Mortgagee sales tell real story for Mums and Dads

The substantial jump in mortgagee sales in the past quarter, showing Mums and Dads losing their homes, gives a more accurate picture about what’s happening to Kiwis than National’s assurances that we are over the hump of the bad times, says Labour’s Associate Finance spokesperson David Parker.

Figures released by Terralink International today show there were 652 forced sales in the last quarter (July to September), up from 584 in the previous quarter.

“The really disturbing aspect of these figures --- apart from the increase --- is that many of the Kiwis affected, about 27 per cent, are Mum and Dad property owners,” David Parker said.

“We are not just talking about corporate developers. We are talking about Mums and Dads who have lost their one and only family home because they can’t keep up with the payments.

“It makes me angry that National continues to talk glibly about its tax switch being fair to everyone,” David Parker said. “The evidence clearly is that it hasn’t been.

“The top 10 per cent of Kiwis have done very well out of National, but for many Kiwis National’s so-called recovery is actually a bad dream.

“National has its eyes shut and refuses to see what’s happening around it. It refuses to acknowledge that low- and middle-income New Zealanders need help to cope with the cost of living, and it refuses to admit that structural change is needed to fix the New Zealand economy and that ‘muddling through’ won’t work.

“If Labour wins the election on Saturday, we can’t reverse the sad stories of the 652 mortgagee sales, but we can and will tackle immediate cost of living issues through policies such as removing all GST from fresh fruit and vegetables, making the first $5000 of income tax-free and raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

“A structural fix is required if we want to develop a robust economy and own our own country,” David Parker said. “That’s what Labour’s mix of tax, monetary policy and savings initiatives will achieve”.