Because Class has been replaced by Identity Politics on the Left we don’t have the political oxygen to articulate the class war being waged against Renters right now in this country…
Housing advocates claim Kāinga Ora revamp will increase homelessness
Public housing advocates claim the revamp of Kāinga Ora could lead to an increase in homelessness.
The state housing provider’s board and CEO are being refreshed while the Government comes up with a new focus for the agency.
However there’s concern from the construction industry and those campaigning for more public housing that any building pause during the revamp could increase the state housing waitlist and put tradies out of work.
…Chris Bishop has boasted all month that he’s kicking more state tenants out onto the street, but can’t tell anyone where all the tenants he has just kicked out will now live and if he’s made any children homeless.
How is that anything other than a revenge policy rather than social policy?
Chris Bishop is mutilating public housing for a sprawl of Gotham ghettos...
Last Thursday, Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced radical new plans to deregulate property development in New Zealand. He’s won praise for his efforts from across the political spectrum, including those on the political left and millennials who think Bishop is bravely fighting for the victims of the housing affordability crisis.
However, there are also signs that his deregulation will do little for housing affordability yet produce inferior housing and create all sorts of negative impacts on the urban environment. Instead of deregulating for “moral” reasons of combating housing affordability, it looks like Bishop and his government are simply implementing the demands of the powerful property development industry, especially those that have donated generously to the parties now in power.
…let’s not forget that the Real Estate Pimps are all behind this…
Bishop’s relationship with property developers
It’s no coincidence that the Minister of Housing made his housing deregulation announcements to the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand last week. The property industry’s owners stand to benefit the most from these reforms.
Some have, therefore, suggested that property developers have been lobbying for these reforms. Writing on X, sociologist Peter Davis posted his analysis of Bishop’s programme: “Auckland urban sprawl here we come. With weakening of urban limits, reducing council powers, & removing medium-density, this is just what the developers who donated were looking for. Big capital gains to be made, long commutes, farm land appropriated.”
…the scale of hard right privatisation and the Real Estate Pimps paying for policy should stun and enrage Kiwis because we have voted in a property speculators paradise of urban sprawl and ghettos at our collective expense!
Real Estate Pimps donated millions to National and in return National have reopened tax loopholes and have given landlords the right to kick tenants out for no reason.
There is a class war on renters but we don’t have the political vocabulary to articulate it.
There is an unspoken promise between the neoliberal State and the untaxed capital gains private landlord class that the neoliberal State never builds enough State Houses to alleviate housing desperation so that the untaxed capital gains private landlord class can exploit that housing desperation ON TOP OF getting a $1.5Billion annual subsidy in the form of the Accommodation Allowance EVERY SINGLE YEAR!
The neoliberal State works hand in glove with the interests of the untaxed capital gains private landlord class to constantly keep desperation in the Housing market by never building enough State Houses WHILE handing Taxpayer funded subsidies to the untaxed capital gains private landlord class!
We are not interested in solutions to poverty and inequality, we only believe in making any welfare as difficult and toxic as possible so the poor give up turning to the State in the first place.
We have short changed our own people in terms of housing and safety nets so we can feel superior and smug in the tiny lounge rooms of our lonely bitterness on these shaky isles.
40 years of the Neoliberal Experiment has created deunionised wage pressure which means working people are so poorly paid they look at welfare with envy.
Meanwhile the megalandlords and property speculators laugh all the way to the bank as homeownership continues to fall…
Are we fine with 47.9% home-ownership by 2048?
Deloitte projects 47.9% home-ownership rate in report for Westpac; Why shared ownership can’t fix our housing crises alone;
…this is what we have become, this is the venal selfishness we enjoy.
Chris Bishop- another player in a cast of thieves and liars. All their policies can be tracked back to their donors, simple as that-period.
The “squeezed middle” they bleated about ‘helping’ in the election campaign are now WORSE off under these charlatans.
Suck it up gNactoids.
It was the stupid squeezed middle who didn’t do their homework and believed Luxons BS without question who voted these numptys in
Most of the so called squeezed middle I know were doing just fine, there biggest problem seemed to an objection to having to use a few Maori words, hence the vote to the right. They ve now got what they voted for, and have probably lost their jobs and now have
even less than the squeezed middle.
The rate of home ownership is steadily declining, which is not a good thing for society. Having your own home gives you security, and more ability to plan for the future, without the possibility of being kicked out of a rental at the whim of landlords. Not owning your home in old age, is also one of the main drivers of pension poverty, and the detriments to quality of life and mental wellbeing that entails. Even those who’ve managed to buy a house when it was easier to do so, often lose it in middle age after going through divorce, and either come out of a separation homeless, or come out with the home but then needing to sell, because they can’t afford the repayments on one income. And then be too far along, to ever be in a position to buy another house. There are various reasons for decreasing ownership, but mainly it’s the steep real estate prices, driven by homes being attractive to investors, which puts home ownership out of the reach of many. To get an average house in a main centre now days, you generally need two good incomes and a chunk of deposit money, or wealthy parents to help, or some illegal means to get cash.
A solution that could be considered, is for the govt to become a part holder of the equity in homes. This would be a halfway measure with a similar ideology to state housing, but not state housing. It would need the usual checks and balances, such as a proviso that the scheme wouldn’t be available to anyone already owning a home. So for someone to buy a second home, they would first need to buy out the govt equity in the home they are currently in. The scheme could be aimed at getting everyone in need of a home, into one, if possible. If the govts function is to improve society, then what better way than by making sure everyone is housed. If NASA can send someone to the moon as a national goal, then housing everyone would be an equally worthwhile goal, achievable with enough motivation and cross party support, and easier than than what NASA did half a century ago. If bricks and mortar are a good investment, then the govt sinking money into such a scheme, say through KiwiBank, would be a good use of govt funds. The lower loan repayments to pay off the reduced equity of home owners in the scheme, would lessen forced mortgagee sales during economic downturns, like currently.
The govt equity component of homes plus capital gains, would be released back to the govt, when the ownership changes, similarly to reverse mortgages. This scheme would be better than the govt paying MSD accommodation supplements, that mainly line the pockets of landlords and return nothing to the govt. It might even be a way to address flood prone and coastal erosion areas. By the govt taking a stake in already built houses in those areas, but not allowing new homes to be built there, so the equity and risk to the owner is reduced, particularly with houses that are uninsurable.
Some community groups already do similar things. I don’t see much downside to the scheme described, unless govts prefer to keep more of the population in uncertain living circumstances, to make them a more compliant workforce. Needing to work the long hours, to cover their rent and maybe inch towards a house deposit sometime in the never never – could be seen as better for productivity by hardnosed treasury types.
Come on Bish, give this some thought, and put on your big boy pants.
While home ownership does have some pluses it does not fit so well with a population that moves jobs and location a number of times over their working life . It is not the norm in most of Europe and even Australia is only 67 percent. In Europe you can rent for years.
So speaketh a Landlord and NACT supporter. In Europe rent is far lower and pegged at a percentage of income. They have also had large ‘housing associations’ that own and rent out housing for decades- No comparison to our current private landlord situation. Typical misinformation/disinformation from NACT Trevor Troll.
Dick Hammersmith. Food for thought, and a glimmer of hope for would-be home owners, so well done. Whether this allies with neo-lib or WEF agendas is another matter, but this sort of robust discussion is precisely what politicians and their advisers should be engaging in.
Dick Hammerbush Apologies for having just relocated you in London. Probably some sort of Freudian slip.
You have presented ideas worth considering although with this government getting Bill English to review Kainga Ora & his being unable to recognise that the government owning houses is an asset I suspect that enriching those who already have will be a higher priority than leveling the playing field.
The landlords will be screaming next year as record unemployment kicks in and Willis has to claw back the free money to balance the books .
Houses will be empty as more and more people end up on the streets .
Willis has to find billions to fund Simeons promises of here a road there a road every where a road and on ten bridges to nowhere much like Simon promised when he was in charge .
And where was the Left’s freeing up of height limits in urban centres? Did Labour ever reduce the power of NIMBYs over new housing and apartments?
Labour and the Greens have held majorities in many cities and towns, and did nothing to free up space for new houses and apartments.
It is more useful to view this struggle as between generations, than Right v Left.
Martyn – Both National and Labour rejected calls for rent control policies due to lame reasons…
Did the demand pressure get mentioned of new immigrants and temporary ones and overseas students working in their spare time, all going to push demand up.
The conservative have a list of bland answers to counteract a reasonable query about homelessness and unaffordability such as ‘They don’t want to work’ (so can’t afford housing), they don’t look after their houses (so get turned out and can’t get replacement rentals). And the uber holiday rentals – ordinary dullpates think that’s wise investment earning.
Then there is the money excess overflowing overseas cornucopias – it has to be converted to asset status before it dissolves into the ether like a solvent. So empty ghost houses or hot-bedding of poor abused immigrants trying to better themselves. And the lack of teaching Kiwis of all ages about how unreal money is; that’s why it’s called real estate! Class society is well entrenched – ‘estate’, land-lord. How did we sink so low. become so foolishly ignorant, and leave unions to teach about class; too many were either tub-thumpers about socialism or individualistic social climbers aiming to join the managerial class I think. Sorry if it hurts your pride any who feel disturbed by that.
Labour legislated child poverty reduction targets why not the range of Egalitarian targets that solve adult poverty which solves child poverty. The neo-liberal bureaucracy and professional consultants are very keen on KPIs. Politicians and their minions need to be held to account to specific Egalitarian KPIs. If the cabinet minister and department ceo miss their KPI at the end of the year (not the election cycle) they are fired just like a sales rep that doesn’t make their quarterly target – ‘incentives’.
What are the Egalitarian KPIs?
Child Poverty. Zero.
Home Ownership 90%
Housing Affordability 3 x annual wage.
Unemployment 1%
Rough Sleepers 1 per million
Migration 1%
Young Person Training Completion 90%
Productivity growth 4%pa
Real Wage growth 3%pa
Does CeoLux have a business plan to make NZ great (Egalitarian) again? No.
Does he have a business plan to extract profits for his mates? Yes.
Bring back 3% Housing Corp mortages and family benefit capitalisation.
Bring back Maori Affairs Housing
Anything else is just a band-aid.
Another step in the class war.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/518675/software-for-new-supermarket-bodycams-linked-to-police-number-plate-technology
…Two multinational companies with close ties to the New Zealand police have teamed up on anti-crime surveillance inside stores.
The new partnership integrates the software system used to recognise number plates on cars, with bodycams…
It comes as New Zealand supermarkets, in step with overseas trends, are bringing in body-worn cameras to deter rising rates of assaults on staff.
“This is a global integration, US focused,” said Auckland-based Auror, a global player in automated number plate recognition (ANPR).
Its new partner, $35-billion US giant Axon, is a leading provider of bodycams to law enforcement in the US and Australia, and more recently expanded into retail.
The New Zealand police have existing contracts with both Axon – for tasers and to store evidence overseas – and with Auror. Officers access its ANPR network that links to over 5000 CCTV cameras, hundreds of times a day.
Comments are closed.