Consume This

In the aftermath of Cyclone Gabriel, Philip Barber, Paul Paynter, and Ben Duclercq faced an uncertain future. With their vineyards and farms left waterlogged and devastated, they have to make some difficult decisions. It’s a story of destruction, personal loss, and ultimately hope for the future.

In this episode, you will be able to:

• Grasp the profound effects of Cyclone Gabriel on Hawke's Bay agriculture industry.
• Explore the financial and emotional challenges growers face due to enormous crop losses.
• Delve into the consequences of food supply chain disruptions and the rising produce prices.
• Uncover the importance of community support and resilience in recovery and rebuilding efforts.

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Is it harder than ever to buy your first home? To do that we're joined by Habitat for Humanity CEO Alan Thorp & Economist Bernard Hickey. Plus we hear from Wellingtonian Vladimir Zdravkovich on his never ending quest for home ownership. And Whangārei home owner James.

Stats NZ’s Housing in Aotearoa:2020 report shows home ownership rates have been falling since 1991 and recently hit a 70-year low. The average home in New Zealand now costs $906,532 –a 22% price increase from this time last year, according to CoreLogic’s June 2021 data. This home also requires a deposit of $181,306, $33,662 more than last year.

If you earn the average salary of $56,160 – and had that deposit a year ago – would now have to save 60% of your pre-tax salary to cover the increase. These numbers echo research that Consumer NZ has been undertaking. Our Sentiment Tracker found three out of five homeowners couldn’t afford to buy their house at its current valuation. James, a registered electrician from Whangārei purchased his home in 2018 for $450k. Since then, the property’s capital gains have exceeded his and his partner’s – a registered nurse – combined income.

But does it really matter if we own our own home? According to Habitat for Humanity chief executive Alan Thorpe the answer is yes. Tammy Ngawhika Hutchins is a prime example. In 2012, along with Habit for Humanity’s help, she got into her own home. She was determined to provide stability for her four children. Her kids had had hundreds of doctors' appointments for asthma, but after moving out of rentals – and into their own warm, dry home – their health improved dramatically. Habitat and other community housing providers are trying their best to provide affordable homes, but can only meet a small fraction of the demand. In the past 30 years, Habitat has housed 530 families. As house prices increase, Alan tells us that mission is just getting harder. But, what about the people who haven’t been quite so lucky?

Vladimir Zdravkovich moved to New Zealand 30 years ago with his parents, escaping from war-torn Yugoslavia. He’s been saving to buy a home for more than 10 years, but always feels like he has the deposit he needed a year or two ago. This feeling of futility isn’t unique to Vladimir. According to Consumer NZ’s Sentiment Tracker, 42% of non-homeowners feel completely locked out of the market. A further 20% said that they’re saving for a deposit but can’t catch up.

So, what is driving this house price unaffordability? According to economist Bernard Hickey, New Zealand has the perfect storm of low interest rates, tax-free capital gains, and high quantitative easing all combining to push up asset prices. Bernard doesn’t see much political will to solve this problem, but he does offer up a model solution: Christchurch. At $631,000 it has the cheapest average home price of the four major cities. He claims this is driven by the response to the 2011 earthquake, where the government suspended the Resource Management Act, built high- and medium-density housing, and invested heavily in infrastructure.

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This week we’re asking the question – is it possible to buy sustainable fast fashion? To answer that we’re joined by sustainable fashion consultant Jacinta FitzGerald and GoodOnYou.eco founder Gordon Renouf.

Fashion is a huge business here in Aotearoa. In 2020 we collectively spent $7.8 billion on clothes and shoes. That’s over $1,300 each.

Going back a little bit further in 2019 an estimated 63 million tons of clothing was produced globally. That’s more than the weight of 19 million Toyota corollas, 40 million hippos or 400 years worth of Italian parmesan cheese production!

All this comes at a cost. The fashion industry has a huge effect on our planet. A report from the World Economic Forum report found that fashion production accounts for 5% of our CO2 emissions. That might not sound like a lot but it’s almost three times as much as the aviation industry. And it doesn’t stop there. Clothing production also accounts for 20% of the worlds waste water, enough to fill up 37 million Olympic swimming pools.

Fast fashion gets a particularly bad name when it comes to sustainability. With a dizzying number of brands like H&M, Zara & ASOS releasing 'sustainable' and 'conscious' clothing lines, it can be a minefield to decipher what any of this actually means, and if claims are valid. And that is a real concern.

Fashion sustainability consultant and program director and Mindful Fashion NZ join us to break down exactly what “sustainability” does and doesn’t mean with respect to fashion.

A study by the Changing Markets Foundation found that “greenwashing is rife” at both high street and luxury brands. Their results said that 60 per cent of claims by UK and European fashion companies, including Zara, H&M are unsubstantiated and misleading. It’s not particularly surprising then that research has found that only 1 in 5 us trust a brands sustainability claims.

With that in mind Gordon Renouf founder of sustainable fashion rankings app ‘Good On You’ joins us to dig into the marketing and sustainability messaging of H&M, Cotton:On, Glassons, Kathmandu and Kmart. Are they really as great as their marketing department makes them sound?

You can get in touch via [email protected]. For updates follow us on instagram or twitter.

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Jon Duffy & Sophie Richardson are joined by Consumer NZ advocate Aneleise Gawn. She talks us through the recently launched "Flight Rights" campaign and answers your airline related questions.

If your flight is delayed or cancelled for reasons within an airline’s control, such as staffing, operational or mechanical issues, you have rights under the Civil Aviation Act (CAA). But airlines aren’t required to tell you about these rights. Instead, they keep quiet, or worse, provide false or misleading information. And they’re not always upfront about the reason a flight is delayed or cancelled. This makes it almost impossible to work out what you’re entitled to. People are being left out of pocket and airlines are getting away with shirking their obligations under the law.

Enough is enough. We want action now. We’re calling for airlines to communicate honestly with passengers about the reason for cancellations and delays, and clearly display their rights. That's why we're running the Flight Rights campaign.

Sign the Flight Rights petition here - https://campaigns.consumer.org.nz/flight-rights

Stuck dealing with an unruly airline? Find out more about your rights - https://www.consumer.org.nz/articles/your-rights-when-travelling

Donate to Consumer NZ to help fund out advocacy work and keep the pressure on - https://campaigns.consumer.org.nz/donate

To become a member of Consumer NZ check out our website.

For updates follow us on Facebook, Instagram or sign up to our mailing list here. You can get in touch via [email protected].

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Toothbrushing is one of the most important things you can do for your oral health. Done right it takes just four minutes a day, can save endless pain, and thousands of dollars. Because let’s face it, the only thing that might worse than the excruciating, eye popping pain of a toothache is forking over an entire pay packet to the dentist...

On this episode of Consume This we take on the latest New Zealand Health Survey Data to understand where we are going wrong with our approach to oral health and what we’re doing about it.

Sophie Stewart is joined by:

• NZ Dental Association Spokesperson Dr Rob Beaglehole
• National Clinical Director Of Oral Health Dr Riana Clarke
• And some of the team behind Auckland supervised toothbrushing project Niho Kura....

To become a member of Consumer NZ check out our website.

For updates follow us on Facebook, Instagram or sign up to our mailing list here. You can get in touch via [email protected].

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