Mike's Minute: Some political operators want to undermine your future

Perhaps the Labour Party's small target election year strategy has started to unravel as one of their MPs, Helen White, told us all of her desire for house prices to fall.

She wants them to come down.

They have already come down of course, through a series of events that included her last Government's approach to the economy.

The booming inflation they created, the bulging debt from all the spending and the general fiscal waste that saw interest rates spike, the country failing to collect the migrant numbers it had previously had, as well as the cost of building skyrocketing. As a result, the property market has broadly gone backwards for what many suggest now is a historic period of time.

So she should be happy.

Which is the problem with economic illiterates like her.

The Labour Party of course don’t see things the way she does for obvious reasons. Two-thirds of New Zealanders own homes and many see them as a nest egg for retirement.

Watching prices fall undermines our futures.

Helen made herself a headline because she was asked about the Opportunity Party, the leader of which is standing in her Mt Albert electorate.

They too want to wreck the property market with the land tax. Helen didn’t know much about that, all she knew was she wanted prices to fall.

Sadly, this is the sort of trouble Chris Hipkins is going to have to start to mop up.

Once you get into election mode a lot of random questions get asked of previously unheard-of MPs, some of whom manage to almost immediately display the attributes the party had been hoping could stay hidden, at least until election day.

Helen is already infamous given Mt Albert is deep Labour territory, and she almost lost it in 2023. So, her start to 2026 doesn’t bode well.

But the overarching message here is the bedrock of many New Zealanders savings strategies is under fire from increasing numbers of political operators.

They want your retirement blown sky high with a property crash. 

I'm backing that approach not to be overly popular.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Perhaps the Labour Party's small target election year strategy has
started to unravel. As one of their MPs, can I
introduce to you? Helen White told us of her desire
for house prices to fall. She wants them to come
down even further. They've already come down, of course, through
a series of events that include, in fact, her last
government's approach to the economy, the booming inflation they created,

(00:21):
the bulging debt from all that spending, the general fiscal
waste that saw interest rates spike, the country failed to
collect the margrant numbers that had previously had, as well
as the cost of building skyrocket all over the place.
As a result, the property market has broadly gone backwards
for what many suggest now is an historic period of time.
So she should be happy, which is the problem with
economic illiterates like her. The Labor Party her own party,

(00:44):
of course, don't see things the way she does for
obvious reasons. And the obvious reason would be that two
thirds of New Zealanders own homes and many see them
as a nest egg for their retirement. Watching prices fall
undermines our futures. Helen made herself a headline because she
was asked about the Opportunity Party, the leader of which
is standing in her Mount Albert electorate. They too want

(01:05):
to wrect the property market with a landtax. Helen didn't
know much about any of that. All she knew was
she wants prices to fall. This, sadly is the sort
of trouble Chris Sipkins is going to have to start
to mop up. See, once you get to the election mode,
a lot of random questions get asked to previously unheard
of MPs, some of whom managed to almost immediately display
the attributes the party had long been hoping could stay

(01:27):
hidden until at least election day. Helen's already infamous given
Mount Elbert as deep labor, deep labor territory, she almost
lost it in twenty twenty three, so her start to
twenty twenty six dot bode particularly well. But the overarching
message here is the bedrock of many New Zealander's saving
strategies is under fire from increasing numbers of political operators.
They want your retirement basically blown sky high with a

(01:50):
property crash. I'm backing that approach not to be overly popular.
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