11
January, 2018
New
Zealand's population is predicted to hit 5 million in about 2020 and
could reach this milestone sooner.
In
the year to June 2016, the population grew by 97000, its fastest rate
since the 1960s.
Statistics
NZ senior demographer Kim Dunstan said both immigration numbers and
population growth had exceeded their predication.
"Our
population was estimated to be 4.69 million at 30 June 2016, with net
migration being 69,100 over the June year."
The
latest figures made it likely that the population would rise to
between 4.9 and 5.1 million by 2020.
By 2025 the population could rise by a further half a million to 5.5 million.
Based
on an average migration of 30,000 a year and much higher fertility
rates, New Zealand Statistics predicts that the population could grow
to nearly 8 million by 2068.
If
there was no migration, the population would peak at 5.3 million
around 2050 and then slowly decline.
A timely warning from James Lovelock unheeded
A timely warning from James Lovelock unheeded
That would give the country a chance of surviving
"Based on an average migration of 30,000 a year ...."
No report in the media will ever acknowledge the truth of the following: that John Key added 500,000 people to the population as part of a policy to give the ILLUSION of economic growth while not adding any new infrastructure apart from roads.
One liberal friend who was previously anti-Key was offended by the following piece saying we should take in unlimited numbers of refugees and it was justified by treatment of Maori. He denied there is a population problems - the more the merrier.
It did not occur to him to ask Maori what they think.
JOHN
KEY AND THE 170 BILLION DOLLAR KNIGHTHOOD.
Via
Facebook
MORE
FAKE NEWS ( or outright lies ) FROM TVNZ.
-
OUR CURRENT ACCOUNT SURPLUS.
After
9 years, New Zealand's largest TV channel is still lying to the
public of NZ about the state of our economy.
They
continue to report economic growth when we DO NOT have economic
growth just massive population growth! ( just look at the per capita
GDP numbers)
The
government are 60 billion in debt and climbing every day.
Jacinda
Ardern has openly stated that she is going to borrow billions to pay
for her spending over the next 2 years.
New
Zealand as a whole is now a record 500 billion dollars in debt with
over 200 billion borrowed ( by way of the private sector) under John
Key to keep our economy going.
What
New Zealand's mainstream media do not understand is that NZ DOES NOT
have economic growth, we have massive immigration deliberately set up
by John Key to lie about the state of our economy to get votes.
The
media continue to perpetuate the lie as they simply do not understand
the difference between economic growth that creates wealth and
prosperity through foreign exchange earnings, and population growth
that creates homelessness, poverty, congestion, pollution and is
primarily debt funded through massive mortgage debt.
In US dollars
In US dollars
JOHN
KEY AND THE 170 BILLION DOLLAR KNIGHTHOOD.
The
most poignant comment of John Key's political career came on his last
day in government.
As
Key walked down the steps of the beehive for the final time, he was
met by a reporter from TVNZ who asked how important it had been that
he was seen as popular. Key's predefined answer was, of course it was
important that he was popular in the publics eyes.
(Unfortunately,
good leaders cannot always be popular, especially when tough
decisions need to be made.)
In
that one sentence, John Key summed up the objectives and policies of
the National government between 2008 and 2016.
John
Key never entered politics to help the poor or the homeless. He never
set out to save our environment. His policies weren't to alleviate
congestion on the roads or waiting lists in our hospitals, and Key
never intended to help young Kiwis into their first homes.
John
Key entered politics to fulfil a boyhood dream. He was drawn to the
limelight and dreamt of rubbing shoulders with the All Blacks,
playing golf with President Obama, visiting the Royals, and the other
unique opportunities offered by the office of Prime Minister.
Once
in government, John Key had one simple priority - take whatever steps
were needed to keep the National party ( and himself) in government.
So
what was his plan?
Governments
everywhere have always lived and died on one thing - employment, not
the economy.
This
is a strange thing to say because the public associate strong
employment with a healthy economy.
This
is true, but with one important exception, that is when you are
funding the economy with debt !!
John
Key knew he couldn't grow our economy the proper way with exports. He
didn't have the time or dedication. He entered politics for the
rewards of office not to get bogged down in the mundane rigours of
running a country.
So
Key turned to debt to fund the economy.
But
he couldn't use government debt as the media would have reported this
quickly and it would have been political suicide.
So
he turned to private debt using immigration to create a massive
building and consumption boom.
Over
his 8 years in power, New Zealand had the greatest increase in
population, on a per capita basis, of any country in the world. And
it has been funded, in the main, by debt.
Masses
of debt. Over 100 billion dollars in eight short years or between 20
and 30 billion every year in mortgage debt since 2008
In
2008 when John Key took power, New Zealand had a population of 4.2
million people, and residential mortgage debt was around 130 billion.
8 years later the population had increased to 4.7 million, and
mortgage debt had climbed to 247.8 billion dollars. A massive
increase in 8 years.
By
creating a building boom using immigration, you can keep a huge
percentage of the population employed. There are very few sectors of
the economy that are not affected by the demand from massive
population growth.
Mortgage
debt has been paying for builders and plumbers and architects and
planners, it is also paying the wages of people working at
Placemakers, Bunnings, Hirepool, Briscoes, Farmers, car dealers, real
estate agents, lawyers, accountants and many many other professions.
But
using immigration is an extremely perilous way of funding your
economy. It destroys the environment, places enormous pressure on
infrastructure ( because there is no wealth being created to upgrade
services), and it creates a huge drop in the standard of living.
It
is a short-term means of keeping unemployment low, but because it is
funded with debt, is a long-term ticking time bomb.
The
media have for the last nine years been reporting our 'rock star
economy' and our expanding growth. None of them have been reporting
the truth, which is not a growing economy just a growing population,
and the only thing that is 'rockstar' is the debt!
Alongside
private debt, National was also using government debt.
When
Key took over in 2008 government debt was 10.3 billion, this grew to
64.4 in 2016 when he left.
The
media have blamed the Christchurch and Kaikoura earthquakes but the
government's exposure to Christchurch was $18 billion, and Kaikoura
cost $2 billion.
There
has been minimal coverage of the effect of billions pumped into our
economy from foreign insurance.
The
GFC was another 'crisis' we had to deal with. The GFC was never
quantified and was mostly covered over by the debt from immigration
and strong tourism numbers.
New
Zealand had limited exposure to the GFC, mainly from the collapse of
poorly structured finance companies but we will have our real, and
much worse 'GFC' when we stop immigration.
Most
of the 50 billion of government debt borrowed by Key was spent trying
to cope with the ever-expanding population.
Rising
pressure on hospitals, schools, roading, police, etc was placing
enormous cost pressures on infrastructure, but billions were needed
above borrowings to retain our standard of living.
(National
spent over 50 million between 2008-16 on motels for the homeless.
This issue is still with us in 2018)
National
was also taking money out of departments like DOC ( in 2015 $36
million came out of DOC's budget) to try to keep on top of rising
costs in other departments.
But
Key still ran 5 current account deficits in 8 years, mostly
unreported because the media were preoccupied with employment
numbers.
(An
interesting statistic is the surpluses run in 2015/16/17, and the
surpluses run today, are mainly taxes earnt off mortgage debt, as
building houses underpins our economy.)
Even
with government borrowings, infrastructure in 2018 is in semi-crisis
due to population demands.
So
how bad are things now?
Because
the country has been funded mainly by debt for the last 9 years
instead of wealth, there has been no appreciable gain in taxation,
just massive cost pressure from the growing population.
Infrastructure
is bursting at the seams trying to service another 500,000 'Kiwis',
and there is simply no money other than more debt to bring our
standard of living back to pre-Key days.
For
example, Auckland has seen the greatest influx of people but has no
more hospitals or substantial schools than 10 years ago.
But
perhaps the most serious and damaging outcome from John Key's tenure
is house prices and rents.
Houses
prices in Auckland went up 91% under Keys National government due to
massive demand and speculation. Immigrants and young Kiwis are now
burdened with some of the biggest mortgages of any homeowners in the
world!
The
ramifications of all this debt are significant.
Mortgage
debt will restrict lifestyles, it will affect health and education.
It will hamper the ability to save for retirement and will cause
enormous long-term stress.
This
debt is not only going to be a huge burden for the mortgage holders
but will have a massive impact on New Zealand with less discretionary
spending into our economy.
The
data shows that no government over an 8 year period in history has
done more social, economic and environmental damage to New Zealand
than the John Key and Bill English led National government.
There
is no way back from the situation they have created only the
possibility to make it worse if Jacinda Ardern carries on with
immigration and borrows heavily at the same time to fund
infrastructure upgrades.
In
a lot of ways, our economy is now at the mercy of the Australian
banks, being a total of over 500 billion dollars in debt.
The
Labour Party need to understand the damage cannot be fixed by
throwing debt at the problem. Burying the already mortgage-laden
youth of New Zealand under more public debt is just wrong.
The
bulk of New Zealand's wealth comes from our primary resources.
Agricultural horticulture, forestry, fisheries, oil, minerals and
tourism. All of these resources are capped. This means that the
larger our population becomes the more the wealth from these
resources is diluted.
The
last thing New Zealand needs if we want to look after our greatest
asset, our environment, and be prosperous, is a large population.
Now
more than ever we need to look at industries away from our low
production cost primary industries, to find other sources of income
for our population. This has never been easy due to factors like our
isolation from large markets and our high costs related to
manufacturing.
In
an article printed in the NBR, titled " A Paradise Lost, "
the author argued it will take decades to recover from John Key. I
disagree. Our environment will never recover from the 2008/17 period
and I do not believe we will ever have the standard of living we had
pre-Key.
If
you want to put a 'positive' spin on things, you could say that
bringing back Knighthoods by the National party was a fortuitous
move.
Because
both Key and English were able to receive one.
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