NZ Politics

On my lunch break I went to the nearest shopping centre to vote. I was the only person in the place under the age of 70.

People complain that the government isn't radically overhauling our entire economy and society, this is the reason for that.

CCP pushing the "official" doctrine that Mandarin is the only Chinese language to NZ, despite the fact that the vast majority of NZ Chinese immigrants speak Cantonese as a primary language. Especially the early ones.

Gap between left and right blocks has opened up, but NZ first seems likely to make it to parliament, which could make coalition negotiations interesting.

Labour is the big loser, and they should be asking serious questions about their campaign. Most of the other parties are fairly stable, with departing Labour voters seemingly moving fairly evenly among the other major parties.

Really interesting article which serves as a good background to the current problem with state housing.

Tl;dr: Did National sell off state housing? Yes, but the net loss was only a few hundred. However, if you factor in the proportion of the total housing stoke owned by the state, we are short 43,000 state homes, and that's only for the rather meagre 5.4% of total stock.

Personally, one of my highest priorities for voting is climate change so I guess it will be Greens again.

If you think climate change is important as well, please vote accordingly.

Hilarious.

When the details of this policy were released, it really didn't pass the sniff test. It seemed to rely on a huge increase in foreign buyers, above pre-ban levels, and ignored any potential reduction in sales due to the tax itself.

Some major shifts here, greens pick up a lot of Labour's loss, but still a shift to the right.

Really? Trying to capture the NIMBY vote?

So I had a look at vote compass and my top three are Green, TOP and TPM

Bottom is ACT as expected.

Has anyone else looked at vote compass this year?

Even though Green lines up "best" with how I answered the survey, I still wouldn't vote for them. I find them too idealistically driven.

They also want to “invest in carbon capture”. That’s cool but we also need to immediately stop burning fossil fuels. I’m pretty skeptical of carbon capture as a solution to our burning planet.

He also wants to shelve the Lake Onslow pumped-hydro scheme, but wants to end iwi involvement in decision-making because they’re blocking hydro projects. Maybe take a look in the mirror Seymour, you’ll find a hydro-blocker looking back at you.

The National Party is promising to axe swathes of jobs and “clean out” Kāinga Ora, the Government’s social housing landlord and developer.

When asked if there will be job losses at the agency, he said: “Hope so”.

Kāinga Ora was set up four years ago, and derailing it now would be “stupid”, Bill McKay, a senior lecturer in architecture and planning at the University of Auckland, explained.

How did we get from “steals from the rich to give to the poor”, to “steals from the poor to give to the rich”, to “steals from the disabled to give to the rich”?

National needs about $5 Billion in foreign property sales a year to reach its target. Prior to the 2018 ban, China (which likely can't be taxed anyway due to FTA) made up 40% of an approximately $3.75 Billion in total sales. For Nationals numbers to work, the market would have to grown significantly, while leaving the vast majority of properties un-taxed. Further, they have not accounted for any drop in sales due to the tax, global downturn, or any other factors.

It's pure fiction and smoke and mirrors.

Here are some random quotes from the article that basically sum it up, IMO.

Relief measures aimed at superannuitants include promising to increase NZ Super annually – although that already happens under the current scheme

As the tax policy makes clear, short-term concerns about the cost of living trump longer-term considerations about climate change.

Generally, two of the new proposals appear to gloss over the massive IT costs that tend to accompany new taxes.

What the package does not do is engage with the problem of tax-free wealth.

there isn’t a lot here for the least well off. But these are probably not the voters National is after.

Some of us weren't far off with the gambling levy, being an online service after all.

Actually some solid proposals there, I'm impressed.