Photo: NewstalkZB
Brian Tamaki’s Destiny Church was met with a counter-protest of students and workers during their "Faith, Flag and Family” rally against foreigners ‘stealing’ jobs and homes. This highlights the true cause of unemployment, low pay, and precarious work - and it is not migrants.
“[Non-Christians are] taking over our country, our businesses and our companies, and they no longer employ Kiwis, they employ their own people."
Around 500 Destiny Church supporters — at least one mockingly wearing a burqa — dressed in all-black could be seen tearing Palestinian, Buddhist, Islamic, and Sikh flags, blaming them for taking jobs, businesses, and housing.
The march highlights how those in power manage to shift the blame away from them.
Corporations, incentivised by the capitalist system to pay their workers as little as possible in order to make the most profit, are the true reason why we earn cents of the dollar we produce.
The system benefits from having a large pool of disposable workers because it means that if employees try to unionise or stand up to unfair conditions they can be easily replaced.
But it is easier to blame migrants because they are ‘taking’ the jobs we should be getting.
The housing crisis, cost of living, and job shortages are driven by corporate greed, not foreigners.
Corporations and big businesses need more people than there are jobs because it serves their goal of creating an endless pool of disposable workers. This is why capitalist governments always ensure there is unemployment and a consistent flow of immigrants who they can then blame.
It allows big business owners to be picky about who they choose to hire and how much they pay them.
Anti-immigration rhetoric stems from pre- existing racism against people from other parts of the world. The idea that somehow other cultures are eroding our way of life. People forget that 'New Zealand' was established by settlers and immigrants. There are shortages, but it's not because of immigrants.
As a collective species, we have to look out for each other, not dehumanise.
Successive governments, Labour and National, have refused to do anything substantive - even with a supermajority in parliament and public support.
They lack the political willpower to allocate money away from subsidising fossil fuel producers to renewables, tax cuts for landlords, and pandering to the politically moderate, liberal home-owning class.
Our entire economy is built on selling houses to each other and exporting naked logs. We can do better if we really want it.
Around 128,000 minimum wage workers got a 15 cent payrise from last year (less than the rate of inflation) while the top 119 increased their wealth by $5 billion over that same period.
There are more unemployed people than there are jobs available and workers have had two effective pay-cuts in the last two years.
It is not the fault of those who move here to work and live: they are the backbone of the economy and those at the top benefit from their exploitation.
“Over the last 10 years, while wages have increased around 20 per cent, rents have increased 50 per cent. It is simply unaffordable, creating massive hardship.” - Marama Davidson
Wages have grown 20% in the last 10 years while rents have gone up 50%, says Green co-leader Marama Davidson.
Supermarkets are making $1 million per day in excess profit while their workers live pay day to pay day. How can migrants be to blame for the greed of the few wealthiest?
Instead of subsidising already flourishing industries like tobacco, we could build more housing and provide it.
With the $3 billion the government gave back to landlords to solve the declining 'supply and demand', the government could have built almost 6,800 homes.
With another $7 billion from nationalising the forestry industry, and $12 billion from a CGT, Wealth Tax and Trust Tax to patch loopholes, we'd be able to build almost 30,000 homes to sort this out. And it would only impact the top 1% of earners.
Or, they could be built with New Zealand wood, by Kiwi builders, and the end of the manufactured housing crisis would be that much closer.
The 'incentive' to work for a house is made up, because housing should be a human right. Anyone who argues otherwise likely has fingers in real estate pies (the majority of our politicians own multiple investment properties).
A $3b tax cut for landlords would lower rents, they told us. But they're still going up.
Estimates from Stats NZ highlight that we are short around 45,000 dwellings. This is unacceptable in a country with so much wealth.
The top 119 people and families in this country own more than 40% of our entire GDP. This is the achievement of capitalism, not too many migrants.
'But we would lose money from exporting everything we produce! GDP would plummet!’
It's an endless cycle of 'but we need that for this’, because that’s how the economy was designed to function.
Capitalism needs struggling people to justify things like war and wealth accumulation.
Instead of implementing a people-focused system, our politicians pander to the corporations and blame immigrants.
They blame the people who the economic system uses to fill low-paid positions regardless of their qualifications or skills in other areas. This gets working-class people angry and then we see demonstrations by Destiny Church blaming individuals for systemic problems.
If you believe immigrants are the cause of our woes, you have been misled. Unfortunately, none of us are immune to propaganda.
Thousands of people from overseas are coming to Aotearoa to fill low-paid jobs — high and low skill.
Corporate greed and privatisation are the reason why we don't see the fruits of our labour turn into anything meaningful. We get taxed with the promise of everything getting better, but it only goes to subsiding corporations and fixing potholes in wealthy areas.
We're being exploited and, like Woolworths, the blame for ripping people off is being shifted to the little guy. It's always Māori, communism, beneficiaries, immigrants, or somehow our largest trading partner.
But never those in power.
You wouldn’t be able to buy a home regardless of the number of migrants, because the housing market is a profit-making mechanism for almost the entirety of our politicians.
The classic ‘supply and demand’ argument is redundant because those who argue it uphold a system which benefits from more demand than supply. It’s all about profit, not people.
The crisis is capitalism.