edited to add … my apologies, there is an issue with the podcast audio. I’ll work on replacing it, but that may take a while. Sorry about this!
New Zealand’s political economy has become such a housing-market-with-bits-tacked-on that it has spiralled into a self-reinforcing system, where the ever-older-and-ever-wealthier winners keep rewarding politicians that protect and enhance their gains, especially when it is at the expense of the young losers paying the rents and taxes in this system.
The losers then either give up voting or leave the country, reinforcing the political power of the winners and ensuring the system can stagger on.
After all, who will pay the rent to keep the system going if the young are allowed to buy their own homes after paying off their fees early?
It has led to (often unpromised) policies such as ending fees-free for students and the dumping matching Government grants for first home buyers. The political energy generating this spiral is encapsulated in support for NZ First, which has reinforced and bolstered the incomes and tax-free capital gains of older home owners for decades.
That support is rising, thanks to a turbocharging of anti-migrant views among older home-owners. Today’s news from our political economy encapsulates the latest twist of the spiral, including:
Winston Peters boasting on Friday the Government will dump the final first year of fees-free tertiary education in the Budget later this month, adding to its ending of first home buyer subsidy grants as unpromised budget cuts hitting young voters hardest;
A ‘poll of polls’ analysing the trend of support for the coalition of parties in Government parties vs the Opposition parties shows the Government is on track to win re-election, thanks to a surge in support for NZ First;
A survey of 506 young New Zealanders for OneChoice has found 54% now define the ‘New Zealand dream’ as being financially independent, ahead of home-ownership (44%), while 65% say hoping to own a home is no longer relevant;
The survey found 33% of renters spend at least half their income on rent, with a further 38% spending between 30% and 49% of their income on rent, while 71% are delaying starting a family and/or changing careers due to housing pressures, and 76% feel ‘trapped’ as renters being unable to save for a deposit; and,
Police Commissioner Richard Chambers has conceded to 1News he can’t compete with the salaries and incentives being offered by Australian police forces, with at least 144 officers leaving for Australia in the past year.
Charts of the day
Here’s the PDF of the presentation above, which is available to paying subscribers, along with the invite to the Substack Live video above.
