The Front Page: The week’s top stories – The shadow recession, chaos at Auckland Airport and boy racers

There are tough times ahead for workers and businesses. Photo / Getty Images

Every weekday at 5am, the New Zealand Herald presents The Front Page, a daily news podcast covering the biggest stories of the day. Here’s a rundown of key stories that made headlines this week. We look into the latest GDP figures, the leaders’ debate, the chaos at Auckland Airport, the re-emergence of boy racers, the big policy missing from the political debate, a petrol fight and New Zealand’s plans to woo India.

GDP rundown

The GPD figures this week showed that New Zealand had bounced out of a technical recession, but this isn’t necessarily as good as it seems.

Some economists have warned that could just be a “dead cat bounce” while others says that we are still in the grip of a so-called “shadow recession”.

NZ Herald business editor-at-large Liam Dann told The Front Page that migration has ultimately had a major impact on these figures.

“”We’ve added an enormous number of people come to New Zealand,” says Dann.

“There’s been a huge migration boom … and that’s buoyed the economy. This means that while the top line might look okay, the economy underlying that is really obviously in pretty bad shape… Many businesses will still feel like they’re in a recession, regardless of what that top-line number says.”

So how bad are things? And how long will it be until we see some respite?

Leaders’ debate

Chris Hipkins and Christopher Luxon in the first Leaders' Debate. Image / NZME

The On the Campaign podcast this week offered an assessment of the first Leaders debate, which saw Labour’s Chris Hipkins and National’s Christopher Luxon go head-to-head on the big issues.

NZ Herald editor-at-large Shayne Currie was in the studio during the debate and believed Luxon performed better than Hipkins.

However, Currie told On the Campaign host Georgina Campbell he was hoping to see more of vision for the future of the country.

“If anything, it was a debate that helped the minor parties. If you are looking for change or looking for some difference in the country in the next three to six years on both sides of the divide, the Greens and Act would not have minded that debate at all.”

Auckland airport chaos

Long queues at Auckland International Airport on September 17. Photo / James Ryan

Zoo, madhouse and Mickey Mouse were just some of the colourful descriptions used this week to describe Auckland Airport.

Travellers are furious at the extended wait times they face moving through Auckland Airport.

NZ Herald deputy business editor Grant Bradley told The Front Page that these problems are nothing new and that travellers have had to contend with this chaos since well before the start of pandemic.

“Before the pandemic, there was a massive increase in passenger numbers as tourism boomed,” Bradley said.

“There were around 17 million passengers a year. The problems over the last decade have ranged from traffic jams on roads leading to the airport to problems with paving on the runway. Again, this is not necessarily the airport company’s fault, but they’re putting on the party and seem to cop a lot of the criticism.”

The question hanging over all this is what the airport is doing to address this and whether any of the schemes on offer will make any difference.

Boy racer tragedy

Boy racers have long been a problem in Canterbury. Photo / NZME

A woman lost her life after a driver fleeing police smashed into a house.

The car she was in fled the scene of illegal street racing in Canterbury region, which has seen a sharp uptick in these activities since the pandemic conditions were relaxed.

“There’s been a problem in Christchurch for decades and decades,” says Morton.

“It almost goes hand-in-hand with the city’s car culture. It’s that deeply embedded. The resident we spoke to said they were having up to 100 races gathering at the main intersection, and that they were even closing roads off.”

Much of this activity has shifted to the rural regions, but Morton says it’s only a matter of time before something tragic happens again.

Morton says it’s difficult to narrow down this problem to a specific group of people given the sheer number of cars that turn up to these meet-ups.

“Numbers get quoted of up to 500 cars that can be involved in these meet-ups and up to 1000 people. Police can’t be expected to have a name and headcount for every single member. It’s not a formal community, per se. The police usually target those repeat offenders, the ones who get familiar with being in the back of a squad car because they’re being picked up at these meet-ups on a regular basis.”

The lingering cough

Covid-19 is not going anywhere any time soon. Photo / NZME

The cough of Covid still lingers in the background of society, but our Government policies have moved on from addressing it directly.

The relaxation of all Covid rules means that the onus now rests on individuals and businesses to determine how best to protect themselves.

Dr Anna Brooks, a senior lecturer in biological sciences, teold The Front Page she is concerned Covid-19 “seems to be the blind spot for all politicians right now”.

“We’re not hearing anything about policy and, to me, that’s surprising because sick people can’t contribute to the economy. There are loads of studies coming out internationally where countries are tracking those not returning to work or those having to cut back work because of ongoing illness from having had Covid-19.”

So what are the likely consequences of failing to recognise the ongoing threat of virus that’s not quite done with us yet?

Fighting about carbon

National and Labour are fighting over carbon. Photo / File

The price of fuel and climate emissions were at centre of a back-and-forth battle between National and Labour this week.

Labour has said that the price of carbon would rise under National if the party cuts all the climate policies the Government has introduced - something that National has denied, instead saying Labour’s policies won’t do anything to lower emissions.

NZ Herald deputy political editor Thomas Coughlan has done an analysis of the accusations and told On The Campaign host Georgina Campbell that both are right in their own way.

Listen to the full episode of On the Campaign to hear in detail what he meant.

Elephant rising

India is already the sixth-largest economy in the world and it's still growing fast. Photo / Getty Images

Politicians across the political divide are promising to strengthen New Zealand’s relationship with India.

Both Labour and National are vowing to make business delegations and trade deals with the world’s most populous country.

But Dev Nadkarni, editor-at-large for Indian Weekender and a consultant to business councils in both Australia and Aotearoa, told The Front Page this is easier said than done.

It isn’t going to be good enough for New Zealand to just offer up milk products and expect a deal to come through.

“India is not quite interested in New Zealand’s primary industries, because India is the largest dairy producer and it’s also a net agriculture exporter,” Nadkarni said.

“India produces so much milk that it’s not really interested in importing powder from any other country. But India might be interested in learning how to transport milk, for example, or how to store it, or how to make cool products with milk – all of which New Zealand is good at.”

The challenge for New Zealand will be in showing India that there could be benefits for both parties in working closely together – all the while keeping a close eye on trade partner China to ensure we don’t upset the dragon in the room while trying to woo the elephant.