The Hoon

In the final week of council elections, I spoke with The Integrity Institute Director Bryce Edwards about the need for more transparency & vigilance around lobbyists & candidates in local democracies.It followed this detailed comment piece from Bryce.We talked about:* the lack of scrutiny in local government;* the influence of lobbying;* the need for greater transparency and integrity in political processes;* the connections between local politicians and corporate lobbyists; and,* the risks of foreign influence.We also talked about the need to:* introduce a lobbyist register, including at local Government level;* probably to be managed by an Electoral Commission, which should also manage local elections; and,* especially as councils start using Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) more intensively.Chapters00:00 - The State of Local Democracy in New Zealand07:02 - The Role of Lobbyists in Local Politics10:47 - Foreign Influence and Local Governance12:57 - Calls for Integrity and Transparency OverhaulSubscribe in full as a paying subscriber for more detail and analysis in the full video and podcasts that go out with my Daily Chorus email newsletters. Paying subscribers support my work being done in the public interest here, and via my appearances on other media such as RNZ & 1News. Paying subscribers also get early and full access to our webinars, our chat room, my morning ‘Early Bird’ post with the full ‘Picks n’ Mixes’ digests of news links, and can comment on articles.Ka kite anoBernard 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 Bernard Hickey talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman about the global economy, local and international politics and climate change. Peter Bale was off for a week travelling.This week’s special guests were .Electric Kiwi CEO Huia Burt, Listener Columnist Danyl McLauchlan and Rewiring Aotearoa’s Mike Casey.We talked about:* This week’s not-transformative-at-all electricity reforms* New Zealand not recognising Palestine* Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza* Donald Trump’s ramble to his generals* The economy and the political situation.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 regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman about the global economy, local and international politics and climate change. This week’s special guests were primary school teacher Lucas Campbell and BusinessDesk Founding Editor Pattrick Smellie.This week’s Hoon featured discussions about:* Speeches by US President Donald Trump at the UN General Assembly in New York and China’s President Xi Jinping at the UN Climate Summit with Robert.* Cathrine talked about President Xi’s pledge that China would cut climate emissions 7-10% by 2035 (Reuters) and this comment piece via Newsroom from Kevin Trenberth about the latest climate science, and the latest misinformation.* Lucas talked about cirruculum reforms, teachers’ strikes and a 1% pay offer to teachers.* Pattrick talked about this week’s Mood of the Boardroom survey on the cabinet’s performance and the appointment of a new Reserve Bank Governor.* The ‘Skateboarding Dog’ item at the end was about this video via BlueSky showing a sperm whale eating a giant squid.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 regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman about the global economy, local and international politics and climate change. This week’s special guests were CTU Economist Craig Renney and Monopoly Watch’s Tex Edwards.This week’s Hoon featured:* The fall of US democracy;* Israel’s invasion (again) of Gaza and whether New Zealand will recognise Palestine as a state;* Australia’s new climate impacts forecast that 1.5 million will be affected by sea level rise by 2050 and its more ambitious climate target announced yesterday;* NZ GDP falling an unexpectedly large 0.9% in the June quarter;* The Government announcing the first reforms to competition law in 20 years.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 regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman about the global economy, local and international politics and climate change. This week’s special guest Simplicity Chief Economist Shamubeel Eaqub .This week’s Hoon featured:* An initial discussion between Peter and Bernard about the death of Charlie Kirk and Rupert Murdoch’s ‘Succession’ deal with his children.* A chat with Cathrine about the Climate Change and Business Conference this week, including a now-infamous panel session of MPs squabbling over who should pay for climate change. * We referred to these articles from Marc Daalder on Newsroom and Anne Salmond on Newsroom. We also referred to Marks & Spencer’s ‘Plan A’ strategy to shift to 100% of its food coming from farms using regenerative practices by 2030.* We spoke with Robert about Israel’s re-invasion of Gaza and Russia’s drone flights over Poland.* We spoke with Shamubeel Eaqub about his State of a Thriving Nation 2025 report this week for the Business Leaders’ Health & Safety forum, along with his report with fellow Simplicity Economist Rosie Collins on the building and construction sector for the New Zealand Chinese Building Industry Association last month and his report with Rosie for the Helen Clark Foundation in April on social cohesion.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 regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman about the global economy, local and international politics and climate change. This week’s special guests were tech activist Julian Oliver and The NZ Herald’s Wellington Business Editor Jenee Tibshraeny.This week’s Hoon featured:* An initial discussion between Peter and Bernard about burrowing through to the other side of the world, as depicted in Vincent Ward’s 1988 movie The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey.* Peter, Bernard, Cathrine and Julian discuss this week’s re-announcement of Amazon’s plans for data centres, supposedly in New Zealand, including the implications for climate change, water usage, data sovereignty and the erosion of Aotearoa’s tax base. Julian recently featured on Q+A. Bernard referred in the discussion to this report, Big Tech, Little Tax, published yesterday by Tax Justice Aotearoa and Better Taxes for a Better Future. * A discussion with Cathrine about ACT Leader David Seymour’s call this week for Aotearoa to withdraw from the Paris Agreement.* A discussion with Robert about former PMs Helen Clark and John Key attending commemorate Xi Jinping’s military parade in Beijing to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Japan's surrender at the end of World War II. We discussed Anne-Marie Brady’s criticism of their attendance in this Newsroom Op-Ed.* A discussion with Jenée about the resignation last week of Neil Quigley as Chair of the Reserve Bank and her commentary in the NZ Herald that Finance Minister Nicola Willis shouldn’t have waited until the public discovered they had been misled before really cracking down on the Reserve Bank board.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 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

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

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