S02E05 - The Front Lines of Homelessness
Aotearoa Tomorrow
Summary Natalia Cleland of Downtown Community Ministry (DCM) discusses the organization's work with marginalized and homeless individuals in Wellington. DCM has been providing support for 54 years and focuses on ending homelessness and advocating for the most vulnerable. They have government contracts for housing first and outreach services, but also rely on donations. The conversation explores the increase in homelessness in New Zealand, the challenges faced by those seeking housing, and the need for more affordable housing. The conversation explores the factors contributing to the...
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S02E04 - It’s Tough to Be an Infrastructure Provider
Aotearoa Tomorrow
Summary Infrastructure New Zealand is an industry body representing infrastructure building companies and other stakeholders. They advocate for infrastructure projects that are best for the sector and the country. The politicization of infrastructure and the lack of stable funding have led to a significant infrastructure deficit in New Zealand. The government's approach to infrastructure has been inconsistent, leading to uncertainty and inefficiency. There is a need for stable funding and a menu of projects with political consensus. Local government settings and funding arrangements need to be...
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S02E03 - The War We Forgot We Lost
Aotearoa Tomorrow
Summary The conversation explores the topic of income inequality and the declining share of labor in the total income of society. Geoff Bertram, an economist, discusses the historical trends and factors that have contributed to this phenomenon, including neoliberal policies and the erosion of labor bargaining power. He also highlights the concentration of wealth and excessive profits in certain sectors of the economy. The conversation touches on the role of propaganda and persuasion in shaping public opinion and the need for policy changes to address inequality. The conversation explores the...
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S02E02 - The Widening Economic Gaps in Aotearoa
Aotearoa Tomorrow
Summary Max Rashbrook discusses the disparities in wealth and income distribution in New Zealand, highlighting the impact of low wages and underemployment. He explores the challenges of increasing the minimum wage and the need for higher value sectors in the economy. Rashbrook also emphasizes the lack of government investment in research and development and the influence of the real estate market on capital allocation. He concludes by discussing the historical factors that have contributed to the current situation. The conversation explores the lack of support and investment in skills and...
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S02E01 - Season 1 Recap: Not Everything is As It Seems
Aotearoa Tomorrow
Summary The podcast episode covers a range of topics including social cohesion, trust, government policy, local governance, infrastructure funding, and the emissions trading scheme. The host, Arthur Falls, shares his takeaways from previous episodes and interviews with experts on these topics. The conversation covers a wide range of topics, including the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), manufacturing, housing market, political communication, and the Three Waters policy. It delves into the impact of these topics on climate change, economic prosperity, and social dynamics. The conversation also...
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S01E05 - Revisiting Election 2023 with Labour's PR Provider
Aotearoa Tomorrow
Hunch.co.nz Welcome to Aotearoa Tomorrow. I’m Arthur Falls. Today we have Michael Goldthorpe, a managing partner of the PR firm Hunch. Hunch was involved in developing the Labour party’s PR strategy for their unsuccessful reelection campaign this year so hearing about how Michael views the campaign is really valuable. It is rare to get a deep analysis of any competition from a losing side and doubly rare to get one from a Public relations specialist as candid as Michael so this is a rare treat. I’ll quickly mention that Michael is a very strong Labor supporter so that colours his...
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S01E04 - The ETS: A Struggling Approach to Reducing Emissions
Aotearoa Tomorrow
Welcome to Aotearoa Tomorrow. I’m Arthur Falls. Today we are speaking with Hugh Parsons, an economist at BERL, one of our largest advisory organisations. Hugh’s focused on ecological biodiversity and the Emissions Trading scheme which is the focus of this interview. New Zealand has agreed to reduce its emissions under the Paris climate accord. The ETS is supposed to help with this by putting a price on the emission of greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide. It also creates a way to pay people to plant trees which sequester carbon in wood. But is it actually working? The answer is...
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S01E03 - Local Councils: Lot's to do, No Money to Do It
Aotearoa Tomorrow
https://www.nzinitiative.org.nz/ Are local councils contributing to the housing crisis? If so how? And more importantly, is there a solution to be found in public policy. Eric Crampton has some answers for us. He’s an economist at a think tank called the New Zealand initiative, which traces it’s roots to the business roundtable, a think tank formed in the 80s. The business roundtable is a historically interesting organisation because it was one of the primary proponents of the market-driven reforms that transformed Aotearoa into the state we live in today. What we learn about is the sheer...
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S01E02 - Social Cohesion
Aotearoa Tomorrow
Links: https://informedfutures.org/challenges-to-social-cohesion/ Today we’re joined by Paul Spoonley a researcher focused on social cohesion – the sense of connection that binds together the many cultures that make New Zealand, Aotearoa their home. I contacted him because of his involvement with a university of auckland-led organisation called the center for informed futures. Part of Paul’s work involves understanding how to welcome migrants into this nation without undermining the sense of cultural security of those already here. He’s also focused on type of violent extremism...
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S01EP01 - Introduction - Policy and Reality
Aotearoa Tomorrow
In this introduction, we look at a few issues and the gap between their representation by politicians and reality. aotearoatomorrow.co.nz Links: https://www.national.org.nz/plan https://www.labour.org.nz/labourplan2023 https://www.prisonstudies.org/country/new-zealand https://www.labour.org.nz/news-labour_manifesto_2023 https://www.act.org.nz/law-and-order https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/07/10/consequences-v-support-act-greens-on-youth-offending/ https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/18613/chapter/7 https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/incarceration-rates-by-country...
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https://informedfutures.org/?s=paul+spoonley
https://informedfutures.org/challenges-to-social-cohesion/
Today we’re joined by Paul Spoonley a researcher focused on social cohesion – the sense of connection that binds together the many cultures that make New Zealand, Aotearoa their home. I contacted him because of his involvement with a university of auckland-led organisation called the center for informed futures.
Part of Paul’s work involves understanding how to welcome migrants into this nation without undermining the sense of cultural security of those already here. He’s also focused on type of violent extremism behind the Christchurch shootings and the fracturing of the nation as a result of covid policy.
According to Paul, Trust in our nation– both between individual people and between people, companies, and the government – is in decline. He describes being surprised by the public’s lack of engagement with political media last election. And there is likely a connection to be drawn here.
The Big question I have for Paul is how do politicians and governments affect social cohesion for better or worse and how should this translate into our expectations of our politician’s behavior.
We digress into identifying how the productivity and infrastructure commissions have a 30 year time horizon but this planning is not translated into policy as politicians prefer to focus on what sounds good for voters.
Paul says we need to elevate community voices and bring communities together. He also sees the need to bring representative diversity into institutions to rebuild trust. I feel like there is a tie-in to the co-governance discussion here.
Paul is very interested in our nation’s declining fertility at the same time as we have rapid population growth due to immigration and how this is leading to changing demographics and the risk this combination of trends poses to social cohesion given that our public infrastructure is already overstrained.
Finally we dig into the need for greater media literacy on the part of the New Zealand public, although if I’m honest, I’m not completely satisfies we find a realistic solution but we do break the surface and that lines us up for future episodes.