The Kākā by Bernard Hickey

Last night I spoke about the second inauguration of Donald Trump with Peter Bale in a ‘pop-up’ Hoon live video chat on the Substack app on phones.

Here’s the summary of the lightly edited video above:

* Trump's actions signify a shift away from international law.

* The imposition of tariffs could lead to increased inflation in the US.

* Media trust is at an all-time low, affecting public perception.

* The withdrawal from the Paris Agreement has significant global implications.

* Economic unpredictability is a major concern for New Zealand.

* Journalism faces a crisis of credibility and relevance.

* Social media's role in shaping political narratives is critical.

* The need for in-depth journalism is more pressing than ever.

* New Zealand must navigate complex trade relationships carefully.

* The political landscape is changing rapidly, requiring adaptive strategies.

Thank you Dr Bex, Joell Delamere, Kate, Philip Twycross, and many others for tuning into my live video with Peter Bale! Join me for my next live video in the app.

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

Long stories short in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Tuesday, January 21:

* PM Christopher Luxon presented his new Cabinet this week as refreshed and refocused on hustling for economic growth, but again did so without any new strategies or policies beyond doubling down on extracting and selling resources and assets to prop up a housing market with bits tacked on;

* However, nearly half all professionals and managers surveyed for recruiter Robert Walters’ 2025 salary guide don’t buy it, and are either throwing in the towel and planning to migrate themselves to Australia in the next year (42% of the 3,000 New Zealanders surveyed), or expect their employees to leave in 2025 (40% of managers surveyed);

* The economy also isn’t cooperating with the Government’s bet that lower interest rates will solve everything, with most metrics indicating per-capita GDP is still contracting faster and further than at any time since the National-alone Government of 1990-96 unleashed a series of crash-or-crash-through government spending and welfare cuts;

* The interest rate cuts being relied on by the Government to restart the housing market are also not working, as QV’s report today of flat prices and activity in December showed, with QV Operations Manager James Wilson saying: “It looks as though the economy is still in a dark place right now, and debt to income ratios should still keep a lid on things in the year ahead.”;

* The abrupt Government fee increases, funding cuts, capital freezes, spending reviews and repeals that have crashed back and forth across departmental budgets and the Cabinet in the last year have both undermined confidence in the civil construction and housebuilding sectors, and angered traditional National’s provincial supporters, let alone shocked council planners and consenters into a nationwide freeze; and,

* The most awful example of the desperation and frustration many feel about the funding cuts and limbo-like budgets is in disability funding, where parents of severely disabled children face yet more years without respite, as shown in this deeply reported feature yesterday by former DHB member Colleen Brown at The Listener (gift link)

(There is more detail, analysis and links to documents below the paywall fold and in the Dawn Chorus podcast above for paying subscribers. If we get over 100 likes from paying subscribers we’ll open it up for public reading, listening and sharing.)

‘I don’t buy all the hustle talk. I’m out of here’

Professionals and managers are voting with their passports against the Government’s hustle-harder strategy for economic growth. A survey by recruiter Robert Walters of 7,700 professionals across Australia and New Zealand (3,020 in NZ, including 97% describing themselves as managers or professionals) for its 2025 salary review found 42% of those surveyed had already decided to migrate to Australia or planned to in the next year. It found 40% of employers in New Zealand reported team members were leaving (27%) or expected them to (13%).

Gap between business confidence & activity widest ever

On the eve of Luxon’s State of the Nation address to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce tomorrow, business leaders are increasingly agitated about the lack of growth they had been told to expect last year as the Reserve Bank cut the Official Cash Rate by 125 basis points.

Westpac NZ pointed out yesterday in a note that the gap between stated confidence about the wider economy (ANZ survey with purple line in chart below) and actual activity in past three months (NZIER survey with red line) was the biggest seen since the surveys began in 1990.

“While businesses are very hopeful about the impact of lower interest rates, very few are seeing any benefit from them yet.” Westpac NZ economist in note.

Housing market also frozen & listless, despite rate cuts

The frozen-in-place nature of the economy was evident too in QV’s report today on values in the housing market in December. QV’s House Price Index fell another 0.3% in December from November and remains 15% below its 2021 peak.

QV Operations Manager James reported he was seeing little growth and pointed to the RBNZ’s Debt To Income multiple controls in July last year as a factor holding market back in the face of lower interest rates. Here’s his comments (bolding mine):

“It’s been ‘steady as she goes’ throughout much of last year, and it looks like it’s going to stay that way for a while yet. It’s a new year, but the same restraining factors are still very much at play – including sustained weakness in the labour market, a high cost of living, credit constraints, and a surplus of properties for sale on the market today.

“The marked uplift in demand for housing that has come as a direct a result of falling interest rates hasn’t yet converted into any significant price pressure, so we’re only seeing very small pockets of growth.

“In the longer term, I expect we will see more growth this year than last, but with rising unemployment and such a high level of economic uncertainty, there are currently no indications that house prices are suddenly going to go from flat to flat-out in the immediate future.

“We can expect to see more investors return to the market throughout 2025, especially if interest rates drop markedly further. That will put a bit of price pressure on first-home buyers, who have picked up a larger share of the market in recent times. But it looks as though the economy is still in a dark place right now, and debt to income ratios should still keep a lid on things in the year ahead.”

The standoff was also evident in Barfoot & Thompson figures for Auckland released on January 7, which showed sales volumes fell 2.7% in December from a year ago, while new listings rose 16% and total stock rose 17%.

‘The cruelty is immense’

This deeply-reported Listener (gift link) feature by Colleen Brown on the effects of a freeze on disability funding is a sobering example of just how frustrated and angry many are with the unnecessary fiscal medicine and mean approach of the Government.

Here’s a few examples in the article:

Finding answers on how to care for her daughter has meant Hoskins has been grilled by health professionals about her parenting skills. She has trialled new treatments and had to manage relationships between her family and myriad different agencies to help Hineraumati live as well as possible.

Former minister Simmonds’ claims of carers spending public money on items like pedicures and massages deeply affected Hoskins. She felt stigmatised.

“This job of looking after Hineraumati is relentless. I can’t just hand her over to someone else,” she says. “I’ve had people question us about the funding we get for Hineraumati – I feel judged.

“The minister cast us all into one category – frittering our money away on painting our nails. Those comments play into all kinds of negative stereotypes.”

An email on November 22 from Claudia’s NASC stated that the current government “pause” for residential care would remain in place beyond June 2025 except in extreme cases that the family will never meet. “We have had one holiday in 26 years without Claudia,” McKenzie says. “I have no hope left. Louise Upston has put a full stop on hope in our family. It feels like a sentence. The same system that tells us to get on with it has abandoned us.

“This slams the door on our future freedom, our identity away from our daughter and happiness. The cruelty, the toll it has taken, is immense.”

A lack of trust in government, feelings of despair, and grief are spoken about constantly by the disability community, particularly on social media. The families spoken to by the Listener are typical of hundreds across New Zealand.

Cartoon of the day

Timeline-cleansing nature pic

Ka kite anō

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

Long story short: I chatted last night with Greater Auckland’s Connor Sharp on the substack app about the appointment of Chris Bishop to replace Simeon Brown as Transport Minister. We talked through their different approaches and whether there’s much room for Bishop to reverse many of the anti-cycling measures Brown adopted.

Our chat was based on this post yesterday from Connor:

Join me for my next live video in the app

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

Last night I chatted with Northland emergency doctor Dr Gary Payinda on the substack app for subscribers about whether the appointment of Simeon Brown to replace Shane Reti as Health Minister. We discussed whether the new minister can turn around decades of under-funding in real and per-capita terms.

Our chat followed his publication of this post:

After our chat, he posted this piece on his background and what he’s doing now.

We also talked about his post from Saturday on privately provided healthcare.

Join me for my next live video in the app

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

Long stories short to start the year in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate:

* Christopher Luxon fired Shane Reti as Health Minister and replaced him with Simeon Brown, who Luxon sees as National’s most politically effective minister, but who will have to manage hospitals and health with the same budget;

* Luxon said the reshuffle was all about re-focusing the Government on restarting economic growth, but the main changes were in the big spending areas of Health and Transport, and the reshuffle came straight after a bad poll;

* Big businesses are increasingly impatient with a lack of economic growth in the wake of the Government’s blunt fiscal tightening last year and its early-2024 freezing of spending on building state houses, local roads, school buildings and hospital re-builds;

* Retail spending was sluggish again over summer and manufacturing contracted in December for its 22nd consecutive month, which was more than twice as long a contraction than during the Global Financial Crisis of 2008;

* Luxon’s reshuffle hasn’t changed the self-imposed budget rules forcing the politically painful and economically unnecessary cuts in health, housing, welfare and transport;

* The personnel changes also haven’t changed the fundamental incentives in the economy rewarding households for investing in residential property, rather than real businesses.

(There is more detail, analysis and links to documents below the paywall fold and in the podcast above for paying subscribers. If we get over 100 likes we’ll open it up for public reading, listening and sharing.)

Luxon fires Reti and flicks hospital pass to Brown

PM Christopher Luxon yesterday announced his first major Cabinet reshuffle, replacing Health Minister Shane Reti with Simeon Brown, along with handing over Brown’s Transport ministry to Chris Bishop and his Energy and Local Government portfolios to Climate Change Minister Simon Watts.

The reshuffle came after the publication on Friday of a Curia poll of voters from January 9-13 that found Labour leapfrogging National to be the most popular party for the first time since April 2023.

The poll also found voters thought the country was going in the wrong direction for the first time since April last year and by the most since before the election.

Big business increasingly nervous about economy

Another Curia poll for Datacom in December of 200 senior business leaders found 77% saw economic uncertainty as a threat to their business over the next 12 months, up from 13% immediately after the Government’s election a year ago.

Initial reports over the last week from Worldline, ANZ, Westpac and Retail NZ of spending in shops, cafes, bars and restaurants suggest spending over the summer has been more sluggish than expected, despite 125 basis points of rate cuts in the last six months.

Also, the BusinessNZ-BNZ survey of manufacturing found the sector contracted for the 22nd consecutive month in December, and the first time ever that it has contracted for all 12 months of a calendar year. The previous worst was in the Global Financial Crisis with nine months of contraction.

Briefly elsewhere:

There was fresh turmoil in the health sector in first weeks of the year, with cuts in key public health roles and a shocking abandonment of a non-profit hospital for operations. The Post-$$$’s Joanne Naish

The freeze in building of more affordable housing deepened in early January with confirmation Kāinga Ora has shut down a 50-home development in Ruakākā in Northland. Northern Advocate’s Denise Piper

Chart of the day:

Cartoon of the day

Timeline-cleansing nature pic

Ka kite anō

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

Mōrena. Long stories short, the six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty in the week to Saturday, December 21 (Gravy Day) are:

* Nicola Willis pledged this week to cut public spending even harder to reduce public indebtedness after learning the first year of austerity had already helped cause New Zealand’s worst recession since Ruth Richardson’s Mother of All Budgets in 1991, and was making it even harder to reduce debt/GDP because the strategy to cut debt to GDP was increasing debt and reducing GDP;

* Simeon Brown and Christopher Luxon doubled down on blaming councils for reckless spending on pet projects for double-digit rate increases, even though councils rightly accuse the Government itself of causing the rates increases by cutting capital grants;

* This week’s recession news and the Treasury’s massive downgrading of its productivity forecasts reinforced the current Government’s lack of a strategy to pivot to productivity;

* The OECD and IMF have repeatedly advised New Zealand Governments of both flavours that a pivot to productivity would need to see capital and wealth taxed in ways similar to other countries (as opposed to not at all) and for an economic and legal restructuring to massively increase competition;

* MSD reported this week it is now rejecting around 220 pleas each day for emergency food grants to save money, just as food banks reported surges in demand and funding cuts by the Government. Meanwhile, about 220 workers are emigrating each day because low wages aren’t enough to cover high rents, electricity bills and food bills; and,

* Despite its self-professed ‘Going for Housing Growth’ strategy, we learned this week the Government has blocked Kāinga Ora was developing land near Tauranga for over 30,000 houses and has reversed plans to build over 1,000 new homes next year, event though they are consented and land is available. Meanwhile, I understand Kāinga Ora has decided to dissolve its LEAD Alliance partnership with private builders, engineers and lawyers in Auckland that was designed to build up to $200 million worth of homes each year.

(Normally there’s more in the podcast above and in the detail below the paywall for paying subscribers only, including the daily Pick ‘n’ Mix Six, Chart du Jour, Quote du Jour, Cartoon du Jour, and a Timeline-Cleansing nature pic. But on this last day of the ‘Gravy Day Fortnight’, we have opened everything up to give everyone a taste of the public interest journalism paying subscribers support. Here’s the introductory ‘Gravy Day’ deal ending midnight tonight of 50% for a year for new subscribers, which equals $9.50/month and $95/year. The subscription price reverts to the full price after a year, unless you stop automatic renewal. All prices include GST.

We also have year-round subscription deals for particular people who would like to contribute and be full subscribers, but can’t quite afford the normal $19/month or $190/year. The deals are:

* for people under 30 ($3/month or $30/year) here;

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* Totally free for students and teachers and staff of schools, universities and polytechs who register for the free version with their .ac.nz or .school.nz email addresses. We automatically upgrade you in the backend. If you’ve been missed, yet flick us a message.

‘The floggings will continue until morale improves’

The Government ploughed ahead with an even more aggressive austerity programme this week after being told its own spending cuts this year and high interest rates had created the deepest recession since the 1991 Mother of All Budgets, which PM Christopher Luxon has referred to as the lesson we needed to relearn from 35 years ago of ‘tightening our belt’ and ‘living within our means’.

The results this week of that austerity programme included:

* the cancellation of a pilot that allowed Māori and Pacific people to access bowel cancer screening starting from the age of 50;

* the collapse of obstetric services at Whakatāne hospital;

* the sacking of over 1,000 IT workers that hospital staff have warned will lead to deaths;

* the cutting of funds for food banks and tougher criteria for emergency food grants from MSD;

* the cancellation of over 1,000 new house builds by Kāinga Ora next year; and,

* the cutting of funding for a successful immunisation programme for Māori and Pacifica, just as doctors warned of a whooping cough epidemic.

“Who's the first one they cut? Us. They're cutting back on all of these things to do with Māori development or Pasifika… so I'm not at all surprised. It's just going to be: keep cutting.” Tilly Turner, a Māori ward councillor, on news of the cancellation of the bowel cancer test trial.

See more details here:

* Successful immunisation programme has funding cut RNZ

* Some Auckland foodbanks may close due to funding cuts RNZ

* Report shows risks from cutting hospital IT staff RNZ

* Govt ends bowel cancer screening programme for Māori and Pacific RNZ

* Obstetrics cuts ‘devastating’, mayors say RNZ

* 'There will be deaths because of this' - warning over Health NZ IT cuts RNZ

Coalition blames councils for rate hikes it caused

The National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government announced this week a new set of reports on council financial performance and suggested capping rates increases, accusing councils of reckless spending on ‘pet projects’ and blaming councils for double-digit rate increases this year.

Mayors and councillors hit back, accusing the Government of cutting capital grants and increasing fees for water, roading, bus and cycling infrastructure. The problem for the Government, and by extension its own ambitions to ramp up infrastructure spending to build more houses, is it needs the active cooperation and spending of councils.

“The Government just said they want us to keep rates low, yet they’re forcing a rates increase,” Christchurch City Councillor Jani Johanson via The Press

Where’s the strategy to revive productivity?

New Zealand’s GDP per capita suffered its worst recession since the 1991 recession in the June and September quarters, thanks in large part to interest rates being higher and for longer than in other countries and the Government arresting the development of new houses, schools, local roads and hospitals in the March quarter and unleashed 10,000 job cuts in the public service.

Treasury also reported this week it had lowered its productivity forecasts for years to come, which was reflected in its downgrading of its forecast size of the economy out to 2029, a reduction in taxes and a $20 billion increase in the Government’s borrowing requirements.

Yet there is no suggestion from the Government of it adopting any of the recommendations of the likes of the Productivity Commission (which it dismanted), the OECD, the IMF and countless tax working groups and official inquiries that New Zealand’s Government needs:

* to change incentives for savings and investment in more business equipment and IP, infrastructure, training and R&D, both public and private, and less savings and leveraged investment in residential land; and,

* to improve competition across major sectors of our economy that are currently dominated by quadropolies (banking and electricity), duopolies (supermarkets and building materials) and monopolies (airlines and insurance).

The policy changes that actually address productivity

That pivot to productivity would involve policy changes by the Government to:

* tax residential land values, wealth in assets, deceased estates and income from capital gains in some form, as is done in other countries;

* incentivise household savings and investment in pension funds, as is done in other countries; and,

* aggressively increase public investment in infrastructure such as public transport, health, education and housing, to trigger private investment that often piggybacks on top of new public transport, new housing, new hospitals and new schools.

The current Government has rejected all these policies and has pledged instead to reduce the size of Government from over 34% of GDP to 30%, while also reducing public debt from over 40% of GDP to closer to 30%. The theory is that will reduce inflation and encourage households and businesses to step forward to take on more debt to invest and spend in the areas of the economy where the Government steps back.

The problem is the strategy has been tested many times over the last 30 years and the results have been studied by the IMF, World Bank and OECD. Repeatedly, they have advised against austerity, especially in a recession and especially to fund tax cuts for the wealthiest, given that cash is often saved in bank accounts, rather than spent or invest, or is used for yet-more leveraged investment in residential land for tax-free income from capital gains.

No wonder workers are bailing out of the austerity economy

This week it was reported MSD is now rejecting around 220 pleas for emergency food grants each week because it has toughened its criteria and processes for approvals to save just over $20 million a year.

Coincidentally, perhaps, that 220 rejections is the same number of New Zealand residents emigrating permanently each day.

New Zealander Poreva Kirikava moved with his family of five to Sydney a week ago. He paid A$380 for his first grocery shop, where he told the Daily Mail Australia the same shopping trip would have cost NZ$1,000. His case emerged after he sent out a TikTok saying how he felt after realising the difference in living costs between Australia and New Zealand. Here’s what he said:

“After we did the food shopping, I'm bawling my eyes out because in New Zealand, there were moments where we thought we weren't going to eat.”

‘Reflecting on one occasion, he remembered one of his kids looking for snacks in the pantry cupboard, only to find nothing.

“'He'd say, "Daddy, there's nothing to eat... There's no snacks". And I would go angry. Today, I realised I wasn't angry because he was hungry or there were no snacks, it was because I felt that I wasn't able to provide.” Poreva Kirikava via TikTok

When ‘going for growth’ means stopping new builds

This week we learned the Government had blocked a plan being led by Kāinga Ora in Tauranga to develop enough greenfields land for over 30,000 houses to be built over the next 20 years.

We also learned the Government had cancelled 60% of Kāinga Ora’s new builds next year, or over 1,000 new homes, even though the land for them was already bought, the consents were consented and there are builders unemployed all over the place.

I’m also reliably informed from sources in and around Kāinga Ora that it decided this week to shut down its LEAD Alliance that designs and delivers large-scale housing projects in Auckland. It was created by Kāinga Ora in 2018 with construction firms Dempsey Wood, Hick Bros Group, engineers Tonkin + Taylor and Woods, and law firm Harrison Grierson to build $200 million worth of homes each year.

This memo was sent internally to staff this week from a senior executive notifying that “we have made the decision to close down LEAD Alliance,” adding:

Due to the programme of work reducing, and project delivery timeframes moving out, there have been increases to costs that have reduced the value of an alliance delivery model.

We know that there has been a lot of work in recent years (and particularly around the reset and contract extension process in 2023) to lift the performance of the alliance. This work has been successful and the alliance is now running very well with consistent and predictable programme, costs to complete, communications and interface with Kāinga Ora.

However, we have determined that LEAD Alliance will not be able to deliver the flexibility and cost efficiencies we require in our current operating context and no longer suits our needs.

Kāinga Ora, as the Owner-Participant, will supply formal notice to the alliance on Friday 31 January, and that notice will also include confirmation of the work packages that will proceed in the existing alliance model, and those that will either pause or change. Kainga Ora internal memo.

The memo went on to say Kāinga Ora would finish existing projects over the next two years.

The Top Six in the Pick ‘n’ Mixes for Saturday, December 21

* Health & Te Ao Māori Govt ends bowel cancer screening programme for Māori and Pacific RNZ’s Mary Afemata

* Health & austerity Obstetrics cuts ‘devastating’, mayors say RNZ’s Diane McCarthy

* Health & austerity 'There will be deaths because of this' - warning over Health NZ IT cuts Lee Scanlon for Westport’s The News via RNZ

* Education & privatisation: Polytechs could go up for sale when Te Pūkenga is disestablishedRNZ’s John Gerritsen

* Feature by Charlie Mitchell in The Weekend Press-$: The agricultural lobbying that preceded Government freshwater intervention. Hundreds of pages of emails show the extent of farming groups lobbying for freshwater changes - in some cases followed by Government action.

* Column by Janet Wilson in The Weekend Post-$ Year 1 of the coalition: struggling economy and a stumbling PM. He enters his second year as Prime Minister as the weakest leader in the coalition, a nowhere man who stands for nothing and falls for everything.

The Best of the Rest: Pick ‘n’ Mixes for Sat, Dec 20

I’m now publishing this on Substack only to avoid cluttering these emails up with too many links, which seem to be triggering a few spam filters, which is death to a newsletter writer. Just click through to the full list here:

Quote du Jour: ‘Just drive from Ruatoria to Tauranga’

“There's a risk issue. If it turns out your pregnancy is not working out well and you have to get in an ambulance and head to Tauranga, that's problematic. I'm not quite sure if this is a temporary thing or if there's a hidden agenda to cut services.” Whakatāne Mayor Dr Victor Luca via RNZ on the collapse of obstetrics services at Whakatāne hospital this week.

Chart du Jour: The MAB (Mother of All Budgets)

Cartoon du Jour: A political scorpion

Timeline-cleansing nature pic: ‘I’m off to the beach’

Mā te wā. Bernard

PS: This is the last Saturday Soliloquy for 2024. I’ll be restarting publishing of Dawn Choruses and the occasional Saturday Soliloquy from January 13.

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

Mōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, December 20 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above and the daily Pick ‘n’ Mix below are:

* Statistics NZ reported GDP fell 1.0% in the September quarter from the June quarter, which was more than twice as bad as most economists forecast and meant the economy experienced its worst recession since 1991.

* The recession was caused by the Reserve Bank hiking rates higher and for longer than other countries, along with the new Government launching the most aggressive austerity since Ruth Richardson’s Mother of All Budgets in 1991.

* Nicola Willis blamed the recession on the previous Labour Government for creating high inflation and the resulting Reserve Bank response, while Chris Hipkins blamed the Government’s austerity. See more in Quotes du Jour below.

* The Government's first report under the Paris Agreement gave no answers on where it will find 84 million tonnes of emissions reductions currently missing from it's climate plans, putting trade deals with the UK & EU in jeopardy.

* The Government has delayed committing to filling the gap by buying emissions credits overseas, partly because starting to buy credits would force Treasury to recognise the entire gap as a liability of up to $23 billion. RNZ’s Eloise Gibson.

* The Ministry for the Environment announced quietly yesterday the Government had dumped plans for council kerbside recycling and food scraps collections and removed its 2025 deadline for a third tranche of plastic phase-outs.

(Normally at this point we would have a paywall for free subscribers and only paying subscribers could both listen to the Dawn Chorus podcast above and read the analysis below. But during our ‘Gravy Day Fortnight’, we have opened everything up to give everyone a taste of the public interest journalism paying subscribers support. Here’s the deal ending Sunday.

The Top Six in the Pick ‘n’ Mixes

* Health & austerity: Deeply disturbing, demoralising, distressing and retrograde' - experts slam palliative care staff cut plan. The Post-$’s Nikki Macdonald

* Austerity & justice: Prisoner's wife slams decision to slash phone call times RNZ’s

* Poverty & austerity: Fifth of beneficiaries paid too little, MSD survey shows RNZ

* Austerity & politics: Roger Douglas says ACT taken over by libertarians and bankrupting NZ NZ Herald’s Thomas Coughlan

* Austerity: Fears for whānau as hospital's obstetric services collapse RNZ’s

* Climate & democracy: Newsroom calls for entries for the Rod Oram Memorial Essay Prize from young writers describing “what we must do now to ensure future generations live well in Aotearoa NZ.”

The Best of the Rest: Pick ‘n’ Mixes for Friday, Dec 20

Scoops & news breaking this morning

* Housing & poverty: Gang members occupied vacant Kāinga Ora land, put up marquee after request declined Stuff’s Marty Sharpe

* Health & austerity: No budget for psychiatric beds despite being over capacity RNZ’s Jimmy Ellingham

* Housing & economy: Winton Land 'pauses' $750m Wynyard plans, offers buyers refunds for 152 apartments. CEO says ‘We want to get the timing in the cycle right. NZ Herald-$’s Anne Gibson

* Electricity & austerity: Council’s electricity costs jump 53% The Post-$’s Tina Law

* Geopolitics & economics: US Congress has two days to avert shutdown after Trump rejects spending bill Reuters

* Climate: US sets new Paris climate target that Trump is expected to ignore Reuters

News yesterday and news previews

* Politics & Te Tiriti: PM Luxon will not attend Waitangi at all next year RNZ

* Poltics: Government to change free speech rules for universities RNZ

* Economy & migration: 190 workers may lose visas as company folds amid migrant exploitation probe RNZ

* Economy & austerity: Restaurant and cafe sales down RNZ

* Business: Greg Foran signals more turbulent times ahead Stuff

* Economics: Fed lowers rates but sees fewer cuts next year Reuters

Signs o’ the times news

* Infrastructure & politics: Council votes to ease into water charges Stuff

* Austerity: Hamilton Gardens rakes in cash, but visitor numbers drop Stuff

* Te Tiriti: Teachers’ union to file Waitangi claim Newsroom’s Laura Walters

* Climate: Oil Sector Lobbies Trump to Spare It from Tariffs and Regulation AP

* Climate & politics: Nuclear bunker sales are booming AP

* Climate: China’s getting big electric car battery swapping boost. AP

Solutions & good news

* Housing: Families move into Ōrākei housing development NZ Herald

* Te Ao Māori: Expanded foodbank finds recipe for survival RNZ’s Pokere Paiwai

* Climate & transport: Biggest repair job in region's history ends RNZ

* Health & poverty: Māori asthma hospitalisation rates fall RNZ’s Emma Andrews

* Te Ao Māori: Access to Tāne Mahuta restored RNZ’s Peter de Graaf

* Climate: Global warming can’t be ignored, Montana court says, AP

Deep-dives, interviews, features & analysis

* Climate: Significant gap in government's first Paris report RNZ’s Eloise Gibson

* Housing: ‘Housing minster called out over state home hold-up“. The Post-$

* Health: ‘Everyone’s disappointed’ as gym for ‘all walks of life’ shuts down Stuff

* Environment & Kākās: Could NZ’s two kākā subspecies actually be remnants of a more diverse species? The Conversation

* Explainer: ‘How balcony solar is taking off in Germany The Guardian

* Explainer: Ireland’s data centres now consume too much of its energy AP

Columns and op-eds

* Op-Ed by Philippa Howden-Chapman & Claire Aspinall in NZ Herald: No room at the inn for homeless Kiwis needing help at Xmas

* Op-Ed by Uni of Otago and Uni of Otago researchers in Newsroom: Wheels off the bus: bikes on buses do us good

* Op-ED by Robert MacCulloch in The Post-$: How the Government’s Green Investment Fund turned us into predatory lenders

* Column by Josie Pagani in The Post-$ The Christmas guide to post-woke

* Op-Ed by Myles Thomas in The Post-$: Another do-nothing media minister

* Op-Ed in PHCC: Treaty Principles Bill threatens public health and equity

Official reports, statistics, academic papers & data sets

* Economy: Statistics NZ reported GDP fell 1.0% in the September quarter.

* Health & poverty: Health NZ’s Q3 report showed immunisation rates for toddlers fell further and patients waited longer for specialist appointments. RNZ

* Housing & investing: Massey University’s David White published his thesis titled The Impact of Residential Property Investors on House Price Escalation in Auckland New Zealand, finding “sustained over-pricing by investors caused by an over-estimation of capital gain and an under-estimation of downside market risks.” Massey release & RNZ

* Economy & business: ANZ’s Business Outlook survey for December found business confidence eased 3 points to +62, but expected own activity rose 2 points.

* Poverty & austerity: MSD published its first Full and Correct Entitlement (FACE) report showing 32% of the 1,432 beneficiaries surveyed between July 2022 and June 2023 received less than their full entitlement, while 8% received more. The report was recommend by the 2019 Welfare Experts Advisory Group (WEAG).

* Climate & geopolitics: The UNFCCC published New Zealand’s first Biennial Transparency Report on how Aotearoa will achieve its Paris targets.

Quotes du Jour: Differing views

“With the climate that's happening now, the economic climate, a lot of whānau can't afford the rent because of the high cost of living. A lot of our whānau have lost their jobs due to working for the public sector or businesses have closed down so it's really hit home." Ngāti Toa’s Naomi Siania via RNZ’s Pokere Paiwai

“These are the scars on our economy caused by a government that was reckless in it's spending, drove up inflation and left the Reserve Bank to slam on the brakes, that flowed through into the real economy. We always said our job was to get inflation under control, to get interest rates falling so that growth could revive. We've made massive progress on that this year, and so now our task is to drive that growth engine even faster.” Nicola Willis

Chart du Jour: ‘Bill English was no Ruth Richardson’

Cartoon du Jour: The finishing touches

Timeline-cleansing nature pic: Flax fest

Mā te wā. 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 & Peter Bale talking about the year’s news with:

* Cathrine Dyer on climate. Her book of the year was Tim Winton’s cli-fi novel Juice and she also mentioned Mike Joy’s memoir The Fight for Fresh Water. Cathrine’s person of the year was David Seymour.

* Robert Patman on geopolitics. His book of the year was Terence O’Brien’s Consolations of Insignificance: A New Zealand Diplomatic Memoir, which was also Helen Clark’s book of the year, and Robert’s person of the year was Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

* Helen Clark on geopolitics and local politics. Her person of the year was Donald Trump.

* Elaine Monaghan on US politics and geopolitics. Her book of the year was Marsha Linehan’s memoir Building a Life Worth Living. Her person of the year was Mazen al Hamada, a Syrian activist who was tortured by the Syrian regime, left Syria in 2013, returned four years ago, was captured, tortured again and killed just before the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad. ABC

* Josie Pagani on geopolitics and local politics. Here book of the year was Tony Blair’s On Leadership and her person of the year was fictional UK Labour MP Fiona Wilson. UK Press Association

* Peter Bale book of the year was Richard Flanagan’s memoir Question 7 and his person of the year was Gisèle Pelicot, the French woman who came forward to testify in the rape trial of her husband, Dominique Pelicot, who was jailed last night for 20 years. The Guardian

* Bernard Hickey’s podcast of the year was The Spinoff’s Juggernaut podcast on the fourth Labour Government by Toby Manhire & Te Aihe Butler. His person of the year was Simeon Brown in Aotearoa, and Donald Trump internationally.

Each of the panellists and hosts also gave their predictions for 2025 near the end. Listen to the podcast to find out what they were. :)

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 was the last Hoon for 2024. Our first Hoon of 2025 will be on Thursday, January 23 (not not January 16 as mentioned in the podcast), although this could change with events…dear boy.

(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.)

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

Mōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, December 19 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above and the daily Pick ‘n’ Mix below are:

* MSD is rejecting almost one in every 16 requests for food grants, more than double the rejection rate last year after policies were toughened up under the new Government in an effort to save $12.7 million a year, RNZ’s Amy Williams reported last night. MSD figures show rejections rose to 60,579 in the nine months to the end of September, up from 36,945 in the same period a year ago under the Labour Government. That means MSD is now rejecting around 220 applications each day. Coincidentally, perhaps, about 220 residents are migrating permanently each day, more than half to Australia.

* Nearing Christmas Eve, Salvation Army reports demand for food donations has surged so much it now requires hungry families to wait for an appointment, with its Manukau food bank now having appointments to see 120 people a day, up from 48 a day last year. See more in Quotes du Jour below.

* MSD now requires an extra sign-off from a manager to get a grant and an assurance from the applicant that they will see a budgeting service first because, it says, applicants who could have foreseen their food shortage were rejected. See more in Quotes du Jour below.

* North Harbour Budgeting Service reports it’s now seeing families with two working parents coming in to ask for help and food after being rejected by MSD, but it can no longer provide supermarket vouchers because it was one of the 44 financial mentoring charities who had their funding cut this year.

* Kāinga Ora has cancelled 60% of its new social house-building projects for 2025, meaning 1,019 planned homes will not be built, with only 35% of the 1,565 already-consented homes will be built next year, Nikki Preston reports this morning via OneRoof from documents obtained under the OIA. The cancelled homes include 86 that were consented and ready to go in Onehunga and Ōtara, not far from the Salvation Army’s food bank, and not that far from the International Terminal at Mangere Airport. See more from one of the migrants in Quotes du Jour.

* The Government cancelled the building programme and is cutting food bank and financial mentoring spending in order to reduce Government debt because it fears lenders may push up interest rates if it borrows more. Bond yields initially rose four basis points to 4.41% after a surprise $20 billion increase in the Government’s borrowing requirement on Tuesday, but fell back to be unchanged at the end of the day. The Government is cutting spending in ways that make thousands of hungry children even hungrier, while also cutting funding for the charities that help them. It’s also doing that while winding back new building of affordable housing that would allow parents to afford food for their kids.

(Normally at this point we would have a paywall for free subscribers and only paying subscribers could both listen to the Dawn Chorus podcast above and read the analysis and detail below in the Pick ‘n’ Mix. But during our ‘Gravy Day Fortnight’ until this Sunday, we have opened everything up for all to give everyone a full taste of the public interest journalism your subscription supports. And here’s our ‘Gravy Day Fortnight’ deal that ends on Sunday.)

The Top Six in the Pick ‘n’ Mix

* Poverty & Austerity: More declined food grants put more pressure on foodbanks RNZ’s Amy Williams

* Housing & Austerity: Kāinga Ora axes 60% of social housing projects planned for 2025 One Roof’s Nikki Preston

* Infrastructure & Politics: Simeon Brown lays the groundwork to intervene in councils’ water plans The Post’s Thomas Manch

* Living costs & Migration: Kiwi in Australia brought to tears by cheap cost of supermarket shop Stuff’s Poppy Clark

* Infrastructure & Electricity: 'We thought it was a mistake': $25k power connection blindsides couple 1News’ Mava Moayyed

* Politics & Te Tiriti: Opinion by Melanie Nelson in E-tangata The ‘dangerous’ bill flying under the radar

The Pick ‘n’ Mixes of the best of the rest for Thurs, Dec 19

Scoops & news breaking this morning

* Housing & Courts: Winton’s Kāinga Ora lawsuit balloons to $305m-plus Newsroom’s Andrew Bevin

* Jobs & Migration: Labour hire company at centre of immigration investigation, ProlinkNZ, collapses with loss of almost 200 jobs Stuff’s Esther Taunton

* Jobs & Austerity 2k job losses in Wellington not 20k, Stats NZ says in admitting error The Post’s Frances Chin

* Transport & Austerity: Transport spending faces ‘unsustainable gap’ – Treasury BusinessDesk-$’s Oliver Lewis

* Health & Austerity: Under 50’s in NZ second most likely to get cancer The Post’s Mariné Lourens

* Politics & Parliament: Opposition parties move towards 'formalising' collaboration RNZ Russell Palmer

News yesterday and News previews

* Justice & Austerity: ‘It’s pathetic:’ Lake Alice survivor says $150,000 govt payment not enough Stuff’s Glenn McConnell & Bridie Witton

* Living Costs & Economy: Commerce Commission wants to slash card fees to save consumers $260m per year 1News

* Health & Politics: Construction of mental health unit goes to tender before approval RNZ

* Media & Democracy News on TVNZ restructure due in coming days RNZ

* Housing & Politics: Government consults on engineered stone benchtop ban RNZ

* Justice & Business: Company director escapes jail in first criminal cartel case RNZ

Signs o’ the times news

* Health & Austerity: 45 jobs gone as school lunch contract ends Wairarapa Times Age’s Kate Judson

* Health & Misinformation: Whangārei District Council threatens injunction over fluoridation 1News

* Transport & Politics: Highway tolls to reach vital services unfair: Kāpiti Coast mayor Stuff

* Health & Austerity: Rainbow mental health service wants review of funding rules. OutLine faces closure if it can’t raise the $200,000 Stuff’s Jenna Lynch

* Housing & Climate: Christchurch councillors may renege on a decision to rule out using valuable land in the arts precinct for car parking. The Press’ Sinead Gill

* Infrastructure & Austerity: Efforts to make Christchurch developers pay a greater share of infrastructure upgrades delayed The Press’ Sinead Gill

Solutions & Good News

* Media & Democracy: This popular town's newspaper, The Taupo Times, was closing. And then the editor stepped up NZ Herald-$’s Shayne Currie

* Environment & Te Ao Māori: Taupō hapū to restore public access to popular lakeside reserve The Waikato Times

* Migration & Health: Support for Vanuatu RSE workers after earthquake The Press

* Te Ao Māori & Justice: Mind-blowing' amounts of stolen pounamu recovered in drug raids RNZ’s Layla Bailey-McDowell

* Environment & Parliament: A member’s bill by Green MP Celia Wade Brown would see all domestic cats microchipped and registered Stuff’s Marty Sharpe

* Climate & Business: Inside Golden Bay's crusade to be coal free BusinessDesk-$’s Rebecca Stevenson

Deep-dives, interviews, features & analysis

* Infrastructure & Politics: Councils worry that ‘local water’ autonomy is illusory, liability is costly Newsroom’s Jonathan Milne

* Politics & Environment: Zombies given new life as fast-track passes into law Newsroom’s Fox Meyer

* Politics & Environment: After a long, twisty, turny trip, fast-track bill becomes law RNZ’s Farah Hancock

* Infrastructure: Two fast-track projects collide BusinessDesk-$’s Maria Slade

* Op-Ed by Paul Spoonley in The Post: Research cuts put revival of international education in jeopardy

* Health & Politics: The Making of a Mental Health Rockstar. Does Mike King’s popularity come with a big dose of impunity? Jess McAllen via David Farrier’s Webworm substack.

Columns, Op-Eds, Editorials & Letters to Editors & Open Letters

* Column by Virginia Fallon in The Post: ‘Well done everyone’: the PM goes to a foodbank

* Op-Ed by Dr Ryan Ward in Newsroom: The long neoliberal con

* Column by The Herald-$’s Thomas Coughlan Treasury gave Labour an open goal, somehow they missed it.

* Letter by Vivien Fergusson to NZ Herald-$ Government’s austerity drive doesn’t apply to the rich

* Opinion by Rebecca Sinclair on her substack. "A decent chap.” The manipulative messaging of David Seymour.

* Labour MP Arena Williams speaking in Parliament about the Fast-Track bill. ‘This is the closest NZ has ever come to cronyism through the legislative process.’

Official Reports, Statistics, Studies, Academic Papers & Data Sets

* The Whole of System (Core Crown) Report on Treaty Settlement Delivery outlines how 26 core Crown agencies assessed their progress in meeting their Treaty settlement commitments. He Korowai Whakamana whole of system report

* MPI issued a Request for Information Partnering to plant trees on Crown-owned land. Overview: Partnering to plant trees on Crown-owned land

* University of Canterbury researchers found cycleways are better for house prices

* Statistics NZ: Quarterly current account deficit $6.2 billion

* Bank survey: Westpac McDermott Miller Consumer Confidence in Q4

* Bank survey: BNZ Seek Job Ads report for November

Quotes of the day: ‘Austerity & hunger vs 4 basis points’

“The government's turning down people for food, they're sending them to foodbanks. Now they're not funding foodbanks. Foodbanks around the country are either overstretched like ourselves or they're starting to close down." Salvation Army Food security manager Sonya Cameron via RNZ’s Amy Williams.

‘But I need even bigger spending cuts’

Asked how the Government would pay for police, education and the state care abuse pay out, Finance Minister Nicola Willis said it would require further savings.

“One, we've made a very clear message to ministers, the only new initiatives to be funded in the next year’s budget due to our fiscal situation are those which are absolutely essential. Two, we are expecting further savings from across agencies, from across bureaucracy.

“Three, we have set an expectation that, with a few exceptions, government departments will not be receiving additional funding in next year's budget.” Nicola Willis via The Post’s Anna Whyte

‘My kids aren’t hungry any more. Because we moved to Australia.’

New Zealander Poreva Kirikava moved with his family of five to Sydney a week ago. He paid A$380 for his first grocery shop, where he told the Daily Mail Australia the same shopping trip would have cost NZ$1,000. His case emerged after he sent out a TikTok (below) saying how he felt after realising the difference in living costs between Australia and New Zealand. Here’s what he said:

“After we did the food shopping, I'm bawling my eyes out because in New Zealand, there were moments where we thought we weren't going to eat.”

‘Reflecting on one occasion, he remembered one of his kids looking for snacks in the pantry cupboard, only to find nothing.

“'He'd say, "Daddy, there's nothing to eat... There's no snacks". And I would go angry. Today, I realised I wasn't angry because he was hungry or there were no snacks, it was because I felt that I wasn't able to provide.” Poreva Kirikava in the TikTok below.

Cartoon du Jour: Lower debt trumps justice & humanity

Timeline-cleansing nature pic: Our version of Bluesky

Mā te wā. 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

Mōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, December 18 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above and the daily Pick ‘n’ Mix below are:

* Finance Minister Nicola Willis has pledged to find even more public spending cuts to achieve an earlier return to Budget surplus than the 2028/29 year forecast yesterday by Treasury, which bank economists have said would require even more aggressive austerity than seen after Ruth Richardson’s ‘Mother of All Budgets’ from 1991 to 1993. Willis blamed Treasury for lowering its productivity assumptions and Labour’s spending for the worsening Budget outlook.

* Treasury’s lowering of growth and tax forecasts yesterday has also increased the Government’s borrowing plans over the next four years by $20 billion, which was three times more than bank economists expected. Market interest rates for Government bonds rose around four basis points to 4.51% in the hour or so after the surprise increase was announced, but then eased to close unchanged at 4.47% to show the Government may fear Government bonds, but the market doesn’t.

* GDP figures for the September quarter due later today are expected to show the economy is in a triple-dip recession, with GDP per capita now more than 5% below its 2022 peak and not expected to recover to that peak until well into 2027. See more below in Chart du Jour.

* Mayors and Councillors are kicking back at the Government blaming them for rates increases, saying it was the Government’s decision to abandon Three Waters and cut various Transport and capital grants that forced the big rates increases. Christchurch City Council revealed this morning another surprise cost increase for councils. See more in Quotes du Jour and the Pick ‘n’ Mix.

* In another case of penny-wise and pound-foolish behaviour, RNZ reports a successful immunisation programme for pregnant Māori and Pasifika and their babies in South Auckland had its funding cut earlier this year, amid warnings of a looming whooping cough epidemic. See more below in the Pick ‘n’ Mix and Quotes du Jour.

* A group of homeless people living in tents on a council park in Whangānui have been evicted by the council so boat racers can park there for a five-day event over the holiday period. Many have mental health issues, leading supporters to ask in this 1News article last night: ‘Is this how we treat human beings.’ See more in Quotes du Jour below.

(Normally at this point we would have a paywall for free subscribers and only paying subscribers could both listen to the Dawn Chorus podcast above and read the analysis and detail below in the Pick ‘n’ Mix. But during our ‘Gravy Day Fortnight’ until this Sunday, December 22, we have opened everything up for all immediately to give everyone a full taste of the public interest journalism your subscription supports. And here’s our ‘Gravy Day Fortnight’ deal that ends on Sunday, December 22.)

The Top Six in the Pick ‘n’ Mix

* Infrastructure & Austerity news: 'So unfair' - Mayors fear spending crackdown will deepen woes RNZ

* Infrastructure & Austerity news: Mayors challenge claim not sticking to basics ODT-$’s Grant Miller

* Health & Austerity news: Anger at immunisation programme funding cut RNZ’s Ruth Hill

* Infrastructure & Austerity news: Government ‘forces’ surprise $2m-a-year bill onto Christchurh. Two sudden, unexpected water service levies from the Government will cost ratepayers across the country as much as $28 million a year. The Press’ Sinead Gill

* Infrastructure & Austerity news: Dunedin library, hub size cut by half ODT’s Mary Williams

* Op-Ed by Craig Renney in The Post: The only thing you can count on is more cuts

The Pick ‘n’ Mix of the best of the rest for Weds, Dec 18

Scoops & Breaking News this morning

Judge, celebrity doctor apologise for ‘verbally attacking’ Winston Peters at Christmas party. Attorney-General Judith Collins says she is “appalled”, while the Chief District Court Judge has apologised also. Stuff’s Andrea Vance

Pregnant women forced to travel 87km for emergency C-sections due to maternity care shortage NZ Herald’s Isaac Davison

Dunedin Hospital project costs $121m in consulting fees, so farA total of $453 million has been spent since 2017 on the project, including $86m on a site which features only piles. Stuff’s Hamish McNeilly

Email botch reveals which Health NZ staff were affected in restructure The Post’s Harriette Boucher

‘As bad as it gets’ as Wellington faces run of closures. This run of business closures “just prior to Christmas is probably completely unheard of”, bar owner says. Stuff’s Imogen Wells

News previews

Commerce Commission clampdown won’t stop ‘insane’ card surcharges Newsroom’s Jonathan Milne

'Low point' – new data to confirm NZ back in recession NZ Herald

News yesterday

Fast-track bill passes into law, amid protest RNZ

Treatment of inmates at prison's extreme risk unit 'cruel, inhuman' RNZ

Report questions millions in industrial carbon credits to gas user Methanex The Post’s Dita De Boni

Signs o’ the times news

NZTA settles high court battle with Transmission Gully builder RNZ

Smallest minimum wage increase 'since the 1990s' RNZ

New immigration rules to make it easier to hire migrants RNZ

Retirees cut back on shopping and medical appointments to cut costs - survey RNZ

Solutions & Good News

New housing development in Wairoa welcomes it's first tenants just before Christmas RNZ

Stand Tū Māia secures four-month funding extension to search for long-term solutions NZ Herald

14 years running: Auckland eatery offers free Christmas lunch to those in need NZ Herald

'A lovely supply': Community garden grows goodness for struggling families NZ Herald

School overwhelmed with gifts after error in Christmas order RNZ

Deep-dives, interviews, features & analysis

The months-long wait for answers about the new Dunedin hospital RNZ’s Phil Pennington

Willis adopts convenient new measure for finances RNZ’s Jo Moir

Barely alive in 2025: Treasury’s grim diagnosis NZ Herald-$’s Thomas Coughlan

Columns, Op-Eds, Editorials & Open Letters

Op-Ed by Susan Hornsby-Geluk in The Post: Proposed changes to employment law which started as an attack on workers’ rights are turning into a full onslaught.

Editorial in NZ Medical Journal: The new Mental Health Act? A potentially wasted opportunity

Op-Ed by PHCC: Will the Government’s new Smokefree Plan achieve Aotearoa’s smokefree goal?

Column by Gil Duran at FrameLab: Understanding the MAGA-Tech Authoritarian Alliance

Official Reports, Statistics, Studies, Academic Papers & Data Sets

Nearly half of U.S. teens (46%) say they’re on the internet almost constantly. Pew US report on Teens, Social Media and Technology for 2024

Healthy Homes Initiative - Five year outcomes evaluation Health NZ paper showing that for every one dollar spent insulating and heating homes by Health NZ, there was $5.07 in health savings over the following five years

Quotes of the day: Blaming the victims

‘They’re gaslighting us’

“The Government just said they want us to keep rates low, yet they’re forcing a rates increase,” Christchurch City Councillor Jani Johanson via The Press

‘It’s not our fault’

The reason for the delayed return to surplus has nothing to do with any Government decision or global shock. Instead, it was a result of the Treasury continuing to unwind what she described as “overly optimistic assumptions about the state of the economy.” Nicola Willis via Newsroom’s Marc Daalder.

‘I made him think it was his idea’

Asked whose idea the Minister for Rail position was, Winston Peters said: “Put it this way, we planted the seed and it became his [Christopher Luxon’s] idea.”

Asked why rail-enabled ferries needed to be considered, Peters said: “Well, as Don Braid from Mainfreight said this morning, it’s really a no-brainer.” Via NZ Herald-$’s Georgina Campbell

‘The true cost of homelessness’

“A lot of them have chronic mental health issues. Mental health organisations that are involved with them are also anxious and extremely distressed for their clients.” Sherron Sunnex, founder and manager of charitable organisaton The Koha Shed in Whangānui on the eviction of 15 people living in tents on council land.

“If they don’t have shelter they’re going to have to sleep in doorways or hide in bushes like stray animals. Is this how we treat human beings?”

At the moment there are services and agencies coming down daily to dish out medication and pick people up for appointments and whatever they need.

"For them to start to fit into the wider community, first of all we need a community of support around them, and that’s what has been developing."

Sunnex said the council’s actions had thrown the homeless group into crisis.

"These people have nowhere to go. Their belongings will be removed and they will be scattered throughout the city. The progress we have made with those who have engaged with alcohol and drugs services will be completely lost." Sunnex via 1News’ Moana Ellis

Chart of the day:

Cartoon du Jour: Back on (reverse) track

Timeline-cleansing nature pic: Weta on the run

Mā te wā

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