National Party

• The explanation being given is that the alcohol didn’t mix with medication he is on.
• Campion and some Coalition colleagues have criticised the fact the person shot a video rather than giving Joyce some help.
• It’s a fair point, but Littleproud would know it is not the real point.
• If Littleproud disciplined Joyce – for example by removing him from the frontbench – he potentially could make trouble for himself.

• Even before the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel by Hamas-led forces from Gaza, many analysts were already declaring the idea of a two-state solution dead.
• For example, the current Israeli government rejects the creation of a Palestinian state, and Hamas refuses to recognize Israel.
• Few, if any, historical conflicts neatly compare to the one between Israelis and Palestinians.

The fall of South African apartheid

• In 1948, the white-nationalist Afrikaner National Party was elected to run South Africa, a country that had already been controlled by a colonial white minority government.
• The National Party formalized racial segregation policies in a system known as apartheid, an Afrikaans word that means “apartness” or “separateness.” Apartheid ranked people by racial group, with white people at the top, Asian and people of mixed heritage lower, and Black people at the bottom with the most restrictions and fewest rights – for example, to live or work where they chose.

• Apartheid resulted in deep poverty and indignity for Black communities, quickly generating anti-apartheid social movements that South African police tried to violently suppress.
• The collapse of apartheid policies in the early 1990s is often attributed to a combination of South African resistance and the economic pressure brought by international anti-apartheid boycotts of South Africa.
• Since 1948, South Africa had imposed its apartheid policies over a neighboring region it occupied after World War II, then called South-West Africa, which is now Namibia.
• South Africa was forced to mobilize its reserve troops, and white South Africans began protesting at home.
• This stalemate pushed Cuba, Angola and South Africa to a peace deal in 1988, and South Africa withdrew its forces.

A way toward two states?

• Home to 5 million Palestinians, these areas exist in a kind of netherworld between being part of Israel and being separate, sovereign entities.
• It is a situation that many analysts have long understood is unsustainable, as it has repeatedly given way to extreme fighting between Israelis and Palestinians.
• Yet with the U.S. and other powers firmly backing Israel as a strategic ally, few could see realistic possibilities for change.
• And the Israeli government is increasingly divided over the war effort, with Netanyahu losing support in his own far-right party.
• There is also growing international consensus that a two-state solution is the only acceptable outcome of the current violence.

Benjamin Case does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• For the first time in more than a century, farmers are not all in the same political paddock.
• Farming has long defied gravity as an electoral force in New Zealand.
• Despite comprising less than 5% of the population, farmers have achieved an extraordinary level of political power.

The end of farmer power

• Under the old “first past the post” voting system, rural electorates held significant power due to left-leaning votes being concentrated in urban electorates.
• This meant the farming vote in key marginal rural seats could swing elections in favour of the National Party.
• No other country has seen such access to power granted to farmers.




Read more:
After the election, Christopher Luxon’s real test could come from his right – not the left

The old alliance crumbles

• The rising environmental challenge in farming has three times been met by classic old alliance strategies.
• In 2003, the alliance mounted the so-called “fart tax” protests to denounce investment in research identifying methane from livestock as a major greenhouse gas problem.
• This time, the alliance had new elements – being required to sit alongside leading Māori land users who were emerging from the Treaty of Waitangi settlement process.

Groundswell and political realignment

• For people focused specifically on the urgent need to develop new policy frameworks, Groundswell can seem confusing.
• Read more:
  The Groundswell protest claimed regulation and taxes are unfair to farmers – the economic numbers tell a different story

  But the key difference is Groundswell’s style of political engagement.

• It wants to radically break with the old political and institutional relationships it believes have betrayed the interests of grassroots farmers.
• Other key actors in He Waka Eke Noa began to withdraw, either under pressure from Groundswell or (like Andrew Hoggard) to pursue a more radical political path.

Change and consequences

• But there are still important consequences of a more radical style of politics taking root among some farmers.
• Any diminishing of those old alliance relationships will reduce the political reach of farmers.
• It was still the best mechanism for meaningful change in the sector.
• Those chafing at change might imagine they are trying to preserve an older world in which farmers were revered and privileged.

• But there is an ongoing debate over how we tax houses - particularly those sitting empty despite the ongoing housing crisis.
• Housing affordability is an ongoing concern for both renters and home owners.
• My forthcoming research looks at the feasibility of taxing empty homes and what I found was a potential source of substantial revenue for the government.

Empty homes during a housing shortage

• According to the Empty Homes report, roughly 10% of the empty homes surveyed were intentionally being kept empty, while 35% were empty because they were holiday homes.
• Read more:
  Taxing empty homes: a step towards affordable housing, but much more can be done

  It was not clear how much of New Zealand’s housing stock remains in the hands of overseas-based investors after rules changed in 2018 to restrict foreign ownership.

Introducing an empty homes tax

• In the financial year 2021-22, the central government earned 4.7% of its total tax revenue from property taxes, below the OECD average of 5.7%.
• An empty house tax targets home owners who let a property sit empty for a certain length of time.
• What’s more, New Zealand has the infrastructural prerequisites needed to implement an empty house tax.

A potential boon for government

• Some sort of empty house tax could be a source of revenue for the government, as illustrated by cities and countries overseas.
• Empty properties in Paris, France, incur an annual surcharge of 160% of the standard property rates.
• In Ireland, the empty house tax is three times the property’s existing base local property tax.

Time for serious consideration

• The first option is to charge a tax of between 200% and 300% of rates, similar to Ireland.
• Alternatively, we could introduce a tax of 3-5% of land value, like Vancouver.
• The revenue from an empty house tax could then be funnelled into building new homes.