This morning, Green co-leader Metiria Turei said what everyone knows is true: that house prices need to drop if we want to avoid a catastrophic crash and/or a fundamental change away from being a home-owning society. Somewhat predictably, Labour has denounced this as "irresponsible". Pretty obviously, its not - its what we need to do. So why are they doing this?
Simple: like National, Labour is in thrall to the landed Boomer vote, and they don't want to piss off these entitled arseholes before the election. So, they'd rather have a house price crash than tell people that prices can't go on rising forever.
But its worse than that, because while seemingly advocating for an eternal bubble and calling any mention of it having to end "irresponsible", Labour is pursuing exactly the same policies the Greens are to deflate it. Capital gains taxes. A mass affordable home building program. Eliminating tax breaks for landlords. This is exactly what the Greens want to do. Its just that, unlike the Greens, Labour doesn't want to be open about their policy goal.
That's not just irresponsible, it is actively deceitful. And that is simply not acceptable from a political party.