Labour have sputtered out a few new commitments, if you still believe they’re capable of committing to anything.
After National came out and announced their intention to break up the supermarket duopoly, Labour has jumped on the Nats’ coattails – after the Nats jumped on the coattails of economists who had been recommending it for yonks.
More strikingly, though, is that Labour have announced that, if elected, they wouldn’t be reimplementing their 2021 restrictions on interest deductibility from residential investment properties.
Wheeled out under the Ardern Labour government, the policy was intended to limit property speculation by making it appear less financially tasty than other investments and would ideally make the housing market fairer for first home buyers. Now, I only just found out recently that during 2021 there was this thing called Covid going around the world just totally wrecking shit, including the economy, so the policy didn’t really do shit to fix house costs and landlords ended up jacking up house costs.
National Party campaign chair Simeon Brown called it “Rank Hypocrisy,” and other coalition MPs have stated it exposes an 18 billion dollar hole in Labour’s budget plans.
Labour party leader Chris Hipkins has defended the party’s position, stating in an interview with Ryan Bridge that they aren’t giving ‘tax cuts to landlords’, as landlords would be the ones “paying the lion’s share.”
Property Investors have lauded this decision as more stable, but if I was Hipkins I wouldn’t be holding my breath to see if they vote red come November.
