The BFD | Luxon’s First Week

So we now have a new Prime Minster-in-waiting. I am sorry for what happened to Judith Collins, but here we are… and personally, I have not felt this hopeful for 4 years.

I was one of those people who thought that Jacinda would be the first one-term prime minister for a long time, pathetic and out of her depth as she is. So she would have been, had COVID not hit and if National had not imploded so spectacularly that they made Krakatoa look like a fireworks display during heavy West Coast rainfall. That is how bad it was last year but we all know that parties that have been in government for a long time need to ‘refresh’… which is a nice way of saying they need to get rid of the dead wood and let the younger members push through to the front.

Unfortunately, for National, they have had to go through this twice – once when Bill English stood down and was followed out of the door by Steven Joyce and Jonathan Coleman and again when Todd Muller took over. Andrew Falloon was caught sending lewd pictures to teenagers and then Todd Muller stood down, resulting in a second exit of MPs. No matter. I have thought for a long time that National still has a lot of talent in its ranks and, hopefully, Christopher Luxon will harness that talent into a formidable team of ministers-in-waiting.

Luxon himself has started very well. Relentlessly positive, he sticks to his message – all that infighting is behind them and now the team is looking forward, ready to take over the reins of government. He speaks well and does not allow the media to take him down rabbit holes about his Christian faith or his obvious success. Unintentionally, the hostile media is doing a great job of helping Luxon get his message across. Anyone worried about him being a radical Christian now knows that he hasn’t been to church for five years. Doesn’t sound very radical, does he?

And when asked about his wealth, Luxon’s answer was simple. “You can attack me for being successful,” he said. “I can’t defend that.”

Wasn’t New Zealand once a country of aspiration? And aren’t we better off with politicians who have been successful in the real world before entering politics? The media is now introducing Luxon as ‘the former CEO of Air New Zealand’, but I’ve never heard them introduce Jacinda Ardern as ‘the former fish and chip shop worker from Morrinsville’. Again, inadvertently, the media helps Luxon get his message across. He is highly successful and has now decided, rather than to seek out another role paying millions of dollars a year, to go into public service, where the pay is considerably lower. Again, that says a lot about the person that he is. He doesn’t need politics to make him wealthy, unlike Jacinda Ardern and most of Labour’s politicians. Until she became prime minister, Jacinda could not afford to buy a house. Luxon owns seven properties, mostly owned before he entered politics.

John Key, Donald Trump and Christopher Luxon all went into politics for the right reasons, not for the money. All three have been pilloried for their wealth. But most New Zealanders are not guilty of the tall poppy syndrome. Most Kiwis want to get ahead in life too.

Needless to say, the media are attacking Luxon. It was always going to happen, and I just hope that he knew his honeymoon period with them would be very short.

Luxon’s latest pecuniary interests register, in which MPs declare their financial interests to Parliament, declared Luxon’s Auckland home and a bach, as well as an apartment in Wellington, and four investment properties.

Luxon is given an taxpayer-funded accommodation allowance to rent when in Wellington.

Just like all MPs.

Most MPs use it to rent flats or hotels, but some MPs buy accommodation in Wellington and use the allowance to effectively rent flats to themselves.

Luxon also owns his electorate office in Botany. Electorate MPs receive an allowance from Parliament to rent an office in their electorate.

Luxon recently bought a building in his Botany electorate, which he now rents to Parliament for use as his office. Former prime minister John Key had a similar arrangement in his Helensville seat. While not common in Parliament, the arrangement is not unheard of.

NZ Herald

Oh and Ginny Andersen in Hutt South… but she’s Labour, so that’s OK.

The mealy-mouthed David Parker had something to say about Luxon’s property portfolio.

Labour MP David Parker, appearing with Bishop on The AM Show, said there was “nothing wrong in a moral sense” with Luxon owning seven homes, “but it does show that you know, some people are pretty privileged”.

“It does sort of belie the fact in New Zealand we’ve become a very unequal society where some people can own seven homes and other people none.”

Newshub

Yes, we have become a very unequal society and that inequality has become considerably worse in the last 4 years, in spite of so-called intentions around improving child poverty. Inequality, by all measures, has worsened considerably under this government.

Oh by the way, just out of interest, here is a list of properties owned by David Parker.

And for those members of the media who harp on about the fact that Luxon’s properties are earning $90,000 every week in capital gains: well, whose fault is that? Could it have something to do with quantitative easing, which always results in inflation, particularly asset inflation? And who has adopted quantitative easing as a policy to deal with COVID? Well, it wasn’t Christopher Luxon, was it?

Besides, it doesn’t matter how much he is making in unrealised gains. It makes him wealthy on paper, but it isn’t actually money in the bank, and this situation could change at any time.

I wonder which Labour minister will be the first to call him a ‘rich prick’? My money is on David Parker. There really is nothing like the politics of envy, is there?

And just one final thought…