This week’s Jonolist award goes to….

Written By: - Date published: 8:35 am, September 12th, 2013 - 86 comments
Categories: class war, david cunliffe, democracy under attack, greens, housing, labour, leadership, Metiria Turei, news, tv - Tags: , ,

Patrick Gower, ‘Voters view Cunliffe as negative leader’, report on 3 News last night.

What a shocking piece of manipulative reporting about a dodgy poll, using a dodgy analysis.  It’s called a “3 News Special Poll”, and it seems to have focused on asking questions to suit their preconceived notions about one Labour leadership contender.

The poll looks more like an indicator of how the MSM, especially Gower, has covered Labour leadership issues in the past, and the way it’s reported indicates Gower is, yet again, following the ABC agenda.

He gives no details of the sample size or method of gathering this data. And the most significant result, that should have been the headline, is downgraded to insignificance: most people answered “Don’t know” to the questions Gower leads on.  Gower’s poll results:

He [Cunliffe] won’t be happy with a poll showing he is perceived as having more style than substance.

David Cunliffe – 25.8 percent
Grant Robertson – 13.9 percent
Shane Jones – 13 percent
Don’t know – 47.3 percent

And the pollsters believe he talks down to people.

David Cunliffe – 30.7 percent
Shane Jones – 13.0 percent
Grant Robertson – 7.9 percent
Don’t know – 48.4 percent

He also failed the honesty test, while Shane Jones – perhaps unsurprisingly – was rated most honest.

Shane Jones – 17.3 percent
Grant Robertson – 16.3 percent
David Cunliffe – 8.6 percent
Don’t know – 57.8 percent

It’s those negative traits the Labour MPs who dislike Mr Cunliffe point to. But the problem for his detractors is he comes out on top in leadership traits like understanding the economy by a long way.

David Cunliffe – 22.4 percent
Grant Robertson – 12.4 percent
Shane Jones – 12.1 percent
Don’t know – 53.1 percent

And he is also seen as good in a crisis – another good trait.

David Cunliffe – 21.2 percent
Shane Jones – 16.1 percent
Grant Robertson – 15.1 percent
Don’t know – 47.6 percent

Given that Gower has consistently smeared Cunliffe with ABC lines, since Gower manufactured a Cunliffe (non) coup in his reporting of last year’s Labour Conference (as argued by Trotter), Gower seems to have had it in for Cunliffe.  It was seen in his attempt to undermine Cunliffe’s leadership launch by focusing on irrelevant things like Cunliffe’s painting on the electoral office wall.

The bias in favour of the ABCs is seen with these comments in Gower’s report:

It’s those negative traits the Labour MPs who dislike Mr Cunliffe point to.

It seems to only be the ABC views of Cunliffe that Gower is interested in.  Also from Gower’s report last night, his conclusion:

The “anyone but Cunliffe” club is now in overdrive. There are at least 15 MPs out of 34 who truly can’t stand him. Come the decision on Sunday, that may make life really difficult for them.

So this is the main slant of Gower’s piece.  Ignoring or downgrading all the support Cunliffe gets, and failing to really analyse the significance of the “Don’t knows”.

It’s likely most people have yet to make up their own minds about the leadership candidates, perhaps because they have not seen enough of their political performance to make their own assessment.

How does 3 News allow such shockingly biased pieces of reporting to go out on the main 6pm bulletin?  While also ignoring such things as the well explained turn around from ex-Labour president, Mike Williams, previously a supporter of Team Shearer, now saying he voted Cunliffe.  Wouldn’t it have added more “balance” to Gower’s report to have included such a different view?

David has much to learn, just like Helen Clark and John Key when they assumed the leadership of their parties, but he has demonstrated the ability to do so.

And special Jonolist mention goes to bovver boys Espiner and Garner for apparently haranguing Turei into backtracking on her statement that she would like house prices in NZ to fall.

You are NOT the story

You are NOT the story

Or maybe the award should go to 3 News coverage of it and the way it manufactures a Turei backdown?  I don’t watch The Vote (which turns political coverage into a distortionary circus), but did watch last night’s 3 News coverage of the Turei statements on it.

Turei makes a perfectly reasonable statement that house prices need to fall to enable more affordability for those on low incomes.  Garnerand Espiner do a shock-horror bodily response, then keep haranguing Turei for advocating the lowering of the value of their properties for many home owners.

Well many of those home owners have been benefiting from the escalation of housing prices, while other’s are sleeping in garages, on floors, in cars and on the streets.

For New Zealand to become a fairer and more inclusive society; one that cares for all Kiwis, we need better mainstream journalism, not low quality, manipulative and misleading sensationalist Jonolism.

86 comments on “This week’s Jonolist award goes to…. ”

  1. Colonial Viper 1

    Public broadcasting news operating under the highest standards please. Fuck these vainglorious privateers of horse shit.

  2. Craig GlenEden 2

    Gower sources from within Labour are in the ABC camp thats for sure. Gower always manages to twist some thing to make it reflect badly on Cunliffe.
    Gower has not been a balanced political reporter for a long time but now he has taken it s a step further he just makes shit up on a regular basis in stead of occasionally.

    • Yep, here he is getting spun by the ABCs loud and proud: https://twitter.com/patrickgowernz/status/377644637067816961

      “Sources say Labour’s Anyone But Cunliffe club – ABC – declared/locked in at 15 MPs. 15/34 MPs who can’t stand him, absolutely hate his guts.”

      Silly Gower, haven’t you seen Game of Thrones? When Danaerys Targaryan tells Titan’s bastard she had 10,000 Unsullied, we knew she actually had 8,000. So when Trevor Targaryan tells Gower he has 15 mps, we can infer that he actually has…

      • Colonial Viper 2.1.1

        Gower has essentially just confirmed Grant Robertson’s loss* of the leadership contest. Thank you very much Paddy.

        *do the math. And 15 is probably down 2 from just a 1 week ago. Jones camp seems to think it has captured those 2 but it seems unlikely. The tide is turning folks.

      • QoT 2.1.2

        Trevor is not nearly awesome enough to be a Targaryen. Gower on the other hand is a total Cersei.

  3. mickysavage 3

    Good call Karol. I was thinking of writing on the same topic!

    The use of the stats from the poll is utterly appalling. The sample was all voters, including tories, so I am surprised the negatives were not larger.

    With a tiny bit of counter spin they could be presented in an entirely different way. For instance three in four voters do not think that Cunliffe is more style than substance.

    TV3 have descended into news manufacturing mode.

    And don’t get me started on ABC …

    • Bunji 3.1

      Seems like push-polling to me, which is pretty shameful from a major broadcaster.

      Do you think x is <insert negative quality / trait here – why do they ask that maybe they are..?>

      The questions should be of the type: “what qualities / personality traits do you associated with x?”

      edit: fixed munged comment up…

      • Colonial Viper 3.1.1

        That’s not really the definition of push polling. In push polling the person asking the question drops in specific prejudicial facts designed as part of the process.

        For instance, “given that Shane Jones has used Ministerial funds on hotel room porn, how trustworthy would you find him as the new Labour Leader”. Now that’s push polling.

        Otherwise, biased questioning or poorly constructed questioning is all it is.

        • Bunji 3.1.1.1

          yeah, I suppose…

          Other main point is that Cunliffe ranks higher on everything positive / negative => that’s just because more people know him…
          Such a rubbish poll, tells us nothing. Manufactured news.

          • Colonial Viper 3.1.1.1.1

            Publishing of political polls to be banned for 72 hours before E-Day I say. The NZ Herald article says that a lot of people did not vote in the low turnout 2011 election because they figured that the result was already a fait accompli.

            As it turns out, an extra 60,000-80,000 Labour or Green voters would have fucked Key with a record breaking one term in office.

        • I think the term you’re looking for is “leading question”. 🙂 And when you ask a leading question, it can “push” people’s opinions, in a milder way.

    • ghostwhowalksnz 3.2

      No need to give it more creedence than it has. Which is nothing.

      Its just in the style of Ultimate Fight Club because they think it appeals to a younger demographic.

      The US flagship news programs have an average age of the audience in their 60s.

      They would rather die than let that happen here. But the best thing is the younger audience doesnt care anyway.

      The old style beat up is well and truely alive with Gower. But of course well never see the poll results of an audience rating his credibility

  4. chris73 4

    Polls against National: Good

    Polls against Cunliffe: Bad

    Yet the poll seems to back up the viewpoint of many in the labour caucus (even the positive), you lefties like to suggest the people of NZ are waking up and realising what JK is all about so maybe people have realised sooner what Cunliffes all about…

    • framu 4.1

      not quite chris

      gower making shit up = bad

      end of story

      put aside who gowers talking about for a minute, do you think that the way he goes about his job equatable with honest political reporting?

    • onsos 4.2

      These polls support ‘don’t know’. The rest is noise.

  5. geoff 5

    keep haranguing Turei for advocating the lowering of the value of their properties for many home owners.

    this.
    I think Key & Co will push this angle really hard. How should the left counter this? It’s tricky because, quite plausibly, it is true that the value of houses will come down. That’s the purpose of policies like kiwibuild and a capital gains tax. Of course, the line is that these policies will merely ‘take the heat out of the market’ but that’s just doublespeak for stopping prices where they are or reducing prices.
    Now any prospective party is probably going to avoid announcing that they plan to reduce house prices because they would probably perceive that is political suicide. But if policies like kiwibuild occur then that is what will happen (as it should), and Key will be hounding them all the way to the polls with calls of ‘Labour/Greens destroying your hard earned net worth’ and ‘Vote Green/Labour, say hello to negative equity!’

    Now as far as I can tell, the voting population is fairly evenly split between those who own or part own a house and those who rent. The half that do will be susceptible to National spin on this topic because it’s their ‘back pocket’. The half that don’t own should, theoretically, be all for the policy because it would mean the real possibility of either getting into a home or lowering their rent. All this means, to my mind, a very close election.

    So do Greens/Labour just try to downplay the potential effects of their policies on house prices and have National continually sniping at their soft spots, claiming this as evidence of the left’s financial recklessness OR do they take a stand and make it a moral issue?

    • chris73 5.1

      I don’t want to comment too much on this as I’m a homeowner myself so I’m biased to begin with but I’d suggest the labour and greens brain trust work together to come up with something because this could quite easily become the hot button issue of the election campaign

      • Pasupial 5.1.1

        Chris73

        If “The Vote’s” vote is at all representative (though it’s not, except maybe coincidentally) then Yay! 72% favoured the Labour/ Green/ NZ 1st argument vs 28% for NACT/ United. Let’s make it the “hot button issue of the election campaign”.

        You are indeed “biased to begin with”, but that’s got nothing to do with you being a home-owner; I too am a home-owner and we couldn’t agree less.

        • geoff 5.1.1.1

          Really? That is somewhat hopeful. I watched a tiny bit which had the nematode Peter Dunne yelling and I quickly switched channels.

      • felix 5.1.2

        Where were you last week when your mates were all saying the paper value of an asset is irrelevant?

        • chris73 5.1.2.1

          Beats me but I tend to follow W. Buffets views more, one of the reasons why i bought mrp shares

      • geoff 5.1.3

        I think you’re out of touch on this issue. Greens/Labour didn’t manufacture this issue, this is something that has been festering away for ~15 years and now it is coming to a head.

    • Greywarbler 5.2

      Good analysis. Years ago National was putting state housing up to market level and there was financial difficulty and people were being forced not just to shift to new suburbs but to shift to new towns to smaller places to lose a bedroom and so reduce rental. I took an interest in this process and was dismayed how little concern there was about people having a decent affordable place to live amongst either the pollies or the population generally.

      Residential property owners certainly won’t want to take a cut in equity, and negative equity would be a nasty shock. For years authors have been making a nice quid from advice on how to game the housing market. Glossy mags have had photos and items about clever Josephine Jammy, only 23, and owns 5 houses – her secrets to success.

      Good, well designed, practical state houses or apartments , with different resident security options, renting, renting to buy, full circle sale (requiring to be sold back to the state on vacating, with a set return on investment to the previous owner), would ease the market slowly. Cut the private johnnies down in importance and monopoly of housing development. And don’t let them sit on empty land that is in suitable areas for housing development, ie close to rail, bus routes, amenities,
      job locations.

      • geoff 5.2.1

        I agree that this is something that would have to occur slowly if backlash is to be avoided.

        However, if interest rates increase significantly then the house of cards will come tumbling down very rapidly.

        This housing bubble is the country’s elephant in the room because nobody wants to publicly talk about what a gigantic sham it is and how incredibly difficult it is going to be to extricate ourselves from it.

        • red rattler 5.2.1.1

          Dunne and Banks were full of shit.
          The only property crash in recent years was caused by neo-liberal market collapses. ’87 and ’08 in particular.
          Policy changes won’t collapse equity, it should be designed to reduce the overvalued housing bubble and restore the real value of housing.
          A decent CGT and massive state rental housing build will do that.
          NZ economy is handicapped by focus on rent rackets in land and in building materials.
          Why should workers have to pay 5 yrs wages for a house and be hostages to Aussie banks for ever?
          Only in the profiteers paradise.

          • phillip ure 5.2.1.1.1

            “..Why should workers have to pay 5 yrs wages for a house and be hostages to Aussie banks for ever?..”

            ..shame we don’t have the system they had in libya before the kleptocrats/obomber struck..

            ..cheap/subsidised housing for all..

            ..a govt grant of fifty grand us for each new married couple..(to help get them started..

            …free education for all to post-graduate level..

            ..most secular arab state..

            ..(this is what so many ‘leftists’ in nz supported america destroying..funny that..!..eh.?..that kink in the continuum when leftist nz’ers wholsale swallowed/parroted the cia-line..

            ..it was quite the surreal-moment..that ‘gadaffi is this months’ ‘baddy’-moment..)

            ..and the most loathsome thing the coiffed-one said on that vote-show..

            ..was when he was asked if he was sure there would still be resthomes when he needed one..

            ..the smugness burst out of him..like an over-ripe carbunkle..

            ..as he sneered:..’i won’t need one’…(translation:..’haven’t you seen that superannuation-scheme me and the other troughers voted in for ourselves..?..whoar..!..then there are the rewards to come my way for my years of work in support of the booze/ciggy-pushers..eh..?

            ..i’ll be sweet riding’..)

            ..that was when my metaphorical-brick went thru the telly-screen..

            ..and the funniest moment was vassal to the oppressors..lotu-liga…getting totally fucken monstered..

            ..he was so far out of his depth waterwings would have been essential..

            ..and what monstered him..?

            ..the question:’what has yr govt done in the last five years to help firsthome-owners..?

            ..his mouth opened and closed like a guppy on land..

            ..and the final ‘vote’ in that show..?

            ..72% against the govt…28% for the govt…

            ..(that result should have them packing their pants down at natty-hq..)

            ..phillip ure..

            • karol 5.2.1.1.1.1

              And Campbell Live took lotu-liga to task over his Vote claim that there are 1100+ houses for sale under $500,000. Campbell Live could only find about 500.

      • s y d 5.2.2

        Josephine Jammy (great name), only 23!, is merely a sharemilker of the poor, extracting wages, accomodation supplements and WFF payments, taking her cut and passing the rest on to the mortgage holders of ‘her’ 5 houses.

        Sadly we are all being milked. Free “money” anyone?

    • just saying 5.3

      I have a small mortgage and a home, and I don’t care if its selling price (and therefore the value of my only asset) decreases. It doesn’t affect me because I bought the house to live in. If I need to move somewhere else, prices will be proportionally cheaper.

      Those who have recently bought, with big mortgages, may go into negative equity, which is pretty shitty for them, at least in theory. But most of those will be in that position because of their good fortune and will work their way out, and they still get to live in their homes, and can still trade it for something similar, and the interest rates will be whatever would have been anyway. Capitalists should appreciate that all investment involves risk.

      I know a couple of families who’ve been living in negative equity for decades, who will struggle to ever get into positive equity. It wasn’t so long ago that banks were falling over themselves to encourage people to take on often unmanageable debt to fund a lifestyle they couldn’t afford. Yet their was none of the panic-mongering over what they were doing to “hard working Mums and Dads”, no moral approbation, despite the fact that the banks were acting out of venal self-interest, whereas the left is acting in the interests of the community as a whole.

      There will be some already disadvantaged people hurt. I hope they will be given the help they need to keep a warm, dry roof over their heads. Mana’s housing policies would certainly be of help to them.

      edit: on second thoughts people with negative equity are probably be stuck living where they are until they are in credit again.

      • Greywarbler 5.3.1

        ‘Banks acting in venal self interest’. They almost flayed their financial staff with whips with a barbed wire tip to ‘encourage’ them to achieve ‘sales’ targets. Don’t know what their current practice is but that approach is likely to be their default response to market opportunity.

      • geoff 5.3.2

        It wasn’t so long ago that banks were falling over themselves to encourage people to take on often unmanageable debt to fund a lifestyle they couldn’t afford.

        I thought I read/heard somewhere that, even as recently as a few months ago, banks were giving some people 0% equity loans in Auckland on the basis of rising property prices. That is exactly the kind of madness that caused the GFC.

    • Salsy 5.4

      The points about locking out a generation of homeowners seem to really resonate with New Zealanders. However the right have as you say latched on this as a ‘crisis for current home owners – regulation means losing equity’.

      I cant help thinking Turei should have been better equipped – words like ‘Stabilising’ house prices are far less inflammatory than ‘Falling’ and ‘Dropping’. They need a careful language for this policy and a carefully consdered rebuttle.

      Also, I cant help seeing the Auckland housing market starting to look a lot like the NZ$. No wonder Key’s mates are all for letting the gamble go on.

    • Rodel 6.1

      OMG That is the best. I have been puzzled for weeks and you have caused an epiphany.
      Thanks. It’s soooo apt and yes my son (or daughter) I forgive you.
      A photo should be flashed subliminally every time its mouth opens on TV3. Haaaaaaaaaaa

  6. Sable 7

    The mainstream media in NZ are the informational equivalent of McDonalds. I don’t even know why we are even discussing them anymore.

  7. David H 8

    I wonder if you can get booted off of Twitter for Calling Gower a Dodgy Jonolist? Oh well no great loss.

  8. Dean Reynolds 9

    Gower works for the National Party

  9. Steve 10

    Spot on Karol. Gower’s pathetic little smear/poll last night was just a new low in his series of anti-Cunliffe beat-ups.

    The sad thing is that he almost certainly considers he is being “oh so clever” with his manufactured little stories.

    Maybe he should credit the audience with a bit more intelligence and be a journalist for a change. Probably too hard for him though and not nearly as much fun.

  10. bad12 11

    Anyone thinking that the Labour/Green housing policies which put first home buyers into affordable homes will radically alter the existing market in places like Auckland is suffering delusions,

    There will still be a very large demographic in that Auckland market who will want to continue their upwardly mobile journey up the ‘property ladder’, so while injecting 1000,s of Kiwibuild properties into the likes of Auckland will slow the market on the demand side the only means of such a ‘build’ radically altering Auckland property prices would be if a large number of these houses were to enter the Auckland property market a the same time,

    The facts are that Labour/Greens affordable housing plans will see the houses built and sold to first time home buyer ‘outside’ of the market which i would imagine will be by application and via a ballot process,

    My advice to Labour and the Greens is that they should specify at the start of the sale process that Houses built and sold under the Governments programs must be offered back to the Government at a fair value based upon the original sale price if the first home buyer wishes to sell within 10 years of original purchase…

  11. Pasupial 12

    I tried to watch “The Vote” online last night, but stopped shortly after Espiner’s (supposedly questioning on behalf of the opposition team); “let’s bring some sanity back with Mr Banks” [at 26:52]. Never before (and hopefully never again) has that particular combination of words been uttered.

    The Turei edit-with-a-hatchet job on the 6pm “news” was under the byline of Brook Sabin, and bears only the vaguest resemblance to the debate itself. Where I thought it was quite clear that she wanted to increase affordability for NZ citizen home buyers. What I found annoying is how she allowed herself to badgered on a later interview to make a retraction of her earlier statement. Though I fully believe that the “U-turn” was as created in the editing booth as the original controversy.

    I guess I’d better get back and finish watching “The Vote”… I’ll just remove from the room; any sharp implements that can be shoved into the ears, first though. Suggest that anyone else who chooses to wallow in that crap does the same.

    • Mike S 12.1

      “let’s bring some sanity back with Mr Banks”

      Don’t you recognise a bit of sarcasm when you hear it? He was playing to the audience, inferring Mr Banks opinion won’t be a sane one.

      The good thing about the vote last night was the overwhelming support for the opposition at around 75%, this was in Epsom too!

      • Pasupial 12.1.1

        I took it more in an ironic; after that Dunne-rant even Banks will seem sane in comparison, kind of way… It is still an abomination of a sentence to me though, which I hope never to hear again used about John Banks.

  12. Bill 13

    Gee – and there was me thinking it was unsustainable speculative bubbles that caused house prices to crash. Silly me. Also silly, I guess, to suggest people just buy houses to live in the fcking things!?

    CGT and a state house build will only slow the rise in house prices temporarily. The speculative property bubble will be expanded because banks are given free reign to loan to prospective homeowners who can be foreclosed on rather than to small businesses.

    Last silly suggestion – nationalise the banks or regulate the fck out of them so that they operate in ways other than solely to their own money grabbing advantage…ie, to ensure a component of social or other good is factored into their loans.

  13. ianmac 14

    A good response to the “so you want house prices to fall?” would be:
    “So you want house prices to keep on rising and rising out of reach?”
    The Right seem to be working hard to force house prices upwards. Why are they not challenged on this?

    • Colonial Viper 14.1

      It’s not just the Right. Plenty of rental property owning social liberals would quite like house prices to keep rising too.

      • Mike S 14.1.1

        Let’s face it, no house owner wants the price of their asset to fall. That is part of the problem in that a large number of voters are still house owners so love the fact that they get wealthier week by week.. That percentage is falling, however and will eventually, in a couple of generations, get to the stage where the government is forced into addressing the issue comprehensively, which neither Labour or National are currently proposing to do. Although at least Labour is advocating policies which lead us in the right direction.

  14. Bill 15

    On the other thrust of the post; journalists have been inculcated with the values of power. And those values tend to be inimical to our better interests. From what David Cunliffe has said, his values are inimical to the elite’s values and interests…and therefore by default, also inimical to the adopted values of most employees within the ‘news’ industry. So expect an onslaught.

    Thing is, there is no point just ‘slagging them off’. They have to be robustly countered and their opinions sidelined and replaced in the social conscience. And the only way I can see that happening is if the general populace adopts aspects of any new Labour vision as their own… and so reacts against the bullshit spins in such a way that the resolve to demand a break from the ‘acceptability’ of being viewed as competing and atomised individuals deepens and broadens and even gains steam the more the negative spin is spun.

    Such things happen from time to time – usually when one political party’s negative campaigning backfires. This time it is going to be much more than just a single party’s negative campaigning though but, somewhat ironically, that could provide the fuel to much further down a path that embraces decent human values. All the push back needs is a spark…an articulation of a vision that resonates at a deep enough level to provide an intrinsic reformation of apparent default positions/beliefs.

    At least, I think that’s how new momentums begin and old habits get discarded.

  15. emergency mike 16

    Funny, I didn’t see the question:

    “Which candidate is most likely to have a full-blown porn addiction?”

    How about:

    “Who is an arse-scratcher?” or “Which one is too fat?” or “Which one would you let date your daughter/son?” That way we could learn some fun stuff about voter perceptions aye Paddy? Unless 50% say “Don’t know”, then your poll’s pretty lame.

  16. Saarbo 17

    Gower’s obsession with attacking Cunliffe is starting to move into really weird territory, Gower needs to get out of his bubble for a few months and sort himself out.

    and really impressed with Metiria Turei last night, having the courage to state the obvious, that the only way house prices are going to be made affordable is for house prices to fall. I know this is an incredibly complex issue, but one of the solutions is for a slow reduction in the cost of houses over the next approx 10 to 20 years. The cost of housing in NZ is the heart of our poverty problem, as house rental cost is a function of house cost. Renting a house is the largest cost for families. A CGT is a good start, but it is only that, a start.

    • Bunji 17.1

      Lower house prices aren’t just good for people who aren’t in houses, they’re also good for people in starter homes who’ll be buying a bigger house.

      And, except for those dying and no longer needing a house (who have bigger problems to worry about), slowly decreasing house prices only really affects housing investors. Those who just own their own home… well they still need somewhere to live. If they want to change houses, the fact that their house will sell for less is balanced by the fact that the house that they want to buy will be cheaper.

      Of course getting people to accept that their net worth is a smaller number, but just as useful can be hard…

      • Saarbo 17.1.1

        Oh hell yes, its going to be a hard thing to sell…many boomers have become mini donald trumps, just enjoying their ‘passive income’, they wont accept it easily. But I would imagine that very few are Labour voters these days…

      • Greywarbler 17.1.2

        Ooh I can remember… when we sold our summerhill stone 3 bedroom house for $10,000 in the 1960’s. Milk was once 4c a pint, and the milk used to be ladled out into billies. Those were the days. I think a basic wage for a semi skilled person was about $1,000. Today it’s about $35,000 and can one buy a nice single 3 b/rm house in brick/summerhill on a fifth of acre for $350,000 in a city?

    • Mike S 17.2

      A true public bank (not Kiwibank) with 0% interest mortgages for first home buyers would go a long way to helping resolve the issue without necessarily lowering the value of a home owners asset.

  17. chris73 18

    “Which candidate is most likely to have a full-blown porn addiction?”

    – Put that question out to all the parties…

  18. karen 19

    Hopefully someone has put in an official complaint about Gower as TV3 seem to be clearly in breach of Broadcast Standards. I’d do it myself but a bit stretched this week.

  19. Ad 20

    Stop kvetching.

    Don’t expect any Labour leader to get a ‘honeymoon’. Capital is on the attack from inception – that’s permanent reality.

    We should hold Labour to account to engage and charm the media far better. Whoever the Leader is.

    • Colonial Viper 20.1

      Yep. It doesn’t matter whether Robertson or Cunliffe wins, the media is going to be smashing at both the moment the result is announced.

    • Greywarbler 20.2

      That’s a good word, kvetch. It goes alongside chutzpah for the start of my Yiddish list.

    • karol 20.3

      The MSM reporting has gone down hill in recent decades. Should we just put up with it without criticism?

  20. bad12 21

    My view on the Jonolism of Gower and Garner??? Labour should repay such biased bulls**t in kind, TV3 has for the past 5 years ran under the auspices of Gower and Garner with Espiner singing along like one of the choir-boys an overt anti-Labour campaign,

    The incoming Labour/Green Government should reward this Jonolism by ensuring that TV3 get not a cent more of Government funding full stop,

    Who care if the pus filled organ of the elite that that Television network has chosen to become implodes financially into it’s own pile of bulls**t,

    Labour/Greens can then use the monies saved to set up a real public broadcasting channel…

    • Colonial Viper 21.1

      The incoming Labour/Green Government should reward this Jonolism by ensuring that TV3 get not a cent more of Government funding full stop,

      the right sentiment, but that’s not the way to do it.

      • bad12 21.1.1

        And the why of why that’s not the right way to do it???…

        • Colonial Viper 21.1.1.1

          Access to decision makers is one factor of several, for instance.

          • bad12 21.1.1.1.1

            Access to decision makers CV, and you think that once the Government, Labour will suddenly be treated with any respect by Gower, Garner and Espiner???,

            Admittedly those 3 are simply the monkeys dancing to the Organ Grinder;s tune whomever that organ grinder happens to be at the moment, the banks holding TV3’s growing pile of bad debt being my pick,

            i would suggest to you that those 3 clowns will spend even more of their time ‘making s**t up’ once there is a Labour/Green Government,

            Of course the way you have written your comment could lead someone to think you are referring to TV3 as the ‘decision makers’…

  21. karol 22

    Groan.

    3 news have another poll on the Labour Leadership coming up tonight – promoting Jones?

    • karol 22.1

      Ah, well no – just irrelevances. Jones is not considered by many to be rehabilitated. Of the 3 Contenders, Jones is most favoured to host a barbie – count me out.

      Actually – Cunliffe gave the most engaging response to the barbie question/result.

  22. feijoa 23

    Back to housing, sorry, – It’s interesting the way the Nats call a house an asset. I don’t think of my house as an asset- it’s a home that I live in ffs

    One of my concerns is about whether my children will be able to afford a house, not about the value of my own house going down a few thou

    • karol 23.1

      And on housing, Wayne Hope on Citizen A tonight, floating the idea of council housing, not just state housing.

  23. karol 24

    Poem, your links got to Standard posts, not 3 News website.

  24. Poem 25

    yes, just removed the comment to redo the links.

  25. Poem 26

    I have been banned from posting on the TV3 website after calling Garner, Espinor, Gower, Rachel Smalley and the rest of the TV3’s so called “reporters” liars and bullshitters and a discredit to the profession. Also laid a complaint as well.
    Easy to get around it though, I made up another email address today and posted 3 more comments. Unfortunately there’s a glitch and cant do any links.

    Another great article Karol. I stopped watching the vote as well, after Garner and Espinor shamefully and disgustingly made POVERTY a cheap scoring game show. Get info from other sources now.

  26. Venezia 27

    I could not believe that TV3 could allow Gower to air such tripe as news that night. He is a disgraceful, sad example of what Journalism has been reduced to in this country.

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