If climate change projections make their way to Land Information Memorandums, owners of coastal properties may find themselves struggling to stay afloat long before waves start lapping at their door. Vulnerable properties will become uninsurable causing banks to withhold lending – suddenly passing on that slice of hot potato paradise will be near impossible. This week James Shaw joins Bernard Hickey to talk about the real meaning of climate change adaptation and who's responsible for funding infrastructure that will mitigate the effects of climate change. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With unemployment now having climbed to 3.3% within the industry, builders are now crying out for workers. With this ascent and historically driven as a mostly male-dominated field, they’re getting serious about hiring the other half of the population. Bernard Hickey talks with Kiwibank economist Mary Jo Vergara about a surprise rise in employment growth for women in construction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Imagine living in a society where details about everyone’s earnings and taxes are publicly available. With a gender pay gap of just 4%, Norway has operated under this system of pay transparency since the 1800s and some argue it’s time for a similar approach in Aotearoa. Join Bernard Hickey as he talks to AUT Professor Gail Pacheco, who heads the NZ Work Research Institute, about whether pay transparency is the answer to help address our pay equity gaps for women, Māori and Pasifika. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Half-price bus and train fares are good, but wouldn’t completely free fares be even better? Bernard Hickey talks to transport and urban planning academic Jen McArthur about the economics and the politics of free public transport. He even discovers some positives that make the idea more attractive to the usual opponents. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Businesses, hospitals and the opposition are pleading for a loosening of migrant worker restrictions to ease the intense labour shortages that are forcing cancellations and jury-rigged services up and down the motu. Bernard Hickey sits down to interview Productivity Commission chair Ganesh Nana to find out if a migration surge would solve our productivity problem, and why any decision to pull the migration lever must also look to pull the infrastructure investment lever. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For decades we've been warned of major slumps that never happened, but the Reserve Bank's new chief economist says this time, it's different. With a history of central bank governors and finance ministers making similar predictions that never came to pass, listen as Bernard Hickey challenges Paul Conway's view that the housing market’s ever-upward tide may be turning. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why do so few of our small businesses make the leap to become bigger, faster-growing engine rooms for economic growth and higher wages? Curiously, Aotearoa also has a long tail of older business owners that are comfortable bumbling along with sub-scale firms that would do better with bigger and more ambitious owners. This week Bernard Hickey talks to ABC Business Sales MD Chris Small about why so many business owners won’t jump up, or out, and why it’s holding back the nation as a whole. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The employment landscape currently favours workers, yet we’re still reluctant to ask for a pay rise and fear being sacked. Bernard Hickey is joined by AUT professor Jarrod Harr to examine how work culture, pay, conditions and the power relationships between employers and employees have been transformed by the pandemic and try to figure out why workers still feel insecure and what employers can do to combat the great resignation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s hitting food, petrol, rent, shipping and wages, but inflation hasn’t touched the housing market. Bernard is joined by Kiwibank economist Mary-Jo Vergara to unpack the surprisingly big and long spike of inflation that is cascading into every aspect of our day-to-day lives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bernard Hickey (When The Facts Change; parliament studio) and Toby Manhire (Gone By Lunchtime; Auckland studio) join forces for a budget reaction crossover special. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices