Nothing spells out what is at stake this election more glaringly than the Greens announcement on free dental vs the cruel amputation of the State that David Seymour gleefully announced over the weekend.
Dental should have always been included in public health, it was a weird quirk and some oddity that it missed out on being included when public health was established.
The cost of dental is through the roof for most Kiwis and oral health is an enormous precursor to ill health so making it free is a fucking no brainer and I applaud the Greens for having the courage to step up for so many Kiwis who are silently suffering from the shame and pain of tooth decay and gum disease.
Of course the buying power of the State should step in and get us free dental care and the manner in which the greens propose that is a good start.
Yes we should consider a staunch wealth tax, but it should be what Labour was suggesting, where the Greens could make up the extra revenue needed is after lifting GST off supermarket food, put a 10% tax on fizzy drinks.
It is only fair that Big Sugar pay for the damage they do to our kids teeth.
The Greens are prepared to use the existing system to benefit us all and that is the type of positive Governance and progressive leadership looks like, a means to work together for the public good and the common good.
Compare that to the fuckwittery of ACT over the weekend with David’s gleeful announcement that he will slash MBIE by 50% on top of dumping every climate change regulation on top of slashing 5 Ministries of top of dumping the Human Rights commission.
It’s so fucking romper stomper it’s difficult to visualise the pure savagery of ACT’s slash and burn madness.
This is an amputation of the State! MBIE employs the people who regulate the poorly policed laws!
22 000 Bosses are given the power to import migrant workers and exploit them, of that number only 2 have had their exploitation scams ended and that’s because there is no State policing the current regulations we have!
We see this time and time and time again, State regulators who are supposedly policing the under regulated markets with barely enough staff to look into anything at all!
Max Rashbrooke highlighted the horror of NZs under regulated market…
The bad news is that, to investigate 200,000-300,000 terrible rentals, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has employed a frontline inspectorate numbering … 37. Each inspector will have to check somewhere between 5000 and 8000 rentals.
…there is only 37 inspectors of rental properties for 300 000 terrible rentals?
Similar poorly funded regulation is apparent in the 82 labour inspectorates who are supposed to police hundreds of thousands of migrant worker exploitations!
ACTs bullshit dismantling of Capitalism’s police tells you all you need to know about the deregulated hellscape a National/ACT monstrosity would birth into this world!
That is the stark divergent future we have right now, the Greens using the State to lower the cost of your living vs ACT who want to slash and burn any regulation that impedes their capitalist paymasters a single cent.
This is why Roger Douglas, the founder of ACT, denounced them recently as a party for the rich!
This election is dangerously polarised and each other will see the opposition as an existential threat, which in terms as stark as these policy directions is absolutely true!
Many men who voted Labour in 2020 and so angry by the lack of actual change and alienated by the Woke left that they are flirting with voting ACT this election without fully appreciating just how fucking radical and damaging ACT will be in any Government.
I just don’t believe for that group of voters, men who voted Labour in 2020, I don’t believe they appreciate what they are voting in and when the issues are this polarised, it’s very important to know exactly what you are voting for.
The Greens deserve our support on this, not just because they are right, but because the alternative of ACT is so terrifyingly destabilising.
This election we could have the most Left wing Government since Michael Savage or the most Right wing Government since Roger Douglas.
I’m pissed off at Labour’s incremental fecklessness and the Greens alienating woke bullshit too, but that’s no excuse for allowing Darth Vader and his dancing Christian Stormtroopers from taking over the day care eh?
Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party.
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Hate the thought of good folk losing jobs but you have to admit the State Services are out of control and writing their own contracts at present. If Act is the party to bring SS under control sobeit.
Thats petty and nasty Thomas given many of our GPs are Indians.
And what about Marama advertising chocolate and now wanting free dental care ? Conflict of interest there.
This has been a long time coming. The Dental Association first started lobbying the government for free dental clinics in public hospitals in the early 1900s. It was also Jim Anderton’s last major campaign in national politics. Poor dental health has always been a widespread domestic issue.
The Social Security system in general has been deliberately broken in order to force austerity into the workers. It was supposed to be funded by the levy from the payroll tax — a scheme that could not be taken away, as one had paid into it for life. General practice visits and medications were supposed to remain free of charge, via bulk billing to the Department. The later destruction of the levy, which could have easily been adjusted to bulk bill all basic dental care, was vital to austerity efforts.
Like most people posting here I have no idea what the ideal level of staff is at MBIE. What is f’ing laughable was Seymour’s comment about giving water infrastructure back to the councils who have been managing it! For the most part that means mis management. He is f’ing deluded.
Given that 80% of NZ’s public water supply meets all three drinking water biological and chemical standards, and 95% meet at least one standard, ‘for the most part’ might not be accurate, though I gather our waterways are much less satisfactory – can’t recall the relevant statistics.
Dave Lenny (using my name here, because the only way I can log in is with my wife’s email)
Oh right and nothing needs replacing at all. Give me a break
The assessment commissioned by Anne Tolley under National after a load people were poisoned highlighted the issues if you can think more than five minutes ahead
Although I will probably vote TPM this year I am considering Act. The working class in New Zealand, and the Beneficiary class intentionally created by neoliberal economic policy seem happy to sit on their arse and take whatever crap comes their way. Likewise the parties that should be actively helping , Lab/Greens, have proved useless. I begin to suspect that meaningful change will only happen as a response to the extremism of an Act lead government. Sadly the people are going to have to suffer and suffer badly before transformational social change can occur.
The Greens couldn’t deliver a pizza, let alone free dental. Fortunately many Labour & Greens MPs will take up new career opportunities at Domino’s, so may actually learn the true principles of delivery.
Prevention in the form of a sugar tax along with any other measures that will work has to be a part of any dental payment scheme otherwise it will become a bottomless pit of increasing costs.
Dental is the only part of the medical system that functions properly at the moment, so it’s best left alone:
> I can go to the dentist of my choice
> There’s no waiting list
> I don’t need ‘referring’ by a GP
> I can have as much or as little work done as I like
> I just have to phone up to make an appointment
Perhaps it’s because of you don’t have the money, you dont get treatment. Perhaps you are better off in the USA.
A lot of this is about personal priorities.
Are those people who ‘can’t afford’ to go to the dentist smoking, drinking, tithing to their idiotic church? Are they making sure their kids are cleaning their teeth? Are they drinking sugary soft drinks?
It’s not functioning properly if people can’t afford it, I brush my teeth twice a day, don’t consume sugary drinks and stick to a plant based diet so most of my 6 month check ups are an inspection only but since I am the wrong side of 60 there is a bit of damage from when I did not follow healthy living that needs to be fixed which I am able to afford. There are people who can’t afford treatment though so some form of help is needed still,
We saw what happened to many countries and their people that dismantled and privatised their welfare/state during the covid epidemic, many died and suffered unnecessarily.
CiP: “…many countries and their people that dismantled and privatised their welfare/state during the covid epidemic…”
How about you provide a link evidencing your claim here? Words are cheap….
See death rates per country (of covid) who had the most and what commonalities they have.
Christ D’Esterre if you wanted evidence for comments made then most on this site wouldn’t be able to comment.
All tied in with Obesity epedimic. We just can’t get enough sugar into our day to help us try and get our mojo back.
Why stop at dentist bills. Orthodontist bills also please free Green Party.
What do you not understand about the following.
“I’m confirming today that under a government I lead there will be no wealth or capital gains tax after the election. End of story,” Hipkins said in a statement.
An NZ Dental Service. Who will the staff be? Are all the dentists on board, knowing free care means no part charge when inflation erodes the payments? As happened in the past.
Oral surgery and complex procedures are done by surgeons with many years of training, and they are thin on the ground. What if they don’t want anything to do with the Greens? Are you going to nationalise them by force?
Any Green policy presented by Davidson could be regarded with a certain amount of scepticism; she talks claptrap and seems to equate being “ rich” with being evil. They’d have been better having it presented by a more normal sort of person, like Eugenie Sage, or an intelligent man.
Rich people are evil. All they do is milk others for all they are worth.
Hate to break to you, but there is no such thing as “free” anything. The spiralling cost of dentists will simply transfer to the govt budget book which already is not funded from tax revenue and thus putting it even further into debt (which always = higher inflation by definition) unless they cut something else.
Nitrium. Correct, nothing is free, we still pay. Davidson saying that she couldn’t afford dental treatment before she became an MP, is a bit rich when many mothers of six never get to score such a lucrative gig as she did. She had choices.
What choices are those
? Clearly obvious that you and Nitrium both want US style healthcare. Actually our dental system is worse than US, because at least in the USA you can buy dental insurance to cover part of the cost. We cannot here.
Perhaps you should fuck off to the USA is if you hate the idea of free anything. Over there you are free to live under a bridge
Dobby is angry!
no worries mate. just lend it into existence. it’ll be worth a lot less soon and we can pay it back.
D Esterre back for the election aue! see death rates per country (of covid) who had the most and what commonalities they have.
The greens say they will pay for their free dental scheme with a wealth tax.
Prime Minister Hipkins rules out a wealth tax.
“I’m confirming today that under a government I lead there will be no wealth or capital gains tax after the election. End of story,” Hipkins said in a statement.
Hipkins admitted he had shut down plans for a “tax switch” in this year’s Budget, which would have seen a tax-free bracket and a 1.5 percent tax on wealth above $5 million
At the end of 2022, Chris Hipkins had an estimated net worth of $5.3 million
Chris Hipkins;
I will let the teeth rot in your head before before I tax rich people like myself. You stupid poor people just better fuck right off with that idea.
Like I give a fuck, I would rather let National win the election than impose a wealth tax on me and my rich mates.
I personally think free dental is essential. You need to be seriously rich in this country to take good care of your teeth.
The problem comes that if we move to public care, many dentists will flood overseas to make more money. However, we could pay or part pay training and shove a 3 or 5 year bond on to them.
Love the free dental care, hate the Greens!
Health care why seg, health care, social, eh tooth fairy,. should not give these island wealth the tools, to insure.
fossils are dead. we should be working on photosynthesizing dyes/pigments and organic superphosphates. interesting tokamak work on last night’s Sunday
Health care why segregate, health care, social, eh tooth fairy,. should not give these island wealth the tools, to insure, and Island profit. Shall, the Gerry Anderson clone, get in the seat, desperate Nats, why Peters, so Gerry Anderson, clone,, truth if your debate the other day on the Three, your Island support, shall be looking, pull your head in.
meh – just import some dentists from China with free citizenship
Free dental care, social care always had that in schools, and socialist societies care provided.
Bus stop to far, no, care, got a party to go too. One Two Three.
wHY, TALK, our dental should be caring.. Vetetra, six years your pet creatures care you will pay,, teeth, humanity, our skill dentest, is the same learn as a Vet. So there are political parties, that not only believe in pet insurance, but also human health insurance.
Bomber, one too three.
Island,eh, lock down the harbour,.wealthexploit i s sayin, get oot. EH! FOOL, REMEMBER. that cat, whit fancy name they gave him, saying,, our infrastructure Auckland, need lookin. Rates, who our profit, shall decline,, look know.
Even the Dental Association said this is not feasible – no staff, no attempt for children with diseases and not enough money available.
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