Claiming this Budget is left wing and family friendly is the new Maori Privilege

By
Martyn Bradbury
-
14
10

The right wing punditry and biased mainstream media are all attempting to portray this abortion of a budget as ‘left wing’ and ‘family friendly’…

…the reality couldn’t be further from the truth.

The reality of how damaging this budget is to housing, health, mental health, education, the environment, equality, poverty is criticised here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

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And here are the facts…

  • National is increasing spending on prisons & military in greater percentages than welfare.
  • The tax package is heavily skewed towards high-income Kiwis.
  • The bottom half of income earners get 20% of the value of the cuts. The top 10% also get 20% of the money.
  • The poorest 800,000 get nothing.
  • 500,000 low income working Kiwis get $1 a week net.
  • Health gets a real terms cut of $200m
  • Education gets a real terms cut of $80m
  • It does nothing for housing.
  • The extra $2b for infrastructure is only paying for cost blow-outs, not new projects
  • Accommodation Supplement increase is a con job
  • Cuts home insulation program when we know 1600 NZers die from the cold each year, that’s a death sentence for some of our most vulnerable.

…by portraying this budget as ‘left wing’ and ‘family friendly’ and a boost for social services is total fucking garbage spin by right wing pundits desperate to divert attention from the utter joke of this budget.

In effect the National Party have looked at the total impact of their 9 years of social wreckage and said, ‘screw it, here’s $20 each a week’.

To allow them to write up such brutal social incompetence as ‘left wing’ or ‘family friend’ is a disgrace.

Claiming this Budget is left wing and family friendly is the new Maori Privilege myth.

14 COMMENTS

  1. Further more NOVA pay. Second vote defence puts ANZAC frigate systems upgrade 200 million over budget but it looks like they haven’t brought it over to Budget 17/18 so that rebate NZDF should get on capital appreciation charges looks bizarre. Why Steven Joyce is putting a couple more admin blocks in between I have no idea. NZDF will be forced to find at least 200 million in savings over the next two years. But this is all besides the point. I feel like I need to tell steven joyces mother that he ain’t shit.

  2. The Budget and the desperate realities we have, it offers a bandaid, for a crisis out of control:

    ‘Urgent changes needed in mental health care – AG’
    http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/332003/urgent-changes-needed-in-mental-health-care-ag

    Even the not always that concerned Auditor General sees a crisis needing urgent action in mental health services to be improved, this news is barely half an hour old!

    While we now have hundreds of thousands more tourists drive and bus up and down NZ Inc and trample up and down the walks and tracks in parks, four out of five native birds are facing extinction or are in serious crisis:
    ‘Genetic science and tourist tax touted to save NZ birds’
    http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/332000/four-out-of-five-nz-bird-species-in-trouble

    FFS, the Budget delivered damned little for the environment, which for the government is a commodity to be sold to tourists to enjoy, nothing else. Why are we not coping with environmental threats to the native birds and plants, when we get such news again and again, but government tells us endless lies, saying they do so much?

    Also: A leading Auckland real estate agent was able to hike rents for apartments by 5 percent per week early this year, given the fact that so many new students needed urgent accommodation, while some home buyers bought what they could. What a success is this with immigration out of control, where students have to pay rents that they cannot afford. Stuff an increase of accommodation allowance for students up to 20 dollars a week, it will NOT pay for such hefty increases. The question must be asked also, was this legal, as rent increases can only happen twice a year, according to the Residential Tenancies Act. I presume they lifted rents for different apartments they put on the market, not the same one, as that would have been illegal.

    Here the story about that:
    ‘Swingeing rises in Akld flat rents as students bid for spots’
    http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201845764/swingeing-rises-in-akld-flat-rents-as-students-bid-for-spots

    As for the Accommodation Supplement increase, it will go straight into increased rents and the pockets of landlords, and that is for a reason, the landlords will by July 2019 have to put insulation into uninsulated homes, which will cost. So the government enabled them to cash in by raising the rent, so they can afford paying for it, as subsidies are apparently to be phased out:

    https://www.tenancy.govt.nz/maintenance-and-inspections/insulation/compulsory-insulation/

    So far this has been offered to some landlords, but rumours are that access to subsidies is very limited now. Hence landlords were not so happy with new requirements, and now they got a pressy from the government to help pay for it, the Accommodation Supplement allowing for higher rents still.

  3. Hooton and Farrar are the spin merchants and salesmen for the Nats, as we know, so they mention nothing on the large increase in the population we have had, since 2008, and that large numbers of tourists and also overseas students coming here do of course also need health, education and infrastructure investments, to cater for them being here.

  4. It is a reasonable budget for a National Government.

    But, ACT would have gone even further to help those suffering because of Labour Party’s interference in the 20% tax – 20% GST – 20% Business tax innovation, that would have transformed New Zealand’s economy.

    However, Lange “had a cup of tea” moment, and 30 years later we are seeing the suffering continue unabated. Than goodness kiwis have ACT, looking after consumers and taxpayers.

    Vote ACT, National, TOPS party back into power to keep the transformational nature of ACT’s monetary policies progressing equality in NZ.

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