In order to reduce debt, the coalition government wants to cut spending from 34% of GDP down to 30%. In practice, that means cutting spending on people with disabilities, even though those cuts often increase hospital and care costs in the long term.

Bernard is joined this week by disability rights lawyer (and distant cousin) Huhana Hickey, for an in-depth look at what austerity actually means.

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Political and economic debates in 2024 were dominated by the Government’s new fast-track legislation, a controversial bill that aims to speed up infrastructure and development, which passed just before Christmas.

The debate, and the risks, were summed up in an impassioned plea in parliament by Labour MP Arena Williams, who said of the bill: “This is the closest New Zealand has ever come to cronyism through the legislative process.”

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Donald Trump’s re-election was the defining moment (and the major shock) in the world of politics this year. His proposed tariff regime is set to upend global economics, which he has kicked off by threatening 25% tariffs on America’s two biggest trading partners: Canada and Mexico.

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Finally, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand started cutting interest rates this year, having moved before everyone else and stayed higher for longer than everyone else. The economy slumped significantly early in the year, remaining firmly in recession since. By August 14, Adrian Orr felt safe enough to cut 25 basis points.

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Kiwibank senior economist Mary Jo Vergara has dug through card-spending data to find out how retail spending has changed since Covid, and over the last year of high interest rates. Have we collectively tightened the purse strings in response to a cost-of-living crisis? Or are we taking advantage of online shopping payment options that have never been more convenient? Listen in to find out.

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Homelessness in Aotearoa has hit an all-time high, forcing organisations like Wellington City Mission to adopt innovative new strategies. Wellington City Missioner Murray Edridge joins Bernard Hickey to talk about the scale of the housing crisis in our capital city and how a couple of new approaches and buildings are making a difference for those worst affected.

Read more about the Wellington City Mission’s efforts in Joel’s MacManus’ Cover Story:

https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/11-11-2024/inside-the-urgent-race-to-solve-homelessness-in-aotearoa

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Motueka might appear sleepy and remote to visitors, but like much of Aotearoa, it faces a severe shortage of rental housing—often far pricier than expected. Bernard Hickey sits down with Miriana Stephens to discuss how her iwi is tackling this crisis by building dozens of affordable homes, with the marae at the heart of community life.

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In 2022, Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr told Christmas shoppers to “cool your jets”, as the bank scrambled to control inflation by hiking interest rates. This week - now inflation has been beaten back down - he delivered another whopper 50-basis point rate cut in the RBNZ’s latest monetary policy statement.

Kiwibank chief economist Jarrod Kerr joins Bernard Hickey to discuss the governor’s gradual transformation from OCR grinch to Father Christmas, and how many more rate cuts we can expect to see in the new year.

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Victoria University professor of taxation Lisa Marriott talks to Bernard Hickey about the fundamental flaws at the core of our tax system, how they have produced historic levels of wealth inequality in Aotearoa - and how we can fix them.

Lisa is speaking at the Pakukore: Poverty, by Design conference at Victoria University, 21-23 November.

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For decades, Pat Hanley has been a tireless advocate for the rights of beneficiaries, drawing attention to the persistent challenges they face. In this week’s episode of When the Facts Change, he sits down with Bernard Hickey to unpack the deep-rooted causes of poverty in Porirua. Hanley argues that both the underlying issues and society’s approach to addressing poverty demand a comprehensive overhaul, calling for transformative change to create a fairer, more supportive social landscape.

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Our prisons are bursting at the seams. They cost at least $2 billion per year to run – and that’s before we consider the longer-term and wider-reaching costs to our health, education, housing, justice and welfare systems.

University of Auckland indigenous studies professor Tracey McIntosh joins Bernard to interrogate the reasons why we, as a society, persist with ever-larger and ever-more-damaging institutions that are failing to reduce crime rates or recidivism (and, in fact, may actually be increasing them).

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