Labour yesterday continued with what is now being described as a cynical and well-thought out policy on blaming Chinese investors for skyrocketing Auckland house prices.
University of Otago political scientist Bryce Edwards told the Otago Daily Times the release at the weekend of statistics indicating Asian buyers were pushing Auckland house prices higher was no coincidence.
''This is no mistake, no trip-up. It is a cynical policy designed to get Labour out of the doldrums, getting people talking about Labour, making Labour relevant and showing Labour is a party of middle New Zealand.
''This policy nicely does that by appealing to populism and to those who are concerned about foreigners investing in the New Zealand market.''
There was a major issue about housing in Auckland and Labour wanted to be seen around that issue.
Dr Edwards expressed his distaste for the racial profiling associated with the policy but said it was not entirely surprising, as Labour had long used ethnicity as a means of expressing its policies to the world.
Asian voters did not feature highly on the ''PC pyramid''.
Labour would not do the same type of thing to Maori voters but the party knew Asian voters were not strongly inclined to vote for Labour so was not risking its voter base, he said.
The policy was a risk for Labour and some party supporters and voters were uncomfortable with the campaign.
Already, some had voiced their concern on social media and resigned from the party.
There was no doubt some Dunedin supporters and voters would be thinking about their ongoing loyalty to Labour at present, Dr Edwards said.
''There have been a few on Twitter in Dunedin indicating their discomfort with what is going on. You kind of expect parties of the Right to use racial profiling in this way. Now, it's a Labour policy. It's very surprising,'' he said.
Labour leader Andrew Little renewed calls for the Government to set up a foreign buyers register so New Zealanders could see how many houses offshore speculators were buying.
He accused Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce of ''being cute'' yesterday when he said the Government would collect the data from October 1.
''From that date, all house buyers will have to have a New Zealand IRD number. That is not the same as a foreign buyers register because there is no guarantee the information will be available in a way that allows public scrutiny.''
A register would provide a searchable and up-to-date database that would inform the market and public debate.
Without one, the Government would pick and choose data to support its claim foreign speculators accounted for only 1% of all house sales, Mr Little said.
