When National say they ‘care’, they mean the upper middle classes – not the poor

By
Martyn Bradbury
-
53
1659
This is what National sees when they talk about the 'middle class'

National’s Nicola Willis accuses Government of ‘failing the squeezed middle’ as consumer confidence hits record low

National Party deputy leader Nicola Willis is accusing the Government of “failing the squeezed middle” as consumer confidence hits a record low. 

The latest ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence survey published on Friday shows that consumer confidence dropped even further in March to reach a fresh record low in data that began in 2004.  

The report highlights the “perfect storm” of the COVID-19 Omicron outbreak, rising living costs due to three-decade high inflation sparked by supply chain constraints and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a retreating housing market, and rising interest rates.

National want to make one thing very clear, they don’t give two shits about the actual poor in NZ, they care about their version of the ‘middle classes’.

Those middle classes who have become terribly accustomed to their property values increasing by double figures annually, THOSE are who National wants to love.

National don’t actually want the smelly poor people voting for them because those smelly poor people might want National to do something about their economic distress and pain, and that’s the trouble Jacinda and Labour have gotten into.

Voters expected ‘Transformative’ change from Labour and instead got a definition of the word ‘transformative’ that wasn’t actually transformative.

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National won’t make that mistake.

They will talk about the ‘squeezed middle’ from now until the 2023 election because a cost of living crisis catches up too many working poor and their pain gets zero relief from National.

 

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53 COMMENTS

  1. And it will be like shooting fish in a barrel.

    The price of most petrol/diesel vehicles have just jumped thanks to Labours incentive on E cars. At precisely the same time the company that ships 80% of cars to NZ is refusing to carry second hand E vehicles after the half billion dollar loss from one of their ships being sunk by a E car battery spontaneously combusting, as they do.

    At a time when the cost of living is skyrocketing in all directions, many Kiwis are going to struggle to afford a car.

    Add that to that people are likely to lose their parking in Auckland thanks to the AT anti car zealots, and you can best believe Labour will pay for that fuck up.

    And as a further attack on the middle, the hapless Transport Minister toying with bike lanes on the Harbour Bridge. What an idiot!

    And let’s not mention housing.

    The scared middle will flock to National.

    I am beginning to think Labour are on a kamikaze mission to the next election.

    • The whole Western world is on a kamikaze mission. There are so many changes coming before our next elections it is too hard to make any predictions

    • how has the govts non-existant policies for promoting e-cars increased costrs of diesel vehicles..the exact mechanism at play please.

      • ummmm diesel vehicles are cheaper to run than petrol . Cheaper to buy than hybrids or e – vehicles. If you don’t bother to pay road user charges( few do) they are the best option for the poor. Bit of a no brainer really as most kiwi commuters are poor.

  2. Look at Nationals donations for your answer. They are for the elite and believe everything else will “Trickle down”.

    • Labour has literally just overseen the greatest transfer of wealth in a generation. Poverty, inequality, the social housing waiting list, inflation, gang numbers, crime, hardship and coal imports are all at historic levels. But National eh… Wake up Bert, your arguments are looking more insipid and pathetic by the day.

      • I can always count on one of the many trolls for Counterspin and MickeyBoyle is right at the top of the list. Wake up and smell the blue roses you insipid pathetic troll.

      • MickeyBoyle,

        The Government could / should have done a lot better but context is extremely important. If you ignore context, perspective is ruled by ignorance / bias.

        The transfer of wealth is due mostly to two factors that would remain the same whomever was in Government.

        1) Covid -19

        2) The failure to get the CGT over the line due to the very real threat from Winston Peters to bring the Government down.

        If we go back to the first 18 months of this Government being in power we can see what a complete balls up Kiwibuild was but again context is important. That policy was designed under previous Labour leaders who had zero hope of becoming Government. In early 2017, National were sleep walking to a fourth term. Labour were 66-1 in a two horse race. Then 9 weeks out from the election Ardern gets a hospital pass. Not much can be done with Kiwibuild except follow through with it. Later the naivety of it was brutally exposed and a “reset” followed. Yes it was a balls up but as you know, all Governments make balls ups. National for example had a very long list of balls ups during their tenure……and then farcically called the result a “rock star economy” .The epitome of admiring the new letterbox while the house in the background was on fire.

        Then Covid arrives. Almost every alleged expert adamantly stated house prices would drop by 15%. The Reserve Bank shits it’s self and removed the LVR. Couple that with many thousands of cashed up kiwis returning home, low interest rates, no CGT and you have the perfect storm for house prices to go through the roof with all that entails and a severe housing shortage. How could anyone predict what unfolded and then build a hundred thousand new homes in three months? Since then Ardern has been stuck between a rock and a hard place with house prices. She wants NZ homes to be more affordable but doesn’t want house prices to drop. This is a dilemma that would have faced any Government. The biggest blunder Labour have made since is to have the completely inept Megan Woods as the Housing Minister and then keeping her on after she’d conclusively proven her hopelessness.

        Social housing waiting lists were always going to increase. Under the circumstances it’s lame to point fingers there. High inflation rates are hitting almost every country in the world at this time including Pakistan who are now dissolving their Government. The US are suffering with high inflation with it being at a 40 year high as are UK, Canada at a 30 year high etc etc. Lame to point to Ardern on that without looking at the bigger picture.

        The Gang situation is diabolical. Australia dumping their trash on NZ has had devastating consequences but what could Ardern have done? The 501’s were born here. Australia were within their rights to deport them. This problem would have faced any Government and there would be squat they could do about it.

        People are suffering all around the world. The Ardern Government are trying to mitigate that hardship. Can you imagine how bad things would be here if National’s low wage economy was still in play and benefit levels had remained as low as they were when they were sent packing in October 2017?

        Government priorities will always move when National and international disasters unfold. Covid has done just that. Keeping kiwi’s alive and food on the table etc has been a balancing act that the Government for the most part has got right. Anyone who disagrees with that fact is either bias, stupid or hasn’t been paying attention…..or all of the above.

        Context.

        • TM
          Yes context is very important and I agree with you there. But next year, come that election, the context will be – What have Labour for me and my family? How will my future prospects look under Labour? Will I be poorer than I am? CAn I still afford my own home? Have Labour done the basics well and used our tax money well (CV19 won’t count as we’ll be bored shitless with it)? Is NZ growing its wealth or is it getting poorer as a country? How honest have Labour been with their agendas, will I be arrested for calling SourKraut a Nazi and Martyn a Bomber? Are the gangs taking over? Can I go out at night in the CBD and not get mugged? Can I drive faster than 30 on a 4 lane motorway? Why is the AKL train budget gone up to 30 billion? Is there any parking left on my street or is a bike lane nobody uses? Is it still worth being a farmer under Labour and the Greens? How come we don’t make our own petrol anymore now that it’s $4 a litre? Why do we buy dirty coal from other countries?…lots of context…it will be interesting.

          • next year, come that election, the context will be

            You have no idea what the context will be!!
            The world is changing faster, and more radically, than we can even imagine. War has broken out in Europe, in case you hadn’t noticed. Famine is on the books, – no longer just in Africa – The “breadbasket of the world” is being trashed. SEVERAL world “leaders” have all recently threatened to use “the nuclear option” if they feel so inclined (the latest being Kim Jong Il). Pandemic inducing viruses are continuing to mutate. “1,000 year weather events” are the new norm.

            And you claim to know “what the context will be”…

            Wake the hell up!!!!!

          • Thanks Richard Sivell
            Context, will a right wing government…
            Continue selling off SOE’s?
            Continue a low wage economy?
            Force people out of hotels/ motels back into cars and under bridges?
            Physically abuse cafe staff?
            Use taxpayers money to fund private Charter schools?
            Continue to create a massive divide between the haves and have nots?
            During a supposed “Rockstar economy drive down wages, cripple mental health, underfund health and hospital infrastructure?
            Suck up to Australia and continue the 501 programme they set up with Aussie?
            Continue with their sordid in-house extramarital issues?
            Underfund education whlst promoting big roading contracts for donations scandals?
            Will there be more Saudi sheep scandals?
            Will there be more lies to.add to.the 433 by their previous leader?
            Will they continue to spy on the public of NZ?
            Will they raise GST after promising not too?
            Lot’s of context, it will we interesting Richard?

        • Keeping kiwi’s alive and food on the table etc has been a balancing act that the Government for the most part has got right.

          Absolutely!

      • The ‘poor’ voted for PM Ardern in droves even after KiwiBuild failed and she said she ‘wanted house prices to increase’.

        Labour have indentured poverty for the poor. Labour can give scraps to the poor all day – it’s just going to be transferred to the rich through higher rents and other higher costs-of-living.

        For immediate returns the best thing the ‘rich’ could do is vote Labour. The ‘poor’ might want to look for more advantageous countries.

  3. Ironically if I was selfish and only thought of myself, as a property owner and a landlord I’d vote Labour. They’ve increased my wealth way more than National ever did… Thanks Jacinda and Grant, you’re bloody awesome!

  4. Labour. National. What’s the dif?

    They’re neoliberal and centre-right middle ground huggers.
    They like the swingers and will throw a party for them nearer election time with some kind of inducement.
    Like free green-friendly lube or something like that.

    • The PPP… the Purple Propertied Party… until such time as either the red or blue faction of the PP is extinct, there will be no meaningful substantive change from the Beehive, because there is no opposition to the PPP.

    • You don’t think there’s a chance for a European style Grand Coalition style government? Labour and the Tories are so much TwiddleDum and TwiddleDee these days it’s at least a theoretical possibility.

  5. So where do those wage earners that have trades or professions such as nurses, teachers, mechanics etc etc who are out there doing the actual mahi and trying to get ahead fit into the grand scheme of things. Are they lower or middle class?
    Asking for a friend

  6. There’s only one paramount thought in the dull, linear minds of the Natzo’s and that’s of making sure they don’t get found out for their years and years of swindling our agrarian, primary industry exporters.
    All else is the grifting and obfuscation of city people to essentially launder natzo hangers on’s ill gotten gains. Aye Boys?
    AO/NZ clearly doesn’t yet know that what AO/NZ desperately needs is for a group of carefully selected, independent forensic accountants to go up our economy spanning the last one hundred years.
    Again; Aye Boys?
    In my opinion, all the national party and it’s partners in crime want to do is hide in a bunker until they die of old age before they’re found out.

  7. When you delve into the polling numbers, one fact becomes indisputable. National can’t get across the line in September 2023 without a good percentage of Labour / Green supporters jumping ship to them. There is virtually no hope of that happening as long as National is National. As a result they are toning things down and Luxton is even hiding who and what he is.

    National “caring” for non National Party voters is the virtual equivalent to the KKK embracing coloured folk.

    Just remember that according to the National Party, only their supporters are “hard working kiwis”. The rest are the lazy enemy. There is also no poverty in NZ and there was no housing crisis. Their answer to everything is “Money ahead of People”…unless those people are hard working National Party supporters. Tax cuts to mostly benefit the well off and a low wage economy to maximize the profits of their supporters regardless of the impact on the lazy enemy. I feel sure more benefit cuts will be back on the table under National.

  8. Watch this. It’s important stuff and you deserve to be informed.
    Russell Brand
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    https://youtu.be/CoUW0iR8ewU

  9. Let me re-organize that headline so it rings true:
    “When Labour say they ‘care’ for the poor they mean the upper middle classes.”
    Thanks Labour for making us rich.

      • Could mean National could mean Labour. But with particular govt…yes it meansl National. This govt is simply terrible. Helen’s Labour govt was OK, I had little issue with her govt even though I’m not a lefty as you know. Why is that? Anyone? Maybe because she got shit done?

        • Helen was “Before Key”; – our present PM, – picking up broken pieces after the country had been exploited to the Max.

          Stop pretending that two vastly different eras are equivalent, when you know damn well they are not.

  10. Labour care for the poor as a sort of performative art. It’s all pretend. Labour has had two terms to do something to give poor kids a better future and what have they achieved?

    > More gang members
    > Massive school absenteeism
    > Scrapped the position of Children’s Commissioner for good measure

    Oh but lots of cycle lanes, we have plenty of them!

  11. Could mean National could mean Labour. But with particular govt…yes it meansl National. This govt is simply terrible. Helen’s Labour govt was OK, I had little issue with her govt even though I’m not a lefty as you know. Why is that? Anyone? Maybe because she got shit done?

    • Why is that?

      A few differences (there are more):
      – Helen did not have a pandemic to deal with.
      – Extreme weather events, with the massive destruction they’re causing, were less frequent.
      – The NZ population was 3/4 of a million fewer. (The 3/4 of a million people we have since then are mainly imported, bran-new insta-Kiwis, regardless of their varying beliefs, values, history etc. This is not a negative, but it DOES require careful navigation/ integration etc, particularly during a housing shortage.)
      – Homes had not yet been struck by the “Meth Contamination” syndrome
      – There had not yet been a deliberate mass-selloff of our homes to anyone overseas who wanted to “invest” in them.

    • Actually Thinking Man’s comment above covers some of the unique stressors that the current govt has been subjected too, as well.

  12. Yeah agree Luxon is hiding who he really is but every now and then he slips up cause he can’t help himself. It must be hard work keeping up a false persona. His ‘bottom feeders’ slip was yet one example and then he tried to retract and do a John Key backtrack by saying he was really referring to state housing tenant abusing their tenancy. Luxon has been using the words ‘deeply care’ but if we look more deeply its a load of bollocks and we know something must be working when we see 1.8 million donated by our very own NZ oligarchs who apparently aren’t happy with the direction our country is heading.

  13. If you want to see performing arts listen to Luxon saying he ‘cares deeply’ about all NZers now this is all pretend.

  14. If you want to see performing arts listen to Luxon saying he ‘cares deeply’ about all NZers now this is all pretend. Now when he is says he wants equality, so do we (Maori) and we have only been waiting for 180yrs.

  15. If you want to see performing arts listen to Luxon saying he ‘cares deeply’ about all NZers now this is all pretend. Now when he is says he wants equality, so do we (Maori) and we have only been waiting for 180yrs.

  16. Given National were responsible for the decimation of our health system one can only assume they care about the upper class utilizing the private health establishment. When National allowed hospitals to have water running down their walls internally, care was a self focus not the focus of the people. One only need look at Paula Bennet as the shining example of a Nat politician who only ever looked after herself and the people just puppets for her ladder to stardom.

  17. Agree Bert they were also responsible for the demise of NZ post, a power company, HNZ, Special Housing areas sold of to a Chinese airline, run down schools, cause remember they were told they had to do more with less but they actually did less and nothing more. Then they made it harder to get legal aide so access to fair and equitable justice went down the toilet, in the meantime prison numbers rose. And then they contracted a private prison Serco to run a huge prison and they pushed and lobbied to try and build a mega prison to lock up more Maori. And to add to all this mess they allowed thousand of immigrants to come here to provide a pool of cheap labour for businesses. And all of this was the tip of the iceberg.

  18. Nicola Willis appears to be bright and vibrant and is the one MP at the moment who’s coming up with fresh ideas.

    Her personal view on the wealth inequality in Aotearoa is to introduce sensible measures over a long period of time. These measures could be rent controls, amendments to the tax system, etc.

    Just to make it clear, National probably wouldn’t intervene in the private sector, and nor should they. So grocery prices, petrol prices, quite possibly rental prices for the most part, probably won’t be lowered under any National led Government. But labour haven’t done anything much in these areas either.

    However, for all their free market economic theories, what a National government would do is the same thing it’s done for some time now which is to alter the tax system so that the majority of people are paying less in personal income tax. One may argue that this is fair and easy and sensible as no one income group is specifically targeted.

    Labour, conversely, have brought about some of the highest rates of personal income tax that we’ve had in this country. Under our Clark Governments minimum wage workers were paying more personal income tax than they’ve paid ever since in relation to income.

    Additionally, Labour have, over the years, introduced some of the highest rates of company tax as well. This led to the brain drain, which saw our tradespeople and University educated citizens make a sudden leap over to Australia amongst other countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, and the United States of America.

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