The Wire with Castor

A survey of Automobile Association members' views on time-of-use charging has been presented to the Auckland Council’s Transport and Infrastructure Delivery Committee. 

The survey found that members were open to congestion charging if it worked, even if they thought it was unfair.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins gave a ‘State of Auckland’ speech last week, focusing on the need for cross-party collaboration on infrastructure projects.

Wire Host Caeden spoke with Councillor Shane Henderson about both of these topics.

The recent OECD report conducting an autopsy on the economy here in Aotearoa came back with huge concerns and transformative suggestions going forward. And while some, such as the suggestion to raise the age of superannuation, have been taken on board by the leading National Party, others, like a renewable energy transition, have been poo-pooed.

Current energy policy discussions in New Zealand have focused on liquid natural gas, also known as LNG, which needs to be stored in special conditions. The government is moving forward with plans to spend over a billion dollars on a terminal specially designed to import LNG into the country and fund it with a tax on electricity. But buying natural gas is no simple endeavour. Along with petrol, LNG prices are spiking at the moment, and standard practice is to set up to buy a regular contracted amount, which, due to limited storage conditions, may have to be used or risk costing us more.

To understand the ins and outs of the OECD report on energy policy, we got Emeritus Professor of Economics and former director of the Energy Centre, Basil Sharp, to sit down with Host Manny in the studio to share his concerns with LNG and his ideas to on how to reform the electricity market.

Last week, figures published by RNZ showed that Afterpay made close to $20m in late fees in Aotearoa New Zealand, in the year to December 2025.

This revenue is an increase on their 2024 earnings, and comes after legislation was introduced to bring Buy Now Pay Later lending services—such as Afterpay—under similar regulation to other lenders.

Prior to September of 2024, buy now pay later lenders were exempted from the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act that governs other lenders. This is because, unlike other lenders such as credit card companies, buy now pay later schemes do not charge interest or any other fees—so long as the debts are repaid on time—meaning they did not meet the definition of a ‘consumer credit contract’.

After September of 2024, however, they came under the act, with some exemptions, such as that they don’t have to carry out the same checks as other lenders to see if a borrower can actually afford a loan.

A later amendment exempted them from the prohibition on charging unreasonable fees and also exempted them from being required to ensure default fees do no more than reasonably compensate the provider for their costs.

Earlier this year, Consumer New Zealand and FinCap (with support from Victoria University and funding from the Borrin Foundation) published the second stage of their report examining Buy Now Pay Later schemes in Aotearoa New Zealand, before and after these regulatory changes. So, to discuss the recently reported Afterpay late fee revenues within the wider context of what that report found, producer Theo spoke to the senior policy advisor at FinCap, Jake Lilley.

This week on the Tuesday Wire...

For Dear Science this week, our expert, Professor Allan Blackman speaks with us about politics and expertise, solar storms and trees, and droughts in Aotearoa. 

For our weekly catchup with the National Party, Host Alex spoke with MP Ryan Hamilton about the state of the Social Media Ban for Under-16s, the Prime Minister’s comments about immigration, and the upcoming budget. 

And for Green World this week, Producer Liam spoke to Professor Nicolas Lewis about the government’s plan to disestablish the Ministry for the Environment and merge it into a combined Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport, and what effects this will have in the short and long term?