DOWN TO THE DOCTOR’S: The Chan Ban & the Bill Banners

1. This week, Libertarianz leader Dr Richard McGrath wonders aloud about Labour’s worshipping of the ugly goddess Xenophobia.

David Shearer's call to restrict ownership of existing homes to New Zealand residents is another direct assault on the free market, and the death knell for Labour's hopes of attracting Asian voters.

Unlike Labour’s kneejerk xenophobia, my party has actually thought things through.  We have a better and much simpler solution to housing unaffordability which focuses on supply, and makes Shearer’s foreigner-hatred unnecessary. It looks like this:

• deregulate the building process;
• remove the layers of red tape that add months of time to the construction and tens of thousands of dollars to the cost of a new home;
• remove the “compulsory contributions” levied by councils on developments that get passed straight on to buyers in higher house prices;
• get rid of zoning laws and use common law instead;
• respect property rights by abolishing all restrictions on home improvements; and
• allow the further expansion of housing development into rural areas.

While Labour's proposal might bring a smile to the faces of those who fear competition from hard-working Asian immigrants, it does nothing for their occasional claim to be a party of tolerance and liberalism.

My own party has no truck with the protectionist anti-foreigner  laws of the sort Mr Shearer is peddling, which are effectively racist and therefore attractive to those of a certain mentality. His thinly veiled attempts to woo voters from the National Front over to Labour do not look pretty under the harsh light of day.

The Libertarianz Party believes in an open and deregulated market in housing, where local councils and central government have no political influence over home prices, and do not advocate or enforce discriminatory laws against the citizens of other countries with whom we are not engaged in conflict.

To this end, we therefore endorse candidates from the Affordable Cities franchise which will be offering candidates at the coming local body elections.

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2. In which Doc McGrath wonders why the rabble have suddenly discovered the evil of state intrusion into our lives.

Wasn’t it interesting over the past few days watching the various socialist-leaning politicians and protestors who turned out to register their opposition to the GCSB Bill.  I would say “good for them” if not for their seriouly selective opposition to state intrusion.

On the one hand, the Left are quite rightly concerned about the escalation of state power this bill represents, and the huge potential it holds for the invasion of New Zealanders' privacy.

On the other hand, these same people remain unconcerned about the almost unlimited power enjoyed by Inland Revenue and swarms of other government officials, whose mandate is to harass the people of this country and eat out their substance. 

Not just unconcerned about this ongoing state intrusion—they’re positively cheerleaders for it.

If one can be judged by the company one keeps, it is instructive to see creatures from the Labour and Green Parties, along with trade unionists and other rent-a-mob fringe activists from the loony Left, falling in lockstep behind the jolly German copyright-infringing fraudster and embezzler Kim Schmitz/Dotcom.

His fellow travellers may be interested to learn that this corpulent crusader against government spying has a criminal conviction for data espionage. Of course, this inconvenient truth will be shrugged off and rationalised by the tribal Left, who regard the enemy of their enemy as a friend - even if he is a wanted criminal on the run.

It has been amusing to note the same factions who always favour bigger, more intrusive government doing a screeching U-turn to suddenly demand less government - twisting themselves into pretzels as they somehow manage to justify their opposition to domestic surveillance by one office of the state, while supporting equally egregious infringements of individual liberty by other officials.

For the record, the Libertarianz Party supports any move - including encryption technology such as that used by Schmitz's company Megaupload - to keep the prying eyes of bureaucrats and spooks away from the private business of peaceful citizens. We oppose the further affront to personal freedom this bill represents. But we remain suspicious of those whose opposition to state intrusion is as selective as this bunch.

Thanks for reading
See you soon!
Doc McGrath