The week that was to Feb 11

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit thekaka.substack.comTLDR: The Labour Government cleared its decks this week of some unpopular policies ahead of the election and has tried to make employers happier, which may extend new PM Chris Hipkins’ early-2023 polling honeymoon.One of the unloved policies biffed overboard was a proposed merger of TVNZ and RNZ. Hipkins also stopped work on a social insurance scheme the Opposition has painted as a new tax on workers and employers, partly to offset the perceived pain of a 7.1% rise in the minimum wage starting on April 1.Elsewhere, there was great news from Christchurch of a big new solar farm with more to come, and the battle of wills is heating up between global investors wanting lower interest rates and central bankers warning of higher interest rates to beat inflation.In this week’s recording above of our ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers at 5pm last night, I joined co-host Peter Bale to talk with regular guest University of Otago Professor Robert Patman about the week in geo-politics, former NZ Herald Editor-in-chief Gavin Ellis about the death of the TVNZ-RNZ merger, and Auckland City Councillor Josephine Bartley about the Jan 27 flood fallout, including a renewed NIMBY campaign against housing intensification.The big five things this weekThis week’s key news events in Aotearoa’s political economy, geo-politics and the global economy were:* Decks cleared - PM Chris Hipkins clearing the Labour Government’s decks of distracting and (some) unpopular policies to make it easier to attack National’s plans to govern after the October 14 election; Tuesday’s email* Ratepayers revolted - NIMBY land-owners and their councillors in Auckland and Christchurch pushed back even harder against housing intensification directives from the Beehive, using Auckland’s flood damage to argue (wrongly) that new houses caused the flooding; Friday’s email* Penny-pinching exposed - University of Otago public health researchers recommended dropping the $5 prescription fee, publishing a study showing sick people avoided expensive hospital visits when they didn’t have to pay, which would easily compensate for lost revenues; Wednesday’s email * Fed fightback - Central bankers warned traders and investors again they may be underestimating how high they would have to lift interest rates to control inflation, deepening a ‘markets vs Fed’ clash that could end in dramatic falls in asset values (or not); and, * Lightbulb moment - Lightsource, an Australian-based solar power joint venture with BP, teamed up with Contact Energy and Christchurch Airport to announce they would build Aotearoa’s first grid-scale solar farm next to the airport, with plans for more solar farms across the motu using Lightsource’s $2.9 billion cashpile.This is my weekly free sampler email for all free and paying subscribers. We’d love you all to jump up the paid tier, which gives subscribers the right to comment and gives earlier and deeper access to my emails and podcasts with public interest journalism about housing affordability, climate change and poverty reduction. Paying subscribers support me doing this journalism in the public interest and then spreading it publicly.Chart pack of the weekNZ retail spending was better than expected in JanuaryNZ manufacturing activity bounced into expansion territory in JanuaryMinimum wage rise slows to nil in real termsMap of the weekWhere MetService sees Cyclone Gabrielle by Tuesday morningMy weekend reading and listening for sharingHere’s my longer reading and listening for the weekend for sharing with paying subscribers below the paywall fold. I also welcome their suggestions for others in the comments below.