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:
Labour is considering carving accidental landlords out of its Capital Gains Tax plans, which already exclude 90% of home-owners, Thomas Coughlan reports this morning on The NZ Herald-$’s1 front page. See Top Newspaper front pages and key articles below after update.
14,862 pensioners were accidentally not paid their Winter Energy Payments between May 1 and August 7 after officials missed a clause change in a law passed under urgency, Henry Cooke reports this morning on The Post-$’2s front page. Officials apologised to Social Development Minister Louise Upston and worked over the weekend to ensure the payments were made. See top Newspaper page of the Day below.
Labour won’t commit to reinstating climate change in the school curriculum if re-elected, Hannah McCallum reports this morning for Newsroom Pro-$3. See my More Scoops & Breaking News Pick n’ Mix below & Online News front page of the Day below after my update later in the morning.
The winter flu crisis that has pushed the under-invested, under-maintained and under-staffed hospital system over the brink into collapse in recent weeks created a new record-high number of 111 calls for ambulance callouts yesterday4. One ambulance officer described the crisis as worse than Covid in a first-person piece for The Spinoff5, while the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners has asked6 practices to return to some of Covid infection-control measures, including phone-first triage and quarantining flu-hit patients from others.
Having already spent $100 million on investigations, the Government yesterday delayed7 any plan for a second Auckland Harbour Bridge indefinitely while it looks at whether time-of-use or congestion charging on the existing network might reduce congestion and avoid borrowing to spend on new infrastructure8.
In another intervention over the top of a council trying to reduce and internalise the externalised environmental costs of economic growth, the Government yesterday appointed a ‘facilitator’ to advise the Government on how to stop the Gisborne District Council enforcing laws to reduce forestry slash and sediment runoff9. Forestry Minister Todd McClay said10 the Council was scaring off investors.
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