The Weekly Hoon: Luxon's (un)popularity; Middle Powers debate; Another Climate funding fudge

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking with regular guests Robert Patman & Cathrine Dyer about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics.This edition also included discussions with special guest:* Green List MP Francisco Hernandez, talking about the Government’s tabling of its Climate Adaptation Bill this week, which again delayed a decision on cost sharing between Government and Councils.This week:* Bernard and Peter talked about PM Christopher Luxon’s popularity. They referred to this interview with Christopher Luxon by Nic Fildes for FT-$ (gift): New Zealand PM warns against Ardern-era ‘sugar rush economics’* Bernard, Peter and Cathrine then talked about the global and local backlash against data centres and AI.* Then Bernard and Peter talked with Robert about America’s pushback against talk of a ‘Middle Powers’ strategy.* Bernard and Peter then talked with Francisco Hernandez about the Government’s non-decision this week on climate funding. 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. 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