Apparently Paddy is pissed off that TDB spoilt his poll on Sunday by publishing it 12 hours before he did and seems to have taken that out on Labour with some absurd claims last night that David Cunliffe is a dog whistle blowing racist xenophobe (for the record Paddy, no one from any political party told us your Poll results, you need to look closer at your own internal leaks for that).
Coming from a Journalist with a dog whistle inserted so deep within his throat he farts the National anthem, such insinuations that David Cunliffe is a racist xenophobe because Labour want to take the heat out of the Auckland housing market is sour grapes, not journalism.
The reality is there’s no strategy to blame immigrants for the housing crisis. Labour’s policy targets domestic speculators (capital gains tax), stops offshore speculators and focuses on building homes. When asked about immigration (first on The Nation, then on 3 News) the response has been that it’s a factor and Labour would look at adjusting the net inflow to ensure the housing market can keep up. The idea Cunliffe is engaging in a racist dog whistle is ridiculous. TV3 is driving this story.
The reason this issue has been made so heated by the right wing mouthpieces like Farrar is because National are very sensitive to their exposure to Chinese money for fund raising. The relationship between Williamson and Collins and their Chinese backers means any focus on migration is going to expose many things they want to keep out of the media, hence the claim of racist xenophobia, hence TV3s latest news narrative.
For those Gen Xers and Gen Y now locked forever out of home ownership, they would prefer more solution based reporting than politically loaded hysteria.
Home affordability is too important to be left to TV3 to discuss.
UPDATE: Neoliberal appointee Guyon Espiner’s attempt at a ‘gotcha’ moment with David Cunliffe this morning on Radio NZ by attempting to claim David contravened his own policy by helping a friend buy property fell flat the moment David pointed out to Guyon that his friend was a citizen. Guyon’s attempt to twist Labour’s policy into xenophobic dog whistle is as confused as Duncan Garner’s demand today that Cunliffe steps down as leader.
Does anyone with half a brain really take P. Gower seriously?
From my point of view he only lacks a National Party Tee Shirt and baseBall cap and he’d be complete.
The power behind the National party have done an ‘excellent’ job of cornering the media market. There is almost NO ONE in the MSM who will dare say anything (too) wrong about National, except for the occasional….’we’ve got to say something bad, or it’ll be obvious we’re in your pay’ stories.
Read overseas newspapers and radio if you want to know what’s really going on in NZ, on the off chance they even both to mention us at all. OR read the internet, but beware who’s web site you read.
A TDB fan and regular
See Metiria Turei take down John Key on the housing issue last week in Parliament. Where was the mainstream media coverage?
http://www.inthehouse.co.nz/video/33088
Actually, those with half a brain do, not so for those who have a full compliment of grey matter..
Sorry but I really can’t take anything Patrick says seriously – every time I see his visage on the TV screen I see Rowan Atkinson’s Mr Bean character….
Paddy’s 2014 version of 1984 doublespeak!
Disgusting some of the comments on Gower’s twitter feed.
Real tabloid shit reporting Gower’s little number was but its all hands to the pump because National don’t have a coherent housing policy (if any at all) , all they have is a very belated rush, build and hope that fools the electorate.
Basics really but in the housing policy vacuum that NZ has endured over several years, where are all these migrants supposed to live Patrick, especially without further fuelling the insane upward climb of house prices?
XRAYS’ vision is working 20/20 !
The irony here is that National actually want to limit immigration themselves, but won’t admit it because a lot of migrants come from Asia and they are often quite wealthy. Suggesting immigration limits might cause negative vibes amongst their target migrants and endanger the millions of dollars that could potentially come to New Zealand. Therefore National are quite happy to shut up and secretly thank Labour for saying what they themselves were thinking, but at the same time avoid taking any heat by actually saying it and hypocritically criticize Labour at the same time. Has National ever had an original policy? Nah, just help themselves to policies from other parties, marginally tweak them and call them their own. Then they have spin doctors like Gower and Espiner to market them.
National are completely devoid of any imaginative,lateral thinking.
They simply don’t have the intellectual fire power. It’s as simple as that.
There’s very few, if any in there with an arts based degree, which gives a launch pad from where real creative ideas are spawned.
Because they are so bereft of ideas they have to steal and then spin to try and show any sign of credibility.
They are the Justin Beibers and Britney Speers of the political world !
Their huge financial backing helps keep the lie that they are, alive !
Basically when one dollar of backing equals one vote who needs ideas !!
National’s “W” brigade – want Asian immigrants as long as they are rich and can contribute to the National Party’s Cabinet Club and Golf Games with the PM (too much alliteration here but wtf) – Wodehouse Williamson. Key and Banks would like Dotcom to migrate – out of NZ.
So let’s just say that National have a “fluid” view of migration.
Here at Daily Blog, savvy readers and contributors would agree with targetted emigration – starting with Paddy Gower and Mr Espiner, to nice little kwango sinecures in Afghanistan.
Watched One News and saw John Key admit his folks were “Austrian and English and his wife’s parents came from Ireland”. So John Key and Bronagh can be number three and four on the emigration list, to a nice little holiday bach in Hawaii.
Key admitting his father was English does put a new spin on incestuousness in National though. I do notice a real family resemblance between ‘Bill and John … National’s flowerpot men’.
I’ve mentioned this before elsewhere but:
A news story a couple of months ago reported that New Zealand is now among the 10 most attractive countries to buy on a Chinese real estate website. It also said Chinese buyers represent around 6 percent of the total property market in New Zealand. It said they buy in parts of Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Nelson and maybe a few other areas I can’t remember. This means they represent quite likely well over 10 percent of the market in areas that they prefer which makes them a significant player. it was reported that 40 percent of these buyers live in New Zealand which sounds better than the same fact that 60 percent of these buyers don’t live in New Zealand. Meaning overseas buyers (in this case Chinese) are having a significant impact on house prices in some parts of New Zealand. The impact of non-New Zealand buyers from China will inevitably increase even more in future as the middle class in that country continues to expand. This would be an issue no matter whether the buyers were Chinese or from anywhere else. The implications are obvious.
The two groups who stand to lose from allowing only New Zealand residents to buy property are non-New Zealand residents, and New Zealand residents who are sitting on property they hope to make a shite load more money out off, the second more likely to be National Party voters, I suspect.
And they’d be making their money from people who benefited from the slavery of millions. The corporate Chinese Communist Party.
Because National is all about free markets and personal responsibility – those slaves MUST deserve to be slaves, right? Therefor the money they get from Communist Party officials is TOTALLY clean! No corruption at all!
Obviously, it’s not their ethnicity that is a problem. It’s the fact that they have made their money from a monstrous, overtly corrupt system that treats the poor as grist for the mill. They expect a return on their political donations – they believe, openly, in ‘pay for play’.
If they were Russian Oligarchs, we’d have the same problem.
National’s strategy is itself extremely racist.
It is depressing that the fourth estate,well the mainstream anyway,is reduced to open political bias.I cannot listen to Guyon in the a.m, it just sets me up for a foul mood, which, if I am foolish enough to watch T.V news is cemented by rat boy Gower at 6pm.It is concerning that the bias is so open and I suspect that most folks get their local political news via these two morons,it scares me that these two can have an impact on the election.Shame on Nat radio for taking on Guyon.
My sentiments exactly Donna !
A degree in political journalism has got be made a lot harder and contain some serious ethics papers to keep these D graders out.
New Zealand is now in serious,serious trouble with our political news coverage.Corruption abounds!!
@ Donna, I’m the same with Marcus Lush on Radiolive – same claptrap every morning and it ruins my mornings and puts me in a grump on the car journey. Lush should be banned for causing road rage. His Party Political broadcasts on behalf of Nashnul ruin every friggin day. And to think this biased lot of so-called journalists had the gall, the unmitigated hypocritical cheek to rub their hands together and high-5 when Shane Taurima was outed for political bias. Political neutrality in MSM is a joke.
Corin Dann swallows a dead rat every time he has to report something bad about his beloved National. Paul Henry is a right-wing dikshit. Hosking is a sycophantic dandy right-wing mouthpiece. Gower, Espiner have been mentioned above and should be sent as political correspondents in Afghanistan and Ukraine respectively. I’ve broken 3 radios during the times when Rodney Hyde and Deborah Coddington have appeared as guest commentators or hosts on Radiolive. Don’t get me started on Q+A. Here at Daily Blog, INTRINSICVALUE – Paid ACT TROLL and Gosman and James crawl out from under their rocks to put a temporary dampener on my visits. Frank and Martyn restore my faith by giving I&G their pedigrees.
I come to Daily Blog daily. It soothes my soul and restores my faith that there is intelligent life in New Zild….. thank you all for keeping me sane in NZ
It blows my mind just how much the right wing faction of National – and their fan-kiddies – have become like Tea Party Americans. Inherently dishonest, these people are pretending that being against corruption is somehow racist! That not embracing mysteriously wealthy, obviously corrupt ex-senior officials of the Chinese Communist Party as NZ citizens(and, of course, massive political donors to the National Party – and OF COURSE they don’t expect a return for their money!) is somehow racist! It’s beyond me. And it shows the contempt they have for the New Zealand public, if they expect us to buy such nonsense without question. This property thing is just another branch of Maurice Williamson and Judith Collins’ first shot. And surprise surprise, some parts of the press buy it hook, line and sinker – without so much as bothering to ask a question, or think critically about it.
These are people who regularly demonize political refugees(especially if they’re Arab or Persian), Pacific Islanders and Maori. These are people for whom Alan Titford was a hero.
Yet they’re expecting middle New Zealand to believe that they’re heroes of pluralism? They really do think their words will be taken as fact, don’t they?
It’s like listening to Putin and his lackeys – reality is merely a minor inconvenience – the people will buy what they’re offering – they know it.
Wanting to limit immigration is racist. It supports the notion that only people born in Aotearoa deserve to be here, and everyone else are outsiders and invaders. It’s ridiculous to say that house prices are high because of ‘too many immigrants’, just as ridiculous as Australian politicians blaming the traffic in Sydney on refugees. The left should be calling for open borders – nobody, no matter where they come from, should be prevented from coming here. It worries me when the Labour party (Who you, Martyn, seem to have incredible faith in) are themselves blowing the racist dog whistle to try and drum up support.
Not that they’re the only ones – just look at National’s fearmongering of refugees, and wanting to make us like Australia, where they set up gulags on offshore islands to imprison refugees. That is, and it is important to say, far worse than Labour’s racist immigration policies. But that doesn’t mean Labour is off the hook. And as a supposed left wing writer, Martyn, it’s your job to expose Labour’s racism, and not leave it to the JK fan club to exploit to cover their own policies.
Sounds to me like Libertarian Party policy, James?
The same Libertarian Party that holds up Victorian England as the epitomy of a Libertarian “model for success” – http://fmacskasy.wordpress.com/2012/09/30/neo-liberal-libertarian-holds-up-victorian-england-as-model-for-success/
Well, if the libertarian party has better anti-racist policies than Labour, then that should tell you there’s something bloody wrong, no?
That’s quite a mind-funk, I must say. Bravo!
Who said anything abut a “libertarian party”? More confirmation that despite your boots-n-all proclamations, you’re simply not paying attention – meaning, of course, that you know it all. All that expertise just comes to you naturally, I suppose! Who needs to deal with the real world anyway, right? What does it know!
Indeed – in fact I’ve seen many libertarians hold up China as a great example of what libertarian success looks like. Of course, they present cherry-picked numbers, and dismiss any considerations of humanity as emotional nonsense.
Not a surprise that most libertarians are first year college students. That classic teenage combination of sociopathy and a conviction that they know it all.
Thankfully, toward the end of their studies, most of them begin to realize that critical thinking demolishes modern libertarian (or more accurately, Randian) ‘thought’ rather quickly.
What a bizarre post! Clearly, your understanding of racism is not within the realms of the real world.
I agree that immigration is a net plus.
I disagree that discouraging corrupt, wealthy Chinese Communist Party officials to invest in property in NZ is racist.
Black and white thinking will get you nowhere.
And clearly, you haven’t even bothered to look at Labour’s immigration policy before deciding that it’s racist.
But then, laziness and black-and-white thinking are exactly what first year uni faux-libertarians are all about.
Oh don’t be an idiot.
It’s not libertarian to think that racist policies are bad.
Saying that Aotearoa should only be inhabited by people born here is racist.
Labour are saying that they want to cut 71,000 immigrants down to 15,000. If you think they are talking about 56,000 ‘corrupt Chinese communist party members’ then you need to seriously read what you’re thinking.
Now, their actual policies, according to what has been released specifically, does not discuss those issues. Nor does it confirm that they will increase the refugee quota, or make it easier for people to come. They have intervened to support Pasifika people about to be deported due to the racist National government, they have attacked National’s fearmongering around refugees. This is good. Want to see more of that. But Labour have come out swinging -against- immigration, saying that it is too high and needs to fall.
If Labour said that they were only going to prevent people who’s net worth was over $100,000 from coming to Aotearoa, then that would not be a racist policy. That is not what they’re saying.
Calling for open borders – for a system where it doesn’t matter how rich or poor you are, where you’re from or what language you speak, you are welcome – is a socialist demand, not a libertarian one.
James ; you are catastrophic thinker and basically lack any basic common sense.
Where has all the basic common sense gone in the world today?
Obfused by greed and power me thinks?
racist: “the belief that all members of a specific race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race – prejudice, discrimination or antagonism against someone of a different race based upon such a belief”
Limiting our population numbers via immigration is not racist. Its not directed at any one specific race, and its not based on a belief that any one race possess specific characteristics or abilities.
Its done to limit our population numbers for two main reasons. We don’t have infrastructure to cope with rapid population increase, and we are a small island nation with finite space.
Oh wow. Just wow, James. Clearly, you’ve not been thinking about politics for more than a couple of months.
As for “But Labour have come out swinging -against- immigration, saying that it is too high and needs to fall”, well, either you’re dishonest, or simply can’t be bothered paying attention.
I’m anti-Russian Oligarch, too. Does that mean I hate all Slavic people? Do tell, mister expert.
Are you calling for Russian Oligarchs not to be let into the country? Or are you arguing for less slavic people to come? If you answer 1, not racist, also not what Labour are saying, if you answer 2, racist.
For the love of… Cunliffe has said, quite clearly, that Labour will reduce immigration. That having too many immigrants is a strain on the housing market and part of their solution is to reduce the number of immigrants. Please show me the link where he’s taken all of that back and no longer wants to shut the doors on people.
Please stop trying to argue on the basis of personal attacks. They make you look foolish, not in the least because I’ve been involved in politics actively for 6 years, am a socialist, and an anti-racist.
You, on the other hand, (and note I am only arguing -political- points) are defending a policy where people (and let’s face it, a majority of poor people) will have the door slammed in their face. New Zealand’s housing crisis is the result of rich speculators. Now, if Labour were proposing crackdowns on speculation, foreign or domestic, that would be one thing. But instead they are focusing on overseas buyers, and saying that they, specifically, are to blame, over the heads of all the rich Kiwi wankers who are bleeding people dry. That. Is. Racist.
A NON racist policy would be one where you are free to come and live here, but if you try to exploit others for your own benefit, no matter where you come from, you are shut down hard. This isn’t what Labour is doing. They are singling out foreigners as being ‘worse’ than Kiwi barons.
That is NOT a libertarian demand. It’s an anti-racist, socialist, left wing demand.
Now, are you going to engage with the political points I’ve made, or are you going to throw out more conspiracy theories about how I’m secretly John Key in a wig.
its not racism you idiot – as its not a policy that mentions race at all its about where you are from as a citizen, not your genetic make up or skin colour.
can you show where ANY currently standing immigration policy is concerned with race as opposed to nationality
race and nationality arent the same thing – maybe once you admit that fact we can start having the proper discussion that you call for
We should indeed have some immigration and some refugees. But not all. There are other countries too. NZ needs policy that serves NZ.
The Gnats (and Labour before them) have been using migration for their own purposes. It should instead serve the country’s purposes. That might include relatively less ‘investors’ to inflate the property bubble, and if they’re serious might include looking for a few successful construction companies.
From the NZIER today:
“Slumping house sales are a “significant risk” to the optimistic outlook for the economy, according to NZIER’s latest forecasts. The 20 per cent drop in house sales volumes in the past six months was a “significant risk” to growth, because house sales led economic growth by about six months”
“NZIER said Auckland house prices had surged to record highs, driven by investor demand”. This totally contradicts what Key has been saying in regard to there simply being a shortage.
It also pointed to 30% growth in prices in Auckland and Christchurch but a similar decline in other areas. Is anyone at home in government in 2014 or is letting the market do its thing all you’ve got??
So to all the people out there who thought our economic growth was from an export earning productive sector, think again!
Our economy is being propped up by something as non productive as real estate sales. 6 years of government and this has become a major pillar of Nationals economic management. Dear oh dear no wonder National want it to be business as usual even though it’s totally untenable, they’ve got stuff all else!.
House price haiku
John Key disses Wellington
House prices go down. Chinese investors buy cheaper houses in Wellington not in Auckland.
Bottom drops out of Auckland house market.
Priceless
I tried to write this
as a Haiku Poem, but there were too many syllables
that got in the way.
Ooops
What the hell is going on, and what has Gower put in his drink again? While I did not hear him use the word “racist” or “xenophobe”, he did definitely claim Cunliffe was using “dog whistle politics”.
But, whenever did David Cunliffe “blame” the housing crisis on immigrants? Saying the obvious, that high immigration numbers do have an impact on housing costs, does not equate to immigrants being responsible or “the problem”.
And it is absurd for John Key to now twist it to his convenient purposes again, lamenting, that if we had Cunliffe’s policies, he and his wife would not be here in New Zealand!
Migration has always fluctuated, and it has actually been very high for a small country like New Zealand. As numbers of those leaving for Australia have dropped, the migration gain has increased, logically.
As we cannot stop New Zealanders from leaving and coming back, but as we have some controls on levels of NEW migration, that can of course be used as a mechanism, to put a lower cap on granting work and residence permits.
What the damned hell has that got to do with “xenophobia”???
What has smart and balanced immigration policy to do with being “anti Asian”, “anti Samoan”, or whatever else some right leaning Nat-ACT idiots now claim? What has a register for home buyers, declaring residency status to do with being “anti Chinese”, I ask?
New Zealand has always put some controls on migration influx, and all countries do this.
This whole political debate is being abused and manipulated, and it is highly mischievous of one Patrick Gower to put this into inappropriate, untrue one liners! Shame on you, Paddy!
I watched and listened to Patrick Gower last night. I could not believe my eyes or ears. What a bold-faced cretin – almost as disingenuous as Mr Key himself!
There’s a ‘Bingo!’ list of words and labels to paste over opponents.
‘Racist’ ‘xenophobe’ ‘elite’ ‘rich’ etc
Flung upon the waters to see what rises, who bites. Who has their Worst Fears confirmed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eBT6OSr1TI&feature=kp
Basically like ‘sledging’ in cricket – rattle the batter and distract.
Now. Will it work? Do we take the risk, play into their flabby clutch, do the same? Or refuse to play Slur Bingo! ?
Slur Bingo! I like it Amanda.
I’ve come to the conclusion after many years of life that sledging works! It is a bit like the prisoners’ dilemma. Nice guys come last. But prima donnas can and do choke when faced with rude intransigence! I recommend giving it back not as hard as you get it but harder. I really do. That sort of thing works in NZ and gains respect from the “dead from the neck up” who also vote. Just my tuppence worth…
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