The Hoon

Bernard Hickey
  • 4.9 (15)
  • NEWS COMMENTARY
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Bernard Hickey's discussions with Peter Bale and guests about the political economy in Aotearoa-NZ and in geo-politics, including issues around housing affordability, climate change inaction and child poverty reduction. thekaka.substack.com

  1. 2 DAYS AGO

    The Weekly Hoon: RBNZ Inquiry; Ukraine missile strikes; Solar or LNG?

    The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey & Peter Bale talking with New Zealand journalist Andrew Gunn in Kiev and Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey in central Otago. We talked about: * Bernard’s time at the NZ Association of Economists’ forum at the University of Waikato on Thursday and Friday; * Nicola Willis’ announcement of a new inquiry into the RBNZ’s actions over Covid; * The Government’s announcement of a levy on all electricity consumers to pay for LNG import infrastructure; * Whether solar panels and batteries would do a better job than LNG. The Hoon’s podcast version above was recorded on Thursday night during a live webinar for over 200 paying subscribers and was produced and edited by Simon Josey. The Hoon won the silver award for best current affairs podcast in last year’s New Zealand Podcast awards. (This is a sampler for all free subscribers and anyone else who stumbles on it. Thanks to the support of paying subscribers here, we’re able to spread my public interest journalism here about housing affordability, climate change and poverty reduction other public venues. Join the community supporting and contributing to this work with your ideas, feedback and comments, and by subscribing in full. Remember, all students and teachers who sign up for the free version with their .ac.nz and .school.nz email accounts are automatically upgraded to the paid version for free. Also, here’s a couple of special offers: $3/month or $30/year for under 30s & $6.50/month or $65/year for over 65s who rent.) Ngā mihi nui. Bernard This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thekaka.substack.com/subscribe

    58 min

  2. 5 FEB

    The Weekly Hoon: Insurance retreat; Gugong deaths; NZ becoming a 7th Australian state & critical minerals

    The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey & Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman, along with special guest David Farrar, talking about his Op-Ed in the The Post-$ arguing it’s time New Zealand became the seventh state of Australia. We talked about: * The water treatment plant problems in Christchurch and Wellington; * The gutting of the Washington Post’s newsroom; * The effects of climate change on biodiversity, including the deaths of dugongs in Thailand, the deaths of bats in Western Australia, the freezing of iguanas in Florida; * Insurance retreat in New Zealand; and, * Rare earth minerals and a possible deal between New Zealand and the US; The Hoon’s podcast version above was recorded on Thursday night during a live webinar for over 200 paying subscribers and was produced and edited by Simon Josey. The Hoon won the silver award for best current affairs podcast in last year’s New Zealand Podcast awards. (This is a sampler for all free subscribers and anyone else who stumbles on it. Thanks to the support of paying subscribers here, we’re able to spread my public interest journalism here about housing affordability, climate change and poverty reduction other public venues. Join the community supporting and contributing to this work with your ideas, feedback and comments, and by subscribing in full. Remember, all students and teachers who sign up for the free version with their .ac.nz and .school.nz email accounts are automatically upgraded to the paid version for free. Also, here’s a couple of special offers: $3/month or $30/year for under 30s & $6.50/month or $65/year for over 65s who rent.) Ngā mihi nui. Bernard This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thekaka.substack.com/subscribe

    53 min

  3. 29 JAN

    The Weekly Hoon: Winston's Trumpism; Climate solutions, Trump's Armada & Iran's tragedy

    The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey & Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman, along with special guest historian and author Jonathan Lyons. We talked about: * Likely issues in Election 2026 due on November 7, including anti-migration comments from Winston Peters and his comments backing Donald Trump on withdrawing from the World Health Organisation; * The dramas this week in Global Financial Markets around the reserve currency status of the US dollar and another stalling in the New Zealand economy; * The fallout from this month’s extraordinary weather events made worse by unaddressed climate change, and some solutions, including this EECA report on shifting power demand off-peak and this Manu Caddie post; * Donald Trump’s latest threats to attack Iran, along with the history of revolutions in Iran and the situation there now, including Jonathan and Robert. Jonathan has written these books on Iran: The House of Wisdom: How the Arabs Transformed Western Civilization, and, Islam Through Western Eyes: From the Crusades to the War on Terrorism. The Hoon’s podcast version above was recorded on Thursday night during a live webinar for over 200 paying subscribers and was produced and edited by Simon Josey. The Hoon won the silver award for best current affairs podcast in last year’s New Zealand Podcast awards. (This is a sampler for all free subscribers and anyone else who stumbles on it. Thanks to the support of paying subscribers here, we’re able to spread my public interest journalism here about housing affordability, climate change and poverty reduction other public venues. Join the community supporting and contributing to this work with your ideas, feedback and comments, and by subscribing in full. Remember, all students and teachers who sign up for the free version with their .ac.nz and .school.nz email accounts are automatically upgraded to the paid version for free. Also, here’s a couple of special offers: $3/month or $30/year for under 30s & $6.50/month or $65/year for over 65s who rent.) Ngā mihi nui. Bernard This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thekaka.substack.com/subscribe

    1 hr

  4. 22 JAN

    The Weekly Hoon: A rupturing world order, a changing climate & an election

    The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey & Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman, along with special guests Auckland University Emeritus Professor Jane Kelsey and intensive care specialist Dr David Galler. We talked about: * Likely issues in Election 2026 due on November 7, including anti-migration comments from Shane Jones in the wake of protests against rockpool harvesting (RNZ) and the economy’s struggle to generate growth most can feel; * This week’s extraordinary weather events made worse by unaddressed climate change, including this new UK paper on the environment and national security and the measures that should be taken to make Aotearoa more resilient; * Trump’s latest rupturing of the global world order, including Mark Carney’s speech at Davos and Donald Trump’s latest threats to invade Greenland; * How New Zealand adapts to the law of the jungle; and, * What’s happening in our health system, and how to improve it, including discussions about this Andrea Black paper, this Deloitte paper and the launch this week of Kaitiaki Hauora, which is a national coalition of workers, iwi, union, and advocacy groups wanting to strengthen public health that includes David Galler. Jane Kelsey has written these pieces for The Conversation on geopolitics so far this year: * Trump is threatening more tariffs over access to critical minerals – will NZ be targeted? * The World Trade Organization is on life support. Will Trump’s new rules finish it off? Robert Patman has written this piece for The Conversation this year: * As Trump rewrites the rules in Venezuela, NZ faces a foreign policy reckoning The Hoon’s podcast version above was recorded on Thursday night during a live webinar for over 200 paying subscribers and was produced and edited by Simon Josey. The Hoon won the silver award for best current affairs podcast in last year’s New Zealand Podcast awards. (This is a sampler for all free subscribers and anyone else who stumbles on it. Thanks to the support of paying subscribers here, we’re able to spread my public interest journalism here about housing affordability, climate change and poverty reduction other public venues. Join the community supporting and contributing to this work with your ideas, feedback and comments, and by subscribing in full. Remember, all students and teachers who sign up for the free version with their .ac.nz and .school.nz email accounts are automatically upgraded to the paid version for free. Also, here’s a couple of special offers: $3/month or $30/year for under 30s & $6.50/month or $65/year for over 65s who rent.) Ngā mihi nui. Bernard This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thekaka.substack.com/subscribe

    58 min

  5. 15 JAN

    The first Hoon of 2026: Breman vs Peters; Trump vs everyone; Elections vs us

    The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey & Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman. We talked about: * US President Donald Trump’s attack on the US Federal Reserve’s independence and why it matters to us; * RBNZ Governor Anna Breman’s defence of the Fed’s independence; * NZ First Leader and Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ criticism of Breman, despite his votes in favour of central bank independence over the years; * How Trump’s strike on Venezuela is upending ever more global norms; * record-high sea temperatures and how climate change is already a major part of the affordability story; and, * a rocky election year ahead of misinformation in the absence of 3News, Sunday, Fair Go and a larger number of climate journalists. The Hoon’s podcast version above was recorded on Thursday night during a live webinar for over 200 paying subscribers and was produced and edited by Simon Josey. The Hoon won the silver award for best current affairs podcast in last year’s New Zealand Podcast awards. (This is a sampler for all free subscribers and anyone else who stumbles on it. Thanks to the support of paying subscribers here, we’re able to spread my public interest journalism here about housing affordability, climate change and poverty reduction other public venues. Join the community supporting and contributing to this work with your ideas, feedback and comments, and by subscribing in full. Remember, all students and teachers who sign up for the free version with their .ac.nz and .school.nz email accounts are automatically upgraded to the paid version for free. Also, here’s a couple of special offers: $3/month or $30/year for under 30s & $6.50/month or $65/year for over 65s who rent.) Ngā mihi nui. Bernard This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thekaka.substack.com/subscribe

    1 hr

  6. 19/12/2025

    The final Weekly Hoon of 2025

    The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey & Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman. Our special guests this week were Philippa Yasbek, who heads Gun Control NZ and Doyen: NZ Jews Against Occupation, and Lee Feinstein, former US ambassador to Warsaw and senior diplomat under Democratic administrations, Dean of the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies at Indiana University Bloomington, long-serving board member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The Hoon’s podcast version above was recorded on Thursday night during a live webinar for over 200 paying subscribers and was produced and edited by Simon Josey. The Hoon won the silver award for best current affairs podcast in last year’s New Zealand Podcast awards. (This is a sampler for all free subscribers and anyone else who stumbles on it. Thanks to the support of paying subscribers here, we’re able to spread my public interest journalism here about housing affordability, climate change and poverty reduction other public venues. Join the community supporting and contributing to this work with your ideas, feedback and comments, and by subscribing in full. Remember, all students and teachers who sign up for the free version with their .ac.nz and .school.nz email accounts are automatically upgraded to the paid version for free. Also, here’s a couple of special offers: $3/month or $30/year for under 30s & $6.50/month or $65/year for over 65s who rent.) Ngā mihi nui. Bernard This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thekaka.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 3m

  7. 11/12/2025

    The Weekly Hoon: Inside an important document

    The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey & Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman and special guest Sanjana Hottotuwa about the importance and meaning of Donald Trump’s new US National Security Strategy document for Aotearoa and the world. The Hoon’s podcast version above was recorded on Thursday night during a live webinar for over 200 paying subscribers and was produced and edited by Simon Josey. The Hoon won the silver award for best current affairs podcast in last year’s New Zealand Podcast awards. (This is a sampler for all free subscribers and anyone else who stumbles on it. Thanks to the support of paying subscribers here, we’re able to spread my public interest journalism here about housing affordability, climate change and poverty reduction other public venues. Join the community supporting and contributing to this work with your ideas, feedback and comments, and by subscribing in full. Remember, all students and teachers who sign up for the free version with their .ac.nz and .school.nz email accounts are automatically upgraded to the paid version for free. Also, here’s a couple of special offers: $3/month or $30/year for under 30s & $6.50/month or $65/year for over 65s who rent.) Ngā mihi nui. Bernard PS: Here’s a cookie recipe Peter recommends. Apropos of some good news. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thekaka.substack.com/subscribe

    58 min

  8. 04/12/2025

    The Weekly Hoon: Govt's climate change mask drops

    The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured Bernard Hickey talking with regular guest Cathrine Dyer and special guest Lawyers for Climate Change Executive Director Jessica Palairet about this weeks news on climate change. Bernard also talked with tax policy expert and accountant Terry Baucher about the IRD’s announcement yesterday it wants to tax company loans to shareholders as dividends if they’re not repaid within a year. As of March 31, 2024, 119,000 companies are owed $28 billion by 165,000 shareholders. Terry has a podcast on Interest.co.nz. The Hoon’s podcast version above was recorded on Thursday night during a live webinar for over 200 paying subscribers and was produced and edited by Simon Josey. The Hoon won the silver award for best current affairs podcast in last year’s New Zealand Podcast awards. (This is a sampler for all free subscribers and anyone else who stumbles on it. Thanks to the support of paying subscribers here, we’re able to spread my public interest journalism here about housing affordability, climate change and poverty reduction other public venues. Join the community supporting and contributing to this work with your ideas, feedback and comments, and by subscribing in full. Remember, all students and teachers who sign up for the free version with their .ac.nz and .school.nz email accounts are automatically upgraded to the paid version for free. Also, here’s a couple of special offers: $3/month or $30/year for under 30s & $6.50/month or $65/year for over 65s who rent.) Ngā mihi nui. Bernard This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thekaka.substack.com/subscribe

    56 min
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4.9
out of 5
15 Ratings

About

Bernard Hickey's discussions with Peter Bale and guests about the political economy in Aotearoa-NZ and in geo-politics, including issues around housing affordability, climate change inaction and child poverty reduction. thekaka.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Bernard Hickey
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    186
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Bernard Hickey
  • Show Website
    The Hoon

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