Tuesday, 10 September 2013

11 September 2013

The cat is out of the bag.

Let the Greens anywhere near government, and the value of your house – your biggest single investment – will be reduced by deliberate government action.

The message to hundreds of thousands of mortgaged couples and families is stark. The Greens want to bring down the value of your investment, and decry your efforts to pay off your mortgage, and build up a nest egg.

And the fact they are now running a mile from the policy shows even they realise what a slap in the face it is to hard working middle New Zealand.

But it is too late. They are already proposing to bring in more taxes – including a capital gains tax – and to tilt the playing field further against the people who work the hardest and get the least in return. With Labour likely to lurch leftward under whoever its new leader will be, middle New Zealand will not be able to look in that direction for relief.

It is all a good reminder of the fact that unlike politicians the vast of majority of New Zealanders do not live an ideology. While politicians may pride themselves on being left or right, most people do not live in such a straightjacket. Their views are tailored by their circumstances, and they look to politicians who reflect their values.

So the Labour leadership procession of increasingly quirky promises (regulating supermarkets and rent controls just for Christchurch come to mind) strikes no chord, nor offers much hope.

The Greens attacking the values of the people that make the country tick, and Labour bouncing aimlessly from one bright idea to the next do not connect with the aspirations of the mainstream of our country that just wants to get on with things, without the government getting too much in their way.

For them, their priorities are their families, their work, their home, their children’s future, their security, and the hope they will be able to live a comfortably.

Attacking those foundations as the Greens have done this week puts them very much on edge.

Middle New Zealand does not want politicians who shatter their version of the Kiwi dream.

ENDS

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