Labour govt 2020-23

[fungus pudding]

I don't think the Environment Minister and other Ministers, including Mahuta with her very large entourage were just "luck of the draw". There's some murky ****e going on with this whole MIQ madness, much of which we are kept in the dark about.

Neither do I - so what are the criteria that allow a VIP to by-pass the hoi-polloi?

[BlackPeter]

The latest in the list of unfairness.

The state MIQ system is unfair and unfit for purpose.
NZ Housing is unfair and broken.
The state health system is underfunded with an unfair medical/accident dichotomy.

And don't forget the NZ education system. While we were once (in the 1960íes) pretty much at the Top of the list of OECD countries with the best readers / writers und best math achievers - an unholy coalition of National and Labour managed to get us within 5 decades or so into mediocracy. Not too many OECD countries still behind us in the PISA reports ...

This is clearly not fair - we throw more money than ever at an education system which is by now in return turning out more and more mediocre prepared students (and some of the worst prepared in the first world).

Both Labour as well as National have been a disgrace looking at running down our education system (National by underfunding it and Labour by throwing money at it instead of improving it) ... but hey, if anybody thought that it couldn't get worse after the "tomorrows school reform" under an education minister called David Lange ... today's Labour clearly demonstrates that they can make it worse ... "Let's do it"!

[Panda-NZ-]

NZ Housing is unfair and broken.

If the accomodation supplement was removed rents would go down.

A wierd and expensive policy from its inception like sir bill's proposed 30k home buying grant in 2017.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/pol...xisting-houses

[artemis]

If the accomodation supplement was removed rents would go down.

A wierd and expensive policy from its inception .....

Would rents go down though? Maybe, but if that leads to less supply then it would not take long for landlords to preferentially select tenants who can afford to pay the asking rent. Meanwhile, what do unsuccessful applicants do? Some will apply for social housing where the average household subsidy from taxpayers is 3x the AS.

In any case the AS is not going to be removed any time soon. Just not practical politically. Could be tweaked though - has been in the past.

When the AS was introduced it applied to all rentals (and owner occupied homes), regardless of ownership, putting all rental households on the same footing. When social housing was removed from the scheme and moved to much more generous income related rents the rental market became and remains skewed.

[Bjauck]

And don't forget the NZ education system. While we were once (in the 1960íes) pretty much at the Top of the list of OECD countries with the best readers / writers und best math achievers - an unholy coalition of National and Labour managed to get us within 5 decades or so into mediocracy. Not too many OECD countries still behind us in the PISA reports ...

This is clearly not fair - we throw more money than ever at an education system which is by now in return turning out more and more mediocre prepared students (and some of the worst prepared in the first world).

Both Labour as well as National have been a disgrace looking at running down our education system (National by underfunding it and Labour by throwing money at it instead of improving it) ... but hey, if anybody thought that it couldn't get worse after the "tomorrows school reform" under an education minister called David Lange ... today's Labour clearly demonstrates that they can make it worse ... "Let's do it"!

My list of unfair and unfit aspects is not exhaustive.

Although about 6 year old now, NZ ranks alongside or better than most European countries with respect to the OECD PISA comparative assessment scores. So, perhaps in a list I may put education further down. However it may be an example that money thrown at a problem can actually make it worse!

Interestingly, NZ performed consistently better than Australia (and consistently worse than Canada) in those 2015 PISA rankings.

https://ourworldindata.org/quality-of-education

Edit: I found the 2018 PISA data. NZ still has above average performance in all subjects tested.

(PDF file)
https://www.oecd.org/pisa/publicatio...018_CN_NZL.pdf

[Bjauck]

If the accomodation supplement was removed rents would go down.

A wierd and expensive policy from its inception like sir bill's proposed 30k home buying grant in 2017.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/pol...xisting-houses

I have to wonder whether it acted as a subsidy for residential property investors and helped inflate house prices even more as a result. Perhaps a way for the state to avoid the provision of more social housing?

[fungus pudding]

I have to wonder whether it acted as a subsidy for residential property investors and helped inflate house prices even more as a result.

Of course it did. Subsidies never land where they are intended.

[artemis]

I have to wonder whether it acted as a subsidy for residential property investors and helped inflate house prices even more as a result. Perhaps a way for the state to avoid the provision of more social housing?

If that was the case then it would have been evident from pretty much the outset of the AS some 30 years ago. It wasn't, though there was a peak in the HPI (% change) around 2002 and a drop in 2008. And another peak starting early 2020 and rising at an unprecedented rate, though quarterly data from RBNZ only seems to be available until March 2021.

High level data so indicative only, but official.

[Bjauck]

If that was the case then it would have been evident from pretty much the outset of the AS some 30 years ago. It wasn't, though there was a peak in the HPI (% change) around 2002 and a drop in 2008. And another peak starting early 2020 and rising at an unprecedented rate, though quarterly data from RBNZ only seems to be available until March 2021.

High level data so indicative only, but official.

I am not sure why it should be obvious ab initio as it is only one of the factors - and certainly not the most important factor - that have influenced (up and down) NZ house prices. They are now so expensive with respect to incomes as the result of many factors.

[artemis]

I am not sure why it should be obvious ab initio as it is only one of the factors - and certainly not the most important factor - that have influenced (up and down) NZ house prices. They are now so expensive with respect to incomes as the result of many factors.

Agree it is not the most important factor by any means and in fact the data I mentioned supports that. However you raised a question on the effect of the AS on inflated house prices - for quite a chunk of the period from inception of the AS changes in the HPI annual % were generally small. More recently house prices have shot away and reasons for that have been well traversed in the media. AFAIK the AS has not been identified as a major reason.