red tape reforms.

Other Must-Reads this morning

* Video on the Fyfa Dawson cycling death case via Al Williams for NZ Herald: 'The impact of her loss is beyond words': Calls for change after teen cyclist killed

* Deep-dive by Emma Ricketts for Stuff: ‘By 26, I owned a home and business’: why this young Kiwi chose a trade over a degree

* Deep-dive on migration by Gill Bonnett for RNZ: $2 shops, high-tech exports and buying retirees' firms - Entrepreneur visa changes likely

* Feature on Selwyn’s growth by Eva Kershaw for Frank Film via Video and NZ Herald: Rapid change brings challenges for NZ's fastest-growing district

* Bella Craig feature for RNZ: Laundromats awash with people trying to save cash

The Best of the Rest

Politics & Geopolitics

* Anna Sargent for RNZ: Residents furious as police proposing area's two officers

* 1News: Iwi Māori partnership boards unite to oppose health law changes

* Good news via RNZ: NZ signs new agricultural trade deal with Indonesia

Economy, Global Economy, Business, Tech & Media

* RNZ: Industrial gas users group to meet with Resources Minister over supply

* Lauren Crimp for RNZ: AI saves doctors time, but makes mistakes - study

* Phil Pennington for RNZ: Police too loose with number plate camera system

* Rob Stock for The Post-$: Foodstuffs matches Woolworths’ refund policy.

* Michaela Gower for Hawkes Bay Today-$: Hospitality’s winter storm: 'People just haven’t got the expendable dollar'

* Good news via Penny Miles for RNZ: Craft wool processing to stay in NZ

Housing, Transport, Infrastructure & Councils

* Explainer by Nik Dirga for RNZ: What we know so far about new RUCs

* Oliver Lewis for BusinessDesk-$: 'Shared disappointment' over courts PPP snub

* Analysis by Thomas Manch for The Post-$: Improving the nation’s creaking and insufficient infrastructure will take more than just a politically acceptable plan.

* Thomas Manch for The Post-$: Govt ready to use ‘stick’ over water reforms.

* Thomas Manch for The Post-$: How Australia's 'asset recycling' could work in NZ

* RNZ: Dunedin students face rising rents despite more properties on offer

* Lois Williams: DOC offers olive branch to Punakaiki locals over parking fees

* Anne Gibson for NZ Herald-$: NZ 10 busiest house builders - how they cope

Councils

* Amanda Gillies for The Detail: Battling apathy over local government

* LDR via 1News: Ōhau wall: Legal threat looms as

* Diane McCarthy 1News: Road works 'pointless' if bridge is underwater

* Lauren Crimp for 1News: Wellington councillors baulk at $7m fencing

* Zita Campbell for LDR via Gisborne Herald: Former Green MP eyes local role

* Tina Law for The Press-$: Christchurch council spends $120,000 consulting public a second time on speed limit drops.

Health, Education, Poverty, Living Costs, Incomes, Benefits & Justice

* Susan Edmunds for RNZ: The people working for $10 - and less - an hour

* Deep-dive by Steve Macmillan for Stuff: Nurturing future rural GPs.

* RNZ: 'Patient harm is going to soar' - Nurses on St John changes

* RNZ: Aged care sector needs sweeping reform, woman with elderly parents says

* The Northern Advocate-$: Schools roster students home amid teacher shortages

* Ava Whitworth for Stuff: Couple ‘saved thousands through dental tourism’

* RNZ: 'Insulting': Primary teachers reject ministry's 1% pay rise

* RNZ: First portion of social investment funding to prioritise children

* Matthew Rosenberg via LDR for RNZ: Soaring demand sparks change at Invercargill's Total Mobility service for disabled

* Solutions news via Pokere Paewai for RNZ: WĀHI looks how best to support mental health of young Māori in rural Bay of Plenty

* RNZ: Students leaving school with no qualifications highest in a decade

Climate & Environment

* Deep-dive by Phil Pennington for RNZ: Wildfire questions around saving farms, forests from burn

* Will Harvie for The Press-$: No snow: Some skifields may not open this season.

* Andrea Vance for The Post-$: Slip-affected homeowners left in disbelief over council inaction.

* Susan Edmunds for RNZ: Kapuni plant may shut due to gas supply concerns

* Solutions news via RNZ: Kiwis told to embrace renewable energy boom

Op-Eds, Columns & Editorials this morning

* NZ Herald-$: Editorial: Are emergency housing policies in need of tweaking?

* NZ Herald-$: Matthew Hooton: Economic woes should take priority over race

* NZ Herald-$: Audrey Young: NCEA masterclass – Stanford schools colleagues

* Joel McManus for The Spinoff: The life-changing power of blaming everything on road cones

* OneRoof: Tony Alexander: Banks aren't cutting rates because sunny days are around the corner

* Kidney Health NZ’s Curtis Walker: NZ failing confront kidney disease crisis

* MTA’s James McDowall: RUCs move levels the field - but what about WOFs?

Docs of the Day

* Treasury Long-term Insights Briefing

* NZ Herald video of news conference by Christopher Luxon and Erica Stanford

Cartoon of the day: Bread & Circuses

Ka kite ano. Bernard

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thekaka.substack.com/subscribe

I spoke with Victoria University of Wellington political scientist Natalia Albert this week about her excellent substack post titled: The Politics of Trust: What the Wellbeing Era Got Right (and Wrong).

I highly recommend it, along with Natalia’s many previous posts on the quirks and features of Aotearoa’s deeply frustrating political economy. She wrote this week about trust in Government, in particular after the previous Labour Government’s detour into talking about ‘Wellbeing’ as some sort of governing framework.

We got to talking about how the nature of politics has become increasingly performative, especially in our social-media-soaked worlds, which are now full of tribes shouting at each other to get attention in a time of dwindling attention spans. But why exactly has this led to an obvious erosion in trust in the arms of Government and other institutions of authority?

We talked about these and other things in the video above, which is available to all, as part of my public interest mandate to cover issues in our political economy, such as housing, poverty and climate.

I have always been surprised when I’ve asked Finance Ministers and Prime Ministers why the policies they won elections on just never seem to be implemented in full, or in a way that makes peoples lives better.

They have often told me there was a wall of objections, frustrations and an enervating status quo bias inside ministries working in tandem with well-connected industry groups that made things much more difficult than they expected. The common reason they’re given when told to ‘talk to the hand’ is the policy would not allow the Government to return to a Budget surplus fast enough to keep debt down around a ‘fiscally prudent’ level of 20-30% of GDP, and that Government should aim to be no bigger than 30% of GDP.

This rigorously enforced (by Treasury) set of financial guidelines has actually been the bi-partisan consensus for the last 30 years. It led to sinking lids being put on Education, Health, Welfare, Infrastructure and Housing investment and spending whenever possible, and has bred a culture of avoiding ongoing spending commitments that would lift the size of Government beyond 30% of GDP. Even the Greens agreed to this ‘fiscal responsibility framework’ before the 2017 election.

Yet it’s never really been explained to either voters or to MPs and ministers themselves. They eventually learn it through a process of countless cabinet committee meetings, Treasury-advice-laden cabinet papers and the remorseless financial logic of everything, everything always having to serve the ‘Fiscal North Star’ of returning to surplus.

Meanwhile, politicians and voters still believe all of the things they want can be achieved with the Government keeping public debt low, limiting itself to less than 30% of GDP and not taxing capital gains on residential land.

In the end, politicians make the promises and don’t deliver.

There’s a discussion of these conundrums and more in the discussion above.

Many thanks to Natalia.

Ngā Mihi Nui.

Bernard

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thekaka.substack.com/subscribe

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman, plus special guest Auckland City Councillor Angela Dalton.

This week’s Hoon featured:

* a discussion about the events in Gaza and New Zealand’s position on recognising the Palestinian Authority as a state;

* the Trump administration’s rescinding of the long-standing finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger human health, removing the legal foundation for U.S. greenhouse gas regulations (Reuters); and

* evidence of a doubling of homelessness in Auckland presented to the Council’s Community Committee chaired by Angela Dalton on Tuesday (meeting Agenda pages 9-11)

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 this 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 is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thekaka.substack.com/subscribe

There are thousands of hectares worth of hot steel roofs on warehouses and factories in our biggest cities, but few have solar panels on them that could act as virtual power plants for those factories and the homes, schools, hospitals, offices and shops that are often nearby. Anyone flying into Auckland and Christchurch airports can look down and see the biggest missed opportunity for renewable energy and resilience just sitting there, radiating heat back up at the plane on a sunny day.

It was particularly frustrating to think about during last winter’s energy crisis when many large industrial and manufacturing facilities had to suspend or close their operations permanently because the spot power price deals they were on made them uneconomic.

So why hasn’t it happened yet?

I spoke with FortHill Property Fund General Manager Nick Maier this morning about the fund’s latest $50 million capital raising exercise, which it plans to use to buy more new warehouses and factory buildings in Auckland and Christchurch.

The fund already has $432 million worth of these buildings, which are in hot demand, are 100% tenanted with an average lease length of 8.2 years. That’s not too unusual in the wake of the logistics boom of the last decade, driven partly by the switch towards online delivery. The unique and interesting thing is Forthill’s property builder, Calder Stewart, is building them so they are capable of hosting solar panels on their roofs from the start, which avoids the extra cost of retro-fitting in later years.

Forthill has already started putting solar panels on its new warehouses. It plans to put 8,000 panels on 20 such buildings, giving them a generating capacity of more than 4 million kilowatt hours.

The full conversation with Nick is in the video above. The key takeaways I took from the chat were:

* It’s still more expensive and difficult to ‘retrofit’ existing warehouses with solar panels, given some don’t have the structural strength in their roofs or the wiring systems to connect easily to;

* the cost of panels and the cost of spot electricity makes the economics of building new warehouses with stronger structures and panels installed from the start much more attractive;

* Foothill doesn’t own the panels, as it simply rents the space to Calder Stewart Energy, which installs and own the panels and offers long-term contracts to building tenants that match their lease terms;

* Calder Stewart is not installing panels across all of the available roof space because the market and regulatory arrangements are not there for the electricity to be sold back into the grid;

* Other countries such as France allow tenants to have multiple electricity retailers they can access through a single point, which makes the economics of virtual grids and solar power exporting and buy-backs more viable; and,

* Nick suggests regulatory reform is needed to make that more viable.

Calder Stewart built the warehouse below in Christchurch in 2022 for its initial tenant, Komatsu, with 133 solar panels to supply up to 50 kilowatt or 50% of Komatsu’s daily power needs.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Renewable Energy in Industrial Properties

02:23 The Economics of Solar Panel Installation

05:25 Tenant Relationships and Power Management

07:59 Innovative Partnerships in Energy Solutions

10:30 Energy Monitoring and Sustainability Initiatives

15:47 Challenges and Future of Renewable Energy in New Zealand

Ka kite ano

Bernard

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thekaka.substack.com/subscribe

Briefly for all subscribers, the key things to know from Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Tuesday, July 29 are:

* Speaking on the first anniversary of tax cuts mostly received by owners of multiple homes, PM Christopher Luxon spent half an hour defending his Government’s record on cost of living, economic growth and homelessness at his post-cabinet news conference last night. He was asked if he was being defensive after fresh figures yesterday showed 27,850 jobs were lost in the last year, including 12,169 construction jobs and 12,140 jobs held by 15-19 year olds. See more below the paywall fold in The Lead, Chart of the Day and Docs of the Day.

* Luxon again blamed Labour and slowing overseas growth for the economy’s failure to grow in the second quarter, as recent indicators are showing. He said it was time to ‘double down’ on the the Government’s strategy of cutting spending and debt in order to lower interest rates, which he described as ‘immutable laws of economics.’ Finance Minister Nicola Willis compared the economy to an oil tanker that couldn’t ‘turn on a dime,’ saying she wouldn’t spend and borrow more, although long-time fiscally conservative German Government adopted just such a strategy overnight. See more below in Geopolitics Pick ‘n Mix.

* The Salvation Army and housing charities launched their half-yearly update of their National Homelessness Data Project this morning, which showed the Ministry of Social Development’s (MSD) rejections of applications for emergency housing rose 386% in the last year, 14 in every 1,000 people lived in uninhabitable situations and 1 in a 1,000 was living without shelter. See more in Docs of the Day.

* Youth homelessness campaigner Aaron Hendry describes in the Quote of the day below how he was seeing tamariki and kuia living freezing on campsites in Taranaki. “If this is the track we’re on – we need to derail it,” he said.

* Today’s must-read is Claudette Hauiti’s piece for Waatea News on homelessness, which includes Christopher Luxon’s responses to her questions in last night’s news conference. See more in The Lead below, Quote of the day and Docs of the Day below.

* Today’s must-read is from Bella Craig for RNZ: Kiwi workers wanted: 'The north of Australia is a really good option' See more in my Top Pick ‘n Mix below.

Paying subscribers can hear more detail, analysis and commentary in the podcast and video above and get the links and sourcing below the paywall first, along with my full Picks ‘n’ Mixes for this morning. If paying subscribers give it more than 100 likes I’ll open it up for full public listening, sharing and reading later in the day.

The Lead: PM booed and press gallery challenges strategy

Last night’s post-Cabinet news conference appeared to be some sort of turning point in the publicly expressed mood of the nation about the failure of his Government’s economic strategy to improve living costs and deal with homelessness.

He spent the first 10 minutes before questions defending his Government’s policies and blaming the previous Government, which raised questions later about whether he was protesting too much. He was asked about being booed at the netball final over the weekend. His announcement of the banning of retailers from charging fees for using credit and debit cards was lost in the combined blow-back about job losses, cost of living inflation and homelessness.

He then went on to say he was doubling down on budget cuts to lower mortgage rates.

“The most important thing we can do to make you better off is to double down on our long-term economic plan. While our economy grew four times as fast as Australia's in first three months of this year, global uncertainty continues to pose a risk. And that makes it even more crucial to continue pushing ahead with our economic plan.” PM Christopher Luxon in his post-cabinet news conference.

His response to be challenged about the opening monologue is below in full (bolding mine):

Thomas Coughlan: So you're opening remarks for about 10 minutes on the cost of living. Are you feeling defensive on that issue?

Christopher Luxon: No, not at all. No. More just acknowledging for New Zealanders that we have just gone through three years of a recession that's probably been nothing like we've seen since the early 1990s. How did we get here? As I keep saying - we've had to come back to the immutable laws of economics. If you lose control of spending, you lose control of inflation, you lose control on interest rates, put an economy into recession and people start losing their jobs.

It's a known economic prescription that we know how that works and the previous government stuffed that, they crashed that and as a result people are feeling that pain and suffering now.

He was also challenged by Waatea News reporter and former National MP Claudette Hauiti about homelessness. Here’s the exchange:

Claudette Hauiti: Prime Minister, In Ngāmotu, Taranaki and New Plymouth, we found a kuia and her mokopuna in a freedom camping site and advocates in Te Tai Tokarau have counted 6,000 tamariki living beneath the breadline in freezing conditions. How is it that you can allow that to happen?

Luxon: Sure, we understand we've got some real challenges in our housing market. That's why we're trying to make it easier to build more houses so that more people can be accommodated in safe, dry, affordable homes. That's why you're seeing us actually do everything we can to make sure that rents are not going up. We've got stable rents in New Zealand for the first time in a long time. That's why you've seen us take 6,000 people off the State House wait list. That's how we've moved 2,100 kids out of emergency housing into proper homes because we've prioritised them above others to get them to state houses and community houses. We know it's still challenging. Sorry.

We know we've got real challenges in homelessness and no New Zealander wants to see people being homeless. That's why we spend half a billion dollars with other organisations that actually can provide the wraparound support with people who have often got very complex and challenging needs.

MSD is constantly available there for people who need any housing assistance, but we have made progress on getting kids out of emergency motel accommodation, making sure we get the state house wait list down, keep rent stable, and hopefully open up new land so we can get more houses built.

For the record:

* The Government announced last month it had abandoned plans to build 3,780 new Kainga Ora homes;

* Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) officials reported to the Government in June (the report was released publicly last week) that homelessness had risen between 25% and 225% in our major cities in the last year after the Government tripled its emergency housing rejection rate;

* The Government removed 2,826 or 84.5% of homeless people from emergency housing in motels between November 2024 and May of this year, hitting its target of cutting the numbers by 75% five years earlier than originally planned, although it acknowledged it didn’t know where about 15% of them went; and,

* The Salvation Army called this morning on the Government to increase housing supply and funding for homelessness NGOs.

Quote of the day: ‘Back on track? No. Derail it.’

“We’ve met tamariki sleeping outside in the rain. No shelter. No protection. No one to help them. Some are as young as 11. There’s no safe place for them. The system’s left them behind.

“There is no youth homelessness strategy. No ring-fenced funding. No urgency. This government is playing politics while our kids sleep in doorways.”

“I found a kuia sleeping in a carpark. That broke me. A kuia and her moko in the cold, wrapped in duvets. That’s not just poverty, that’s a national disgrace.

“The government’s spin about tax cuts and GDP growth ignores the basic truth: our tamariki are freezing. Our whānau are freezing. And the people with power are warm, paid, and comfortable.

“If this is the track we’re on – we need to derail it.” Youth homelessness campaigner Aaron Hendry via Claudette Hauiti for Waatea News.

Chart of the day: Hurting the young the most

My Pick ’n’ Mix Sixes for Tuesday, July 29

My Top Pick ‘n Mix Six

* Amy Williams for RNZ: 'We're vulnerable': More women living without shelter in Aotearoa

* Bella Craig for RNZ: Kiwi workers wanted: 'The north of Australia is a really good option'

* Jess Roden for 1News: 'You've had long enough': Cataract surgery still not equally accessible.

* NZ Herald: 'Unparalleled disruption': One in 1000 Kiwis homeless as housing crisis worsens

* Claudette Hauiti for Waatea News: Warm in the Beehive, Frozen on the Streets

* Ruby Shaw for ODT-$: MP ‘ill-informed’ on seesaw National MP Sam Uffindell has been accused of getting his facts wrong after slamming council spending on a central Dunedin seesaw

The Best of the Rest

Scoops & news breaking this morning

* Guyon Espiner for RNZ: Tobacco product tax break extended

* Thomas Coughlan for NZ Herald-$: Health NZ considering sending cancer patients to Oz, citing gynaecologist shortage

* RNZ: Nurses call strike after latest failed pay negotiations

* Matthew Littlewood for ODT: ‘Flaws’ in Waikato med school business case

* Charlie Mitchell for The Press-$: No coherent strategy behind freshwater ‘tinkering’, watchdog saysThe fifth overhaul of freshwater policy in 14 years will only cause confusion and delay, Commissioner says.

* Cate Macintosh for The Press-$: Lunch orders down as school students reject mealsSchools are ordering almost 10,000 fewer lunches than when the $3 meal regime started. Why? The children don’t like them. And offal is on the way.

Politics

* RNZ: Cost of living: 'NZ is back on course,' says government

* NZ Herald: 'More spin than a front load washing machine': Hipkins blasts Willis for 10-minute cost of living 'sermon'

* Jamie Ensor for NZ Herald-$: Ministers agree to raise board members' pay ranges – in some cases by 80%

* Lloyd Burr for Stuff: ‘What exactly are you announcing?’ Minister is asked at press conference

* NZ Herald: Luxon says Govt must 'double down' on economic plan

* Stuff: ‘It’s not uncommon for politicians to be booed’: PM brushes off icy receptionThe moment was picked up in official broadcast coverage after the Mainland Tactix beat the Northern Mystics to win the title.

Geopolitics & Global Economy

* Pierre Briancon for Reuters: EU’s lopsided Trump trade deal will be short-lived

* FT-$ (gift link opens three times): Trump freezes export controls to secure trade deal with China

* WSJ-$ (gift link): Five Signs of a Market Bubble Investors Are Tracking

* NY Times-$ (gift link) Robert Reich Thinks the Baby Boomers Blew It

* Reuters: German government to approve 2026 budget with record investment and borrowing surge, sources say

* RNZ: Nauru seeks to transform its economy by becoming a crypto powerhouse

NZ Economy, Business & Tech

* Mandy Te for Interest: Banning surcharging; Ending 'a very messy situation', or coming 'with real costs to businesses'?

* Glenn McConnell and Bridie Witton for Stuff: Ban on PayWave surcharges could shift costs to shoppers, critics say

* Roeland van den Bergh for The Post-$: Surcharges at the till gone by May - but will you pay more?Retailers support the axing of payment surcharges, but bank fees are the real problem.

* Susan Edmunds for RNZ: 27,850 jobs gone in a year

* Andrew Bevin for Newsroom Pro-$ (free from tomorrow): Mobil hit with warning over ongoing disclosure problems

* Matt Nolan for his substack: On comprehensive income taxes How I learned to stop worrying and love taxing everything

Housing, Transport, Infrastructure & Councils

* Column by Joel MacManus for The Spinoff: Windbag: Why the Taxpayers’ Union endorsed the Green Party policy of land-value rates.

* Susan Edmunds for RNZ: New Zealanders urged to break up with property

* RNZ: Wellington water loss drops but warning investment in new pipes needed

* Emily Ireland for LDR via Stuff: 'Crippling' water bills likely

* Emma Ricketts for Stuff: More than 40 Wellington City Council-owned buildings deemed earthquake-prone

* Tracey Roxburgh for ODT: Urban planning gives town ‘deferential’ treatment

Health & Education

* Denise Piper for Northern Advocate: 'Cruel and Third World': Patient starved 16 hours a day for six days waiting for surgery

* NZ Herald: 'It was a scary way to live': Housing battle ends for terminally ill man

* Claudette Hauiti for Waatea News: ‘I am Doctor’: Māori health equity is tough going

* Deep-dive by Laura Walters for Newsroom Pro-$ (free from tomorrow): Matt Doocey says the mental health and addiction system is ‘going forwards’, pointing to improvements in his target areas. But reports from the frontline tell a different story of unmet need.

* Rachael Comer for The Timaru Herald-$: Resident doctor expected to do the job of two or three doctors, union says. Resident doctors at Timaru Hospital are exhausted as 16 work on a roster which needs 27 to fully staff it, the trade union which supports them says.

* Marty Sharpe for Stuff: Judge slams Oranga Tamariki's ‘egregious’ behaviour towards foster parents

Poverty, Living Costs, Work, Incomes, Benefits, Justice & Crime

* Waatea News: Advocate finds Kuia, mokopuna freezing in Ngāmotu

* Robin Martin for RNZ: Taranaki family runs out of BBQ gas to heat house with ELGAS behind on deliveries

* Jared Savage for NZ Herald: ‘A continual escalation’: Jared Savage on how organised crime is evolving in NZ

* Mildred Armah for Stuff: From nine years in refugee camp to fresh struggle with NZ’s high unemployment rate

* Katie Todd for RNZ: At-risk prisoners still being placed in dry cells, despite warnings

* Miriam Bell for The Post-$: Pay equity changes ‘demoralising’, says Global WomenControversial pay equity law changes have undermined women’s trust and created uncertainty for businesses, says a group of NZ’s top female business executives.

Climate & Environment

* NZ Herald: Atmospheric river to drench NZ during 16-hour spell of warnings

* RNZ: Climate activists target Stockton again

* ConsumerNZ/PowerSwitch’s Paul Fuge interviewed by NZ Herald: How do we fix NZ's "broken" energy sector?

* NZ Herald: Does your power company tell you if you're on the cheapest deal? Check our interactive

* Deep-dive by FT-$ (gift link opens three times):Desalination: the costly solution for a thirsty world

* WSJ-$ (gift link): A Tiny Company Is Vouching for Risky Insurers in Hurricane Country

Good news & Solutions

* David Farrier for his substack Webworm: Sean Plunket Has Lost His Multi-Millionaire Backer

* Interest: "Farm confidence surges"

* Gary Hamilton-Irvine for Hawkes Bay Today: New $750m solar farm for Hawke's Bay: Why is the region turning to solar?

* Matt Stoller on his substack Big: The War Among Democrats Over Market Power, Housing and Capital. Elizabeth Warren and Senate Dems release a major bill on housing, while New Democrats do a trickle-down 'Innovation' agenda. Which will win?

* Column by Gareth Hughes for The Post-$: Wellbeing is at the heart of what local govt does, law change or not. Central government isn’t going to build parks, playgrounds or pools, and it is not going to drive local economic development

* Column by Martin Hawes for The Post-$: Why family trusts are not what they used to be. Today I would think it quite possible that there are more trusts being dissolved than being formed. It seems certain that the feeding frenzy has now been sated.

Docs of the Day

* The Salvation Army, Community Housing Aotearoa, and Housing First Auckland Backbone, Kāhui Tū Kaha, Christchurch Methodist Mission, DCM and Wellington City Mission released their National Homelessness Data Project half-yearly update this morning.

* Stats NZ reported yesterday there were 2.34 million filled jobs in June, up 0.1 percent (3,487 jobs) from May and down 27,850 jobs (1.2 percent) from June 2024.

* The Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet (DPMC) announced yesterday 30-80% fees increases for directors of Crown Agents, Autonomous Crown Entities (ACEs) and tertiary education institutions), trust boards, advisory bodies and committees, Royal Commissions, Public Inquiries, Government Inquiries and Ministerial Inquiries, and statutory tribunals: Cabinet Fees Framework for members appointed to bodies in which the Crown has an interest

* Full video of PM’s Post-Cab News Conference yesterday : Watch: Luxon faces questions after Cabinet meets

* MBIE: Supplementary Analysis Report: Amendments to the Crown Minerals Act 1991 decommissioning regime

* Video via RNZ: Watch: Luxon booed by crowd at netball finals

Cartoon of the day: Comment not required

Ka kite ano Bernard

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thekaka.substack.com/subscribe

Briefly for all subscribers, the key things to know from Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, July 28 are:

* Jessica Roden had the scoop last night on 1News about the scale of the postcode lottery now evident in Aotearoa-New Zealand’s health system after decades of under-funding and rampant population growth. See more below in The Lead and the podcast and video above, Charts of the day and Docs of the Day below.

* Jessica’s report includes charts detailing the different thresholds for seeing specialists and getting treatment between regions, including a system most patients haven’t heard of before called: Clinical Priority Assessment Criteria (CPAC). See more in The Lead and above.

* The Auditor General has also reported on the scale of the crisis of the ‘postcode lottery’ in the health system, including that 10,000 patients had waited more than a year to see a specialist and a further 2,500 had then had to wait another year for treatment. See more in Charts, Number and Docs of the Day.

* A 69-year-old with leg bones that grind ‘bone on bone,’ but hasn’t been operated on after three years, features in today’s Quote of the day.

* Today’s must-read is Jessica’s report: Postcode lottery persists three years after creation of Health NZ. Some people are being denied elective surgeries that they would qualify for if they lived in a different region. See more in Picks ‘n Mixes below

* Today’s must-listen is from Amanda Gillies via RNZ/Newsroom’s The Detail about domestic violence. See more in Number and Quotes of the day below.

Paying subscribers can hear more detail, analysis and commentary in the podcast and video above and get the links and sourcing below the paywall first, along with my full Picks ‘n’ Mixes for this morning. If paying subscribers give it more than 100 likes I’ll open it up for full public listening, sharing and reading later in the day.

The Lead: Our health system’s postcode lottery catastrophe

Decades of underfunding and rampant population growth are now cascading through a rationing system that has created massive gaps in treatment standards and results between regions and demographic groups. Those gaps are so bad that 10,000 patients had waited for more than a year just to see a specialist by the end of 2024, with another 2,500 waiting more than another year for treatment.

That was detailed last night in Jessica Roden’s essential report on 1News, and a subsequent online report that included charts showing the scale of the crisis. I’ve reproduced them below because everyone should know the detail, alongside detail from a report by the Auditor General.

Chart of the day: We’re waiting…

Number of the day: 10,000 waiting more than a year

10,000 - The number waiting for a specialist appointment for more than a year, as at the end of December last year, as reported by the Auditor General in his report on equitable access to planned care.

Quote of the day:

“My right knee is actually bone-on-bone grinding,” said Nelson pensioner Sharleen Strawbridge, 69, who is taking painkillers and has been referred for knee surgery for the third time.

“We all pay the same taxes... one town's hospital shouldn't be any less important than another hospital around the country.” Strawbridge via Jess Roden for 1News

My Pick ’n’ Mix Sixes for Monday, July 28

My Top Pick ‘n Mix Six

* Raphael Franks for NZ Herald: 'We are suffering': Solo mum used Afterpay for food since power bills chewed up benefit

* Amy Williams for RNZ: Auckland woman horrified council tried to take rough sleepers' belongings

* Luke Malpass for Sunday Star Times-$: Government to halt building code changes for three years. The pause is the start of a new regime which will limit changes to the code, with the next review being held in 2028.

* Nelson Mail-$: Migrant worker felt pressured to accept long hours or risk visa support, awarded $14k. A truck driver who felt pressured to work long hours or risk losing his visa has been awarded $14,000 after his former employer, Sollys Freight, was found to have breached his employment rights.

* Jordan Dunn for NZ Herald: 'Terrifying explosion': Surge in prison segregation as violence rises

* Jamie Ensor for NZ Herald: ‘Alarming’: Peters on 'careless' immigration, and his ‘friend’ Farage

The Best of the Rest

Scoops & news breaking this morning

* Marc Daalder for Newsroom Pro-$ (free from tomorrow): The carbon market is on course to collapse in the 2030s

* Jonathan Milne for Newsroom: Attorney-General rules her own Govt’s voting crackdown breaches human rights

* Alice Peacock for Newsroom Pro-$ (free from tomorrow): Govt KiwiSaver cut ‘final nail in the coffin’ for self-employed

* Richard Harman for Politik-$: An institute established to expose corruption in politics is now being accused of playing dirty politics itself.

* Sam Sherwood for RNZ: 'Awful error': Baby dies following overdose after pharmacy allegedly gives medication at wrong dosage

* Oliver Lewis for BusinessDesk-$: The Government is considering reviving a critical freight study that was last updated using data from 2017 and 2018.

Politics, Geopolitics & Global Economy

* Jamie Ensor for NZ Herald-$: 'Divisive rhetoric': Opposition critical of Peters' immigration comments

* Jack Tame interviews Penny Simmonds for 1News’ Q+A: Job cuts as part of Govt's polytech reform necessary - Simmonds. The Vocational Education Minister told Q+A the net job losses were necessary to address unsustainable deficits.

* 1News’ Q+A profiles NZ First MP Jamie Arbuckle: 'Call me Mr Cash Man': MP seeks protection for hard currency "Cash is legal tender, and you should be able to purchase with cash," Jamie Arbuckle said.

* Column by Luke Malpass for Sunday Star Times-$: Where will Willis end up on supermarkets reform? The economic growth minister has made a big deal of supermarket competition - but what will she manage to deliver?

* Greg Ip for WSJ-$ (gift link): The Depopulation Bomb

* Reuters: US and EU clinch trade deal to avert prohibitive US tariffs, Trump says

Economy, Business & Tech

* Alka Prasad for Sunday Star Times-$: From lab to market: Startups warn research support at risk as Callaghan winds down. Even while some of its programmes will live on, the loss of the Callaghan Institute has innovators concerned about even less ability to commercialise science.

* Nadine Higgins for NZ Herald: NZ has hundreds of thousands of family trusts. Here's why most of them aren't needed

* Tom Pullar-Strecker for The Post-$: Scaffolding rules set for overhaul under health and safety reforms. Scaffolding will no longer be required for “less risky jobs” as the Government plans to allow people choose safe options “based on how dangerous the job is”.

* Dan Williams on his substack: The Case Against Social Media is Weaker Than You Think

* Juliet Speedy for Stuff: The growing economic divide between the North and South Islands

* Ava Whitworth for Stuff: Rising rents, slower sales leave traders fearing for mall's future

Housing, Transport, Infrastructure & Councils

* Julia Gabel for NZ Herald: Doubts over Govt’s hotline for road cone complaints

* Phil Pennington for RNZ: Billboard camera footage secretly used by transport agency

* Phil Pennington for RNZ: NZTA has not developed national tolling plan

* Russell Palmer for RNZ: Will the government's changes bring down building costs?

* RNZ: No penalty clauses paid on stalled Waiouru army base housing project

* OneRoof: ‘I will cry’ - House first-time buyers queued up to see sells for ‘life-changing’ sum

Health & Education

* Nikki Macdonald for The Post-$: ‘Irresponsible and dangerous’: Health NZ patient safety staff cut by 30%, Health NZ staff investigating healthcare harm and patient safety were left overstretched by a 30% cut, new documents reveal.

* NewstalkZB: 'Alarming': Christchurch hospital departments working below full staffing levels

* Deep-dive by Amelia Wade for Sunday Star Times-$: A state building project was canned, now its local school is languishing

* Jack Tame interviews Welby Ing for 1News: Top teacher: Why standardised testing, streaming doesn't work.

* Editorial by NZ Herald-$: Trust key to easing vaccine hesitancy

* Thomas Coughlan for NZ Herald-$: Waikato med school business case beats Auckland and Otago – but only just

Poverty, Living Costs, Work, Incomes, Benefits, Justice & Crime

* Amanda Gillies for Newsroom/RNZ’s The Detail: Bruised and broken - New Zealand's silent crisis

* Hannah McCallum for The Post-$: ‘I’d love to be out of a job’: Food rescue group marks five years as demand climbsWith an estimated half a million needing help to put food on the table, one of the biggest food suppliers to frontline organisations, the New Zealand Food Network, is a critical lifeline.

* Column by Rob Campbell for Newsroom: NZ wants the economic benefits of migrants without helping them

* Laine Priestley for ODT via RNZ: Dunedin near 'tipping point' amid soaring rents, charity warns

* Blayne Slabbert for The Press-$: Why the price of butter hurts more than it should

* Rob Stock for Sunday Star Times-$: MPs deluged with examples of irresponsible lending

Climate & Environment

* Ian Llewellyn for BusinessDesk-$: One of Huntly Power Station’s Rankine units will be retired in February if electricity market participants and regulators cannot agree on ways to pay for its future operation, says Genesis chief executive Malcolm Johns.

* RNZ: Taranaki mayors push for govt hydrogen help

* Ben Leahy for NZ Herald-$: Cold dread: Home 'worthless' after Auckland Council buys unit next door

* NZ Herald: 'Miscommunication': DoC backtracks over call that could have cost 700 jobs at Otago mine

* Column by Rod Carr for Sunday Star Times-$: Farmers should be careful what they wish for. Farmers are practical realists but do they know what’s in their best interests when it comes to climate policy, emissions reduction and the methane target?

* Becky Ferreira for 404Media: Scientists Report Surreal Scenes In the World’s Most Northern Town

Good news & Solutions

* Jenny Ling for Northern Advocate: 'Don’t give up': Couple who went from the streets to a home share message of hope

* RNZ: Govt removes barrier in bid to increase counsellors in public mental health

* OneRoof: Off grid and on stilts: 'Cyclone-proof' home hits market for $380,000

* Northern Advocate: New ambulance fleet hits Northland roads thanks to Grassroots Trust

* Will Harvie for The Press-$: Multi-million dollar “gifts to the nation”. Rewilding is underway and walking tracks are being cut or planned, after four donors poured money into a project in the Kaituna Valley.

* Column by Christopher Mims for WSJ-$ (gift link): The New Chips Designed to Solve AI’s Energy Problem

Docs of the Day

* Office of the Auditor General report on Providing equitable access to planned care treatment

* Seek job ads report for June showing job ads down 3% from May.

* Building & Construction Minister Chris Penk via Beehive: Building Code pause brings certainty to construction

* Building & Construction Minister Chris Penk via Beehive: Overseas products to make it cheaper to build

* Transport Minister Chris Bishop via Beehive: Reducing councils’ ridiculous use of road cones

* Interview video: Winston Peters on ‘alarming developments’ from immigration

Cartoon of the day: On the money

Ka kite ano Bernard

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thekaka.substack.com/subscribe