Monday's Chorus: A new round of austerity

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thekaka.substack.comBriefly in the news in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate:* The Lead: A swathe of new mayors are promising local austerity after voters punished councillors and mayors who pushed through big rates increases in the last two years. This will add another wave of uncertainty and fear into local economies already worried about central Government spending cuts.* The Sidebar: The Government has shifted the goalposts for methane reductions to half way up the field to reduce the pain for farmers, which the Greens and Labour argue is a breach of an election promise. * The Number of the Day: 32.65% - That’s percentage of enrolled voters who voted in local elections nationwide, as of Saturday night. (LGNZ) The turnout in the metropolitan areas was 28.8%, while rural and provincial councils had a combined turnout of 43.6%.* The Chart of the Day: Net interest paid by central Government improved from $2 billion to just over $1 billion by the end of March, which represents less than 1% of total Government revenues.* Quote of the day: “The Government has framed this decision as one grounded in science. In reality, this is a political choice. It is inappropriate and dangerous to imply that it aligns with global scientific understanding of the emissions reductions necessary for 1.5°C, or that it is ethically defensible.” Lawyers for Climate Action Executive Director Jessica Palairet in a statement.Subscribe in full as a paying subscriber for more detail and analysis in the full video and podcast above and below the paywall below. There’s a two-minute free preview for browsers. 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, and my morning ‘Early Bird’ post with the full ‘Picks n’ Mixes’ digests of news links, and can comment on articles.The Lead: Austerity V2.0 is about to begin