Our Politicians are part of our housing crisis problem

By
Martyn Bradbury
-
13
0

It is no wonder that our Political Class are landed gentry…

New Zealand’s MPs have interests in 350 properties between them – three each (2.5 if you cut out Maori land blocks); National MPs register the largest investment holdings

New Zealand’s parliamentarians have interests in 350 real properties, according to Parliament’s latest Register of Pecuniary Interests. This represents a shade under three properties per MP.

The headline figure is boosted by various MPs’ interests in Maori land blocks. Interest.co.nz counted 66 instances where an interest referred to one. Labour’s Adrian Rurawhe has interests in 41 Maori land holdings and his party colleagues another 11, for example.

The register covered 118 MPs’ interests as at 31 January 2017. Labour list MP Raymond Huo was not included as the Mount Albert by-election that he came in on the back of, was held in February.

By party, National’s 58 MPs recorded interests in 201 real properties. Labour’s 30 MPs 101, the Greens’ 14 MPs 20 properties, NZF’s 12 MPs 25 properties, the Maori Party’s two MPs one property (Flavell), two for Peter Dunne (UF) and none for ACT’s David Seymour.

A staggering 76 MPs declared an interest in two or more properties. Meanwhile, 51 declared an interest in three or more.

…which helps explains why they don’t give two flying fucks about the grim reality that the user pays generations are now finding themselves in…

New data shows 4 out of 5 can’t buy a house in Auckland

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s Housing Affordability Measure (HAM) was first proposed in 2012 but only saw the light of day for the first time yesterday, partly because of officials’ concerns about its political sensitivity.

The first official measure of housing affordability, its findings are stark: four out of five renters in New Zealand cannot not buy a house in their area without going into financial hardship.

The picture is bleaker in Auckland, where unaffordability levels are at 86 per cent, and as high as 96 per cent in the southern suburbs.

…let’s get this straight.

These National Party slumlords who own 201 fucking properties between them attempted to stop this report from coming out because it shows Millennial’s and Gen Xers are now locked out of home ownership forever and they were concerned about the political fall out?

In other Nations this sort of outrageous self interest would see people on the streets, in a country with inequality issues as stark as ours, the poor are too beaten down, too frightened and too much in debt to force political action.

The only way this changes is post 2020 when the electoral age dynamics change. Past 2020, Generation Xers and Millennials will be the largest voting bloc. When we have the majority comrades, that’s when we strap on steel capped boots and stomp the shit out of these pricks.

If you are not angry yet, you are part of the problem.

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13 COMMENTS

    • What a load of crap!
      By any measure National have committed nothing short of treason with their reckless irresponsible manipulation of the housing market and the negative ramifications are long term and huge.
      The young who didn’t choose wealthy parents are stuffed .
      A massive crash will be their only saviour ..l

      • GARIBALDI IS technically correct.

        These current National party – and Labour party MP’s have been recipients of free market neo liberalism and thus have availed themselves of the perks that ideology has uniquely afforded them.

        It is simply another expression of ‘ looking out for number one and to hell with everybody else’.

        And in order to understand this process , a look into NZ’s recent political past will unlock the key to the behavior of these so- called elected officials who are elected to ‘ serve the best interests’ of NZ’ers.

        The following three links will amply demonstrate just why these MP’s choose to serve their best interests first and foremost instead.
        ………………………………………….

        * New Right Fight – Who are the New Right?
        http://www.newrightfight.co.nz/pageA.html

        * Thule Society – Wikipedia
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thule_Society

        * Young Hitler – Excerpts Appendix | The Thule Society
        http://www.younghitler.com/thule_society.htm

  3. Sounds to me like some politicians’ heads are going to roll; yes, I do mean literally 🙂

    • Martyn,

      Bloody good article here,

      We need the opposition to expose who these criminals are!!!!

  4. Every one of them, Not just the Nats who owns a rental is guilty, guilty, guilty. Greedy bastards the lot of them.

  5. We can also thank the Nats for lack of improvements to the Residential Tenancies Act, which does rather favour the landlords and their interests, although the odd example of bad tenants is often reported on extensively by the MSM.

    I wish they would report more on rip off landlords who are true slum landlords, than highlight only bad tenants.

    It is also overdue to bring in rent increase controls which are used in many other developed countries. Here the not strongly enforced “ceiling” for rent increases is merely the market rent. When rents increase substantially over say a year, nothing stops landlords to increase rents to such a market rate, which could mean increases of over 10, 20 or more percent per annum, something unheard of in many European countries, it would simply not be allowed.

    Average rents charge across the board should be considered a kind of rule to follow, rather than the market rents, which are only representing the actual recent leases and rents that can be charged at a time there is scarcity of rental accommodation, now sky high in places such as Auckland.

    As so many National MPs are landlords, they have vested interests and no interest in looking better after tenants, by giving them more rights.

    • +100 “I wish they would report more on rip off landlords who are true slum landlords”…and “It is also overdue to bring in rent increase controls which are used in many other developed countries…” eg Amsterdam where tenants have a lot of rights

  6. imo …there should be NO overseas landlords( these landlords should be taxed to hell)

    …there is much more accountability when NZers provide rental accommodation

  7. The figures aren’t really worth the column inches they’re filling.

    The point should have been made that these figures include properties held by MPs as trustees, even though they are not beneficiaries — that is they have no right to occupy or liquidate those assets for their benefit — they are holding them for the benefit of others.

    My guess is that the real rich pricks in the national party (a la John Key) have trustees other than themselves hold properties for their benefit. AFAIK if you don’t know what property is held for your benefit (such as Key’s vineyard) you have no obligation to disclose it.

  8. Lots of Labour and Greens MPs have significant property portfolios too, some tucked away into trusts, along with other ill-gotten gains. Of course, none of these people would ever do anything underhand, exploitative or dodgy because they are from the Left and the Left can do no wrong. Ever.

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