Luxon Promotes Wealthy & Foreign Interests

Written By: - Date published: 6:28 pm, October 30th, 2024 - 12 comments
Categories: chris bishop, Christopher Luxon, david seymour, Dirty Politics, national, national/act government, Privatisation, winston peters - Tags:

Excerpt from Mountain Tui substack.

This week, according to the Prime Minister, allowing builders to self-certify builds is going to be good for NZ because:

– his government has been “working hard” at reducing emergency housing and they’re doing well [code: making it hard to access emergency housing & not knowing where many children went after being moved out],

– there aren’t enough social houses [code: Chris Bishop has been actively killing off government social housing after their $500,000 “no contact with KO” Bill English review ,

– things take too long (echoing Chris Bishop’s talking point about fast-track, without addressing resourcing or rationale or context),

– and, housing is important for well-being.

No mention of his government’s policies of rewarding landlords and opposing CGT though – ensuring property is a rewarding investment in NZ – despite property speculators being the main competitors against First Home Buyers, and elevating house prices.

No, that would be too direct – and against Luxon’s interests.

This month, TradeMe reported property investors are returning to the market thanks to this government’s legislative changes which is making it attractive financially again.

And frankly, Bishop’s intentional strategy of killing off social housing investment – and throwing away $300mn of investment in the process – has not got the attention it deserves – but it has a marked effort on housing availability and support for peoples’ well-being.

Not to mention NZ Government assets – given Kainga Ora’s assets are now worth $70bn on a 25% debt ratio.

Thise points are all irrelevant when Mr ex-Deodorant Salesman is making a sales pitch.

In the National-ACT Party world, it’s property developers that are to be trusted – and they need to ensure a vigorous take down of anything that might threaten corporate dominance and convenience.

So self-certification is this government’s latest brain child.

On this point, this excellent RNZ Checkpoint chat hosted by Lisa Owen with Building Minister Chris Penk reveals that in Auckland:

  • 32% of framing work fail their inspections
  • 35% fail pre-line inspections
  • 29% fail cavity rate inspection
  • 25% fail cladding inspections

i.e. ~30% of certifications now fail in a formal inspection environment. And we know there are a lot of cowboys in the industry who are long gone by the time problems arise.

The ‘leaky homes’ saga cost NZ $23bn, according to some estimates, and big name players were all involved.

So what is this government doing?

Ah, that’s right, this government will too be long gone by the time the **** hits the fan.

And right now Luxon is focused on those big marketing numbers and photo opportunities he wants to sell by the time 2026 rolls round.

As an aside, I know the Tories the world over (especially favoured by Rupert Murdoch press) like to use the words “red tape” over and over again to refer to regulations – but we should all remember, it was the UK Tories who took down building regulations (“red tape”) that caused the Greenfell Tower disaster which resulted in 72 deaths and 70 serious injuries in London.

People died in their homes, in what should have been a structurally safe and sound environment.

It’s not a game – nor should it be politics.

And it’s not only Luxon in this scheme.

Take Chris Bishop.

In his spare time, he arm-wrestles Kainga Ora for donor Winton Property Development, then ensures Winton’s projects for fast-track are chosen after Winton said it didn’t want local authorities involved in its projects, to now allowing Winton to build on flood plains in Auckland.

Flood prone areas isn’t a joke, just ask the property owners who are now in debt after the floods, and the many who couldn’t get compensation.

Once again these are peoples’ lives at stake.

How does it not look like Christophers Luxon and Bishop are acting as ponies for anyone with dosh?

NZ For Sale To The World

Elsewhere – on the friendly right wing Newstalk ZB channel this week, the Prime Minister repeated his foreign buyers’ talking points.

It wasn’t a privilege to invest in NZ, he said, echoing David “Atas is a conspiracy” Seymour a few weeks ago.

Why should foreigners have to prove their benefit to NZ, Luxon asked – rather stupidly.

Well Prime Minister, business cases are standard practice in the world and no government – unless they are corrupt – allows foreigners to buy assets or invest without considering the implications and benefits for the domestic country and its citizens.

He also claimed foreigners were not investing because they didn’t know what was available to buy.

Luxon echoed what I reported a couple of weeks ago – and what I have not seen mentioned in the press – which is, he’s going to present a “deal sheet”, a list of projects and options so foreigners can “choose” what they want to buy from us and where to put their money.

A couple of weeks ago, he mentioned it could be water, hospitals, health, schools, roads, despite previously calling Labour fear mongerers for pointing out there was a risk National would privatise our assets.

I’ve spoken before about the drawbacks of privatisation before so won’t elaborate.

But of note, Dr Sean Sweeney, the CEO for Auckland’s City Rail Link who has been headhunted to lead a $20bn infrastructure program in Ireland, pointed out that all the Public-Private-Partnership projects in Australia have resulted in private operators asking the government for handouts.

i.e. PPPs are not cheaper in any way and lead to a long term problem where we don’t own the assets, but need to keep paying from all sides (citizens and government) i.e. it’s ultimately costlier.

But none of these facts, expertise and experience matters to Mr Luxon, Bishop, Seymour and their party members.

And although NZ First killed off wealthy foreigners buying our houses at the outset, they have been dead silent on amendments to the Overseas Investment Act to make it easier for foreigners to buy everything in NZ – including sensitive land.

It all speaks to the weakness of the media landscape, and the dominance of right wing money – that we don’t even hear a yell.

Finally – and interestingly – a survey of 90 international investors looking at New Zealand recently found they view our assets as cheap, our IP as valuable and our new government as friendly to their goals.

Simpson Grierson’s Expanding Horizons – Offshore perspectives on investment into New Zealand reveals:

New Zealand assets are cheap because there isn’t a lot of competition for them, the economy is weak and, on the flipside, recouping the cost of the investment is relatively easy from New Zealand consumers.

i.e. They think it’s easy to fleece Kiwi consumers.

David Seymour gets heat for being a neoliberal stooge, but from what I can see – there is no real difference between ACT and National – not at heart. And NZ First seems bonded too.

The power of money.

And a seemingly pandering to overseas foreign money Prime Minister with a lot of cash to invest after he liquidated a couple of mortgage free properties, netting him a windfall of ~$500,000 tax free, thanks to his own legislative changes.

12 comments on “Luxon Promotes Wealthy & Foreign Interests ”

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  1. SPC 1
    30 October 2024 at 9:08 pm

    On this point, this excellent RNZ Checkpoint chat hosted by Lisa Owen with Building Minister Chris Penk reveals that in Auckland:

    • 32% of framing work fail their inspections
    • 35% fail pre-line inspections
    • 29% fail cavity rate inspection
    • 25% fail cladding inspections

    Labour does not mind the concept, but says there is reason for concern, if it is not done prudently.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/532254/labour-cautiously-supports-tradies-signing-off-their-own-work

  2. thinker 2
    30 October 2024 at 9:08 pm

    but we should all remember, it was the UK Tories who took down building regulations (“red tape”) that caused the Greenfell Tower disaster which resulted in 72 deaths and 70 serious injuries in London.

    …I think what we should all remember is that the right-wing (not fair just to blame the Tories in an MMP country) only represent the top 20%.

    The ‘bottom 80%’ aren’t even worthy to gather the crumbs from Luxon-the-evangelists table!

    In order to win an election, they must convince the people between 49% and 80% on the wealth scale that they have their interests at heart, too.

    They managed to do that in 2023.

    It's the left that needs to segment that group into clusters of common concerns and demonstrate that that group are being used as Cannon fodder to meet the needs of the top 20%.

    By default, for example, there'll be a significant number of public servants who voted for change and found themselves out of a job. Many have life partners, parents, siblings who also vote and didn't see themselves as sacrificial goats for the orgy of those who are the CoC's real interest.

    That's a good starting place, but there will be many many more who believed that the grass was greener over the fence, only to find scorched earth.

    Come on, left, start shouting!!

  3. bwaghorn 3
    31 October 2024 at 6:10 am

    And a seemingly pandering to overseas foreign money Prime Minister with a lot of cash to invest after he liquidated a couple of mortgage free properties, netting him a windfall of ~$500,000 tax free, thanks to his own legislative changes.

    One wonder's if these are the actions of a one term prime minister getting his cash out before the next labour government fixs the bright line and or introduces a proper cgt.

  4. Patricia Bremner 4
    31 October 2024 at 8:56 am

    That table of Atlas acolytes!!

    Mountain Tui, Thank you for clearly showing some of their agenda.

    Many will think "Use their money not ours" missing that they will rent and repair a piece of infrastructure for ever, keeping us poor and lining the investor pockets.

    Now COC have made work scarce, people fear losing their jobs and their assets, workers media and public servants all.

    As interest rates go down assets lose value, making a cheap buy for "investors".

    Luxon Willis and Bishop will argue "assets remain here". Yes, like an albatross around the neck, a burden of tolls repairs and replacements. A money tree in plain sight.

    The division fear and anger over race crime benefits distracts from the organised theft. imo

    • Mountain Tui 4.1
      31 October 2024 at 12:44 pm

      You nailed it, Patricia! I wish more people were as astute, and our news media's absence is deafening.

    • thinker 4.2
      31 October 2024 at 1:37 pm

      Foreign investors are only interested in profit maximization.

      Their corporate leaders don't use the hospitals they build, they don't catch the buses and trains they own, or drive on the toll roads they construct.

      For corporate owners, service quality is only a factor when there's the threat of competition and NZ carefully sells them the stuff that are or are nearly monopolies.

      Given that these people know the weasel words to respond to criticism of their actions, I refuse to believe they are just plain stupid.

  5. Tiger Mountain 5
    31 October 2024 at 1:31 pm

    Baldrick and Act, as per SirKey previously, are first and foremost concerned with delivering for international Capital and Finance Capital.

    Flogging off, or allowing penetration of public infrastructure and services by for profit private capital is a transfer of generational peoples wealth to the parasite class. Charter Schools, defunding NGOs, run down of health and public transport are all indications of a privatisation drive.

    In a low wage economy who will be able to afford second tier health insurance, let alone adequate food and housing. Look forward people to increased car jackings, petty crime, random violence, shop lifting, car living and general ill health and stress.

  6. adam 6
    31 October 2024 at 10:05 pm

    Blah blah, no new ideas that work – national…

    Bugger me these guys don't even understand basic economics, or are bare faced liars of the first order.

    As I see class war as a reality, I have to think Liars.

    As no one is that dumb.

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