Shows / The Kākā by Bernard Hickey
The Kākā by Bernard Hickey
Bernard Hickey and friends explore Aotearoa’s political economy together.
thekaka.substack.com
Episodes
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyThe very opposite of social investment
TL;DR: The newly sworn-in Cabinet will today consider how to quickly unwind anti-smoking changes legislated at the end of last year in order to save hundreds…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyCathrine Dyer's guide to watching COP 28 from the bottom of a warming planet
TL;DR: COP28 kicks off on November 30 and up for negotiation are issues like the role of fossil fuels in the energy transition, contributions to climate…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyThe Hoon around the week to Nov 24
TL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyThe Hoon around the week to Nov 18
TL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyAn ugly fight for African forest offsets NZ may have to buy
TL;DR: An unholy scramble for control of African forests is emerging in the run-up to COP28, where final negotiations on international offsets (Article 6 of…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyThe Hoon around the week to Nov 11
TL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyAotearoa's energy and housing poverty crisis
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thekaka.substack.com TL;DR: Opponents of wealth taxes and housing and energy market reforms often…
The Kākā by Bernard Hickey2023 set to be hottest year in 125,000 years
TL;DR: With two months still to go, European Union scientists declared overnight that 2023 is on track to be the hottest in 125,000 years, with October a full…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyThe Hoon around the week to Nov 4
TL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyThursday's Chorus: Less stressed than most
TL;DR: Our poorest young renters remain the most stressed in the world, despite high-profile reports that young home owners face rising mortgage stress…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyWednesday's Chorus: An impossible trinity
TL;DR: The key news in Aotearoa’s political economy today includes: * National appears set to push councils to move their water assets off their balance sheets…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyMonday’s Chorus: Inside Simplicity's 25k home building fund
TL;DR: The key news in Aotearoa’s political economy today includes: * Non-profit Kiwisaver fund Simplicity is launching a fund to snare up to 5% of the $235…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyThe Hoon around the week to Oct 21
TL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyMonday’s Chorus: The missing 1,060,038 voters
TL;DR: Electoral Commission figures show there were just over 1.060 million missing voters in the election out of a total eligible population of 3.871 million…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyA post-election chorus: winners, losers, what it means and what happens next
TL;DR: National (38.9% and 50 seats) won the election overnight and will now have to decide how it forms a Government with both ACT (8.98% and 11 seats) and…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyThe Hoon around the week to Oct 14
TL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyThursday’s Chorus: Record population growth without enough building or any real debate
TL;DR: Population growth from immigration of temporary workers to replace and supplement emigrating local workers rose to more than 2% in the last year…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyWednesday’s Chorus: Tax cuts for mega-landlords to average $1.3m. Each.
TL;DR: National’s tax switch plan creates a direct wealth transfer from beneficiaries to landlords totalling $2 billion over four years, CTU analysis out this…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyThe Hoon around the week to Oct 7
TL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyIt's always, always about land, land, tax and tax
TL;DR: The failure of yet another pre-fabricated house builder and a legal threat against our biggest council to force more greenfields development are two…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyMonday’s Chorus: Richie Poulton's lament
TL;DR: Richie Poulton, the director of the world-leading Dunedin longitudinal study showing how devastating poverty in early life is, died yesterday. With his…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyThe Hoon around the week to Sept 30
TL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyWednesday’s Chorus: Arthur Grimes on why building many, many more social houses is so critical
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thekaka.substack.com TL;DR: The election campaign took an ugly turn yesterday, and in completely…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyThe Hoon around the week to Sept 16
TL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyFriday’s Chorus: 'Show us the costings, Nicola!'
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thekaka.substack.com TL;DR: In the 2011 and 2014 election campaigns then-National PM John Key…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyNational still working on fiscal plan
TL;DR: National Finance Spokesperson Nicola Willis has signalled a National Government would produce a lower debt track than Labour, but has yet to say what it…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyWednesday’s Chorus: The PREFU's missing debt
TL;DR: Treasury published a PREFU yesterday that exposed the Opposition’s claims about the Government being ‘addicted to spending’ and presiding over a ‘fiscal…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyRepeat: The Hoon around the week to Sept 9
TL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā for paying subscribers in the last week…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyThe Hoon around the week to Sept 9
TL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā for paying subscribers in the last week…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyThe Kaka Project for Election 2023: Universal dental care
TL;DR: In our first formal edition of The Kākā Project for Election 2023, we examine the parties’ policies on publicly-funded dental care and make the case for…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyResend: What a real climate dividend looks like
TL;DR: National announced this week it would create a ‘climate dividend’ that simply re-purposes over $2 billion of Emissions Trading Scheme fund cash for tax…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyWhat a real climate dividend looks like
TL;DR: National announced this week it would create a ‘climate dividend’ that simply re-purposes over $2 billion of Emissions Trading Scheme fund cash for tax…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyThe Hoon around the week to Sept 2
TL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā for paying subscribers in the last week…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyBudget cuts to beat profit-driven inflation
TL;DR: The Labour Government announced $4 billion of spending cuts over four years late yesterday, just 12 hours before the release of an IMF report calling…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyThe Hoon around the week to Aug 26
TL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā for paying subscribers in the last week…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyMaking up our climate response as we go
TL;DR: The costs of climate change are already bearing down on councils and Governments, forcing decisions on the run about who pays and how they pay, but…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyThe Hoon around the week to Aug 19
TL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā for paying subscribers in the last week…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyA deliberate population growth strategy
TL;DR: Our latest wave of accidentally-on-purpose temporary worker migration is causing all sorts of grief, for some in the short run, and everybody in the…
The Kākā by Bernard Hickey'Welcome to our Churn and Burn economy'
TL;DR: Aotearoa’s desperation for cheap, easy and temporary labour has turned us into the Dubai of the South Pacific, constantly churning out renting residents…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyThe Hoon around the week to Aug 12
TL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā for paying subscribers in the last week…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyHow $45b of tunnels could actually cost $65b+
TL;DR: Labour PM Chris Hipkins yesterday revealed cross-harbour transport projects that could cost up to $45 billion in the decades to come, but he wants road…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyThe Hoon around the week to Aug 5
TL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā for paying subscribers in the last week…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyThe 'fiscal black hole' talk actually is a joke
TL;DR: There is no ‘fiscal black hole’ and the politicians and news editors who gave the vague and unsourced suggestion of one unelected politician should be…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyThe Hoon around the week to July 29
TL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā for paying subscribers in the last week…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyThe Hoon around the week to July 23
TL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that I wrote and spoke about via The Kākā for paying subscribers in the last week…
The Kākā by Bernard Hickey480 families living in their cars in June, up from 102 in October, 2017
TL:DR: This will be a short email and not that sweet, but I think it summarises where Aotearoa is deep in the winter of 2023. There were 480 families in…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyThe Hoon around the week to July 15
TL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that I wrote and spoke about via The Kākā for paying subscribers this week included: * PM…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyMatariki special interview: Danyl McLauchlan on our captured state
TL;DR: This week’s decision by PM Chris Hipkins to give up on reforming the taxation of capital gains or wealth begged the question for many of: what is the…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeySo this is how the story ends
TL;DR: That’s it. It will now be almost impossible for a wealth or capital gains tax to be implemented within the next decade or two. The future of Aotearoa’s…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyThe Hoon is back: Wagner, NATO+ & housing
TLDR: The week’s news in Aotearoa’s political economy I covered via The Kākā for subscribers included: * The Opposition’s reckless talk about a ‘mortgage bomb’…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyA Green smorgasbord of wealth taxes
TL;DR: The Greens have proposed a smorgasbord of $15.5 billion worth of wealth taxes annually for Labour to pick and choose from, or ignore completely, in any…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyThe holes (still) in National's (not so) new infrastructure policy
TL;DR: National has released its infrastructure policy for the election, opting for a tweaked version of a bipartisan and 30-year-long…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyDawn Chorus: Conflicting airport interests
TL;DR: There’s more awkward political news for Chris Hipkins this morning, with a fresh revelation of an appearance of a conflict of interest for…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyDawn Chorus: Call to lower voting age renewed
TL;DR: There’s another call this morning to lower the voting age and to lower the threshold for parties to get into Parliament under MMP. Elsewhere, there’s…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyThe Hoon: On the China Tightrope; Cycleways vs drivers
TLDR: The week’s news in Aotearoa’s political economy I covered via The Kākā for subscribers included: * The Labour Government’s announcement it would share…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyThe climate change bill arrives and the grown-ups don't want to pay
TL;DR: Our planet is now warming and generating extreme climate events faster than our politicians, voters and institutions can agree to reduce the costs and…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyBrighter signs from our pre-election housing-market-with-bits-tacked-on
TL;DR: There are fresh signs this morning the housing market-with-bits-tacked-on economy is brightening up going into winter, and just four months to the day…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyHouse prices primed to surge 10-20% if National wins
TL;DR: There are increasing signs in economists’ forecasts, auction clearance rates, migration rates, divergent tax policies and house building rates that a…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyNIMBYs push to dump MDRS totally and stop greenfields' houses too
TL;DR: NIMBY groups are cock-a-hoop this morning, calling on councils and the Government to completely abandon the MDRS housing densification rules in the wake…
The Kākā by Bernard HickeyInside National's housing backflip + twists & rolls
TL;DR: Chris Bishop has detailed National’s new housing policy for Election 2023 that confirms a National Government would not force councils to allow the…