At last - a final solution

There was a degree of irony when on about the same day that an inebriated Invercargill man made some despicable racist comments to a Pakistani taxi-driver the embattled leader of the Labour Party, David Shearer, announced his party’s housing policy which precluded anyone who wasn’t either a New Zealander or an Australian from buying a home in “Godzone.”

Although ethnic groups were not spelt out specifically, it was pretty clear that the Invercargill taxi driver had better already own his own home or face renting a property for life. There was a hint of the much maligned Don Brash Orewa speech in the xenophobic policy and it will have resonated well with those people who are convinced that wealthy Asians are pushing up house prices to an extent that local first home buyers are being squeezed out of the market.

There is no doubt that television images of house auctions in Auckland seem to exhibit a predominance of Asian people in the audience, but statistics show that their actual home ownership figures are not nearly as bad as they look. Tony Alexander, chief economist of the BNZ concluded that only 4 per cent of properties sold in New Zealand are bought by foreigners who have no intention of living here.

The real problem for first home buyers is that since the 2008 recession evolved the number of new homes being built has dropped dramatically and the issue is the shortage of housing stock rather than one ethnic group raising the barrier.

Blogger Cameron Slater, in a mischievous effort to expose what he calls the ‘sinister nature’ of the Labour Party policy, published Shearer’s press release and substituted the words “overseas speculators”, “non-resident”, “international speculators”’ with the words “Jew” or “Jewish.”

Here’s how it subsequently read:

Labour to restrict Jewish purchase of homes

Labour will restrict the ability of Jews to purchase New Zealand houses, as part of its comprehensive package of policies to help New Zealanders get into their first home.

“I will restore the Kiwi dream of home ownership that has slipped out of reach for tens of thousands of Kiwis. I don’t want to see our kids become a generation of renters,” says Labour leader David Shearer.

“House prices in Auckland have risen by 28 per cent since June 2009. The problem is clear – there are not enough affordable homes. And Jews are adding to the problem. That’s why the next Labour government will introduce restrictions so that Jews will not be allowed to buy any existing house, flat or apartment. Many other countries including Australia, China, Singapore, the UK and Switzerland target Jews investing in housing. New Zealand’s lack of regulation leaves the door wide open for Jew speculators.

“IRD records show that more than 11,000 Jews own property here that they don’t live in. An estimated 2600 were bought last year by Jewish speculators that had no intention of living here. That’s a big chunk, given that just 4700 new homes were built in Auckland last year.

“The policy will reduce demand and help take some of the heat out of the market. It will put Kiwi buyers at the front of the queue.
 
“By itself this is not a silver bullet for housing affordability – but it is part of the solution.

“It sits alongside Labour’s KiwiBuild policy to build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 years for first time buyers, and our plan to tax property speculation. Together these policies will increase the supply of entry-level housing and reduce Jew-driven demand.
 
“Labours comprehensive housing affordability plan will mean first home buyers will get a fair crack at getting into the housing market,” says David Shearer.

An extreme interpretation perhaps, but you can see that in an only slightly abbreviated form, the policy tends to look insidious.

Invercargill man Greg Shuttleworth’s drunken rant will have exposed a view that sits not too far below the surface of an indeterminable number of New Zealander’s who will feel threatened by non-European immigrants.

It should give us an understanding of how Maori will have felt 150 years ago when the Europeans arrived and forced them to adopt their way of life. The indigenous people are still anxious about the cultural differences and to some extent tensions still bubble below the surface on both sides.

But it seems both Maori and Pakeha are united against the perceived threat of the Asian invasion and David Shearer unashamedly seizes the opportunity to tap into those fears.

Often used by Winston Peters, it is arguably the most despicable form of political posturing.

“Purity of race does not exist. Europe is a continent of energetic mongrels” - H. A. L. Fisher