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Re:New Zealand to ban foreigners from buying existing houses by duncan_bayne on Thursday October 26, 2017 @05:36PM (#15563261)
This is the result of negotiations between a party called New Zealand First, led by notorious xenophobe[1] Winston Peters, and a socialist PM who has described capitalism as a "blatant failure"[2].

In fact, Peters has already confidently predicted an economic crisis post-election, and begun distancing himself from it[3].

My current bet is on the coalition collapsing, with new elections held in October 2018. A few of my NZ friends and family are placing similar bets; closest guess wins.

I'm glad I left for Australia in 2007.

[1] http://thewireless.co.nz/articles/winston-why-are-you-like-t...

[2] http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/jacinda-ardern-ca...

[3] https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/98061685/Winston...

Re:New Zealand to ban foreigners from buying existing houses by AdeptusAquinas on Thursday October 26, 2017 @06:10PM (#15563612)
The full quote from the 'socialist PM' was 'If you have hundreds of thousands of children living in homes without enough to survive, that's a blatant failure', which is accurate; the reason why we have government regulations is to address market failures.
Re:New Zealand to ban foreigners from buying existing houses by dzhiurgis on Thursday October 26, 2017 @07:33PM (#15564211)
> hundreds of thousands of children

I don't think there is that many children in NZ. Let alone living in poverty.

Re:New Zealand to ban foreigners from buying existing houses by AdeptusAquinas on Thursday October 26, 2017 @08:11PM (#15564448)
Roughly 20%, so around 950k of NZ's pop are under the age of 15.

Of those it is estimated 20% live in poverty, so roughly 180k.

These numbers are not hard to find.

Re:New Zealand to ban foreigners from buying existing houses by FridgeSeal on Thursday October 26, 2017 @07:30PM (#15564193)
The Australian is hands down one of the poorest quality news sources in Australia: It is pretty much the direct mouthpiece of Rupert Murdoch and is notorious for being grossly inaccurate and terribly biased.

It's getting increasingly hard to deny that we are starting to see the cracks in capitalism, so I don't think it's wrong of him to say that.

Re:New Zealand to ban foreigners from buying existing houses by Nition on Thursday October 26, 2017 @07:20PM (#15564123)
This is not a NZ First policy, it's been listed as a major policy on the Labour Party website since before the election.[1]

[1] http://www.labour.org.nz/housing

Re:New Zealand to ban foreigners from buying existing houses by patrick-dd on Thursday October 26, 2017 @05:38PM (#15563281)
Welp, Australia's coalition may collapse on Friday too!
Re:New Zealand to ban foreigners from buying existing houses by duncan_bayne on Thursday October 26, 2017 @05:54PM (#15563427)
Huh. Funnily enough I don't follow Australian politics; I checked out of politics almost entirely after leaving NZ (where I was quite involved with the LibertariaNZ).

Been doing a bit of reading about the last election in NZ, though, as you can probably tell :)

It should be an entertaining coalition collapse. Apparently they have a 31-MP executive!??!?!

https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2017/10/strengths_and_weaknesses_...

Re:New Zealand to ban foreigners from buying existing houses by elyobo on Thursday October 26, 2017 @06:38PM (#15563848)
To be fair, it was likely doomed whichever way Winnie went, because both outcomes would have still had Winnie in there.
Re:New Zealand to ban foreigners from buying existing houses by FridgeSeal on Thursday October 26, 2017 @07:41PM (#15564256)
I have my fingers crossed that it does. At the very least there'll be some good popcorn from the drama.
Re:New Zealand to ban foreigners from buying existing houses by elyobo on Thursday October 26, 2017 @06:37PM (#15563842)
Got my popcorn ready for 2.15PM AEDT.