Luxon has to burn more of the village to save the village

Shortsighted, ‘shameful’ and ‘ludicrous’ – reaction to more jobs axed in health sector

Plans to cut nearly 1500 jobs at Health NZ – Te Whatu Ora have been met with outrage by health sector leaders.

The Public Service Association says 1120 jobs will go from Te Whatu Ora’s data and digital team (47 percent of the work force) and 358 from the National Public Health Service roles (24 percent).

The National Party as an organisation has no actual political philosophy or political values beyond implementing whatever their donor mates want in terms of deregulation or privatisation.

I think the Economy is screwed and that the OCR predictions of feeble growth suggests a terrible softness to the threads of our society.

The country is sicker and more hungry thanks to this Government’s Austerity Agenda…

• One in four children (27.0 percent) lived in households where food ran out often or sometimes, up from 21.3 percent in 2022/23
• 10.7 percent of adults had an unmet need for professional help for their emotions, stress, mental health or substance use in 2023/24 – more than double the rate of 4.9 percent in 2016/17
• One in 11 adults (9.1 percent) and 8.2 percent of children aged 2-14 years ate the recommended amount of vegetables
• Fewer than half of adults (46.6 percent) met physical activity guidelines, ie at least 2.5 hours of moderate-intensity activity in the past week – down from 50.9 percent five years ago
• One in three adults (1.5 million) classified as obese, rising to nearly half of those living in the most deprived neighbourhoods
• Nearly half of adults (44.9 percent) reported unmet need for dental care due to cost. Rates were worse for Māori, Pacific, disabled, people living in the most deprived neighbourhoods and those aged 25-54 years
• One in four adults (25.7 percent) and one in five children (18.5 percent) reported that “time taken to get an appointment was too long” as a barrier to visiting the GP in the 12 months prior to the 2023/24 survey. This is higher than the previous year (21.2 percent for adults and 14.8 percent for children). In 2021/22, the figure was 11.6 percent.

…every economic indicator is negative.

In the Budget, National allocated just 2.9% increase to health services but inflation was 3.3% and population growth 2.6% while an ageing population adds more to costs! National gave 2.9% for health but we needed 8% to stand still, this crisis has been manufactured!

Unemployment for New Zealand is 4.8% but 9% for Māori?

Why are Māori collateral damage again for the wider economy?

Insolvencies are up, cost of living continues to bite and we have a Government who have given a pittance back in tax cuts for the poor while cranking up user pays.

What’s the point of a $14 a week tax cut if costs are increasing by $30 a week?

Here are the experts…

When cuts beget cuts

Treasury’s Chief Economist Dominick Stephens warned yesterday the recession was worsening to be deeper than the one seen in the Global Financial Crisis and widening the Budget deficit. His comments echoed those of a group of 15 economists who yesterday called for a suspension to Government spending cuts, saying they weren’t needed and were creating a negative feedback loop of economic contraction.

Economists call for end to Budget cuts

A group of economists, including former Treasury Chief Economist and former Productivity Commissioners, published a letter to PM Christopher Luxon this morning calling for an immediate suspension of budget cuts to avoid further worsening a recession they say is hollowing out businesses and conflicts with the Government’s goal of doubling exports.

They argued fiscal policy was needlessly worsening the recession, saying there was no clear rationale for projected budget cuts and little consideration about the short-term effects. They wrote:

For example, your Government’s cancellation of key infrastructure projects and sinking-lid cuts to the public service are powerful contributors to the current severe and prolonged recession. This is substantially worsening the contractionary effects on the economy of the Reserve Bank’s use of the Official Cash Rate to contain inflation.

…Fitch reaffirmed our double AA credit rating in August, but look at what they have to say about our future ‘growth’…

Deterioration Cyclical: The authorities have pushed back the targeted return to surplus repeatedly since December 2022 amid worse-than-expected economic performance as well as costs related to natural disasters. The latest slippage largely reflects a weaker outlook for tax revenues. Still, the vulnerability of public finances to the economic downturn also reflects large spending increases during the Covid-19 pandemic, which are proving difficult to reverse.

The government is offsetting revenue-negative tax policy changes through spending cuts and has tightened future operating allowances, aiming to reduce core crown expenses to 30% of GDP over time (FY24: nearly 34%).

Economy Bottoming Out: We forecast real GDP growth to slow to 0.1% in 2024, from 0.8% in 2023, as the lagged effects of tighter monetary policy fully translate into higher debt servicing costs, a softening labour market and weak consumer sentiment amid sluggish house prices. We expect monetary easing to support growth rates of 2.0% in 2025 and 2.5% in 2026, still weaker than in recent history. Weaker terms of trade and softening external demand continue to drag on the economy, mitigated by a bounce-back in tourist and net migration flows.

…the moment Trump puts his tariffs on, it will make the US dollar soar while the Kiwi will sink, that will cause an enormous surge in petrol prices and that will restart the inflation engine.

We will have rising prices while joblessness continues.

We will have the worst of all conditions led by a Government whose focus is on their donor’s interests not the common good and the message from this Government is that more cuts to public servants I coming!

Luxon is effectively bracing the country for more cuts.

He hasn’t burnt enough of the village to save the village yet.

This is going to be a Summer of Discontent as companies that have held on till Christmas finally go under one last time and Christmas redundancies flood the nation.

This Government doesn’t have any plan beyond looking after their rich mates, the bootomfeeders can rot.

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