Carl Bates, the Accidental Property Mogul MP

Political Showcase Aotearoa - 26 September 2025

Poor old Carl Bates. The National MP for Whanganui is currently under official inquiry for failing to declare around 25 properties linked to him and his family. Twenty-five. That’s not a disclosure oversight - that’s a Monopoly set.

Of course, Carl insists it’s all just a clerical hiccup. An admin slip. Nothing to see here, folks. But the rest of us might be forgiven for thinking that when you own (or are linked to) enough properties to populate a small suburb, you’d probably notice when the parliamentary register looks a little… thin.

But here’s the thing: maybe we’re being too harsh. After all, Carl is only following the most brutally honest economic analysis New Zealand has produced in years. Bernard Hickey nailed it - this country doesn’t have an economy, it has a housing market with bits tacked on. What’s a poor MP to do but take that observation to heart and build his CV out of letterbox ownership?

And while Carl’s predicament may look like a conflict of interest, it’s really just alignment of interest. Parliament is already stacked with landlords, property investors and those who believe that housing policy begins and ends with the phrase “the market will sort it.” Bates is simply a more enthusiastic student of the syllabus.

Of course, the optics are a touch awkward. At a time when thousands of Kiwis are crammed into rentals, garages and motels, watching an MP trip over his shoebox full of title deeds is less than inspiring. For the average renter, the idea that a lawmaker “forgot” to declare dozens of properties is like being told your landlord misplaced your rent - except it’s still going up 7% next year.

So here’s the blistering truth - Carl Bates isn’t the outlier. He’s the exemplar. He embodies the collision between political life and property speculation in New Zealand. In a country where the housing market is the economy, politics was always going to become a branch of property management.

What’s a poor MP to do? Apparently, the answer I -: buy, hold, accumulate and then, just maybe, forget to mention it. But thanks anyway Carl for your tireless work to help make the outstandingly productive, economy enhancing property sector “frothy”.