This could explain the brickbat

Audrey Young writes:

Brickbat

Goes to Luke Somerville, spokesman for Renters United, for his wholly negative response to the pet bonds policy to encourage landlords to let tenants to have pets: “Every renter has a story about their landlord trying to charge them hundreds of dollars in rent for a mark on the wall. What’s to say we are not going to see more of that now?” (RNZ). Hey Luke, how about talking on behalf of the tenants who want pets?

It was such a totally negative response to a policy that so many renters are genuinely keen on, that it made me wonder whether the spokesman was a partisan operative.

It turns out he was the campaign manager for Julie-Anne Genter. That would explain it. Perhaps the media should report this, when they quote him as a so called spokeperson for renters. The other spokesperson just got elected as a Green Councillor, so it would be interesting to know if there is anyone involved with Renters United who is not a Green Party operative.

As their main policy is to bring back Muldoon style rent controls, I suspect not.