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The Kākā by Bernard Hickey · Aug 19, 2026

Thursday's Early Bird: Three homeless people freeze to death

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Bernard Hickey · The Kākā by Bernard Hickey

Here’s my curation of the day’s top news, analysis, commentary, charts and cartoons from around Aotearoa and elsewhere about our political economy on housing, climate and poverty. This is only published in full for paying subscribers.

Firstly and briefly, here’s my summary and analysis of this morning’s top news:

  1. This news should be on all the front pages and at the top of every new bulletin for days. Sadly, it hasn’t been, even though it has been reported by various publications. Editors made decisions to focus on other things. So here we go. Three people sleeping rough in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland died while sleeping in the open during the freezing temperatures that swept the motu at the end of July and early August. Nicholas Jones collated the detail in a deep-dive report on homelessness for Stuff1. One of the deaths has also been reported online by Geoff Sloan for the ODT2. I recommend reading both reports in full to understand what it means being homeless in freezing temperatures in our three biggest and richest cities.

  2. Excellent work from Rowan Quinn for RNZ from OIA documents uncovering the effects of hiring go-slows by Health NZ last year has erupted in a new storm over Government’s under-funding, by both major parties, of spending on health operations, infrastructure, maintenance and staffing over two years to keep the lid sinking on health spend and the size of Government overall. See more in Scoops of the day below.

  3. House building has run faster than population growth for the last four years, but it’s clear a large chunk of it is not being used by families to live in as renters and owners. The Census revealed that 18% of new builds in the last five years are unoccupied and an excellent deep-dive by Tim Brown for RNZ this morning shows the effects of Airbnb on small towns such as Methven. Up to 30% of the town’s homes may be Airbnbs now, some housing 12 people at a time. See my Top Six Pick n’ Mix below.

  4. A new poll shows consumers want the Government to act to lower power prices. See Chart of the day below.

  5. Dairy lobbyists in the Waikato have won their battle to stop the Waikato Regional Council forcing them to get consents to keep farming. See Scoops of the day below.

  6. The fallout from the slump in house sales is flowing into the retirement village development and financing sector, with one finance company specialising in the sector falling over because of a lack of unit sales. See Scoops of the day below.

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I am opening this one up and sending it to all free and paying subscribers immediately due to the public interest of the news I’ve focused on today. Many thanks in advance to paying subscribers.

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  1. Scoop by Ellen O’Dwyer for RNZ: Documents reveal Health NZ hiring crackdown

  2. Deep-dive by Tess Brunton for RNZ: ‘Massive’ rise in people injecting black-market drugs, including teens

  3. Deep-dive by Tim Brown for RNZ: Airbnb crisis or economic boom? Methven grapples with housing tensions ‘Average property values rose by almost 70 percent from 2018 to 2024, climbing from $380,000 to $640,000. 20% of the town’s homes are on Airbnb.’

  4. Analysis by Shamubeel Eaqub on his Substack:Natural population growth slumps to 83 year low ‘Yet so many provinces have jobs, affordable housing and good quality of life’

  5. Op-Ed by Graeme Edgeler for The Spinoff: Te Pāti Māori will be in risky territory if it tries to engineer an overhang ‘Exploitation of the overhang loophole has always been possible, but no party has tried it because of how voters are likely to react.’

  6. Deep-dive by Bridget Tunnicliffe for RNZ: Former Silver Ferns’ captain on NZ exit - ’nobody has anything here’ ‘With her family to consider, Ekenasio said she had to work through some logistics with the Fever but knowing her husband and two children will move over to Perth sealed her decision. Ekenasio co-captained the Pulse this year, but the ANZ Premiership franchises are unable to offer any contracts to players at this point in time.’

  1. Scoop by Thomas Mead for 1News: Govt targets power line companies as spending forecast hits $32 billion ‘Everyday consumers picking up the bill, according to a discussion document released by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.; Ministerial statement: Network efficiency needed for more affordable power, Govt says

  2. Scoop by Charlotte Graham for The Waikato Times-$: Waikato farmers get reprieve as Government hits pause on PC1 Ministerial statement via Beehive: Certainty for Waikato and Manawatū-Whanganui farmers

  3. Scoop by Matt Nippert for NZ Herald-$ The retirement village lender warning investors of a major haircut - and years-long wait Senior Trust Capital investors face 16% haircut after $15.2m in loan impairments

  4. Scoop by Julia Gabel for NZ Herald: Christopher Luxon teasing ‘surprise’ retirement village policy

  5. Investigation by Steve Kilgallon for Stuff: Sham charities, fake salaries alleged in $3.2m fraud probe – the biggest of its kind ‘The DIA alleges they were all involved in a complex scheme in which a series of “sham” charities were set up to apply for community grants from poker machines. Once those grants were obtained, large sums were diverted into personal accounts (with accounting notes such as ‘for website design’, ‘business cards’ and ‘banners and flags’) or paid out as salaries to people who did little or no work (most of the defendants deny the charges and none have been tried).’

  6. Scoop by Harriet Laughton for The Post-$: Health NZ to spend as much as $100m on hospital security

Rod Emmerson for NZ Herald-$ & via BlueSky
A Canadian squirrel. Bernard Hickey for The Kākā

PS: I update this post online later in the morning, including my full more detailed Picks n’ Mixes on housing, climate and poverty, a full chart pack and more cartoons. It is only available to paying subscribers, who are able to comment and use The Kākā’s chat room.

Ellen O’Dwyer for RNZ: Brown denies accepting Health NZ hiring crackdown ‘In a briefing to Brown in March last year, then health commissioner Professor Lester Levy and interim chief executive Dr Dale Bramley said tight controls on recruitment were crucial to meeting last year’s budget, and hiring frontline workers required the sign off of the deputy chief executive. An internal document also revealed that regional panels had been set up in June 2024 to sign off all hiring decisions, while there was a freeze on hiring non-clinical roles. The documents were released under the Official Information Act to the Public Service Association (PSA), which says the policy led to crucial roles being left vacant for months, and patients suffering as a result. Brown hit out at the PSA on Wednesday, saying he never accepted the policy, and had made a speech last March stating the need for regional decision-making.’; Megan Wilson for Rotorua Daily Post-$/NZ Herald: ‘I just can’t do this anymore’: Exhausted nurses call for more staff

cheers

Bernard

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