Our government has been engaged in a misleading media campaign selling the message to Kiwis that our cost-of-living is exceptionally high because of overseas factors. Their narrative is that we're just like other countries & have been affected the same way by global shocks.
So how about these mindboggling statistics to put such a claim in perspective:
= NZ has one of the highest proportions of electricity generated by renewables - in particular hydro - compared to any country in the world. It's estimated at around 60% of our electricity needs. Our government even banned oil & gas exploration since it had so little interest in dirty commodities and saw them as irrelevant to our economy.
Indeed the Muldoon government's "Think Big" projects (which included the hydro dams) were a reaction to the oil price shocks of the 1970s. Their point was to ensure NZ's energy independence & security.
So there's little reason for high oil & gas prices to be hitting us as hard as most other countries.
= NZ produces enough food to feed, wait for it, around 40 million people. That is, eight times our population (!)
There's little reason, again, to suggest high overseas food prices should be hitting us nearly as hard as other places.
= NZ has a landmass similar to the UK yet only around 7% of the population. However real house prices, measured in a bunch of different ways, like price to income ratios, are much higher in NZ compared to Britain.
Once again, there is no reason to suggest that housing should be so unaffordable, aside from domestic policies.
Yes, whether its food costs, energy costs or housing costs, which make up most of household bills, the government should be ashamed of its campaign to disguise the true reasons why NZ has become an expensive place to live in.
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