The National Party's Deputy Leader has spoken out against The Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr, calling for an independent review if National are elected in 2023. Skyrocketing house prices and record-high inflation are being blamed on The Government's money printing scheme during the COVID-19 pandemic. Willis says an external review would answer the question - how can this be avoided in the future? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nov 10, 2022•33 min
As central and local government battle for asset control, the lack of investment in infrastructure becomes an ever-growing issue. Bernard talks to former Auckland Deputy Mayor Penny Hulse about the tension between these forms of government and how it can be mended - what has ruptured in these relationships and why does it matter? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nov 03, 2022•49 min
Aotearoa’s Government spends $2b a year on the environment, but where does that money go? Backed by his recently published report on our tracking of emissions, Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Simon Upton dives into discussion with Bernard Hickey on the importance of collective clarity and knowledge in the measurement of our environmental spending. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 27, 2022•34 min
Building developers and funders are scrambling to work out how much carbon dioxide is emitted or captured in a building’s construction and operation over its lifetime. Jasmax’s Carbon Research Lead, Paul Jurasovich, joins Bernard to map out the new world of carbon budgeting for buildings (such as the five star green-rated Kiwibank corporate office in Auckland). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 20, 2022•34 min
Professor Anthony Hoete is trying to solve some of the biggest housing problems in Te Ao Māori with new tools and technology. He talks with Bernard Hickey on This weeks When the Facts Change about using NFTs to bring together dispersed iwi land titles and engineered timber to turn iwi forests into homes that are carbon sinks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 13, 2022•40 min
Kiwibank has just produced its first sustainability report as a B Corp, paving the way for big organisations joining the ESG reporting movement. But what does a pass mark look like? How can the marking process be used to do better? CEO Steve Jurkovich joins Bernard in conversation to korero about what Kiwibank did to its climate emissions, how it measured pay equity and what can be done to help fund Māori housing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 06, 2022•41 min
Private rentals owned by ‘Mum and Dad’ landlords are expensive and unstable, making it difficult for tenants and their tamariki to settle into their communities and schools. As renting becomes a long-term reality for more and more of us, is there a better way? In this episode, Bernard is joined by Helen O’Sullivan, CEO of Crockers Property Group, to talk about one possible solution, and what policy tweaks the government needs to make to help it grow. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megap...
Sep 29, 2022•45 min
It's evident to those living in Aotearoa that doing so does not come cheap, but did you know our housing and rental affordability is the worst in the world? Treasury Chief Economist Dominick Stephens went hunting with a team of Government experts for the reasons why. Revealing the three key factors driving our housing market, Stephens deep dives into conversation with Bernard Hickey on how the combination of lower interest rates, land use restrictions and our tax system has caused such an explos...
Sep 22, 2022•53 min
The great battle for walkable cities that prioritise cyclists and pedestrians over cars has only just begun. In this battle, Waka Kotahi is a key player in deciding how this battle plays out. In this week's episode, Bernard Hickey talks to Waka Kotahi's urban mobile manager Kathryn King to find out how mode shift might be allowed, or made to happen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 15, 2022•45 min
Bernard Hickey dives deep into the demand and supply factors behind our endemic housing shortages with Kiwibank economist Jeremy Couchman, including what they might mean for house prices. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 08, 2022•39 min
The Reserve Bank Governor has just returned from the hottest and most important annual get together of central bankers at Jackson Hole in Wyoming. He found a bunch of Governors hunkered down and under attack because inflation blew past their targets this year. He talks exclusively to Bernard Hickey about what has changed permanently in the workings of the global economy that is slowing growth and increasing inflation, and why we should care here in Aotearoa. Learn more about your ad choices. Vis...
Sep 04, 2022•44 min
Revenue Minister David Parker steered the government into a political minefield this week with his extension of GST to all KiwiSaver fees that was gone by lunchtime within a day. Bernard Hickey talks with tax expert and historian Terry Baucher about why this epic fail pales in comparison to another from 33 years ago when Labour’s David Caygill failed to introduce a Capital Gains Tax to match our ‘perfect’ GST and income tax systems. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 01, 2022•41 min
The "official" economists in Wellington went hunting for the true culprit behind Aotearoa’s house prices and rents being the most expensive in the world – but perhaps the biggest culprit is the government itself. With Wellington gaslighting the councils, now the finger of blame may be turning back in its direction. In this week's episode, Bernard Hickey talks to Hamilton mayor Paula Southgate about the funding infrastructure and challenges, as well as why not enough land was opened up, to then b...
Aug 25, 2022•41 min
Electricity is something we can't live without at this stage in global growth – but with expensive renewable supply, how do users and the industry match the demand? In this week's episode, Bernard Hickey speaks with Octopus Energy's Margaret Cooney about possible solutions to shift away from expensive peaks, and how an obscure law change might unleash a surge of retail competition, all in the hopes of calming our collective low battery anxiety. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.f...
Aug 18, 2022•34 min
If climate change projections make their way to Land Information Memorandums, owners of coastal properties may find themselves struggling to stay afloat long before waves start lapping at their door. Vulnerable properties will become uninsurable causing banks to withhold lending – suddenly passing on that slice of hot potato paradise will be near impossible. This week James Shaw joins Bernard Hickey to talk about the real meaning of climate change adaptation and who's responsible for funding inf...
Aug 11, 2022•47 min
With unemployment now having climbed to 3.3% within the industry, builders are now crying out for workers. With this ascent and historically driven as a mostly male-dominated field, they’re getting serious about hiring the other half of the population. Bernard Hickey talks with Kiwibank economist Mary Jo Vergara about a surprise rise in employment growth for women in construction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aug 04, 2022•32 min
Imagine living in a society where details about everyone’s earnings and taxes are publicly available. With a gender pay gap of just 4%, Norway has operated under this system of pay transparency since the 1800s and some argue it’s time for a similar approach in Aotearoa. Join Bernard Hickey as he talks to AUT Professor Gail Pacheco, who heads the NZ Work Research Institute, about whether pay transparency is the answer to help address our pay equity gaps for women, Māori and Pasifika. Learn more a...
Jul 28, 2022•41 min
Half-price bus and train fares are good, but wouldn’t completely free fares be even better? Bernard Hickey talks to transport and urban planning academic Jen McArthur about the economics and the politics of free public transport. He even discovers some positives that make the idea more attractive to the usual opponents. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jul 21, 2022•46 min
Businesses, hospitals and the opposition are pleading for a loosening of migrant worker restrictions to ease the intense labour shortages that are forcing cancellations and jury-rigged services up and down the motu. Bernard Hickey sits down to interview Productivity Commission chair Ganesh Nana to find out if a migration surge would solve our productivity problem, and why any decision to pull the migration lever must also look to pull the infrastructure investment lever. Learn more about your ad...
Jul 14, 2022•54 min
For decades we've been warned of major slumps that never happened, but the Reserve Bank's new chief economist says this time, it's different. With a history of central bank governors and finance ministers making similar predictions that never came to pass, listen as Bernard Hickey challenges Paul Conway's view that the housing market’s ever-upward tide may be turning. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jul 07, 2022•44 min
Why do so few of our small businesses make the leap to become bigger, faster-growing engine rooms for economic growth and higher wages? Curiously, Aotearoa also has a long tail of older business owners that are comfortable bumbling along with sub-scale firms that would do better with bigger and more ambitious owners. This week Bernard Hickey talks to ABC Business Sales MD Chris Small about why so many business owners won’t jump up, or out, and why it’s holding back the nation as a whole. Learn m...
Jun 30, 2022•45 min
The employment landscape currently favours workers, yet we’re still reluctant to ask for a pay rise and fear being sacked. Bernard Hickey is joined by AUT professor Jarrod Harr to examine how work culture, pay, conditions and the power relationships between employers and employees have been transformed by the pandemic and try to figure out why workers still feel insecure and what employers can do to combat the great resignation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jun 23, 2022•50 min
It’s hitting food, petrol, rent, shipping and wages, but inflation hasn’t touched the housing market. Bernard is joined by Kiwibank economist Mary-Jo Vergara to unpack the surprisingly big and long spike of inflation that is cascading into every aspect of our day-to-day lives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jun 16, 2022•39 min
Bernard Hickey (When The Facts Change; parliament studio) and Toby Manhire (Gone By Lunchtime; Auckland studio) join forces for a budget reaction crossover special. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 19, 2022•27 min
Inflation has become the thief in our wallets for the first time in a generation and there are plenty of culprits to blame. The Ukraine War, supply chain disruptions and US$10t of money printing are the first and most obvious cabs off the rank, but there's a new and more insidious source of inflation developing: automatic inflation. These annual CPI-linked price increases from a range of companies, utilities, government departments and regulated services are fine when inflation is "normal" and s...
Mar 24, 2022•44 min
In December 2021 the government made changes to the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act that were designed to protect borrowers – but had consequences that saw reports of people being rejected for lending because they had takeaways too often, had too many streaming subscriptions, and even because they made regular investments. Earlier this month, the Minister for Commerce and Consumer Affairs, David Parker announced that the Government plans to make further changes to the CCCFA to help avo...
Mar 22, 2022•33 min
The government’s decision to cut fuel taxes this week highlights just how hard it is for politicians and voters to deal with short sharp shocks to the system. The ‘lizard brain’ part of our body politic has evolved to recoil from a petrol price shock, but this type of ‘thinking fast’ will need to be replaced with ‘thinking slow’ if we are to engineer a just transition to carbon zero. To find out more, Bernard talks to political scientist Bronwyn Hayward, environmental sociologist and public heal...
Mar 17, 2022•1 hr 4 min
Back in 2002, supermarket chains Foodtown and Woolworths were allowed to combine into the group now known as Countdown. That consolidated the market down to a duopoly of the Australian-owned Countdown and the local cooperative of Foodstuffs, which owns Pak’nSave, New World and Four Square. A new report published by the Commerce Commission this week found the duopoly has used its market power to suck profits from either side of them in the grocery supply chain to make an estimated $430m a year in...
Mar 10, 2022•43 min
New Zealand has a lot of small businesses, but relatively few of them expand into larger, more productive operations. Strawberry farms are a good example of this – many don’t invest in technology or systems to grow scale or profits, because it’s more profitable to simply wait for the farm’s land value to rise instead. But there are some interesting exceptions out there too. This week, Bernard talks to strawberry scientist Geoff Langford and Kiwibank business banking manager Wayne McEntee about t...
Mar 03, 2022•43 min
The Reserve Bank made its first big set piece decision of the year this week, releasing its monetary policy statement and raising the Official Cash Rate to 1.0%. So what does that mean for interest rates and house prices? In this week’s episode, Bernard Hickey asks Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr about the property price boom and wage inflation, and talks through the implications of the Reserve Bank’s decisions and outlook with Kiwibank chief economist Jarrod Kerr. Learn more about your ad choi...
Feb 24, 2022•43 min
