Greens’ Chloe Swarbrick calls for economic response inquiry
The Greens want a select committee inquiry into the economic response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Finance spokeswoman Chlöe Swarbrick has written to Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee, calling on it to agree to an inquiry into the Covid-19 economic response when it meets for the first time this year on Wednesday.
The Greens have been critical of aspects of the Covid-19 economic response, in the Government’s reliance on the Reserve Bank’s lowering of interest rates to boost demand in the economy. This had the unwanted side-effect of pushing up house prices across the country.
FINALLY!
After all the bullshit middle class identity politics posturing, we FINALLY get to the crux of the matter.
The terrible failure of neoliberal economics and it’s horrific impact on the vast majority of us!
Jacinda and Grant poured billions into the housing market and the housing market exploded. They used failed free market dynamics in a market already mutated beyond recognition by free market dynamics and it has resulted in one of the largest transfers of wealth in NZ history…
Wealthy nearly $1 trillion richer since Covid began – Hickey
An economic and political commentator says since the Covid-19 pandemic reached Aotearoa, the rich have become richer and the poor have become poorer – in part due to the Government’s policies.
Bernard Hickey, writing in The Kākā newsletter, argued that – contrary to many assumptions – New Zealand’s economic response to Covid-19 was among the worst in the world in terms of widening wealth inequality and being a wasteful use of taxpayer funds.
He calculated policies like cash payments for businesses struggling through the pandemic, wage subsidies that saved business owners money, rising property and asset prices, and money printing cumulated to make the wealthy nearly $1 trillion richer.
Meanwhile, the lines for emergency food parcels continue to lengthen, Hickey told Breakfast.
…I’ve argued Chloe is the mustard, here is her speech in Parliament…
“We’ve seen those distributional impacts in house prices rising $300,000 on average across Aotearoa, we’ve seen it in the 1 trillion dollar estimated transfer of wealth to the wealthiest New Zealanders. The government has seen that increase in inequality not though some ‘natural process’ but as a result of decisions that were made, and decisions that were not made.”
…we desperately need a new economics, reviewing the vast failures of the current life boat is an essential start.
This is Chloe’s moment.
All strength to her arm, it’s a debate that needs urgent attention as global capitalism once again looks on the verge of collapse.
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you have to love her!
Nope. If one ‘has’ to love her, then that is compelled and meaningless. No one has to love anyone, best one can hope for is respect.
Sabine, you are being very picky, it’s obvious what Shona meant, don’t become all PC on us! So do you ‘respect’ Chloe? I find Chloe’s views a breath of common sense fresh air, something we can do with more of in the often stagnant air existing in the halls of power, so I certainly respect and love her for that.
See my comment below and draw your own conclusions. I have neither love nor respect for any of these beige suits on the left/right/middle. They have long ago stopped putting country before their bank accounts.
Thanks Peter! I don’t worship or adore the gal but her grip on shit that matters is better than most in Parliament.
You’re very welcome Shona. There is too much bitterness towards elected reps by people who obviously think politicians inherit a magic wand to instantly change things, always to what they want. Yes, many politicians are self serving or beholden to financial masters, but if we ‘the people’ want change we must support efforts like Chloe’s, not denigrate them, otherwise we will get more of the same.
She should have said something before they threw the money at hte very rich, the money that paid wages via businesses so that businesses would not let go of staff and thus overwhelmed Winz with unemployment and benefit requests, but then did nothing much else to help businesses – small businesses that is, the Big Businesses that will offer board position when the current crew leaves the empty halls of parliament got plenty. Quite a few of us asked for bill payment holidays, Ubi payments via IRD for all, help to get out of commercial leases for businesses that were no longer valid – specifically in hard hit tourist areas and so on and so on. Yet, crickets. And most of us that came up with this are self employed or small business owners. And we were told that we should be grateful or that we and our jobs that we created should just go silently in a ditch to die.. And dear Chloe said nothing, and if she did she mumbled so silently that no one heard her lest she gets told of by the PM. Lol.
Like the PM, she too is generally a few days late and several dollar short. But then, her constituency is running out of money, maybe her ‘ me too i am queer’ was only good for an article no one read (i stopped at the third line and went meh). The Problem with the Green is that they have no principles when it comes to government. On one hand they will only work with Labour, but on the other hand that will also mean that they will do what Labour wants and when Labour wants it, and they will have to shut up when told to shut up.
The best the Green Party can do is uncouple from Labour, find their roots again, ditch the queer train and keep their sexes, self id, and other private stuff private – and above all leave the kids alone with that shit, and focus on being a principled and loud opposition party. Sadly in the current configuration that will not happen. So what have they achieved? Lol, they reclaimed the word Cunt (thanks Marama), Men are now women, and Women are transphobic for stating that they are women and that they like it, and a failed Weed Referendum because they could not even in a minute imagine nor admit that they were kneecapped by a PM who had no opinion on a political issue.
She can, or is it they? – like the PM talk a good deal, but sadly they deliver on stuff that is good for no one.
Hoist by their own petard of false priorities and loyalties. And last but least, those of us that made submissions to the Self ID bill (NZ’s Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Bill 2021}- we will never forget the spectacle that the Dames of the Labour and Green Party made of the so called democratic action of the Justice select Committee. Condescending, rude, and unprofessional. Why would anyone in their sane minds vote for that? Or better even, listen to what the beigest of them all has to say on anything?
But then i guess its election year, and even the die hard supporters of Labour and The Greens understand that their brand has become toxic, poisonous and unbearable. Anyone but L/G, and it will only get worse for them.
Excellent and illuminating clarification of your position Sabine. Having been a self employed employer in this country I despair of ever getting thru to my friends just how much damage Covid has done to the economy. It’s weird how nobody seems to notice or care. I have been saying the wheels have fallen off for some time and things are not rosey at all. Supply issues appear to have passed the government by.
As for your experience at select committee level I am afraid it was ever thus. MP’s are generally up themselves self important ignorant dickheads .
“we’ve seen it in the 1 trillion dollar estimated transfer of wealth to the wealthiest New Zealanders.”
That is patently absurd. Where did the trillion dollars come from? Not the poor for they never had that volume of wealth. That trillion dollars is nothing but paper value that cannot be liquidated into disposable currency for distribution.
As that “wealth” is but paper entries on an accountant’s spreadsheet, the state cannot liquidate that trillion dollars and “distribute” it to the poor. The trillion dollar wealth is an illusion.
But it suits an agenda to claim that the wealthy have increased their “wealth” when all that has been done is increase the illusion the wealth is real. It is not real. It is a paper value and meaningless in the tradable economy.
The agenda being is the creation of a wealth tax. A tax based on paper value (an arbitrary value set by the state) of any asset, to make a wealth tax seem a doable proposition. When in fact it will do nothing to distribute real currency to the poor.
Only accountants and an army of more state servants will get more work and income, the poor will get not even the crumbs from the illusion.
Do politicians actually know the difference between real value of assets and paper ones? Do politicians know how the create tradable value from any asset?
The house I live in has increased in “value” over the last few years by $1,000,000 here in South Auckland. On paper am a millionaire but my “wealth” is an illusion, Unless I sell, I cannot transfer that “wealth” into food on the table plus keep a roof over my head. You will find the same with the wealth tax. It will not help the poor.
To help the poor, the state needs to make investment into job creation private (as in paying taxes for distribution to the poor) enterprises to flourish. Something this Labour government, supported by the Greens, cannot get the heads around.
They see the tax paying tradable private enterprise sector as the enemy to be milked dry. And doing a good job of it. But once the taxable cow is dry, how will they fertilse it again to give the milk for next years taxable real currency income. The taxes needed for currency distribution to the poor?
this is partly true, paper value may not reflect the actual price realised on liquidation of an asset which is why successive govts have interviewed in the capitalist property market to keep prices increasing.
however that is not an argument against property taxes because if assets are sold the profit is income..philosophical arguments around the nature of fiat currency don’t apply but everybody’s agreed perception that ‘x’ is worth ‘y’ is the deciding factor.
CGT on property is linked to income tax which is why it is a joke. Many rich people living in NZ don’t pay income taxes and rearrange their finances to gain NZ taxes not pay them.
NZ is the default place to buy up and renovate palatial mansions for overseas turned quickie NZ citizens
aka
Business Insider: The Thiel Deal
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/business-insider-the-thiel-deal/DBP6RYXM6RM7QARFEXQXXXNBRE/
“American billionaire – and surprise New Zealand citizen – Peter Thiel has sold his rarely-used suburban Queenstown house as his plans to build a luxury lodge and home on the shores of Lake Wanaka gather pace.
The high-profile contrarian made more than a billion dollars from an early investment in Facebook, but this week announced he was standing down from the board of the social media giant in order to work more closely with Trump-leaning Republican candidates in the US midterm elections later this year.”
In addition
“While Thiel has exited almost all of his New Zealand tech investments in the past few years – chiefly Vend and Xero – he still has a substantial landholding in New Zealand in the form of a 193-hectare property at Damper Bay acquired in 2015 for $13.5m. Thiel’s unexpected citizenship meant he did not have to apply for Overseas Investment Office approval on the purchase.
Last year he announced plans to develop the site, building a 885sq m guest lodge and a 385sq m private four-bedroom home with a pool.”
Billionaire Peter Thiel makes fortune after ‘sweetheart’ deal with Government
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/billionaire-peter-thiel-makes-fortune-after-sweetheart-deal-with-government/B22JSOU3762DJCI53XCR4MLRHU/
Ok then, far right Thiel gets NZ citizenship in a strange outside of rule deal with John Key as a NZ tech ambassador but after getting NZ citizenship now doesn’t seem to be an ambassador to NX tech having sold his tech holdings, but did make millions off NZ tech in sweetheart deals with NZ government which left the tax payers out in the cold after taking the risks. Now like most foreign turned NZ billionaires he spends his time buying up and renovating palatial mansions in NZ taking up substantial building resources that NZ is short of while the NZ construction industry whines daily about building skills and materials shortages and want more income taxes or income tax related capital gains taxes, out of poorer workers in NZ paying taxes. Crickets on closing loopholes for billionaires paying nothing in taxes here.
Then there are the criminals who buy up NZ property with their criminal proceeds.
aka
Auckland businessman sentenced after police target professional money launderers in covert Operation Menelaus
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/auckland-businessman-sentenced-after-police-target-professional-money-launderers-in-covert-operation-menelaus/KZOJ75U6V2I6PBYIUVYWQEY5E4/
“The dirty money helped him buy two homes in Remuera, now worth a combined $9m, as well as Mercedes-Benz and Bentley vehicles, bought for $120,000 and $280,000 respectively.”
(note not even a jail term, no loss or NZ citizenship to deter this type of crime.)
You get the impression that foreign turned NZ citizens/residents are making a killing in NZ, building and buying up a storm, getting sweet deals from government, and money laundering through NZ property is now part of NZ;s landscape and why property just keeps climbing – especially on the luxury side.
Seem to remember Scroubek, the gang and drugs smuggler turned NZ resident, managed to buy a multimillion house in Remuera too.
Seems to be a good place to park criminal proceeds in the housing there!
Keep thinking that some nurse/doctor/teacher/police officer with a second home that they rent out for modest sums is the problem in NZ, lefties!
Good! She’s done the right thing your Chloe. But we already know what the outcome of such an enquiry will be. It’ll be Jacinda, pretending to care and acting all contrite, reading a dismissive statement prepared by her team of 700 PR spinners: “Absolllllluuutely, one can ALWAYS do better, but we SAVED lives.” And no Martyn, capitalism is not on the verge of collapse….that’s only you dreaming.
“The terrible failure of neoliberal economics and it’s horrific impact on the vast majority of us!”
The failure of neoliberal economics wasn’t a failure to everyone, as you point out. It was also a massive, mind boggling, down pour of riche$ onto a select, elite few. Lets not forget that. graham hart, michael fay, david richwhite, alan gibb, chandler, etc, etc made billions from the forced relinquishing of our taxes built stuff and things…. to them. The Government Printing Office, NZ Rail and The BNZ are glaring examples of what I mean.
“…I’ve argued Chloe is the mustard …”
As a farmer, so have I.
Our vibrant economy built on the manufacture ( Farming ) of vital material ( Food ) for export ( To earn our funds which enable us to function as a democracy and as a country of people at the global table. )
The swindle that was, and still is, our economy prior to neoliberal economics was, and still is, a den of sociopaths bathing in sweat free, fabulous money. The row upon row of big shiny bank and insurer buildings along Auckland’s water front are testimony to that.
If Chloe Swarbrick finally manages to prise the lid of neoliberalism she’ll find a nest of worm/wasp clones with big, saggy pockets and poison dagger-like stingers and she should be very careful. Cornered rats can be extremely dangerous and unpredictable. The best approach would be to drag them out into the glorious light of day then stand back and watch them screech.
I hope Chloe Swarbrick is on good professional terms with Kiri Allan. I hear Kiri Allan is also a good person.
I hate to dim the flicker of hope but Chloe could be the second coming of the Virgin Mary but it ain’t going to change these turkeys one iota.
Labour have firmly established their government as a government of the establishment. Robertson wants a housing crisis because it enhances the paper wealth of home owners. Jacinda is happy to sell that dead rat to the public. No other interpretation can be drawn, we are into year 5 of this government and everything they have done has been too enrich home owners, especially multiple home owners at the expense of non owners. What a nightmare.
Not last week Jacinda was telling us the state house rebuild was going at “an incredible rate”. Ahhm, no it isn’t. She made John Key look honest!
She told parliament that Labour are “pulling levers” in respect of housing. If Jacinda meant to accelerate inequity, unaffordability and ruin, then yes they are. Massively. But I suspect that wasn’t what she was trying to convey.
Chloe has said what is true but her party are a party to everything awful thing Labour have done so it’s a bit rich and very late to criticise from the sidelines when you’ve been in the game in looking the other way.
“…we desperately need a new economics, reviewing the vast failures of the current life boat is an essential start”.
You not wrong Martyn, on the first premise. But another review? Oh come on! Revolution, my boy! At the very least, a commitment to meaningful and lasting transformation. Is Chloe and her mob up for it?
I am sure some people like these several hundred dollar an hour paid reviews on behalf of political parties that have nothing to say and are uselss when it comes to the doing. But the pay is excellent.
In some areas this government has done a good job in relatively uncharted waters of the covid effect but the economic responses shows their lack of perception and the real life outcome of their moves . They developed a two tier welfare system which left many well paid people not knowing the true effect of being on the normal welfare rather than the false one created for those initially effected by covid . They may be call Labour but the MPs seem to have no knowledge of surviving on struggle street or not white elite.
As with their treatment of Maori once you scratch away the thin veneer their effort to advance their cause is small despite the words spoken . The naivety of this government is shown in the botched attempt at controlling lending and not realizing the effect of the rules and how they translate in real life.
And before you know it the greens will come out as anti mandate and say they were pro choice all along. They see the tide turning very quickly. Up to now they’ve stood by and watched the largest transfer of wealth to the elites that we’ve ever seen.
Some years ago the phenomenon of Governments using a public emergency situation to obscure massive transfers of wealth to the already stinking rich, was known as “Disaster Capitalism”.
So this is COVID Capitalism perhaps. Good on Ms Swarbrick for giving it a go, there is ample evidence. But who will support the fight? Luxury Luxon with his 7 pads is unlikely to, ditto ACT. Those with one or more houses will likely just sit there saying nothing–“it wasn’t me…”
So the Greens should try and enlist public support in the form of new Gen voters–who do not have even one house or are likely to get one! And Te Parti Māori should get in on this too on behalf of its alienated and discarded constituency.
The Govt.had enough $$ to set up a Basic Income trial for the duration of COVID and to implement the whole WEAG Report immediately, they could have set up free Wifi to overcome the digital divide, free public transport–you name it–but they chose to blow out the housing market and increase inequality.
Before some of you right wing dogs that have slipped your collars from Kiwiblog or somewhere, start, remember the Natzos and ACT would have done even worse and will not remotely solve inequality in Aotearoa NZ
That’s typical calling the right wings dogs.Very kind
The current Government has on their watch seen the greatest transfer of wealth in New Zealand’s history.
To say it would have been worse under National/ACT is very silly.
Another day, another lie.
Gee Bert I’m quoting from people on this site.
Thanks I’ll tell them you said they’re lying.
a review is just can kicking….how long did it take to get a ‘review’ into the duopoly and what’s changed…oh yea gouging has got worse and will get even worse as things progress…swarbricks seeming faith in such a process just means she’s ‘same old same old’ we can hope she’s better but that’s more than likely a vain hope.
The inquiry is already dead.
Further down in Swarbrick’s speech in parliament:
“Today I asked the Finance and Expenditure Committee to hold an inquiry into the COVID-19 economic response. Unfortunately, a Labour majority voted it down”
More ‘select committees’…. and seems Greens are more against the governments Covid response than for it. Tired of the woke helping the right wingers pushing the anti vaxx, anti lockdown agenda against one of the most successful in terms of loss of lives and spread in the world. Labour
Meanwhile average Joe’s power is on the increase due to billionaire polluters in NZ. Nothing from the greens, in fact they help the polluters with their carbon ETS cost containment reserve. That means the taxpayers pay when carbon prices rises as they have been doing, thus polluters in NZ don’t have to worry about reducing their emissions here as their contribution is topped out at a low, low fixed (by government) carbon price.
Funny enough Rio Tinto sounds like is not going to leave NZ now.
By raising the possibility of staying past 2024, Rio Tinto has thrown a wrench of uncertainty into decarbonisation pathways and power company construction plans, Marc Daalder reports
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/smelters-will-they-wont-they-dance-grates-on-govt
FFS – Rio Tinto was never going to leave, as NZ produces some of the best aluminium in the world. No other government so stupid and so keen for corporate welfare than NZ! Thanks Gweens.
NZ power consumers and taxpayers have been subsidising Rio Tinto for decades now. In some calculations something like 25% of all consumers power bills is caused by Rio Tinto subsidies and power use.
Just when we thought they would finally go, they decide to stay.
Why does our government think that 30 million in power subsidies every few years to rich polluting corporates is ok, and then somehow allow themselves to be held to random for a few thousand jobs when on the other hand they make it so easy to make hundreds of thousands redundant and never support environmental initiatives?
Rio Tinto pollute and taxpayers have to clean that up too!
Rio Tinto waste – just throw your hazardous waste in the local towns – years of meetings, no action.
https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/southland/mataura-asks-govt-act
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI_LjMsr8gU
Now the carbon ETS cost containment reserve, thanks for destroying the planet and NZ with these right wing, woke agenda, Gweens.
” Is Chloe and her mob up for it ”
See how much support they get when they occupy parliament grounds with like minded people who are for ” economic change “
Chloe who?
+1 Author & self promoter. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/chloe-swarbrick-on-being-queer-depression-and-starting-a-family/O47NIMOJ6NPT3RQDVMNN6MLTWQ/
Have to applaud Chloe for addressing the elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about.
The diabolical inequity that has increased dramatically in recent years is by far the biggest failing of the Ardern Government. How can any Government that has a history of supporting blue collar workers stand by talking fluff and catchy slogans while this carnage worsens month after month?
I put it down to the following.
1) Totally unrealistic housing goals / targets from an idealistic and clueless bunch in Labour leading up to the 2017 election that were later brutally exposed while in Office. A place incidentally none of them expected to be at that time. Should we blame Ardern? She will have been in the room but that fantasy policy was formulated under Andrew Little and there was not much Ardern could do about it a few weeks out from election day when the leadership baton finally changed.
2) Choosing eggplants like Phil Twyford and Megan Woods to resolve the crisis. Neither of them should ever be in charge of pet hamsters let alone a housing crisis FFS.
3) Ardern had every one of her eggs in one basket to tackle the shameful inequity in housing. The Capital Gains Tax. Her Government naively didn’t budget on the well funded anti CGT fearmongering vested interest campaign that would inevitably unfold. This clearly unnerved Ardern and Winston Peters even more so. Had Ardern not taken the threat from Peters so seriously to bring the Government down had they implemented a CGT, it would already be in place and we wouldn’t have the diabolical inequity we now have. Ardern treated the all-important CGT like a close relative that had just been convicted as a child molester. She wanted to distant herself as far away from the CGT as possible. Not only was it gone, she said but it would never return as long as she was PM. She had just binned the best weapon she had to combat the housing crisis. Was she right to take such drastic action? I say yes but with the benefit of hindsight, she should have just put it on the back burner until the next election. Having said that, she had no clue at the time that Covid was on it’s way and what that would do to our housing market. I believe Winston Peters more than any other politician created the housing inequity we now have. I hope people remember that when he tries to get his nose back in the trough come 2023. The biggest blunder Ardern made was not having a Plan B. All she has finally has done since was to tinker around the edges. It was way too little way too late for that. Any dropping of house prices that eventually unfolds will have virtually zero to do with anything Ardern has done.
4) The biggest problem Ardern has had since is the hopeless paradox she’s put herself in that has left her paralyzed and unable to make any progress. She wants housing to be more affordable …..but is extremely fearful of house prices dropping due to the implications. She does NOT want house prices to drop. As a result, her chances of success at getting on top of the housing crisis is somewhere between a 0% and 1.3%. In other words, the best case scenario is a 98.7% chance of failure.
5) Conclusion. Both the National and Labour Governments have conclusively proven over 13 years they are either incapable or unwilling to resolve the housing crisis. As a result, anything both say should be treated with the contempt it deserves. The best hope we have of resolving the housing crisis is not political.
I actually like and respect our PM. She’s a very intelligent and lovely person. Anyone who can’t see that is either, blind, stupid or letting political bias rule their perspective on her. I just don’t respect some of her policies, especially on housing.
As a completely irrelevant aside, I’d like to share something with you.
My wife said something very interesting about the PM a few days ago. My lady has a lot of experience in the field of pediatrics. She feels the PM is pregnant at this time. I have no real understanding how she came to that conclusion but she has. I will watch this space as all of my wife’s colleagues consider her the go-to person in areas similar to this due to her experience.
Thinking Man;”…implemented a CGT, it would already be in place and we wouldn’t have the diabolical inequity we now have.”
The whole point of a CGT is to raise money for redistribution and flatten the house price curve. The two are quite contradictory. If you want to raise currency for redistribution you absolutely have to have asset prices trending upwards. You cant raise realise a CGT in a falling market. However that instigation of a CGT should have been done under Helen Clark’s 9 year reign. To late now.
Hence I feel that Labour is so lost, they want to flatten the house price curve, but having done so, the raising of a CGT will not gardener any income. So no point and politically a lead balloon.
The time to start a CGT is at the beginning of a price hike, not at the end of one.
Expecting Labour to organise a “valuation Day” for all potential capital gaining assets, I would suggest, is totally beyond them. By the time they got the database set up it would be out of date.
I think you are right Ardern will not last this year out. I doubt pregnancy but some other domestic upheaval.
Gerrit,
Solid input.
You may respect Jacinda Ardern I definitely don’t not after what she has done to the poor people of NZ.
Greatest transfer of wealth in the history of NZ does not earn respect.
Bahahahahaha ever the comedian.
I’m being serious Bert.
Bahahahaha, no your not!!!
Lol. The inflation horse has bolted. A mild cold for 99% of the population will be the least of our worries by August. Will our dear leader stay when the tide is truely going out?
By the end of the year Jacinda will be looking up that number Aunt Helen gave her for a nice job at the U N
Trevor, how many ex P.M.’s have taken overseas posts?
Don’t think she will get an offer her curriculum vitae doesn’t read too good.
Well that’s the silliest thing I’ve read on this site, bahahahahahahaha!
Thanks Bert for the compliment
.
Oh and is Trevor your name?
” How can any Government that has a history of supporting blue collar workers stand by talking fluff and catchy slogans while this carnage worsens month after month ”
The NZLP has not supported blue collar workers since pre 1984. The move to the market economy meant the end of traditional Labour movement support and has steadily eroded since even with Clark and Cullen , Adern and her colleagues are no where as centre left as the fifth Labour government had been.
A CGT is dead in the water and should have been applied by the fourth Labour government with its raft of reforms in the 80s and introduced it without any warning when house prices were low and houses were not in short supply. It would have never turned into the contentious issue it has now become and would have gone some of the way ( not all ) to correcting the current situation.
mosa,
Impossible to disagree.
Comments are closed.