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NRT: National’s failure on housing
Written By: - Date published: 1:54 pm, October 21st, 2014 - 25 comments
A year ago National rammed through special housing areas promising 9000 homes consented in the first year under it. Over the last year they have managed to build 5 and consented 294. Nick Smith fails maths yet again. This year 13,000 – yeah right!
No point in state houses
Written By: - Date published: 8:32 am, October 18th, 2014 - 75 comments
There’s no point in state houses. Not according to the Nats anyway. Unbelievable.
The housing dream
Written By: - Date published: 2:06 pm, October 14th, 2014 - 23 comments
The “Kiwi dream” is over – the housing crisis just gets worse and worse.
Cause of poverty and inequality found!
Written By: - Date published: 8:06 am, October 8th, 2014 - 36 comments
Good news citizens! The National government has revealed unto us today the cause of poverty and inequality.
NRT: A surprise policy
Written By: - Date published: 7:12 pm, October 7th, 2014 - 32 comments
Remember National’s social housing policy? The one they campaigned on? The one that talked about how much money they were spending and was all about upgrading and investing in state houses? Somehow, post-election, its transmogrified into selling off a third of the state housing stock. John Key lying to voters as usual eh?
Boots Theory: Numbers are meaningless when families are living in cars
Written By: - Date published: 10:59 am, October 5th, 2014 - 137 comments
There’s something obscene about the way the economic story gets framed: the figures on a page, the points on an index, the number of dollars someone can swap for a number of different-coloured dollars, when people are suffering.
Unaffordable housing & the culture of greed
Written By: - Date published: 11:17 am, October 4th, 2014 - 47 comments
Rental housing remains unaffordable for many. The problem is the greed of investors & speculators, supported by a culture in which housing investment is seen as a way to individual prosperity.
Bizarre attack on Cunliffe
Written By: - Date published: 4:52 pm, August 27th, 2014 - 48 comments
Andrea Vance has a weird attack piece on Cunliffe where she accuses him of not being hungry, not being able to offer instant affordable houses to everybody, not standing in the right place, and even sleeping.
Look over there! Tax cuts!
Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, August 26th, 2014 - 7 comments
So National are both so out of ideas and so desperate to take the spotlight off their Dirty Politics that they’re now promising tax cuts. Tax cuts straight after we have a panel of our most prominent economists warning that the ‘rock star’ economy is going to hit the rocks.
Polity: Smoke and mirrors on housing
Written By: - Date published: 12:11 pm, August 25th, 2014 - 14 comments
National’s own fine print takes us from “you can get up to $20,000!” to, at best, “11% of qualifying couples get up to $20,000.” Ouch…. Typical National. Long on glitz. Long on smoke. Long on mirrors. Short on actually helping people.
Labour’s housing plan is much better
Written By: - Date published: 4:03 pm, August 24th, 2014 - 65 comments
National has announced its housing policy using Labour’s Kiwisaver scheme to provide extra money to first home buyers. But the policy will only add to housing inflation instead of addressing it.
Walking through the wrong door is the least of Gerry’s problems
Written By: - Date published: 4:51 pm, July 29th, 2014 - 12 comments
Throughout the last few years Brownlee has consistently denied that there is a housing crisis, despite almost every sign pointing to one. What we need in Christchurch is more houses, now. Affordable, well-designed, well-insulated houses. Lots of them. This is why Labour’s Kiwibuild scheme will roll out 10,000 houses in Christchurch in the first 4 years.
Polity: MSD dumps on National’s “net tax” nonsense
Written By: - Date published: 3:33 pm, July 10th, 2014 - 47 comments
Rob Salmond has been looking through the newly released Ministry of Social Development’s Household Incomes Report. It really is invaluable.
NRT: Fixing Christchurch
Written By: - Date published: 10:53 am, June 28th, 2014 - 5 comments
Labour has announced another part of its package to fix Christchurch: an immediate crash home-building plan. The market has failed, so the government has to step in. Its that simple. As for why the market has failed, there’s the ongoing insurance problems of course, but perhaps this also has something to do with it. Living costs in ChCh are exceeding wages and the construction industry is pocketing the difference. Labour is also changing the rules about exploiting overseas labour.
James Macbeth Dann, an introduction, and a bit about Rebuilding Christchurch
Written By: - Date published: 4:21 pm, June 17th, 2014 - 86 comments
We allow new candidates for left parties to post here, usually just as guest posts because they aren’t bloggers (and unused to the medium). However James Dann from the blog Rebuilding Christchurch has been writing some excellent posts about that city and its travails during the rebuild. So we’ve decided to give him a author login because for years we have been longing for a author who is in and who writes about Christchurch.
Polity: News from National Comms!
Written By: - Date published: 2:50 pm, June 13th, 2014 - 40 comments
Rob Salmond at Polity on what has landed in his mail box paid for by your GST and also close to the wrong side the permissible limits of Parliamentary Services funds. Or perhaps this is something for “NZ Taxpayers Union” to moan about wasting taxpayers money with. They won’t of course because they seem to be good little front organisation for Act and Jordan Williams appears to have about as much independence as their beloved slaves. But if you received one, then a complaint seems in order.
Kiwipolitico: The housing problem isn’t a housing problem; it’s a regional development problem
Written By: - Date published: 3:07 pm, May 28th, 2014 - 41 comments
The national median house price is $415,000, a figure skewed substantially upwards by the extraordinary cost of housing in Auckland. But you can buy a three bedroom house a for a lot less outside the urban areas. There just aren’t jobs to go with them. The chart shows income and employment growth by region. The growth is just not there. Correct that, and it might correct the supply in the urban centres.
David Farrar is (still) the hypocrite
Written By: - Date published: 1:31 pm, May 27th, 2014 - 23 comments
It appears that David Farrar, paid rubber mouthpiece for the National party, is exercising his right to be a hypocrite again. Surely he remembers his attitudes back in 2012 when he was acting as their mouthpiece to discourage other economic migrants seeking a better life in NZ? And it looks like Key is parroting the message tested at Kiwiblog… How predictable.
Snapshot of a nation: inequality
Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, May 24th, 2014 - 30 comments
Al Jazeera reports on damaging inequalities in Spain under “austerity”. High unemployment; 30% of children in poverty, political corruption, tax evasion & a focus on football. Suggested ways to decrease income & wealth inequalities in NZ. Update: TV3’s The Nation: inequality & Wilson & Pickett interview.
Occasionally Erudite: Please, Labour, stop trying to link everything to the housing crisis
Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, May 21st, 2014 - 99 comments
Jono at Occasionally Erudite has this advice to offer the strategy team at Labour. Make sure pushing of theme(s) this election doesn’t get snagged into the irrelevant that doesn’t have much to do with it. For instance “…are people currently earning minimum wage really likely to be even close to getting into the Auckland, Christchurch or Wellington housing markets?”
Polity: The young ones
Written By: - Date published: 7:27 am, May 21st, 2014 - 7 comments
Rob Salmond at Polity looks at what our young have to look forward to in 2019 with National’s hands-off housing screwup. How an average family would fare under National’s do-nothing approach to the housing crisis then?
Polity: Madness: Our house
Written By: - Date published: 1:18 pm, May 20th, 2014 - 24 comments
How an average family would fare under National’s do-nothing approach to the housing crisis? Not very well. Even at the Treasury forecasts in the budget (which seem highly optimistic), this median New Zealand family, is projected by Treasury to have their disposable income go backwards over the next five “rock star” years. That is a disgrace
National don’t know and don’t want to know about foreign ownership of housing
Written By: - Date published: 1:09 pm, May 20th, 2014 - 43 comments
National’s pandering to foreign money is disturbing their supporters
Marama Davidson: candidate for Tāmaki Makaurau
Written By: - Date published: 10:11 am, May 17th, 2014 - 40 comments
Marama Davidson, is on the Green Party list & is a candidate for the Tāmaki Makaurau seat. Davidson is a really promising up-coming politician. She is committed to working for people, communities, the environment, democratic process, & strongly supports wahine, Māori & young people.
Polity: House of Cards
Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, May 16th, 2014 - 20 comments
Rob Salmond from Polity on how Budget 2014 figures show that the housing crisis will get much, much worse under National’s do-nothing approach.
Polity: Budget 2014: Over-promise. Under-deliver.
Written By: - Date published: 3:18 pm, May 15th, 2014 - 40 comments
Earlier this week I predicted the Budget would be Labour-lite. I was right, but only in part. By far the biggest disappointment is in housing. The government signalled help for home buyers would be a highlight in the Budget. A few pathetic morsels isn’t a highlight. This will make next to no difference to the housing affordability crisis. First home buyers aren’t $3,500 short of a house. They are hundreds of thousands short, because there aren’t nearly enough homes.
The selective empathy of Key’s callous government
Written By: - Date published: 9:54 am, May 12th, 2014 - 21 comments
John Key’s government is cutting back on state housing, uprooting families from their homes. Large numbers of state houses are empty, while many are left to move from caravan park to sleeping in cars or outdoors. Weasel words from Paula Bennett and Nick Smith.
The neoliberal power game: cities for sale
Written By: - Date published: 7:24 am, May 4th, 2014 - 27 comments
An NZ Herald article about Mai Chen’s book on Auckland Council, supports big power, big money, big competition, and economic activities focused on anything but the production of material needs and wants. It ignores the struggling precariat living with housing, income, transport and energy poverty.
Key Govt asset stripping state housing
Written By: - Date published: 7:56 am, April 25th, 2014 - 54 comments
Phil Twyford has exposed the government’s asset-stripping approach to running down state housing, while favouring of private & overseas entities. The Greens & Mana have strong policies for increasing the amount of state housing. Still waiting for a commitment from Labour.
Stepping up: new energy from Kelvin Davis
Written By: - Date published: 10:20 am, April 23rd, 2014 - 115 comments
Labour has swung positively behind the change from Jones to Kelvin Davis. In his interview on TV3’s First Line this morning, Davis was confident, down-to-earth, & energetic. Hone Harawira & Davis are strong candidates for Te Tai Tokerau and those struggling on low incomes. Both would be assets for a Labour-led government.
The housing bubble
Written By: - Date published: 8:38 am, April 20th, 2014 - 176 comments
Another week and another report suggesting that New Zealand’s housing market is heading towards a potential crisis. The Government’s primary response is to blame Labour. The Greens and Labour have a collection of policies which would improve matters significantly. But the politics are difficult because who would want to threaten the value of the family home?
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