Podcast

Foreign Buyers Ban Will Be Lifted Under Urgency

PM Luxon has said he wants it done by the end of the year. Plus: RNZ shenanigans

OPINION/ANALYSIS:

Watching NZME Newstalk ZB is like watching Fox News to my mind.

Earlier in the year, Fox hosted then “DOGE” (Department of Government Efficiency) head Elon Musk where he spouted the “benefits” of his cost cutting exercises in the USA.

It was extraordinary to watch a political billionaire allowed on a so-called media platform to spout whatever he wanted unchallenged, and without any consideration to facts or context.

I feel very much the same way when watching Luxon, or indeed any right wing figure, on Newstalk ZB.

Last week Luxon criticized Labour and Chris Hipkins, in particular, for Labour’s decision to not appear at the public component of the latest Covid-19 inquiry - an inquiry that was instigated by NZ First and where terms of reference were largely designed to humiliate the last government around the adoption of vaccines.

Terms of Reference

Winston Peters, like all his current Coalition government partners, put intense pressure on the Ardern government to adopt and roll out vaccines as soon as possible

Hipkins, Ardern, Robertson etc. had all spent hours at the Commission - so much so that some of them were told there was nothing further to proffer. And acting on legal advice, they chose not to accept the abnormal convention of requesting former Ministers attend the public hearing. Let alone the significant safety concerns at play.

That didn’t stop Luxon from denigrating Labour on Newstalk, nor did he mention all present and former Ministers had already given testimony, instead telling faithfful NZME listeners Labour were “gaslighting” the public.

It’s Luxon at his most real, which means Luxon at his most nasty, a form he consistently falls back on when treating political opponents, and also when challenged by someone he deems less powerful.

What interested me though was his furnishing to Mike Hosking that the pending lift of the foreign buyers ban, which I’ve been reporting on through last year and this, will be passed under urgency - and completed by the end of this year.

This morning, NZME was running further assists for the Coalition’s policy plans, interviewing Shamubeel Eaqub, and with Ryan Bridge telling Kiwis it was unlikely to affect any ordinary person.

Bridge:

“There are about 7000 livable homes at $5m or above..they’re mainly in Auckland and Queenstown so the most likely situation is these ultra wealthy will end up buying homes there”

Four points here:

That is likely in terms of where they might buy a first home, but it’s untrue that that level of wealth doesn’t impact the rest of our society.
James (Jim) Grenon, the Canadian born Kiwi PR who ran the attempted takeover of NZME’s Board and “effectively” succeeded with support from Steve Joyce, indelibly affects our politics, media, and country
Peter Theil, who “believes in a stateless world free of regulation or limits on human endeavour” and is designing a reported massive state surveillance system inspired by Chinese governments, affects our politics and, I believe, the aspirations of right leaning politicians,
RNZ’s documentary on reported civil war mongerer David Seymour tracked his significant foreign alliances and links that may be impacting Kiwis to this day

We cannot separate allowing the uber wealthy from overseas buying out homes from impacting ordinary Kiwis now and into the future.

Winston and the government have been socialising the idea for a while now - preumably to test the waters to see if NZ First get any backlash.

It hasn’t happened, and with help from friendly right wing media, it may never

Monetary policy during times of economic stress

A quick word on the monetary policy cuts as RBNZ turns “dovish”.

National made it clear when they first won government that RBNZ’s sole mandate is inflation. So much so they passed laws under urgency to ensure that.

However, recent media reports consistently ignore this point. i.e. Government’s support and encouragment for the RBNZ board to now be used as a tool to apparently stimulate economic growth.

Financial commentators speak of it as if this is normal or desirable.

As Economics 101 teaches us, a country has two main pillars: fiscal policy and monetary policy. It is fiscal policy that has predictably led us to the economic doldrums we are now experiencing - and it is fiscal’s role to change gears.

Yet media commentators consistently ignore the impact of the former in order to normalise the idea it is appropriate for a central bank to help the government in this time and place.

We are still experiencing inflation, even if it is more subdued, and the related market factors that are causing low levels of demand etc. relate to masses of unemployment, people fleeing the country like we haven’t seen for 35 years, 10 year high business failures etc.

The effect of cutting interest rates will likely mainly benefit the property market, further compounding decades of issues in an over-leveraged housing market, at the expense of structural reform.

It also penalises savers and helps banks to increase profits - oversesas banks for the most part, mind you.

Finally, it puts us all at risk - inflation may still rise up, Willis’s earlier direction to loosen capital requirements may put our entire financial system at risk.

This government is all out of ideas, which is understandable given they apparently beat to the drum of NZ Initiative, but what’s clear is they have zero care for the future of this country as it pertains to the 98%.

But we’ll never hear that on Newstalk, will we?

PM Christopher Luxon wants to see house prices rise