Patrick Gower tries to call Andrew Little a liar and then sulks when Little puts him in his place

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TV3 are headlining this as Andrew Little blows fuse over Chinese buyer data, when really it should read ‘Andrew Little gets pissed off at Patrick Gower being a dick’.

A journalist from the network that killed off Campbell Live for political purposes tries to claim Labour ‘cooked up’ figures & then sulks when he gets smacked down.

It’s fascinating that once again, just like the infamous Pam Corkery fight last election, it’s the manner in which people respond to TV3 being biased that becomes the story.

This network is just a mouth piece for the Government, how it continues to masquerade as news is a little beyond me.

Meanwhile, house prices continue to explode, as David Parker so cleverly points out

The NZ-China free trade agreement doesn’t stop new restrictions on house sales to overseas buyers, but National’s subsequent deals try to.

New Zealanders are suffering because the wealthy 1 per cent from other countries buying our houses are driving up prices to levels our locals can’t afford. This is also destabilising our economy. Because 1 per cent of China is over 10 million people, it’s the most obvious example.

Labour’s policy is to ban overseas buyers of residential houses, other than our closest neighbours like Australia where we have a close relationship and reciprocal rights.

The recent column by Beijing-based Rodney Jones described the need to control the sale of New Zealand houses to overseas buyers. He was spot-on when saying we must carefully consider the effect of free trade agreements. This means the China FTA, the recent South Korean FTA, and the impending TPP.

…that is intelligent, that is right and it makes the points that need to be made for those NZers struggling to buy their first home. We didn’t get that from Gower today, we got petty name calling and claims of Labour lying to people.

It’s as ugly as Andrew Lim’s extraordinary use of violent language to try and turn Chinese sentiment against Labour in yesterdays Herald...

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

In the 1930s in Europe similar debate also began with a list of names. It was a list of names which did not sound like proper German names. The names on this list were also viewed as the problem in denying hard-working Germans their rightful share of business and property ownership. In the 1990s Slobadan Milosovic’s minions no doubt had a similar list of names.

The Labour Party’s targeting of people with Chinese sounding names is of course justified as being in the national interest, expressed through democratic means with the socialist agenda of indoctrinating Kiwis into believing that home ownership is their manifest destiny, an inalienable right. But Labour’s approach is clearly the continuation of nationalist socialist democratic politics by other means.

Carrying on with Little and Tywford’s logic, which seems to have adopted the xenophobic fear-mongering tactics of New Zealand First, lists of other ethnic names could also be used to generate national debates on other topics.

…so far all the ugliest elements put on display since Labour raised the issue of China’s speculation in our residential housing market have been displayed by those screaming racist.

49 COMMENTS

  1. Refreshed 3 news article and the original one now 404’s and has been replaced with a mildly toned down version designed to make TV3 seem less provocative.

    • Orwell put it best in 1984

      “The past was erased, the erasure forgotten, the lie became truth” – more media manipulation by Natz and their dirty politics tame media.

  2. Yes – well done Andrew Little. The press need to be professional, and if their editors can’t be bothered to train them others may have to.

  3. All of these shouts of “racist” are a deliberate red herring, to divert attention form the real issues, which is a govt that is sitting on its hands while house prices in Auckland are pumped up by $3000 a WEEK, mainly by overseas speculators and well-heeled recent immigrants.

    THAT is an absolute scandal, whatever way it is looked at, and shouts of “racist” are not only a red herring, they are hypocritical, coming from the side of the political spectrum that is well-known to itself to habitually racist.

  4. Yes. Gower can be quite disappointing.
    When he interviewed Nick Smith on The Nation he missed a glaring opportunity to get his point home.
    Smith kept repeating the carefully chosen words ‘not significant effect’ 3 or 4 times and instead of moving on, any decent journalist would have said “so you do agree they have an effect”, and then moved on,instead of conceeding and looking silly.

    TV1 and TV3 are both Gvt mouthpieces,in my opinion and with all the trouble at
    Maori TV,looks like they are going the same way.

    Cheers.

    • You are right Robert. I haven’t watched TV3 since they axed JC.

      And I can’t put down what I think of Gower as I would get moderated.

      However I don’t miss his rabid rants at all, didn’t even know he was still going!

  5. The banks are the real problem in the property market. They control the credit .A property is worth what the bank will lend against it. The banks work for a small group of shareholders who don’t give a dead rats arse about the unsustainable private debt being rack up by Kiwis.They will be rubbing their hands with glee at Kiwis ignorance of how they are to be shafted. Even the IMF estimates our housing is 40% to 60% overvalued. It will be interesting to see how this manufactured implosion will occur.

    • If they are living outside nz then its not the banks here.
      My wife is Chinese and she borrowed part of the money to buy our home in Auckland (our only house) from China.
      When some guy from bnz/anz/ASB etc says they aren’t leading much money to Chinese to buy homes in Auckland, maybe they aren’t, but someone is.

    • Banks are selective depending on their motives and their morality. 20% deposit is required by some bankers and about to go up to 30%. The interest rates float and fix between 0% and 6%. Other banks have 0% and deposit, and 0% interest.

      What is the motive of Chinese banks printing money, and gifting loans to Chinese citizens apart from colonisation by wealth, not stealth nor war?

      I think Labour’s statistics touched an egalitarian raw nerve in kiwis who have always had a sense of social justice. In an increasingly unequal playing field,

      An unequal society

  6. Yes we are in deep peril here as the number of Chinese Vs’ Kiwis is drowning us here now, and we must stop this stupidity.

    we are being overtaken.

    This will bankrupt our little Country and China wont care a damn, when FJK runs off to Hawaii

    “New Zealanders are suffering because the wealthy 1 per cent from other countries buying our houses are driving up prices to levels our locals can’t afford. This is also destabilising our economy. Because 1 per cent of China is over 10 million people, it’s the most obvious example.”

    • Correction: You mean deep yellow peril.
      How can any decent left-wingers support this kind of xenophobia is beyond me. At least the Greens have a conscience….hope remains.

  7. Cant comment on Gower on TV3 because I dont watch it!…however :

    Sounds like Andrew Lim should form a Chinese Party…this would be more honest

    …instead of trying to beat up Labour for stating the glaringly obvious …and dishonestly trying to draw other ethnicities, which are no part of the problem, into his fight against Labour!

    ( after all China does have a huge overpopulation problem at 1.3 billion which could dwarf small countries like New Zealand …and a factual problem of a 50 million plus surplus of males to females…some would call it a sexist entitlement male problem)

    Fact is Labour is also calling out on a factual problem….and stating we must make restrictions on overseas buyers buying up New Zealand housing meant for New Zealanders…and this is not just a problem for New Zealand…it is a problem in other countries. :

    http://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/currencies/we-aint-seen-nothing-yet-chinese-foreign-investment-in-australian-property-tipped-to-surge-20150721-gigfaz

  8. Note to Gower et al
    It’s a pity we do not have any journalists that are able or capable of investigating the issues like this to give us some idea how much foreign/overseas buyers of our housing stock does drive up prices?

  9. Not racism!…Go Labour for calling out the problem as it is…and the Chinese know it:

    ‘Wall of Chinese capital buying up Australian properties’

    The “wall of Chinese capital” hitting property markets in Sydney and Melbourne will not ease up until the government introduces its anti-money laundering legislation, says an expert in ‘flight capital’.

    James Tee, an ethnic Chinese property developer whose business specialises in “capital expatriation” – that is, getting money out of China and into his property developments in Malaysia – told Fairfax Media the exodus of capital from China was accelerating, thanks to the government’s anti-corruption drive.

    “We have been tracking this for two years,” says Tee. Those outflows from China are compounded by the flight of capital out of Canada which is now “bursting” to find a home in Australia.
    .
    Due to the bubble in Canadian house prices and ensuing concerns over social dislocation, Canada’s government shut down its investor visa program last year. Some 40,000 Chinese visa applicants with a minimum loan to governments of $C800,000 were handed back their capital.

    “That’s roughly $32 billion,” says Tee. “The Canadian government said: ‘We don’t want your money anymore’ and that capital is now hitting the Sydney market.”…

    Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/comment-and-analysis/wall-of-chinese-capital-buying-up-australian-properties-20150628-ghztdf.html#ixzz3gVPV2Oew

    (If Patrick Gower was worth his salt he would be looking into this instead of trying to bully Andrew Little…lets face it …he is no investigative journalist…he is a TV3 sycophant!)

  10. As an Asian-New Zealander, I will never again vote for Labour. This issue has been framed by Labour in Racial Terms. I am not Chinese but growing up in the 90’s “Asian-Invasion” quips and remarks growing up, this is very sensitive issue.
    Maybe I will vote Labour after a new generation of leaders. But at the moment… the silence is deafening.

    • So, David, any thoughts on Auckland’s housing market being inflamed by overseas investors? Or are you content to frame this as a purely race-based issue, and not worry about housing in that city?

      • Overseas investors may be having a effect on Auckland house prices. Along with cheap credit, financial repression boosting asset prices, lack of building, competing construction in Christchurch…. many factors. Scapegoats are when “outsiders” are used to focus all or most of the blame. The Chinese/Jewish problem or question.

        Using Chinese names as a proxy for foreigners is a big issue for me. New Zealand has a history of casting non-European and Non-Maori and being not true New Zealanders. People refusing to acknowledge that NZers come in different hues due to racism or politics (Biculturalism).

        Having you noticed that golfers, Lydia Ko and Danny Lee are prefixed by “KIWI”?
        By inference, look, we know most you don’t recognise them as NZer and therefore we need make sure you know that are associated with NZ somehow to bask in their reflected glory. Just like Richie McCaw is prefixed by KIWI as well…. perhaps never because that is obviously self evident that he is a ‘true’ Kiwi.

        When you use Chinese names a proxy for foreignness it reinforces the outsider status. They are not one of us… we can oppress them, put poll-taxes perhaps . That yellow peril……we will be swamped and little England will be washed away.

        Yes I am worried about property prices in Auckland but I will not make Racist arguments to make political points.
        The ends don’t justify the means.

        • PS

          I will make sure that every I know remembers Labour’s “Chinese Buyers” campaign. I am sure this will improve enrolment for the next election. This will not be forgotten for a long time, it will spread through ethnic newspapers and radio. Those ‘missing millions’ will be out in force.

        • David, so to appear not to “make Racist arguments to make political points”, you are willing to ignore overseas investors buying up properties in our major city, thereby forcing out locals from purchasing their own homes? And by the way, by “locals”, I mean New Zealanders of any ethnic grouping. I doubt if any ethnic group in this country, whether Pakeha, Maori, Chinese, Indian, et al, benefit from having to compete with off-shore investors forcing them out of the market.

          That is misguided.

          Whether foreign investors are from Boston, Beijing, or Berlin, or whether they are buying up houses or farms, matters nought. What does matter is that prices are being inflated and only overseas investors can buy up these properties.

          This is a problem that our parents and grandparents never had to contend with, as they worked toward their first homes.

          As for Lydia Ko and Danny Lee – good on them. I have no problem with New Zealanders of any ethnic grouping.

          Non Residents/Citizens simply should be prevented from buying land or houses, as many other countries do around the world. If they want to buy a farm or house, let them go through the process of citizenship.

          Otherwise, this country becomes the province of millionaires and billionaires from overseas, and we are left as tenants in our own country.

          • Make argument like yours about foreign investors as a grouping. That’s valid.
            No one has a problem with that.
            Singling out vulnerable ethnic groups where you know can push buttons in the majority is the lowest form of politics.
            In America, it’s called the “Southern Strategy”….What terms do Little and Twyford use?

            • They didn’t single out the Chinese David. The data they used did. Either you and your Chinese friends and relatives have your heads in the sand over this matter or you are being misinformed.

              Granted, the data is not as fool-proof as it could be, but that is because the National government has refused for years to provide a better set of data. Have you asked yourselves why that is? Well, I’ll tell you why. It is because they are in the pockets of the foreign speculators wherever they come from and it includes those from China. Ordinary NZ citizens (and that includes Chinese NZ citizens) who reside permanently here are being left out in the cold. They are being driven out of the housing market in Auckland by the foreign speculators. Currently the highest number of ‘speculators’ appear to be coming from China and you should be as concerned about that as the rest of us.

              So, instead of biting the hand of those who are trying to alert you to what is happening, why don’t you join with us to demand the government does something about it – for your children’s and prospective grand-children’s sake at the least.

              • Very patronising. I know racism when i see it. We have moved on from shouting from cars. Its’ called dog whistle politics for a reason. You don’t have to say it overtly but use coded language and the people you want to reach can hear it loud and clear.
                When people of certain ethnic backgrounds are offended …..does it make you stop and think?

                If this was all unintentional, then there has to be a question of political competence. You need to have someone with a feeling for the electorate.

                • Anne is not patronising or racist…you are being disingenuous!..in other words not telling the truth

                  ..New Zealanders are not fools…however the Nactional government is betraying New Zealanders

                • What an offensive reply. You are a childish individual David. There was nothing “patronising” about my comment to you. You are just choosing to interpret something that way because you want to.

                  As someone who has spent much of her adult life as an activist against racism and racist attitudes, I am now going to charge you with the one being racist.

                  I suggest no-one bother trying to enlighten this person any more. He either doesn’t want to be informed, or he is a fake. I suspect its the latter.

                • Good on you David!

                  Labour’s attack on Chinese was both racist and subsequently proven to be incompetent with the aid of a little door knocking by TV crew.

                  It think it will blow back in their face. Already the resignations are rolling in.

              • I am sorry that you feel offended. I was referring to the overarching topic of using Chinese or Asian sounding names as a surrogate measure for foreigners.

                “Biting the hand of those”…….. thanks for the crumbs and I acknowledge the white saviours who can fight the battles for us coloured folk, because you know best.
                .
                Chinese friends/relatives and I have our heads in the sands? No, I see things very clearly.

                Only use Chinese names in the data….HAH Usually dog’s whistling is not usually that blatant. Like in the America use ” welfare queens’ “crack addicts” to imply Blacks. You can’t say Black or racist terms straight out.

                Al Sharpton said about the protagonist in To Kill a Mockingbird “Now to find out that Atticus Finch was not this statesmanlike racial hero, but was in fact portrayed at first by Harper Lee as racist in many ways, reflects the burden we’ve had in real life of the northern liberal who ended up being racist”

                Thank goodness there has been progress, it is now 2015 and not 1915. We have asian spokespeople who can articulate the feelings of the minority like Keith Ng.

                Meek no longer

                • David you come across as a privileged wanker saying anything to camouflage your privilege and to shut down all criticism. Comment on the actual problem not your imaginary one.

        • Racism is the belief that a particular race is superior or inferior to another, that a person’s social and moral traits are predetermined by his or her inborn biological characteristics.

          How can the flow of easy money enabling people to speculate by buying homes in another country to make a fast tax free buck be a biological characteristic.

          Is it racist that i can’t buy a house in China, or just smart economic policy.

    • David Phil Twyford has been batting away at the Auckland housing crisis covering every possible angle.

      If anyone is racist towards you because the issue of Chinese investors from overseas buying up property to speculate, I am truly sorry.

      But you know what. It isn’t Labour causing this problem. Its the government failing to regulate the market. I don’t feel angry with any foreign investor buying to speculate here, cause that’s what happens. But it only happens cause our dumb govt arent regulating to stop it. So if you are hurt and angry about the back lash of racism from Labour’s comments, please think about putting the blame where it lies. National and John Key.

  11. Glad someone has the guts to call Patrick Gower out on this. Patrick is the worst political reporter in New Zealand simply because he makes no attempt to hide his bias. Brook Saben comes a close second. It grates me that mainstream media disseminates idiocy and that most people suck it up as holy writ. I have absolutely no faith in mainstream media and no faith in the ability of most viewers of tv 3 news to see through Patrick Gower’s shoddy, politically imbalanced ‘journalism’. I’m really fucking over it. I really want to escape this bullshit.

    • David strikes me as a put-up posing as Chinese but is a NatZ troll, just my gut feeling he has overdone “the gilded lily”

      • I am a Korean New Zealander. Went to Bailey Rd Primary, Mt Wellington thru to Auckland Uni. I am no poser. If you ever went to Westlake Boys in the 90’s, anti-asian feeling was rampant.

        I see…..need to demonstrate the shape of eyes and not shape of your lifestory.

        • David …it may surprise you that there are Chinese and Asians in New Zealand who agree with Twyford and Labour’s stand…I have a very good friend who is one

          …they are generally Chinese and Asians who have been in New Zealand for some years/generations and are New Zealanders

          …and have the values of New Zealanders ( ie .NZers dont want gross overpopulation from China or anywhere… we value our environment and quality of life… we dont want ransacking of our scarce housing resources and our land)

          …it is people like you who don’t want to listen and want to run rough shod over New Zealanders cultural rights and for a home in their own country that are and will cause racism!

          • We live in east Auckland, my wife is Chinese, many of my friends are.
            They don’t want Auckland homes sold to Chinese people that do not live here.
            Also the Chinese government has laws like if your not from beijing but from other parts of China then you can’t buy a house in beijing, this is to stop speculation driving up the price of houses.

          • Cultural rights? Keeping the status quo perhaps.
            It is quite a leap from my statements and maybe an insight to the real underlying anxieties.
            All i am saying is to debate without derision; facts without fear mongering.

            Respect people, make people feel included; not as outsiders looking in.

            One thing i have noticed, amongst those defending the actions of phil twyford is denial….. He is one of us, his motives must be well intentioned because it fits with our own self conceptions of fighting for the underdog.
            I hope the reaction will give pause to those who want to divide rather than bring people together.

  12. I first listened to the TV3 news via the live cast on Radio Live(ing Dead). Here we go again, was my reaction to Patrick Gower, the coward. I turned on the TV to watch the repeat of the news and then saw and heard it, Gower up to his old dirty tricks, making accusations and provoking Andrew Little, to get him angry.

    So wait, that bit where Andrew challenged Gower, re the accusations that Labour “cooked up” data they got from a real estate agent, that will most likely be replayed all over again and again in future, along the lines of “Angry Andy”.

    Indeed, Gower is such a nasty, manipulative piece of crap, he is not fit to be a “political reporter”. He is rather a “political mis-reporter” and mis-informer, a man with clear preference to the Nats and this government.

    And then we had that other piece of nastiness, always looking like round-faced “miss innocence”, Tova O’Brien, trying similar nasty things with Phil Twyford.

    This is Crosby Textor style politics, and what “coincidence” that the Prime Minister was then in Parliament’s question time repeating again “cooked up” figures, “cooked up names list”, and what else came from him. It is astonishing how Key does bluntly repeat what Gower dished out, there seems to be some form of coordination going on, but of course this would all be denied.

    TV3 has been at this game before, with all Labour leaders since 2008, especially the last three years, trying to find any dirt to throw at them, to discredit them, and thus eventually disgrace them and take them out, as a “failed” leader.

    They had footage from a Nazi concentration camp as a backdrop on the news a week or so ago, when Phil Quin had given up his Labour membership, and was shown on TV3 labeling Labour as “racist”.

    Then they tried other tactics, such as revealing “leaked” emails about Andrew Little’s diary, having spoken to international investors, trying to suggest, he speaks with forked tongues, just like they tried when they took down Cunliffe.

    TV3 deserves to be boycotted, deserves to get much worse ratings, deserves to make losses, and such ones as Gower deserve to be sacked, same as Paul Henry, and others, and they should bugger off and perhaps try their hands at some real work, where they get their hands dirty, wearing a blue overall.

    I guess though, we will never see this happen, as real work is not what they would like, it is easier to spin lies and to manipulate, and to sell all this as “news”, as forms of infotainment and whatever.

    Shame on TV3, shame on Patrick Gower, shame on Tova O’Brien!

  13. I only saw this trash while I was in a BP and my immediate thought was Gower is still, first and foremost, lamely working for the government, there to try and force a set narrative or even a script through, largely because National MP’s have been so ineffective.

    TV3 is so sad and I am glad I ceased watching NZ TV news of any form years ago. Its still shit!

  14. I heard John Key on Today in Parliament on National Radio last evening not answering the question and then personally attacking Andrew Little again. After reading this and looking at the video, I assume he was referring to this event. Apart from another example of just how obnoxious Key is, it does suggest a tag team approach to attacking Little.

    • pity the Greens had to adopt jonkey Nacts racist framing on this issue

      ….the Greens have lost votes on their inept accusations against Labour

      …time to apologise to Labour and give them support imo…

  15. In Christchurch the groups pushing up prices for property (pre earthquake were the English and South Africans) and buying huge chunks of the South Island? – Yanks, so it is unfortunate that labour chose shonky data to point the finger at the Chinese, especially given New Zealands long history of Sinophobia http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/2173/anti-chinese-legislation How could anyone see this as anything but racist?
    And as for the Gower and Tovia why would you expect anyone in infotainment in private media to be anything but right wing?

    • Two Hong Kong families buying up 40 houses each in Christchurch…80 houses?!in one hit!…Riccarton largely owned by Chinese?

      ….straight from the horses mouth….an HONEST Real Estate agent

    • I respect your feedback re Christchurch and what has been going on down south, but here in Auckland, we have different kinds of investors and buyers buying up large, and what we see and hear daily, it fits totally with what Little and Twyford released.

      So perhaps do some more study, the issue is, the government has let it come to this, due to total inaction, to deflecting from their responsibility, by screaming “racism”, while there is actual evidence for what Phil Twyford and Labour stated.

      And those going on about “sinophobia”, this is not so, sadly some of the same people having very vested interests like to play the race card, the reverse racism card, like Israelis often do, when being criticised for the murder and maltreatment of Palestinians.

      It is all too convenient to dish out racism accusations, to divert attention from what really goes on, and it deserves to be discussed and addressed. It seems we here in Auckland have some different challenges when compared to what South Islanders face.

  16. How hard is it to stop foreign ownership? To buy a property you need to be a New Zealand resident – simple, one would think. Nothing to do with race, just putting the citizens of a countries’s needs first.
    This is where National is failing us, and future generations – presently we are last on their list.

  17. Patrick Gower is such a disappointment ! ! and his bias is so obvious and he is part of the reason our lives, here in our home, have been so much calmer and more peaceful since we stopped watching channel 1 and 3.
    There is far better quality unbiased media out there.
    I mean, come on, is there any integrity much in these pro-nat media suck ups as they defend the undefendable. VERY POOR QUALITY MEDIA now mostly in this country and it reflects the poor quality elitist led government.
    As for positive overseas media, has anyone checked out the Magazine called ” YES ” ? and for international media – how about RT.COM.

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