{"id":367076,"date":"2026-04-07T01:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T01:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/367076\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T01:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T01:18:13","slug":"arguing-with-my-mother-in-law-about-the-state-of-nz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/367076\/","title":{"rendered":"Arguing with my mother-in-law about the state of NZ"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s election year. That means endless arguments with your family members about politics. Here journalist Mark Crysell, who recently ran for Auckland Council\u2019s Waitemat\u0101 local board, takes on his mother-in-law, publisher and former Act MP Deborah Coddington, about the state of New Zealand and what should be done.<\/p>\n

Mark Crysell: The increase in the price of petrol makes me feel like the economy has leaned back and kneed us in the nuts \u2013 again. How many more times does this country have to struggle back off the canvas before we reach the promised land?<\/p>\n

For the lowest income earners, it\u2019s a crisis \u2013 a proper one. It\u2019s the difference between getting to work and not, between the kids eating well and not.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s what\u2019s shifted: it\u2019s not just them anymore. The middle class has had a gutsful. They\u2019re working their arses off and going backwards. Statistics NZ tells us the wealthiest 10% hold 48.5% of all the wealth in this country. The bottom 50% share 6.7% between them. That\u2019s not a cost of living crisis \u2013 that\u2019s a rigged game.<\/p>\n

Deborah Coddington: The kick from petrol prices hurts more, perhaps, because it\u2019s not this country\u2019s fault. Trump took a spoon to a knife fight and we\u2019re collateral damage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I disagree with you that this crisis is worse for the lowest income earners, Mark, because they are not driving to work: they are on welfare either as job seekers or superannuitants. The hardest hit are those who we take for granted in normal times \u2013 posties, truckies, builders, plumbers, sparkies, first responders, linesmen when your power goes out \u2013 the real working class. They are the \u201csqueezed middle\u201d. Political candidates should campaign to these guys this election.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll tell you what\u2019s rigged: housing. It\u2019s the single biggest reason why it\u2019s so tough, financially, in this country. New Zealand has the glorious honour of being one of the hardest places in the developed world to buy a house. Yet, we have these nimbys in Auckland\u2019s inner-city, high-wealth suburbs, the ones who cluster around that nebulous group who call themselves the Character Coalition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They pay lip service to protecting heritage houses but in reality have a pull-up-the-ladder attitude because they are fine and dandy in their McMansions. These people believe when they bought their houses they also purchased the lifelong right to glorious views, unimpeded by nasty new apartment blocks. They did not. If they find it distasteful to see neighbouring sections divided and built upon, they should buy them, not lobby their local MPs to force Chris Bishop to pull his head in<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, congratulations to Luxon and Seymour (both lead parties which supposedly believe in property rights), who have fallen for it. You just made it even harder for strugglers to get a home of their own near schools, work, and transport hubs.<\/p>\n

Still, if we leave housing out of the equation and look at income, in real terms the gap between middle and low-wage earners has actually shrunk, mainly because of big increases in the minimum wage and welfare increases.<\/p>\n

MC: With the greatest respect, Deborah, I think we\u2019re coming perilously close to agreeing with each other. You\u2019re right that the working class are copping it hardest. They can\u2019t work from home, they can\u2019t UberEats their way around a budget, and they sure as hell can\u2019t ride an e-bike to a job site in Pokeno.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019m not letting you off the hook on the wealth gap. Shrinking the gap at the bottom while the top keeps pulling away isn\u2019t progress \u2013 that\u2019s running on a treadmill to nowhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Plus, we can\u2019t leave housing out of the equation \u2013 we\u2019ve built an economy where the most reliable path to wealth is owning the thing everyone else desperately needs. That\u2019s not a market; that\u2019s a toll road with a very exclusive guest list, and the same people have been collecting the tolls for 30 years.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, every three years, the election campaigns resemble something between a beauty pageant and an open mic night, while inequality, homelessness, superannuation and climate change get kicked down the road. Except as my wife (your daughter) put it: you can\u2019t kick a can down a road that\u2019s been washed away by a landslip.<\/p>\n

DC: I\u2019m not agreeing with you, Mark (except at Christmas dinner), because you\u2019re a pinko and I\u2019m a right-wing harridan, but, yes, it\u2019s true that living costs have risen faster than incomes.<\/p>\n

You talk about housing as a path to wealth, and yes, those who have managed to get on the property ladder keep growing their wealth. But, I\u2019d just like to point out another reason, for owning a house, as opposed to renting: nesting. I remember discussing it once with Bob Jones. In general, people thrive better in their own home. They are more likely to have a garden, grow veges, keep the place tidy, and love it, because they have skin in the game. There are difficulties like rates, maintenance, insurance, but with a budget they can be managed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You mention inequality and the homeless. There\u2019s always going to be inequality. I\u2019m very comfortable right now, but you know it hasn\u2019t always been so for me and my kids. I might lose it all again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What I struggle to understand is some of the responses to issues faced by the homeless. What was the point of 10 church groups holding an all-night prayer vigil<\/a> at St Paul\u2019s Cathedral recently to protest the \u201cmove on\u201d orders? Churches could start paying rates to local bodies, and sell some valuable assets they currently rent out \u2013 that would raise enough dosh to house the homeless who sleep on the streets, instead of showboating with this handwringing and virtue signalling.\u00a0<\/p>\n

MC: Deborah, you\u2019ve just invoked Bob Jones on the joys of home ownership and sent the churches a rates bill, I\u2019m going to need a moment. As for calling me a pinko? I was once on a ZB panel and a listener texted in to call me Commie Crysell, so I can take it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"BobBob Jones, pictured in 1985, has officially been pulled into this family argument. (Photo: Peter Rae\/Fairfax Media via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

You\u2019re not wrong about nesting. Former prime minister Norman Kirk put it better than anyone, when he said: all people really want is somewhere to live, someone to love, and something to hope for. It\u2019s as simple as that. But we\u2019ve let that truth become the justification for a system that makes ownership impossible for a generation of people who are doing everything right and still can\u2019t get there. And the uncomfortable reality is that not everyone starts from the same starting line \u2013 big Norm knew that too.<\/p>\n

The response to move-on orders? I take your point about churches, but \u201csell your assets and pay rates\u201d is a fairly brisk solution to what is, at its core, a housing supply and mental health crisis dressed up as a moral failing. The prayer vigil might have been theatre, but at least they showed up.<\/p>\n

And we all have to start showing up and coming up with solutions. We have to start asking, how do we make the waka go faster?<\/p>\n

DC: My biggest concern right now is that we\u2019re too far gone. New Zealand is seriously up the creek with nary a hoe in sight. Instead of being abstemious, our leaders have borrowed billions of dollars since John Key was PM, right through Jacinda Ardern\u2019s watch, and now Nicola Willis is still at it. And what\u2019s the response to the resulting crisis (before the oil crisis compounded it)? Word salad.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s been no realistic but necessarily painful cuts, just reassurance. Nobody is taking personal responsibility. National blames Labour, Labour shrugs, the Greens are focused on Gaza, Act wastes time redefining the Treaty principles, and Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori self destructs. At least Winston will take a sword to the energy gentailers (horrible word, that) and reduce power bills.<\/p>\n

You ask how we make the waka go faster. I think there are individual MPs who could work together across the floor, like National\u2019s housing minister Chris Bishop and Labour\u2019s housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty.\u00a0<\/p>\n

MC:\u00a0Underneath all the pinko and harridan business, that\u2019s where I think we actually agree: National and Labour working together. It\u2019s exactly the kind of boring, practical, commonsense, good cross-party cooperation that I\u2019m gagging for. Nobody tweets about it, nobody gets a damehood \u2013 it just works.<\/p>\n

Knock off the political theatre, just bloody talk to each other and share a beer afterwards. It\u2019s dangerous when people lose faith in democracy \u2013 that\u2019s why we have Trump, why we have Brexit and why Nigel Farage and Pauline Hansen are surging.<\/p>\n

By the way, I reserve the right to revisit the capital gains tax. You didn\u2019t think I\u2019d let that go, did you?\u00a0<\/p>\n

DC:\u00a0 Look, our Westminster system barely allows us all to paddle in the same waka \u2013 by its very nature it\u2019s adversarial. Still, in my experience, you can work with MPs from all parties behind the scenes \u2013 in taxis, cafes, after hours \u2013 and persuade them to compromise\/swallow some dead rats for the good of the nation. You can put your ego aside for progress.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m happy to take you on about a capital gains tax, Mark, but do you realise we already have one?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s election year. That means endless arguments with your family members about politics. Here journalist Mark Crysell, who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2917,112585,25029,42,43,135,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-367076","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-cost-of-living","9":"tag-election-2026","10":"tag-fuel-crisis","11":"tag-headlines","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-top-news","15":"tag-top-stories","16":"tag-topnews","17":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}