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Chris Hipkins is far from the "working class hero" he claims to be. He sold out to the ruling class in a desperate attempt to get back into government, and would do it again if given the opportunity.
It's often said that capitalism's greatest achievement is the establishment of the Labour Party, which gives workers all of the rhetoric but none of the action. It gives false hope of transformational change while continuing to fill the pockets of the capitalist ruling class. Arguably, in this case the rhetoric is also missing.
We see this facade slip away through the Hipkins government's failure to implement, or even campaign on, much needed progressive tax reform or class issues. Strangely, his populist approach of governance neglected this even though the majority of Kiwis wanted it.
A government can not reform its way to economic prosperity in a capitalist system. Though the Labour Party believe that it can, it made no enthusiastic advances to achieve this.
The government that he was a part of before becoming Prime Minister had a historic 65 seat super majority after winning 50% of the vote and a number of electorate seats. With this majority, they made enormous efforts to appease the upper-middle class and keep them happy to secure their votes next election. They did this at the expense of the working class, neglecting to use their once in a lifetime opportunity to out-right pass the much needed systematic reform to close the wealth gap and wage disparity.
Liberal democracies don't deliver radical change, regardless of how desperately it's needed.
They could have made huge progress on combatting homelessness with affordable housing and a fairer justice system, or had a go at tackling the underlying issues that drive poverty. Poor health outcomes, an inequitable justice system, and a housing crisis were only perpetuated during this time, much to the dismay of his centre-left and left-wing voter base who voted elsewhere.
Appeasing the centre vote and upper-middle class was the focus of the last Labour government. The rhetoric was getting children out of poverty, lifting wages and ensuring job protections for working Kiwis --- but it all came too little too late. Hipkins' focus was on populist issues rather than combating class inequality: the driving factor of our country's woes.
It's well known that the way to fix poverty is to close the wealth disparity between the upper and lower classes. The way to close the wealth gap isn't to only lift wages, but to ensure that the companies paying for it can't simply raise their prices to avoid this. Jacinda Ardern's Supermarket Watchdog was a step, but ultimately the supermarkets were still making incredible profits off a starving population.
Banks and supermarkets made record profits during the COVID-19 Pandemic, while working Kiwis struggled to put food on the table. Westpac made over $1 billion in profits in 2022, but refused to raise the wages of their workers. Instead, they sent it overseas. Similarly, major supermarkets in New Zealand were making over $430 million in profit during the pandemic, with returns of 12.9% on capital while the rest of the population were struggling to put food on the table.
Countdown, New World, Pak'nSAVE, and FreshChoice were subject to over 600 complaints between them about false item specials and dodgy multi-item deals to secure these profits for themselves.
In response to this, his government introduced the Fair Pay Agreements Bill towards the end of their last term, which gave it virtually no time to be put in place and made it effortless for the incoming National coalition to scrap. The minimum wage increases saw prices increase as well because the regulations on the businesses looking to maximise their profit above all else were neglected. A Wealth Tax, Capital Gains Tax, and even new, fairer tax brackets were off the table.
Instead of fairly taxing the wealthy and corporations to reduce emissions, they focused on the individual carbon output through things like the Ute Tax. They gave NZ Steel, which is owned by the foreign $14 billion dollar corporation Bluescope (making $3 billion in net profit in 2021 alone), a $140 million government subsidy to help them move away from burning coal. They gave more support to billion dollar corporations than they did to the working class.
Hipkins ensured that Three Waters and other controversial legislation were left out in the cold to fend for themselves, just like Nanaia Mahuta was left to. He tried his earnest to populist his way back into the Prime Minister's office for another term of probably not much, but failed at the expennse of his credibility and trust in the system.
Now, because it's convenient for his cause, he's calling for what remains of his social welfare efforts like free lunches in schools to be kept. He could've done so much more for vulnerable Kiwis, but it wasn't in his personal interest to as he focused on building his personal brand of being "the boy from the Hutt." He could have been the working class saviour instead, but he threw it all away for a quick laugh and free trips overseas.
He's no working class hero. He's a populist looking for any way to secure himself another term, and we can't afford another centrist, capitalist approach to change.
The Prime Minister, before a week or so ago, owned seven properties, each worth over $2 million, a total of $21.145 million.
His property portfolios grew by $4.3 million in 2021, and he made $90,000 in capital gains every week in 2022, more money than he made as CEO of Air New Zealand.
He was the wealthiest MP as Leader of the Opposition, and once Prime Minister, he chose to give $3 billion in tax cuts to landlords.
This month, he sold one of his Auckland properties.
On that property, that he bought for $650,000 in 2015, it was listed at a set price of $945,000. That’s a capital gain of $295,000, which he paid no tax on.
Earlier this year, the government repealed the old bright line thresholds, opting instead for two-year period.
The bright line test has gone back to its initial two-year period, as was firt introduced in October 2018.
The new bright line test applies if you have sold a property on, or after, 1 July 2024.
That means any residential property sold within two years of it purchase date with be subject to tax on any profit made from the sale. Property owners buying after this date will only have to pay tax within in that two-year period.
That’s just under the amount of time that he’s owned the property, meaning he’ll pay no bright line and no capital gains tax.
New research from Victoria University has found that the richest people in Aotearoa are paying less tax than others in nine similar OECD nations.
We are one of only a few who have no tax on capital gains, no kind of wealth tax, and have the most pathetic income tax rate.
The Prime Minister and almost every other sitting member of Parliament own multiple properties and have investments in businesses, giving them all an interest in keeping the tax system stuffed and the housing market in favour of landlords.
They don't work for us. We work for them.
UPDATE (4 December, 2024):
The PM has sold his third house this year after changing the brightline test, meaning he made $300,000 tax-free on this sale - likely over $760,000 in profit on all properties sold this year.
Luxon just sold a two-bedroom unit in Onehunga for $930,000 - more than $309,500 than he paid for it in the first place ($620,500).
Had his latest property sale been the same as his asking price, he would have made total capital gains of $769,500 from the three sales. But he won’t actually tell us.
Original images sourced from NZME, RNZ, 1News, Three News, unless stated otherwise