If National wins ...

[iceman]

Don't forget the water tax to go back to the local councils to improve their local rivers and lakes from all that yellow snow that skiers generously give in thanks for a beautiful days skiing in nature, just like cow next to a river except the cow is ignorant.

****e. Wasn't aware of a new skiing tax but thanks for telling us. Couta1 we might have to book early to Queenstown in order to avoid Taxinda's grab :-(

[iceman]

Its the usual bull dust from national re labours big spend up; they are so close. Brian Fallow in NZ Herald today

"Assuming, perhaps generously, that Labour can live with the tighter unallocated operating allowances its fiscal plan includes, its budgeted operating expenditure over the four years to June 2021 would be just $8b, or 2.3 per cent, higher than National plans.
Its revenue would be $7.4b, or 1.6 per cent higher. That does not look like an increase under the weight of which the economy would crumble.'

Are they really ???? http://www.taxpayers.org.nz/bribe_o_meter

[fungus pudding]

Don't agree. There have been good Labour leaders in the past few years. In fact none were hopeless, they were just middle aged rather grey chaps. The constant changes didn't help them though.

Ms Ardern is not a grey chap, of course. Sure she smiles nicely and is empathetic, but she has been a senior caucus member for some time in a party which has not used the last 9 years to develop and agree important policy.

She's a tricky wee devil. When Hoskins suggested a water tax on producers would affect their profit she replied 'not if they increase profit margins' which probably sounded better to many of the great unwashed than saying 'not if they stick the price up'.

[minimoke]

She's a tricky wee devil. When Hoskins suggested a water tax on producers would affect their profit she replied 'not if they increase profit margins' which probably sounded better to many of the great unwashed than saying 'not if they stick the price up'.

I love that. There's obviously a little undiscovered profit pixie that you can just call on to increase returns.

If labour have one they are well worth a vote!

[Joshuatree]

Are they really ???? http://www.taxpayers.org.nz/bribe_o_meter

Yep Fallow has the facts . They are so similar.Alot more of int there too. national has done huge shift left in a desperate attempt to show they care ; after 9 years of dithering fiddling; sorry not credible.
article.cfm

[fungus pudding]

Perhaps we could send Twyford and some of his mates who have all the answers over the ditch to sort out their housing.

https://www.domain.com.au/news/stop-...3d/?benref=smh

[Rep]

Perhaps we could send Twyford and some of his mates who have all the answers over the ditch to sort out their housing.

https://www.domain.com.au/news/stop-...3d/?benref=smh

Yes, as Twyford says Labour's solutions such as a comprehensive capital gains tax, stamp duty and restricting foreign buyers to new builds to increase supply and building new houses will solve the housing affordability problem (whoops didn't work in Australia).

[BlackPeter]

Perhaps we could send Twyford and some of his mates who have all the answers over the ditch to sort out their housing.

https://www.domain.com.au/news/stop-...3d/?benref=smh

Go ahead ... whatever helps to get rid of Mr "Chinese sounding names".

Another interesting aspect however is that countries with lower homeownership rates like e.g. Germany (51.9%), Hong kong (51%), Switzerland (43.4 %), South Korea (54.2%) are much more wealthy than nearly all countries with high homeownership rates like e.g. Romania (96.4%), Slovakia (90.3%), Cuba (90%), India (86.6%) or e.g. Russia (84%). Only exception I can see in the list is Singapore (90.8%), and they have a quite unique system where the state builds and subsidizes an apartment for every Singaporean who gets married (well, the first time).

Here is the list - check it out yourself:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ownership_rate

Labour wants to increase homeownership rates (currently NZ is on 64.8%, i.e. closer to the wealthy countries) - i.e. they want to make our country poorer!

Lets catch up with Romania or Russia - shall we?

Obviously - what these wealthier countries have in common are more sensible tenancy laws (and long, reliable and for both sides fair contracts) as well as more responsible tenants. One thing NZ could catch up with if we really want to improve instead of doing some window dressing by tuning the wrong parameters ...

[Bjauck]

...
Obviously - what these wealthier countries have in common are more sensible tenancy laws (and long, reliable and for both sides fair contracts) as well as more responsible tenants. One thing NZ could catch up with if we really want to improve instead of doing some window dressing by tuning the wrong parameters ...

I agree..Both Labour and National maybe should accept that home ownerhip is increasingly out of reach of many and that low owner-occupier rates do not necessarily have to be bad.

Reform in several areas would be necessary. They should introduce tenancy reforms so that NZers no longer treat tenancy as a mark of failure or a poor insecure substitute for owning one's own home. If there are equally as effective alternative ways (in addition to owner-occupied housing) to build up a nest egg in addition to tenancy being seen as a positive option, then more tenants could take more pride in the house they occupy and consider it as a home.

[westerly]

Perhaps we could send Twyford and some of his mates who have all the answers over the ditch to sort out their housing.

https://www.domain.com.au/news/stop-...3d/?benref=smh

Head of Australian economics at NAB Riki Polygenis said barring large-scale government intervention or a major catastrophe, prices won’t come down in the near future.

“A lot of the drivers that have driven up house prices to date such as strong population growth, foreign demand, limited supply, taxation arrangements,” she said. “Unless those factors change in a fundamental way I don’t think we’re going to see much improvement of housing affordability in Australia.”

English, Smith, and Adams certainly don't have the answers.

westerly