spinofflive
And probably sold for way more than it should have (Getty Images)
And probably sold for way more than it should have (Getty Images)

The BulletinNovember 18, 2020

The Bulletin: Stories of the modern housing crisis

And probably sold for way more than it should have (Getty Images)
And probably sold for way more than it should have (Getty Images)

Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Stories of the modern housing crisis, commerce commission to study supermarket industry, and Tauranga’s local government civil war deepens.

The term ‘housing crisis’ featured a lot in NZ politics over the last decade, but it means different things to different people. In today’s Bulletin, I’m going to pick out several stories from the last week that in my view capture what the housing crisis of today is: It is about the simple fact that prices have inflated to an extreme degree in recent years, often regardless of the quality of the house itself, and the flow-on effects that has for the whole population.

The extreme escalation in house prices has led to a political fight over how independent the Reserve Bank should be. Stuff’s Thomas Coughlan has analysed the various interventions that have been made so far, coming to the conclusion that it represents a real shift in what had previously been a wide consensus view in NZ politics. National has come around to the position of reining the bank in, while PM Jacinda Ardern derided that approach as ‘Muldoonist’.

When asked about the house price crisis, Ardern hinted at new support for first house buyers to get on the property ladder, reports the NZ Herald. She identified a problem around the increasing impossibility of younger people getting into the market without parental support. And it’s true – that is a fair problem to try and address. But the proposed solution would run the risk of exacerbating the much more systemic problem, which is that house prices and house price inflation now far outstrips anything people can earn through working, and the divide will continue to grow between the have-houses and the have-nots.

Meanwhile, tenants in South Auckland rentals are facing difficult choices about whether to make waves, and risk being kicked out. Justin Latif has spoken to people who experienced such situations first hand, and community advocates who say they aren’t isolated incidents. As Auckland Action Against Poverty’s Brooke Fiafia put it, “people do avoid complaining, because it’s a roof over their heads and because they know they don’t have any other choice.” Such problems are expected to get worse, as house prices go up, landlords will cover those increased costs by putting rents up further.

In Wellington, even apartments that were meant to be affordable for essential workers are coming with high price tags. Radio NZ reports there has been criticism of the weekly rent of $580 for two-bedroom apartments converted from unused office space. Councillor Fleur Fitzsimons said the apartments weren’t meant to be cheap – only affordable and stable. She also said there would be no problem attracting tenants to them, which seems like something of a redundant statement in a market where demand is way ahead of supply.

Finally, in a grim bit of irony, it has been revealed by Stuff this morning that many property speculators aren’t even paying the modest tax they should be on flipping houses. The ‘bright-line test’ is about as close as New Zealand gets to a capital gains tax, and applies to profits on investment properties sold within five years of purchase. However, new figures show that on a quarter of all eligible property sales in 2019, that tax has not currently been paid.


The commerce commission will undertake a market study into the supermarket industry, to assess whether it is competitive enough for consumers. Justin Giovannetti has covered the announcement from yesterday, along with a promise from the government to do something about the findings. The accusation against supermarkets is that they effectively act as a duopoly, or even something more like a cartel, and wield and allegedly abuse an enormous amount of power over both consumers and suppliers as a result. Both major chains denied that was the case.


Tauranga’s local government civil war has been thrown into sharp relief by the release of a Review and Observation report. The Bay of Plenty Times-Herald reports some councillors did not take the findings of the review well, particularly around the suggestion that whether outside assistance was now needed. Mayor Tenby Powell is in favour of a crown manager being appointed, telling Newstalk ZB last night that he accepted the findings of the report. Decisions on the report will be made at an extraordinary meeting on Friday.


Perhaps it was inevitable, but it seems bitterness is brewing between Jami-Lee Ross and Advance NZ, and their erstwhile allies from the NZ Public Party. Newsroom’s Mark Jennings has looked at some of the claims flying around in the split, which took place pretty much straight after a disappointing election result for the alliance. The problem at the heart of it appears to be control of money, and some of the various branding assets built up over the course of the year.


It’s just a prediction from a bank economist at this stage, but there’s been a suggestion the Labour government will change its mind about some form of wealth tax. Radio NZ has reported the prediction from Westpac chief economist Dominick Stephens, who foresees significant public anger in the next few years over rising inequality. “My pick is that some form of tax on wealth, land or capital gains will get over the line in the mid-2020s, when societal dissatisfaction with rising wealth inequality reaches boiling point,” Stephens said. All of which, keen observers will note, have been extremely firmly ruled out while Jacinda Ardern remains PM.


A conservation success story: The number of kākā in a Waikato forest is booming, reports One News. The population of the bird in Waikato’s Pureora Forest has approximately quadrupled in the space of 20 years, with strong predator control and conservation efforts being the cause. Other birds are also flourishing in the area.


A few of you emailed in yesterday to ask for the link to the Bloomberg BusinessWeek piece on the One America Network. And here it is. For those that missed yesterday’s edition, OAN is an upstart US TV station that has pushed the boat out way further into Trump territory than what Fox ever managed, and now faces an uncertain future with their patron leaving office.


A celebration of someone we work with closely, and her remarkable year. Dr Siouxsie Wiles, who you’ll all know from her amazing science communication work, has been handed the Supreme Award at the 2020 Women of Influence Awards. A massive congratulations and thanks to her from all of us at The Spinoff.


Got some feedback about The Bulletin, or anything in the news? Drop us a line at thebulletin@thespinoff.co.nz

Michael Parekōwhai’s life size astronaut on the Semi Permanent stage (Photo: Michael Andrew)

Right now on The Spinoff: The Child Poverty Action Group’s Susan St John writes about how Working for Families creates a dichotomy between ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ poor. Josie Adams meets the best real estate auctioneer in the country. Leonie Hayden writes about an ambitious project to profile 100 influential Indigenous women. Interior designer Jonathan Goss looks at how 2020 has changed the design needs of food outlets, perhaps forever. Michael Andrew went along to Semi-Permanent, a showcase of what the creative industry can offer the country. Alexander Stronach reviews Monsters in the Garden, a “comprehensive attempt to map out the course of New Zealand science fiction and fantasy”. And we’ve got a brand new Frame documentary, which looks at the spectrum of experience among people who identify as asexual.


For a feature today, an in-depth look at why so many young trans people end up homeless in New Zealand. Radio NZ journalists Susan Strongman and Murphy are currently producing a series on social and economic issues around being trans, and this piece blends a really difficult personal story with the wider problems many face. Here’s an excerpt:

About six months later, Angelo and his sister found themselves huddled together in the wintry darkness on the road outside their home, having been kicked out after the fight with their parents over his gender.

Angelo hadn’t told any of his friends that his parents were abusive. But his sister had told hers. She called one, who came to pick them up. The siblings stayed with the friend for a fortnight, until their parents cooled off and let them return. It was the start of an unsettling cycle that has never really ended for Angelo – his parents blowing up and kicking him out, being allowed home for a period of calm, leaving when things got bad again.

On that first night, Angelo doesn’t know where he would have ended up if he hadn’t been with his sister. “Luckily, I had her and she has good friends.”


In sport, gun Wellington batsman Devon Conway has been given his first shot at the Black Caps, being called in to the T20 squad to play the West Indies, reports Cricinfo. Conway came over from South Africa several years ago, and has routinely been bossing domestic cricket ever since. He’ll take the spot of Kane Williamson, who is being rested ahead of the test series. However Conway won’t be pulling on the whites for New Zealand quite yet, with stability in the test squad preferred for now.


That’s it for The Bulletin. If you want to support the work we do at The Spinoff, please check out our membership programme

Keep going!
Beef cattle at a farm in North Canterbury
Beef cattle at a farm in North Canterbury (Photo: Fiona Goodall/Getty Images)

The BulletinNovember 17, 2020

The Bulletin: Covid on NZ meat claim puzzles government, worries industry

Beef cattle at a farm in North Canterbury
Beef cattle at a farm in North Canterbury (Photo: Fiona Goodall/Getty Images)

Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin for Tuesday November 17, today a collaborative effort by a few Spinoff editors standing in for Alex Braae. Presented in partnership with Z Energy. In today’s edition: NZ meat industry shaken by Covid claims, cabinet mandates mask use, and trio of SkyCity executives very abruptly call it quits.

A report claiming Covid-19 was found in New Zealand meat products exported to China is causing headaches for our meat industry. The Reuters story said traces of the virus were found on beef and tripe and their packaging exported from Brazil, Bolivia and New Zealand to the Chinese city of Jinan.

That’s not what the New Zealand government had been told, however. Speaking on TVNZ’s Breakfast yesterday morning, and reiterating the point at her post-cabinet press conference in the afternoon, the prime minister said she’d been advised on Sunday that Covid had been detected on packaging of beef products from Argentina, which shared a coolstore with New Zealand products – not that New Zealand meat itself was affected. Jacinda Ardern said she was determined to get to the bottom of the claim, with MFAT promising to investigate to “ascertain the origin and veracity” of the report. “This is incredibly important to New Zealand,” said Ardern. “We are confident our products are not exported with Covid on them, given our status as being essentially Covid-19 free.”

The stakes are high, as Brent Melville writes in this (paywalled) report for BusinessDesk. Although red meat exports to China have reduced in recent months, it’s still easily the largest market for New Zealand beef and associated products. “For the June year, China accounted for $3.7 billion of NZ’s red meat exports, almost a quarter more than the previous year, as China’s demand for red meat protein spiked after African swine fever saw a massive cull of China’s pig herd.”

It was unfortunate that unsubstantiated reports were out in the international arena, Meat Industry Association chief executive Sirma Karapeeva told RNZ’s Checkpoint. “It has the potential to damage the reputation of New Zealand red meat exports,” she said, adding that the industry moved collectively and quickly at the start of the pandemic to establish robust protocols around management of risks. But the scare was a timely reminder to exporters of the risks, trade minister Damien O’Connor said. “If they have people who are sick, working anywhere in New Zealand even though we have no community transmission, they should take all precautions and make sure people don’t come to work.”

The chances of Covid-19 spreading through frozen goods is low, according to the World Health Organisation, but that hasn’t stopped China from ramping up the testing of imported goods. The risk was front of mind for New Zealand back in August, when the Americold cool store in Mt Wellington was investigated as a potential source of the resurgence cluster via goods shipped from Melbourne. After environmental testing, it was eventually ruled out, as Stuff reported at the time.


As of Thursday, masks will be mandatory on all domestic flights and on public transport in Auckland, following yesterday’s cabinet decision. The move follows a series of leakages of Covid into the community, and the need to provide another safeguard against wider spread. Read more about the new rules, and the penalties for non-compliance, in yesterday’s live updates.

Drivers of taxis and rideshares in Auckland will be required to mask up, too. Passengers should be obliged to do the same, the Taxi Federation’s John Hart told RNZ Checkpoint. “It seems to us if there’s a danger of bringing in an infection into the car then the danger rests with everyone, and passengers in taxis should also be wearing masks,” he said. “Maybe there’s some logic behind it, but they haven’t told us what it is.”


The departure of three SkyCity executives has taken the business world by surprise, but its chairman claims the shock exits are not a sign of trouble at the casino giant, reports the Herald. In a statement to the NZX yesterday morning, SkyCity said chief executive Graham Stephens would “retire” effective from November 30, with chief operating officer Michael Ahearne taking over his role immediately, and both chief financial officer Rob Hamilton and chief marketing officer Liza McNally had resigned and would leave their roles in February and March respectively.

BusinessDesk (paywalled) reports that Hamilton had wanted the top job, but on missing out to Stephens, decided to depart the company, and McNally quit as she is relocating to Adelaide with her family. Shares in SkyCity were down 11 cents following the announcement, trading at $3.04 in the afternoon, reports Stuff.


After a weekend of busy Zoom diplomacy, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership was signed by 15 nations: 10 Asean members and five tag-alongs, including New Zealand and China. As far as international coverage is concerned, the deal, which covers about a third of the world’s economic activity, the interest focuses on what it means for simmering US-China tensions. Analysts viewed it, reported US network CNBC, as “a geopolitical victory for China at a time when the US appears to be retreating from Asia-Pacific”.

The delight was barely contained in a commentary in China’s state-controlled Global Times. “The signing of RCEP will be a blow to the Trump administration, which has hyped up trade frictions at all costs,” wrote Cheng Hanping. “The US is very likely to use all means, including confrontation, hostility and smear campaigns to interfere with RCEP’s operations.”

Your usual host, Alex Braae, has a helpful explainer on RCEP and what it means here. Among other questions he, asks (and answers) the following: What does New Zealand get out of it? Why did India withdraw? And how does it account for the Treaty of Waitangi?


In a development sure to rankle with newspaper readers, NZME has announced plans to change the names of various titles to fall under a common “Herald” masthead. That would mean, for example, the Whanganui Chronicle becoming the Whanganui Herald and the Northern Advocate becoming the Northern Herald.

As reported by RNZ, the change, which has no timeline at this stage, comes as part of a 145-page document for investors outlines “a path for the NZ Herald to become New Zealand’s Herald – expanding the New Zealand Herald’s national presence.”

The Herald, which has overtaken Stuff as the most-read online publication, following its rival’s decision to eschew sharing content on Facebook, has also set some very ambitious goals for subscriptions. It aims to have more than 15% of New Zealand households signed up to a digital or print product by 2025.

Got some feedback about The Bulletin, or anything in the news? Drop us a line at thebulletin@thespinoff.co.nz

Jawsh and Vilette at the 2020 Aotearoa Music Awards (Photo: Stijl Ltd.)

Right now on The Spinoff: In what is sure to be removed from every social media platform immediately, the On the Rag team tackles the issue of boobs – what are they, who has ’em, who wants ’em and who doesn’t. David Hills remembers the polio epidemics that plagued New Zealand’s children. Linda Burgess reviews All Creatures Great and Small, the rebooted classic about beloved Yorkshire vet James Herriot. Dr Hirini Kaa looks back at 200 years of history of the Māori Anglican church. Duncan Greive introduces his latest podcast Coming Home, where he talks to those New Zealanders contributing to the “brain gain” and returning home because of the pandemic. Alex Braae explains the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership trade deal and what New Zealand stands to gain. Maia Hall asks if new ride share app DiDi is the ethical answer to the industry’s problems, or more of the same. Erin Matariki Carr and Phoebe Matariki Carr look at why Nanaia Mahuta’s appointment as foreign minister blindsided people, and what that says about the way foreign policy is discussed in Aotearoa. And, Jack Vowles finds New Zealand’s cannabis referendum results were defined by age.


Today’s feature comes from Bloomberg BusinessWeek, and profiles the One America Network, the least popular but most passionate of the three Trump-supporting cable news networks in the US. It’s a study in the bizarre eccentricities of American capitalism, with its owner a guy who got rich selling computer hardware, then decided to start a channel named Wealth TV because, he believed, America did not celebrate nor chronicle the lives and interests of the rich enough. Really.

It shows how, despite its tiny audience, it’s highly appealing to one man in particular, and its slavish MAGA-isms, which make Fox News look like MSNBC, have given it a shot at becoming the post-White House home of Trump, assuming he ever leaves. It’s a fascinating media story, and a window into just how radically strange American conservative media has become at the fringes.

Over time, the line between the network’s commentators and news reporters all but disappeared. In 2019, OAN hired Chanel Rion, a conservative illustrator (“President Trump’s most stalwart graphic warrior against leftism,” per her website), as its White House correspondent. She’s since emerged as the defiant, maskless face of the network’s pandemic coverage—tangling over Covid safety protocols with the White House Correspondents’ Association, promoting the conspiracy theory that the coronavirus was created in a North Carolina lab, and posing some memorably bizarre questions. “Is it alarming that major media players, just to oppose you, are siding with foreign state propaganda, Islamic radicals, and Latin gangs and cartels?” she asked Trump in March. (Rion didn’t respond to an interview request.)

All the while, OAN’s reputation grew stronger among hardcore Trump fans—and the people hoping to profit from them. In January, the Wall Street Journal reported that Hicks Equity Partners LLC, an investment firm based in Dallas, was trying to assemble a bid of roughly $250 million to acquire Herring Networks. Even by Trump-era standards, the deal had the air of a nepotistic feeding frenzy. According to the Journal, Thomas Hicks Jr. (son of the firm’s superwealthy founder) is friends with Donald Trump Jr. (son of the president) and was being backed by Doug Deason (son of billionaire Darwin Deason). “With the 2020 political season in full swing, expressed interest is on the rise,” Charles Herring told the Journal. “Yet our family didn’t build our operations to sell it.”


In the world of sport, a couple of posts from Twitter last night to ruminate on:


That’s it for The Bulletin. If you want to support the work we do at The Spinoff, please check out our membership programme

But wait there's more!