Suicide rates skyrocket, public housing wait list explodes to 12,644 while beneficiaries queue at 2am – how is this transformative?
Our suicide rate is at the highest levels ever recorded, the public housing wait list has exploded to 12,644 while beneficiaries queue at 2am outside WINZ offices.
I don’t know what’s more disappointing, the lack of transformation or the Prime Minister’s embarrassing attempt to redefine the meaning of transformative into whatever bare majority she can cobble together.
Yes, National destroyed the social infrastructure over a decade with a pump and dump economic plan to sell cheap milk powder to China while opening up immigration to keep the speculative property bubble afloat.
Yes it takes an enormous amount of energy to repair that economic vandalism.
Yes we can’t expect miracles from Jacinda when the damage is so large.
But tiny feed the kids plans combined with a slightly less draconian austerity programme on top of lots of good intentions are not making an impact on the lives of the most vulnerable, the working classes or the middle class.
Infrastructure Gridlock combined with a lack of real economic direction and a neoliberal public service who fundamentally don’t believe what Labour promises have been exacerbated by a Government that didn’t expect to win and who lack any real vision beyond the status quo.
If Labour want any chance of winning the next election, it must unshackle itself from the Budget constraints to our corporate overlords and embark upon a public spending program that injects billions of borrowed dollars to jump start momentum because currently we are drifting without any direction whatsoever and anaemic political leadership like this will generate a seeping resentment from the electorate.
Jacinda is running out of time to make a difference. We need a new green deal now.
not to mention business confidence at an all time low. race relations getting worse immegration visas ground to a halt kiwibuild a disaster no action on roads and a public service that continues to grow . 9 years in opposition left them ill prepared to manage the country.
Talking of China and bearing in mind the military bases the CCP is building in the Pacific and the assets being drained by them out of NZ, I though this interview extremely informative. I hope Government will watch/ listen to it and then stop bending over backwards to appease these, apparently, lying bastards. Then perhaps the Government will make wiser choices about how to capitalize on NZ’s wealth and then RETURN THE FINANCIAL REWARDS TO THE PEOPLE.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cwXifDaCjE
IMO the greatest handicap for people is that when aspirants finally reach their goal of getting into Parliament they renege on promises…their loyalty changes to themselves and their Pay Packet. Titles are bonus.
“If Labour want any chance of winning the next election, it must ” …stop grovelling to Maori. In a secular society where probably less than one in 20 attend Sunday Services, who cares what is “sacred” to Maori, when almost nothing is sacred to us?
“If Labour want any chance of winning the next election” we must learn that a sovereign nation doesn’t have borrow from any one. If money is just tokens representing our real wealth and services, how can borrowing from foreign banks change anything? Real wealth cannot be borrowed, it is created here on the spot by New Zealanders using Reserve Bank generated currency.
“If Labour want any chance of winning the next election” we must ascertain what is an optimum population for NZ, establish what public assets must be created to meet that demand, consistent with the need to reduce global warming, and stop importing immigrants until that calculation is done
well labour will have to do a Lot more grovelling to Maori if they want to win our 7 seats
Short answer to the title: it’s not. The much bigger issue is what can we do about it given that this government is about as progressive as we’re ever likely to get? The entire Western “democracy” have become utterly beholden to the wishes of the banks and corporations as opposed to the voters that put them there. Banks have long ago learned to weaponise debt to control not only the people, but also the government. Corporations threaten to pull their resources or shift headquarters etc if the government refuses to capitulate to their wishes, instantly destroying local economies. Outside of revolution, there is preciously little we can do other than whine about it on the internet or the streets. Democracy is little more than a chimera to keep the angry mobs pacified, while the “elites” continue to enrich themselves without fear of being lynched.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jan/21/world-26-richest-people-own-as-much-as-poorest-50-per-cent-oxfam-report
how is this transformative? NZ is transforming into a worse place! lets do this!
This is obviously the politics of kindness Jacinda promised us.
No I think the cancer policy is what she is made of. But haters will always hate.
Martyn, there is no need for the Government to borrow for spending. Read more about MMT, especially from Bill Mitchell. This Labour administration is a complete waste of space. Jacinda is just a media pasteboard figure, who believes all the neoliberal guff she learnt at the knees of Tony Blair and Helen Clarke. Grant Robertson is way out of his depth, especially having to deal with a neoliberal Treasury.
This is part of the reason why this mob are struggling to even keep up with National who themselves aren’t exactly setting the world on fire at 45%. In my view the only thing that might save this govt come 2020 is a “bad and worse scenario”. Certainly not a resounding endorsement, 41% is not and will never be that. What of course could just as easily sink them is their failure to support the small parties whose voters, myself included, had expectations and were made promises that did not eventuate. If these people stay home on election day or say “stuff it” and vote right its off to the opposition benches.
we have the money its in kiwi saver 30 year money govt has the projects we need to find away to merge the projects with the supply of money
well the last government did have 9 years that is 3 terms to deliver their brighter future that we did not receive have you forgotten sean the brighter future bullshit and we were all promised this by john and in my view the next lot need to be given 3 terms also to deliver
Yes and its no different under Labour so what’s your point? As to deliver, deliver what? Maybe the RCEP to compliment its ugly sister the CP-TPP? More broken promises on welfare, healthcare, housing and more. Yes lets give them three terms to prove what is already obvious after one.
Simply put we need new parties and people to change their mindset of either voting red or blue.
Jacinda is our Hope and Change Obama. Who will be NZ’s Trump?
Is this the problem with a three-way coalition? No power to do anything?
How many projects have been shot down by Winston?