On TV3’s “The Nation”, Lisa Owen asked Finance Minister Bill English if funding for health and education had been cut on a per-capita basis. The response from English was jaw-dropping;
In none of the Minister’s correspondence was he able to provide specifics as to where State houses were in the “wrong place”. The ‘best’ he could do was list five regions; Auckland East & South; Auckland North West & Central; South Island, Central North Island, and Lower North Island.
National now finds itself trapped by it’s own free-market dogma. Historically, only Labour governments have built housing, whilst National busied itself selling off state houses; implementing market rentals for Housing NZ tenants (in the past); and otherwise leaving it to the free market to meet demand.
Speaking to a fully packed downtown conference centre in Wellington, on a cold, gloomy rainy afternoon, Labour-leader, Andrew Little launched into a fiery attack on the current National Government focusing on it’s inarguably lack-lustre track record for the past eight years.
“Nuclear war is not the end of the world.” – Heather Roy, Q+A Panel, 22 May 2016
It is amazing how many blame the victims of neo-liberal ideology, rather than looking at the causes of why things happen. Are some people really so simple-minded that they can’t see beyond their immediate prejudices…?
The Panama Papers continue to simmer and National’s greatest fear is that the public will link tax-dodging to the current government. (Up-coming political polls will be interesting to see.) But that is not all that National’s hierarchy has to worry about.
It appears that there are now two supporters for Mark Weldon;
Listen to Hooton’s participation on the panel, and compare his measured commentary on Radio NZ versus his irrational sniping on Twitter. It’s almost as if we’re seeing and hearing two completely different Matthew Hootons from Parallel Universes; our Earth and Earth 2.
Most folk won’t remember who Ken Shirley was, prior to his current ‘gig’ as CEO of the Road Transport Forum (RTF), representing road transport interests since July 2010.
