The New Zealand Politics Thread

[Athlai]

NZ Herald reporting the first leader to have a baby in office was actually the Pakistani PM 30 years ago. Had no idea.

 

[NZTailender]

Awesome news. Best luck to the couple.

 

[Spikey]

condolences to Mark Richardson

 

[Athlai]

Mark Reason weighs in

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/opini...ous-concerns-about-jacinda-arderns-motherhood

What a ****ing toss pot

 

[Bahnz]

Bwahaha, trying to compare a professional athlete's job with a politicians. What a ****ing moron.

 

[Ausage]

It's almost as if being a politician and an elite athlete are two different jobs with vastly different physical requirements.

 

[hendrix]

That guy is literally a professional troll.

What a sad existence

 

[Bahnz]

Boring Buhl retires. Reckon National will struggle bad without him. For better or for worse he was the most recognisable and liked politician in the National caucus. Did a solid job as Finance Minister, and about as well as you could hope for during the election. His 'social investment' philosophy was an excellent idea (even if it wasn't that well executed under the last National Government) that I hope continues to be built on by successive Governments in years to come.

So who to replace him? The early front-runners seem to be Bridges, Adams and Kaye.

 

[Athlai]

Looking forward to seeing a year or so of power grabs and shambles within the National party. English and Key stepping out of the picture is an end of a pretty alright era IMO.

 

[Flem274*]

every time someone mentions simon bridges i remember him almost being bullied into crying by john campbell slaughtering him on live telly

and they should choose nikki kaye

 

[straw man]

 

[Bahnz]

Tbf, I don't think I've read a single story on Justin Trudeau that doesn't reference his "movie star good looks", and nobody seems to care. The interview was undeniably cringey, but it doesn't seem that dissimilar to the E-news approach that is often taken with successful young politicians.

 

[straw man]

Yeah probably true

 

[Flem274*]

this whole 'is simon bridges a real maori' thing is pretty dire tbh

just focus on how hard he gets nailed to a post by the likes of John Campbell instead

 

[vogue]

'Tenants on our own land': New Zealand bans sale of homes to foreign buyers
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...omes-to-foreign-buyers?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

House prices going up some in NZ. Will this work to lower them then?

 

[Smudge]

'Tenants on our own land': New Zealand bans sale of homes to foreign buyers
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...omes-to-foreign-buyers?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

House prices going up some in NZ. Will this work to lower them then?

Correction: have been. They have plateaued in most of the country.

 

[hendrix]

'Tenants on our own land': New Zealand bans sale of homes to foreign buyers
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...omes-to-foreign-buyers?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

House prices going up some in NZ. Will this work to lower them then?

No.

Very, very few property sales go to non-residents/non-citizens.

The problem is that there is no capital gains tax in NZ. The other problem is that successive governments continue to incentivise living in the major cities, almost to the point of subsidising it for the benefit of business.

 

[Bahnz]

I wouldn't say it's just because of the absence of a capital gains tax. They have CGT in Australia which is suffering very similar problems with house price inflation. It's also due to a combination of a genuine supply shortage that's itself worsened by a complex and expensive regulatory framework and continuing record low interest rates that incentivise people to take out enormous loans.

What the current government is doing with this law is really just appealing to old school anti-Asian xenophobia tarted up as economic realism.

 

[hendrix]

I wouldn't say it's just because of the absence of a capital gains tax. They have CGT in Australia which is suffering very similar problems with house price inflation. It's also due to a combination of a genuine supply shortage that's itself worsened by a complex and expensive regulatory framework and continuing record low interest rates that incentivise people to take out enormous loans.

What the current government is doing with this law is really just old appealing to old school anti-Asian xenophobia tarted up as economic realism.

Yes agree on both points

 

[social]

NZ faces many of the same problems we have in Australia (e.g. relatively few employment opportunities outside main cities, relative scarcity of finance options, tax incentives for property investors etc) but its smaller population exaggerates the problem

There is (or maybe was) an incentive for foreigners to become tax residents of the country that also potentially contributes to the home affordability problem.

In short, it certainly used to be the case that a foreigner with residency would only be taxed on income brought into NZ. As a result, a guy like the founder of PayPal could essentially live in the country tax free by simply repatriating nothing more than his living expenses and keeping the rest offshore. That law encourages wealthy foreigners to live in the country but not invest in anything other than their own home.

By way of comparison, an Australian resident taxpayer must pay tax on all income irrespective of source or whether it ever finds its way into Australia