Labour’s disgrace – the housing catastrophe for low-income families rolls on…

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There are no excuses – there is nowhere to hide – there are no figleaves. Labour’s disgrace is in plain sight.

The latest figures for the state house waiting list were released late last week and no amount of fudging or dissembling can hide the fact that Labour continues to preside over the largest explosion in the state house waiting list in the history of Aotearoa New Zealand – AND IT IS DOING NOTHING ABOUT IT.

No wonder these figures were released three months late. They are horrendous. They are shameful.

The state house waiting list has increased five fold since the 2017 election which brought Labour to power– from around five thousand to over 25,000.  

There were 25,524 applicants on the Housing Register as at 31 December 2021, an increase of 13.3 percent from the same time last year (i.e., December 2020) 

If there was ever any doubt that Labour governs for the corporate and the comfortable it is the graph above. 

Māori are just over 50% (50.6%) of the wait list while Pasifika families are 15.3%

Covid 19 is NOT to blame.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

The problem is with Labour government policy settings which pretend there is no catastrophe. 

  • Labour has continued building and funding state houses at the same rate as the previous National government – 1600 places per year. This is for 25,524 tenants and families living in desperate housing conditions!
  • Labour policy is to keep state house number at 3.6% of the total housing stock (the same as National) rather than increase it to its 1990 level of 5.4%

Labour wants struggling families on low incomes to continue paying the mortgages of middle-class landlords through unaffordable rents.

And to fund the miserable number of houses Labour is building, it is forcing Kainga Ora to sell crown land. This is the largest privatisation of state assets by Labour since the 1980s.

Housing Minister Megan Woods should hang her head in shame.

156 COMMENTS

  1. Labour simply MUST be voted out. And because they and National are so firmly on the same page you can’t even use the excuse that National would be worse.

    I’m wondering what the reprehensible Megan Woods will be doing for a job after 2023? Or her Prime Minister? I’m sure we will still have to keep paying for them somehow and paying for the mistake of trusting them!.

    • Problem is – and I never vote for either main party – National will be worse on lots of things. Not that I want to shout how successful Labour have been, I remain appalled at this ‘transformational’ government, their pulling kids out of child poverty……………..

    • @ Xray.
      I feel your frustration.
      Unfortunately, voting labour out would be like kicking out the rats to let in the weasels.
      There’s a book that I must try and find titled ‘The Rise and Fall of neoliberalism.’
      Oh look. Here it is. https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Fall-Neoliberalism-Collapse-Economic/dp/1848133499
      The book posits that now that neoliberalism is imbedded within our politic and our economy and is failing as a political construct, it’s done its job. Neoliberalism has created an upper atmosphere of hyper rich who are protected by their political minions who are, themselves, above normal procedure associated with a democracy and its various permutations of politic. Neoliberalism is fascism effectively.
      Neoliberalism. Beautifully tailored by criminal genius, ingeniously unleashed upon an unsuspecting First World economy and now that its coverage is global and exists beyond reach, it harvests us of our precious time on earth as it depletes our resources and demands ever more from us all.
      You can’t vote it out @ Xray because it was never voted in.
      Our only hope, as far as I can see, is to leave labour where it is and MAKE it do it’s bloody job.
      @ Martyn Bradbury has a good explainer here, which, I have no doubt you’ve read.
      https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2022/04/10/what-most-voters-dont-understand-about-nz-politics-why-jacinda-is-failing/
      Jacinda Adern needs to do one simple thing, and her name would go down in history as the first senior politician to rebel against the tyranny of neoliberalism. She needs to try the truth. Be honest about neoliberalism, be honest about how we’ve been tied in knots by the hyper riche who now own and control our country, and you and me by extension. We can take it. We’ll cope. We’ll prosper once we’re deloused of the foreign owned banks.

      • Nope CB.
        If you leave Labour in they will not change.
        I’m reminded of that overused Einstein quote about insanity being doing the same thing and expecting different results.
        The only way citizens can “force” anything is at election time.
        Labour must be voted out to force a rebuild, and yep we are going to have to wear some things we don’t like from the Nats to do it.

        Better than having incompetence and co governance forced on us.

        • So are you saying National is not incompetent yet under them we saw inequities rising significantly and a huge gap between Maori, PI and other NZers nah! We don’t want National back in either they are for the rich and at the moment national have a very inexperienced wanna be PM we need to stick with the course.

          • National’s hugely excessive migration is the root cause of the housing problems. The affluent new migrants were able to financially compete and therefore dispossess NZer,s of houses either to buy or to rent – especially at the middle level. I hope no immigrant lives in a state house. No way will I vote National again and I am looking very carefully at Labour. I think we need a new party to arise and fully fit the need of todays NZ.

            • So there are few migrants now and prices of home have shot up .
              Naional needed to bring in migrants because both parties has fallen down on education and training so there was no staff for those businesses that grew. With this government growth will not happen and the cleaver people will leave so expect some cheap houses soon .

              • Yes , the right to free tertiary education being removed and fees introduced was maybe when the government had figured it was “cheaper” to bring in trained and qualified people than train our own in the numbers our country needs. Right now they are trying to steal other countries essential workers – doctors and nurses – to make up for the nurses and doctors they should have ensured NZ had trained in the near-past years.
                This kind of approachover the last 30 yrs has made NZ an unhappy fractured country.

              • bollocks trev sorry man but bollocks, immigration is not economic growth..just as house price inflation isn’t GDP we pretend they are because out other metrics productivity etc are so dire..we invent catagories then claim victories NZ is the very definition of an economy of ‘participation prizes’

              • Yes , the right to free tertiary education being removed and fees introduced was maybe when the government had figured it was “cheaper” to bring in trained and qualified people than train our own in the numbers our country needs. Right now they are trying to steal other countries essential workers – doctors and nurses – to make up for the nurses and doctors they should have ensured NZ had trained in the near-past years.
                This kind of approach over the last 30 yrs has made NZ an unhappy fractured country.

                • thing is poaching qualified foreigners is becoming harder as our pay levels are shite and expenses high, importing the unqualified achieves nothing…if I was a nurse engineer whatever I’d choose oz first, in the race to the bottom we’re world leaders.

        • What kind of bullshit is this? You must be a National troll. Bugger off. The point with Labour is they will need the Greens and possibly Maori party to govern next election and the the Greens will force real change. There is absolutely no way you’ll get change from National. Half the reason the current stats look worse is because the Nats simply cooked the statistics by forcing people off those waiting lists with no houses built.

      • at the risk of soundin orl marxist an shit…

        the USSR fell from the weight of it’s own contradictions…corporate capitalism is doing the same.

      • “Neoliberalism is fascism effectively” Yes,yes,yes, and that is what America insists ,by force, how we all must live. Thank you countryboy.

        • in the sense that neo-liberalism seeks to unify labour and capital in peaceful co existance (crock of shite but go with it for a minute) it indeed shares many features with the italian corporate fascist ‘ideal’.

          this is not an argument for fascism but against neo libs.

    • National by all accounts is BETTER.
      Not because they give a damn, but simply because they don’t tank the economy like Labour has.
      So yeah, the poor will get screwed either way. but at least the rest of the economy isn’t a basket case.
      Don’t expect this to change however, because unless you vote 100% of Labour MPs out and re-structure the actual party itself then it will be rinse and repeat.
      I would say however, that Adern has been PARTICULARLY incompetent.

      • When did you arrive in Aotearoa. Didn’t you experience the massive property speculation that happened between 2012 and 2017 under the Key government. Property prices doubled in that time and those days properties changed hand over night for $100,000 profit. At the same time they sold off state houses and failed to build any.
        The NATZACT dont give a shit about Maori. homeless, beneficiaries, indians, Pacifica, pensioners, unemployed, low paid, etc because there are no votes in it.
        Don Brash played the race card in 2005 and helped NATZ go from 23% to 47% and nearly became the PM. He said NZ must increase the wages on NZers so the first thing Key did when he came into power was borrow $3 billion and give the rich a tax break. Luxon will do the same – and it doesnt sound like like many of you Tory commentators above will be welcome in the conservative right-wing NATZACTs.

        • Don’t you just love how so many right wingers love to use the talking point of how the “economy is a basket case”? While delusional to the fact that our economy is outperforming many overs, and ignoring the fact that shit is bad everywhere?

          Of course the answer to these problems is National! Who will cut taxes, freeze Government spending, and trying to deregulate an already deregulated market place, thereby causing a mini recession which then will be proclaimed a “rock star” economy.

          It begs to ask the question, “Is there special educational facilities to train this type of thought?”. You know, like retreats, with ten foot fences with razor wire at the top, where endless tape loops of Alan Greenspan, Milton Friedman, and Rupert Murdoch are played to “educate, inform, and indoctrinate”.

          Makes you wonder….

        • I’m a born and bred Gen Xer so yeah, I am pretty familiar with the history.
          Where is your reference to the fact that house prices have nearly doubled under this labour government? Or rents went up more in the last 5 years than under Key or Clark? Or the fact that the number of people in emergency housing or poverty has exploded under Adern?

          You don’t mention it because either you lack the integrity to mention it or the intelligence. You pick.
          I love how I am labelled right wing (next up will be ALT right) because I can see this government for the awfulness that it is.
          Martyn beats his gums on an almost daily basis how terrible they are but then still says we all must vote for them.
          I will vote ACT at the next election purely because of the free speech issue. If it weren’t for that, I would not be able to vote for anyone.

          So grow up and try some critical thought rather than adopting the woke left strategy of labelling everything that gives you hurty feelings as “right wing”.

      • ‘rock star economy’ nuff said jays?

        the fact is across the anglo sphere conservatives fuck up economies and social democrats have to bail out the boat…conservatives good with money..pull the other one….ohhhh the economy is in safe hands,….yup right.

  2. This government does not deserve re-election. I hope they get decimated, take stock and come back with a bit of courage and true left wing policy.

    • Courage, not sure they know what that means.

      Poto Williams should be sacked as police minister, totally out of her depth.

      • From what I’ve seen of Poto she wouldn’t even pass the police’s own aptitude test.
        And like it or not, this is the problem with Labour, they’re caught in no man’s land.
        Mostly inept MP’s, largely out of their depth, without the respect of the Wellington bureaucrats, unable to get anything meaningful done to please the left leaning base. And pandering to 15-20% of the middle to right leaning National voters they need to stay in power.

        And in the end, this is the one thing important to them all, and should be obvious to us.
        Forget the bullshit “I got into politics to end child poverty” and all the other falsehoods which have become embarrassingly apparent. It’s now all about staying in power.

        • indeed very little in the way of quality but who do the nats have….
          serious answers only thanks.

          without ideology you get ‘prole management’ and with management you get mediocrity which we see in day out from all sides…bit of fire in the belly is what’s required

  3. It does sound like a ponzi scheme and a pretty uncreative one at that. I don’t mean to be flippant but where I live there are a great deal of retired nz rail carriages which could be converted into liveable spaces; also where are the retired Air NZ planes? I read that air nz just downsized it’s fleet and a Boeing 737 would make quite a comfortable apartment.

    • New Zealand requires every house to be 4 bedrooms 2 bathrooms on a flat section (or at least thats the way it seems at the moment), And in that lies the problem. There are no creative living ideas allowed in NZ. That and the lie about no available space in case we run out of land for agriculture. Do the math. 1 acre will support about 1.5-2 cows. Those cows are worth about 2g each after 2 years. That same 1 acre would make 6-8 $150000 sections so it would take 50+ years for those same cows to earn just 1 of those sections. And don’t come at me with arguments about no food.. we produce 40x what we need to eat in New Zealand and selling just one of those sections to an overseas buyer will earn NZ more overseas earnings than those cows ever could. That leaves an extra 4+ sections basically free. We were sold that bs line when we were basically a farm for England and the lie has been continued by self interested farmers.

  4. I didn’t realise there was a ratio that pegged state housing with total housing stock.
    Surely if you were going to maintain a state verses private stock of rental properties, and there was an obvious shortage you would ask yourself; how do we increase the numbers?

    We’ve failed on a biblical scale, in building them ourselves.
    We’ve contributed to increasing property values by entering the private sector with our crown check-books and bid against NZ families with their own taxes, in a feeble attempt to claim kiwi build success.
    We’ve passed law after law, pushing up overheads for landlords resulting in skyrocketing rents, and a lack of motivation to provide rent stock.

    Meanwhile Grant and Jacinda sit on the top floor congratulating themselves
    What, those greedy filthy landlords no longer want to provide rental properties, says Grant with his smug smirk… Yep, smiles Jacinda as she prepares to make a TikTok video, who’s says we don’t deliver?

    • On a biblical scale well describes the failures and broken promises of this dreadful Labor Government.
      Well said Mick.

    • I must admit mick I never thought of us ‘bidding against ourselves’ but now you say it, it makes sense.

  5. Well if the the latest RM fpp poll comes true. They’re definitely toast.
    N 38
    L 32

    The rest don’t matter because both of these two parties will have to butcher Act and the gweens vote to pull some voters from them.

    They’re all fishing in the middle-class pond.

    The winner will be who comes up with the best bribe. What could that be?

    A UBI that kicks in immediately on the first day of the new term?

    Get the legislation passed before the election and bobs your uncle!

  6. Interesting that just using the stated book values of Nga Tahu ($1.6B) and Tainui ($1.0B) suggests that some of these Iwi’s have substantial holdings and income.

    Seeing as they pay no tax on this, perhaps they should build houses for the 12,500 Māori in need of social housing? If you answer no to this, then surely they should pay tax?

    • Iwi settlements are taxed at origin. We pay a 99% CGT! Right off the bat.

      Settlements are only 1% of the quantum that the crown determines. It’s not a negotiation.

      They make up the rules as they go. Why you may ask. It’s because they’re the crown.

      As for holdings. The settlement have nothing to do with consecutive governments creating the housing crisis and every other crisis on the books.
      They are responsible for that. Not Maori.

      If the crown wants Maori to build houses. Then the crown should stump up the money and buy some land and underwrite the risk. Then ask if iwi wants to partner up or not.

      Settlements are an apology to Maori for land theft and the Crown and government’s abusive behaviour toward Maori since 1840.

    • now that would be co-governance in action….
      so tane retribution for past wrongs, so why doesn’t the cash trickle down to maori in poverty…whitey has done his bit…now it’s the iwiocracys turn.

      • Because the cash component for the majority of settlements is chump change. The corporate elite who sit at the trough is beholden to themselves and the banks.

        Most iwi balance sheets are debt-laden.
        One of the ‘biggest’ iwi in Tamaki Makaurau just borrowed $350m+ from the same banks they owed that money to! They had to increase their iwi’s LVR to more than 67% of their total assets.

        The last reliable valuation of all iwi post-settlement put their combined net-worth balance sheet at about $47b.

        Less than 1.5% trickled down.

        I’m no fan of these settlements, hence I and others are opposing my own iwi settlement and the others we are a party to because we’ve been fuck’d. Deliberately. By a guy you might have heard of, Paul Majurey. He has more fingers than he has pies to stick them into.

        • Denny You cant be Ngati Paoa and a Tory Hori. Paul M has done a good job for the Hauraki tribes. I know Paoa have at least 2 factions competing between each other but there is no NATZACT support there.

          • Cuz. he’s done shit for anyone but himself and a few others.

            He’s as corrupt as they come. His last few High court losses prove that and he’s got more coming.
            And Supreme Court decisions due too.

      • Gagarin did you know that the bail out of South Canterbury Finance amounted to all of the iwi settlements… what are we doing about getting that back.

        Maori were screwed over and continue to be.

    • Nga Tahu are neck deep in property development. I’m purely guessing but the gues would be they are in the top 5 in NZ. Huge development in Christchurch on the old Wigram airforce base, and they’ve built a heap of houses in Hobsonville Auckland. Those are just 2 I know of, I’m sure there are more.
      They are very good operators.

      • excellent, will they go to the general ‘market’ be social housing or maori…either way at least someone is trying to do something.

      • Yep Hats off to Ngai Tahu they are really getting close to being the South Islands biggest developer housing developments everywhere. They aren’t sitting on their ass doing nothing.

      • Yep Hats off to Ngai Tahu they are really getting close to being the South Islands biggest developer housing developments everywhere. They aren’t sitting on their ass doing nothing.

      • Yep Hats off to Ngai Tahu they are really getting close to being the South Islands biggest developer housing developments everywhere. They aren’t sitting on their ass doing nothing.

  7. Was never a fan of MMP. The promise of proportional representation more often delivered disproportional power to the minor parties. So was actually pleased when Labour managed a majority. Like them or loath them at least there was an opportunity to do something substantive for a change. And Covid aside you would have to say they have been a dismal failure.
    My two adult children are both looking to leave as soon as they can and I can’t blame them. All the things that attracted me here many years ago are now the same things pushing them away. And it’s not only the young ones, already had a number of friends return to the UK as they were disillusioned with life here in NZ.

    • gotta say I was big advocate of PR till I saw it in action….vetos go to parties with tiny followings and nowt gets done.

    • We don’t want to go backwards mc kiwi if your two adult children ( how they can be adults and children) want to leave then nobody is holding them back. As for people coming here from the UK many are still coming here from the UK so it cant be as good as you say or they wouldn’t bother

    • Your UK PM raised the white flag 2 years ago and did a shit job on Covid. He is now charging his citizens for RATs and as a consequence he has halved the daily cases to 100,000 cases but still has the highest death rates in Europe. Labour is the only government in the world to have defeated Covid. You should be grateful for the leadership of Jacinda in saving you, me and 15000 other NZ citizens from foreign invaders – COVID. If you and your whanau don’t like being treated as a governor or middle class in Aotearoa then you should go back home into the low class.

      • We defeated Covid so well its everywhere and we are in Level Red until the govt decides otherwise. An announcement today to announce the announcement on Thursday for the changes on Monday, or something 🙂
        Wow, what a victory!

  8. This Labour Government are completely out of their depth.
    They couldn’t organise a booze up in a brewery.
    They have shown complete contempt to the most disadvantaged New Zealanders.
    Shame on them.

  9. The usual tory sheep shaggers above have some explaining to do; what is your glorious Baldrick proposing in terms of public housing then?

    No excuses for Labour though. We need a state house and apartment mega build with a rejuvenated fully publicly owned Ministry of Works Dept. The local industry showed what scummy traitors they are over Kiwibuild–yes a flawed scheme–but the developers and suppliers basically went on strike because they only want high margin jobs.

    –State House mega build
    –Tiny houses for homeless
    –Emergency housing in every city and town
    –All MSD/WINZ debt related to emergency housing (e.g. motels) be wiped forthwith
    –Occupy empty residential and commercial properties on a militant, disruptive, rolling basis till the politicians get the message

    I raise these points for obvious reasons, so get politically active people and make it so.

    • Only came out on Friday and the MSM are slow at picking things up. Minto was on the radio this morning talking about.

    • You’ll find it in exactly the same section the MSM talk about all the coal were importing to generate electricity the greens and labour charge their subsidised EVs with.

  10. The cuckoo sneaked into power by empathetically, frowny, head tiltingly looking directly into the poors eyes and promising them a healthy affordable home and a future where they are finally acknowledged and respected, once in power she did a complete 180, turned her back on the poor, disregarded their woes and threw wheel barrows full of cash to those rich enough to already own multiple homes. If that is not one of the most cynically disgustingly cruel things I have ever seen then I don’t know what is?

    • Nailed it. Especially the ” frowny, head tiltingly etc” bit…her coach must have told her this ploy made her look sincere and trustworthy. Ha!

    • Not as sneaky and smarmy as John Key. His legacy was property speculation and a corrupt dirty politics government. He is not remembered for anything else. He was a nobody internationally. It is interesting that all the people around the world except for the 30% right wing in Aotearoa recognise and respect Jacinda and her successes. Despite the rogue morgan poll, Australia voted for Jacinda as PM.

      I say to you crazy nasty “Hate Jacinda” right wing tories, rejoice and be grateful that Jacinda is the only world leader to have saved the lives of NZ citizens (you, me and 15000 others) from foreign invaders – covid.

      • Successes plural – please explain.

        I am not a tory, way left of the Labour party and am deeeeeeeply disappointing in their performance.

        Good on covid forget the rest.

      • Dear Nikorima
        Can you show us an accurate mathematical formula that proves conclusively that your Jacinda single handedly saved 15000 lives. Or even one. No spin please. Just maths and facts for a change. Truth is, we the compliant lot, the chilled out non militant citizens saved ourselves. So please remove your goddess from this golden pedestal you have put her on. Other than command the 1pm Covid TV show, she’s done little with her mandate. She’s a non achiever.

  11. a national building programme is the only practical lever, LINOs refuse to pull it..ideological backwardness, bribes or threats I really don’t care what motivates them.

    I suspect the endgame is housing as another ‘oh dear-ism’ like world poverty, bad Maori stats, world peace and cutting carbon emissions….we all sit round going oh dear, tut tut but nothing happens and we order another latte.

  12. This is a disgrace also 10% or a maximumm of $20,000 grant too buy the state house you live in. Not of course available in the main centres.

    The Tenant Home Ownership grant is a gift of 10% of the purchase price of selected Kāinga Ora houses up to a maximum of $20,000. The Tenant Home Ownership grant is not available in areas where there is high demand for state houses. These areas include:
    Auckland
    Wellington City
    Christchurch
    Hamilton and
    Tauranga.

  13. Labour will bat this problem away just like they always bat away issues, for example slow response policing, with clever words from the 900 strong PR team. Nothing like a good pre-prepared response to make it all go away. Jacinda today: “I think that demonstrates that police have kept pace with the expectations of the public.” Have they? Is that what we expected or did we expect more or are we only allowed to expect what Jacinda says we can expect? So now Jacinda presumes and dictates what our expectations are. So with housing it would be something like: “I think that demonstrates that housing has kept pace with the expectations of the public.” Absolutely, we didn’t expect more or better, well done Jacinda. Hey, it’s all brilliant management and outstanding leadership, so please folks vote her and her spin team back in. Another 3 years of this version of Labour (I stress this version not all versions!) will be really good for NZ. We’ll be properly fucked, not just fucked. Worst part of it all, the nation doesn’t seem to give a shit it’s being fucked, or by now they polls would have them in the 20s, as they should be after all that!

    • The public deserve to expect far more but the way there police is run under Labour, don’t expect much if anything.

      I can’t listen to her anymore, I not longer trust what she says, it’s all piss and wind.

      Those response times are abysmal and if our PM thinks she can spin her way out of that with that horseshit response then there is, again, no point voting for them.

    • VG SK. But where did you read that info about 900 PR for police. That sounds too much for me to digest.

      • GW
        Sorry, it’s figurative. I should have said 12,000 or 27,000. Point is, and we all know this to be true, Jacinda has a massive PR dept. Nothing she says is not carefully curated. Why do you think she avoids Hosking….he doesn’t stick to the prescribed list of questions which means she would get caught out and be embarrassed by not having answers to such tricky questions. Her image is as more crafted and curated than William’s Katherine…a true politcical designer princess. And the masses seem to love it! Until they can’t afford to pay their mortgage or buy the nice food they are used to or fill up the car or the crime in their street becomes uncomfortable. Then it’s all over. It’s coming and there’s no spin out of that one.

    • Vote NATZ to sell off and build no social housing, support property speculation, tax break for the rich and to hell with the bottom feeders. Luxon and Willis are nobodies and the rest of the national party MPs are as useful as tits on a bull. NATZACT are a party for grumpy old men who have replaced their picture of John Key on the mantlepiece with Luxon. National has a disgraceful history for the well-being of less fortunate NZers and Im sure some of you above are acting above your station and wouldn’t be admitted into National circles.
      Simple – LABOUR 9000 new social houses in 4 years, NATZ, sell-off 1500 and no builds in 9 years and create P labs or use in state house to demolish the houses and sell off land to their speculator friends.

  14. 7.5 million for sending more weapons into a war zone.
    4.0 million for spy satellites

    Money for murder. Nothing more.

    I feel sick.

      • Supporting Ukraine sure, but not sending all that shit, help with the people moving. Always money for murder!

    • Agree, has this government learnt nothing from the tragedy and waste of the Middle East this century? They must be either really stupid, have a depraved murderous streak or are happy to use the Ukraine people as cannon fodder in the West’s proxy war. Maybe Ardern is looking for a poll bump from being a war president, and showing solidarity with war mongers, arms dealers and the far right is how she thinks she may get the adoration she desires. She could have picked a bunch of other conflicts to support and fight the big meanie (the oppressor is typically the war criminal Five Eyes and hangers on in these invasions), including Eastern Ukraine in the past eight years, but she chose this one for some reason, dragging Kiwis into a region and history we have only just learnt about, and wasting money on war fetish while she should be spending it on the economic crisis in this country. She has the same crazy eyes as Blair.

  15. Labour couldn’t organize a root in a brothel, yet they still hang on the wall portraits of Savage the person who invented the welfare state. I bet he is spinning at 25,000 RPM. Blaming National 1 1/2 terms is falling on deaf ears now.

    • whereas the nats can organise a piss up in a brewery but insist on sending dick pix to random women whilst pissed up on 2 halves of lager…who wants a pic of judith collins cock..I mean really chaps.

  16. The problem now with Labour is that they have stuffed up mightily, have progressed on a primrose path that has more potholes than flowers and are stuck in the cogs of the system. They think that they are going to get away with it and have got family to start a book on them winning, counting on us to be so stressed at facing two awful retail agencies that we have no choice. It’s a cold callous decision showing no concern or consideration for supposed values we all hold. So Cullen never said ‘We won, you lost, suck on that’ or the like, but he thought it, and that is a black mark against Labour.

    They are in a peculiar position, talking up being progressive, abandoning the workers who they calculated will be a millstone, and the benefits of open slather bringing cheaper workers and goods will nullify the unions value to the workers. Supporting the unions and the workers would be like trying to race a dead horse, and Labour would be that nag.

    Yet they need to go back to the past, pick out the useful policies, find a way to present them again with a white, green or pinkwash but just enough to bring colour to the people’s cheeks and not affect the wealthy b….s who dangle them on their big-game fishing lines. Starting mortgages for approved young people with a two-year savings history from Kiwibank for instance. A 10 year low-rate mortgage for a low-level house purchase. That is what used to happen – a starter. They could make it flexible in some ways to get started. Perhaps the young could buy some of the old housing stock , be paid to do a housing apprenticeship, join a gang of repair and maintenance people, professionally well managed and supervised, that worked on these houses, their own included in the work schedule. They could buy what they had rented possibly if it suited, which the owner wpuld be willing to let go at a low price or face expensive house repair costs. Good eh.

    Killing two or more problems with one maneouvre. Labour can saw the problem in half for its next magic trick. Back to the future, go back to the 1980s era and fix a few things to get the caboose rolling on the right rails. This story is getting interesting – I’d like to see it on the big screen with the young couple walking into the sunshine with their toddlers hanging onto their hands. A few other improvements and Labour might be cheered in instead of fronting up with a showman’s fake smile and crawling away to get boozed – ‘we knocked that bugger over.’ Let’s keep it good and clean Labour and do your legwork so you can show the peeps what you are made of – integrity, brains, muscle and that added extra, cunning.

  17. It is an ongoing issue and I think that, despite the pandemic, the government could certainly have done more in order to solve part of the problem to do with the housing crisis.

    Jacinda Arden has had massive popularity but has never been a hands on Prime Minister. Her popularity was due to social appearances at rock music concerts and various festivals, and nothing to do with her ability to solve this nation’s mounting list of issues. This is unfortunate but true.

    • Yep Daniel
      My daughter used to love her but now she can’t afford her flat rent. And she doesn’t go out at night in Wellington anymore. Too dangerous. So there you have it. Mounting issues for everyone.

      • too dangerous in wellie do me a favour…courtney pl can get fractious but you can put that down to allowing nat booze barons to flog to kids.
        sorry when I hear wellington scarey I just find it ridiculous…now some of the smaller ‘gang towns’ you’d have a point…I’ve never felt really threatened in wellie like I did in english cities EXCEPT in some of the 1 horse south island villages…most of that is probably down to me and ‘deliverance’ flash backs.

      • I’ve read someone analysing PM Jacinda’s approach and saying that she is being coached by Helen Clark and looks towards moving onto a similar professional upward-moving path. Helen too held the animal with strong reins, giving a sense of being an improving and caring force, but not changing much, and bringing in more downward social policies.

    • Daniel Lang,

      The saddest aspect of your incredibly shallow input is that you appear sincere.

      Regardless of what you think of Ardern, she has been the most hands on of any NZ PM of my 60 years. She’s done it all under extremely trying circumstances and while enduring a tidal wave of unprecedented and often misogynistic personal abuse.

      Where you paying attention during the previous Governments 9 years? If so, you will know their focus was all about $$$$. Almost the only time “people” were given priority was when they were talking about “hard working kiwi’s” who just happen to be their supporters. Everyone else who was doing it hard were supporters of the enemy and invariably treated as such. Who suffered under their low wage economy? Who benefited? It was also during that time the gap between rich and poor reached new record levels. ….. this occurred at the exact moment NZ was incessantly being told about a farcical rock star economy in a brain washing manner. This was the same Government that denied there even was a housing crisis and only discovered child poverty in NZ two weeks from election day in 2017 when they realized Ardern was getting traction campaigning for child poverty.

      NZ was ready for change. The time of the wealthy stale pale male was coming to an end. Ardern stepped up at exactly the right time. She’s clearly a caring empathetic people person who puts kiwis ahead of $$$$. The people she cares about are across the board, not just those that vote Labour. This was well overdue. People resonate toward Ardern and that has fuck all to do with her involvement with music. She went to venues including universities etc where she could connect with people. Winston Peters did the same as did John Key who also attended Gay Pride events.

  18. The waiting list has increased five-fold because rent has increased to levels that your average renter can barely afford. Labour do not set rents, landlords do. Greedy landlords have been putting up rents over the last ten years as mortgage rates have fallen and now that they’re on their way up again, landlords are gouging renters even more. Labour have tried (and failed) which is more than what National did. The rules/laws around investment home ownership need to change, if you own more than one investment property (the vast majority of us need to rent at some time in our lives) you’re running a business and they need to be treated as such with taxes paid on the profit, including capital gains, simple!
    Here’s the problem:
    Homes owned by investors by portfolio size
    Investor with 1-2 dwellings-223,051
    Investor with 3-5 dwellings-264,366
    Investor with 6-20 dwellings-96,107
    Investor with 21-50 dwellings-11,944
    Investor with over 50 dwellings-10,254
    Source: Valocity

  19. Housing is clearly Labour’s biggest fail.

    The implications of what’s unfolded are enormous.

    1) Many Kiwi’s were totally disillusioned with the previous Government’s performance on housing. This spurred them on to vote for Labour. I sincerely believe many people were so desperate for “hope” in this area that they voted for the first time in 2017.

    2) Labour showed right from the get-go they were NOT serious about resolving the devastating housing crisis by having the inept Phil Twyford as their Minister of Housing.

    3) When Labour’s farcical Kiwibuild and Twyford were brutally exposed they had a one time only opportunity to get it right with a “reset”. Ardern appointed her friend Megan Woods to be the new Minister of Housing. This was an even bigger epic fail than Twyford. What a sad reflection it is on the Government that Woods is seen as their heavy hitter. She hasn’t got a clue. Four things have increased since she took over. 1) Housing issues have worsened considerably to unprecedented hopeless levels. 2) Inequity is now extreme. 3) Woods bank balance will have dramatically increased. 4) Her own level of morbid obesity has obviously increased. I refer to this issue as the housing portfolio requires a highly motivated energetic person. That is so obviously not Woods. She installs zero confidence yet retains the portfolio. This is a very telling reflection on the Labour Government.

    4) People already had issues with trusting politicians. Under Labour, that number will have increased.

    5) Disillusionment robs people of hope. As a result we will lose thousands of young kiwi’s and be poorer as a result. John Key promised no more empty chairs around NZ dinner tables after many thousands left NZ. The fact we are about to see another exodus is extremely disappointing. No doubt their numbers will be quickly replaced with yet more Chinese and Indian national’s despite the fact NZ has already suffered an enormous demographic change over the last 20 years. I welcome new Kiwi’s but the change has already been way too much and way too quickly.

    6) The CGT was the main tool Labour intended to control the housing market. Winston Peters threatened to cause a constitutional crisis if Labour pressed ahead with the tax. Ardern was clearly rattled by the threat and burned the CGT as long as she was PM. The best weapon they had no longer existed. I understand why Ardern made the decisions she did but they amounted to putting her own political survival as the only priority. The housing crisis was then left to explode under Megan Woods.

    7) Ardern has been stuck in a hopeless position. She knows housing affordability is huge but doesn’t actually want house prices to drop as that will negatively impact many kiwi’s.

    8) Housing priority must go to kiwi’s ahead of new immigrants. New kiwi’s obviously need a home but as long as that is provided ahead of long established kiwi’s the problem will only worsen. The best we can hope for is to just tread water.

    9) Government support for first home buyers is totally unrealistic….unless you want to leave your loved ones and employment behind and move to behindtheblackstumpsville……..the exact place new immigrants should be steered toward.

    10) Back in the day, Kiwi families could use their family benefit as a deposit for a family home. What do we have now? In the UK, the Government matches your deposit to help families into their own home. Our Government needs to look into this with urgency.

    11) I’m so sick of hearing about the poor old “investors” and them losing tax breaks on the 10 to 100 homes they own. Cry me a river. There needs to be a requirement which can’t be circumvented that every purchaser of a NZ residential property must reside at that property themselves or suffer a significant penalty.

    • 3. A problem was conflating the Kiwi BUILD with affordable first family homes. First homes are rarely new builds. So they limited the builds to those who could afford to buy a new first home.

      The obvious buyers were couples were those trading up from a first flat/apartment to a family home or older couples trading down from a larger home and section or couples buying a one bedroom starter to get onto the market.

      11. Yeah and matching deposits as an equity share is an asset on the governments books. It’s an obvious policy to bring in once the market is post peak.

  20. Yes , the right to free tertiary education being removed and fees introduced was maybe when the government had figured it was “cheaper” to bring in trained and qualified people than train our own in the numbers our country needs. Right now they are trying to steal other countries essential workers – doctors and nurses – to make up for the nurses and doctors they should have ensured NZ had trained in the near-past years.
    This kind of approach over the last 30 yrs has made NZ an unhappy fractured country.

  21. Yes , the right to free tertiary education being removed and fees introduced was maybe when the government had figured it was “cheaper” to bring in trained and qualified people than train our own in the numbers our country needs. Right now they are trying to steal other countries essential workers – doctors and nurses – to make up for the nurses and doctors they should have ensured NZ had trained in the near-past years.
    This kind of approach over the last 30 yrs has made NZ an unhappy fractured country.

    • And paid them properly – the nurses, such an underpaid profession. A degree is required and at least 3 years study.
      The pigs get paid the same after 3 months training it is totally ridiculous.

  22. oh c’mon bob rewind to keys ‘crisis what crisis’ horseshit…yup LINOs have done nothing to even try to fix it but like a meaty fart it’s been brewing for ages.

  23. Yes if a crisis then what is it now?
    They,the Labour Party promised to fix it.
    To borrow a phrase “ They fixed it worse.”

  24. NZ is finished. The political establishment here is garbage. Therefore i won’t be joining in the cynical charade. BYE

  25. yup no argument but only because the nats had spent 10yrs nurturing, caring for and inflating the bubble labour inherited..and yes they fumbled the ball.

  26. will you be all over the nats failures like a nasty rash too if dog forbid the nats get in…or will you be blaming the previous govt then? cabbage

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