Let’s call the last 9 years of National’s rule what it really was – class-austerity. Draconian social policy that destroyed the most vulnerable but because media are middle class the media never saw it and allowed National to get away with it.
We are now seeing a tsunami of problems that are unfolding for the new Government that have taken a decade of underfunding to cause.
BIM reports on the level of underfunding by National are damning on housing & homelessness, news that Hospitals are full of black mould, nurses threatening strikes, Teacher recruitment plunging, Prisons bulging at the seams and all the while a spiteful culture of hate inside a welfare industry that punishes the poor rather than supports them.
The only thing National could build in 9 years was a tax haven, mouldy hospitals and 41 000 homeless – listening to them howl they have the solutions now is a case of the wolf who cried boy.
National were going to privatise Unitec, they weren’t building affordable housing on it!
The way National can simply pretend they haven’t built this problem would be bad enough, that the right wing media simply parrot that narrative is insult to injury.
We can’t be a nation of goldfish who have a memory span of 30 seconds!
Martyn Bradbury
You have written a sadly true and mighty epitaph for the late corrupt national party. What a hopeless bunch of mongrels they turned out to be.
” ….the level of underfunding by National are damning on housing & homelessness, news that Hospitals are full of black mould, nurses threatening strikes, Teacher recruitment plunging, Prisons bulging at the seams and all the while a spiteful culture of hate inside a welfare industry that punishes the poor rather than supports them.
The only thing National could build in 9 years was a tax haven, mouldy hospitals and 41 000 homeless – listening to them howl they have the solutions now is a case of the wolf who cried boy.
And yet the endlessly verbose Kathryn Ryan and the sick and dated RNZ staff will sit Hooton in his comfortable national chair and allow him to pontificate urbi et orbi. As if Key is god and English is a saint. What profanity. RNZ will no longer send in the clowns. we have had enough of them. Shut the place down. Turn RNZ into Housing immediately.
Let Labour unite. Let them crush the dreadful grapes of national corruption into oblivion. Ground Air Hateful. They cancel Flights – we cancel them. We the people shall not let them fly.
We shall demand clean water. We are no longer going to be buggered by excess farming greed. Nor by more Oil and Diesel monstrosities.
Take to the streets. Remove all the wastrels who have allowed these arrogant nationals to defecate on millions of New Zealanders.
We will stop dead all immigration – until we get rid of national – and have the infra structure to house them. No exceptions. None.
Offer national politicians the lowest of the low rental houses – and make them divest all their properties bar their own home. They will enjoy what they have foisted on us.
agree 100% with you Observer Tokoroa but would like to add the national party divided our country more so than ever. ‘United we stand divided we will fall’
Of all the non achievements of National, I see setting up this country as a tax haven is the big daddy of them all.
Oh the damage that would have been caused if Key had managed to get it fully up and running would have been immense if we were caught. He and his were too arrogant to think that was ever possible. Yeah I know Key said it wasn’t a tax haven but by then who on earth took his word for anything? If it looks like a rat, scuttles like a rat and lives in the sewer like a rat then to John Key, it was pure white dove.
It would fair to say a good percentage of the National Party were oblivious to what was really going on behind the scenes, as poor old Todd McLay as Revenue Minister was, as were we all, had it not been for the Panama Papers.
The ultra rich and not so rich who pull all sorts of strings in the shadows that affects us all whether we know it or not saw great importance in formerly ethical, beyond reproach and therefore beyond suspicion countries like NZ being safe havens for their ill gotten money. And their personal rich boy, Key was their go to man, and didn’t he get caught like a possum in the head lights.
That one episode scratched the top off the scab that was our former PM and surrealy encapsulated his reason for being. All about the 1%! Just ask the ANZ!
‘The only thing National could build in 9 years was a tax haven, mouldy hospitals and 41 000 homeless’
Actually, they also managed to build an art gallery out of the most environmentally unfriendly material possible -glossy stainless steel– which is not only completely out of keeping with existing architecture but is a traffic hazard:
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=images+len+lye+centre&id=1E1F6A2B6951229FB1E86062CC5B84CD76388E60&FORM=IQFRBA
plus several totally unnecessary upgrades to sports stadiums, a lot of hotels on previously-residential sites, a lot of grossly overpriced roading (up to three times the original costing) that relieved congestion in one location and made it much worse in another (leading to increased traffic congestion or even gridlock that did not occur prior to the ‘improvement’), water supply systems that could not cope with demand, sewage systems that could not cope with the load and a multitude of dwellings that would not comply with building standards and site restrictions that applied in saner times.
Add to that awful legacy the grossly polluted rivers and beaches which deteriorated badly under National governance, the disproportionate contribution NZ made to emissions that are causing planetary meltdown, and the cuts to funding of anything that even sniffed slightly of sustainability. I could go for with an nearly endless list of gross failures and gross misallocations of resources that characterized National and the truly awful policies implemented by local councils under National ‘guidance’ that do not even comply with the requirement of NZ statutes…….but ‘nobody cares’.
Let’s acknowledge JK’s 9 year legacy, getting Obama here for a round of golf, oh and underfunding cycleways. What pry minser!
Yes and this was the party that got rid of public hospitals and gave us CHE’s (crown health enterprises) instead. You remember, those big leaky 90s buildings that looked something like hospitals until you went through the main entrance and the first thing you saw was a big sign that read “CASHIER”.
Sums up National’s overall strategy pretty well, I think.
Well – they couldn’t rebuild Christchurch despite putting the over-inflated Finland-bashing ex woodwork teacher ‘in charge’.
And they couldn’t build a cycle trail.
And they couldn’t build enough long-drops and other dunnies for the freedom campers despite luring them here.
And they couldn’t fund mental health, though they did sort of fund overcrowded prisons with not a lot of rehab.
And the huge number of Auckland-based ministers and MPs (it seems that way) failed dismally to liaise or co-operate with the city council to do something with that heaving urban mess.
And they struggled with any form of truth…
And what happened to all those Northland bridges and road upgrades? Or is that for next century?
Good old National. Always aspiring; never inspiring. Or acting or achieving.
Meh.
Five months later and the rich are still rich and the rest are still poor and marginalised.
And the media is still lying and hiding the truth.
The excitement of the American 2016 primaries that gave us Bernie Sanders and some offer of hope has died.
The more things change the more they stay the same.
Comments are closed.