So holdup … the National Party is attempting to make a big deal out of the person whose photo’s on the cover of 2019 Budget having moved to Australia at some point in the past few years, yeah?
The parents of Nicky Stevens, who died in 2015 while in the ‘care’ of Waikato DHB’s acute mental health facility, have welcomed the focus of the 2019 Budget on Mental Health.
Back in 2012, when the Ministry of Social Development made a whole swathe of highly sensitive information about its clients and operations (including case-notes, personal details of at-risk children, medical records, legal paperwork etc. etc etc.) available to literally anyone who walked off the street into a WINZ office and used a self-service kiosk, I don’t think I recalled Paula Bennett appearing behind the National Leader of the day to demand that the minister in question responsible resign forthwith?
They served him breakfast and it was only at 10am when they came to get him for court they found he was dead – and had been for probably 6 hours.
Labour are lucky that the Treasury mishandling of the budget has become the story rather than the fine print reading of the budget because the lack of anything remotely representing transformation would have killed voters who had put their hopes into Jacinda’s politics of kindness. The truth is this budget falls far short of anything meaningful.
Can Neoliberalism build a wellbeing budget? Has the Government been transformational?
THIS WEEK: Budget, Whaleoil book & Trevor Mallard’s allegation of rape
At some stage, the Government have to bow to your demands, and seeing as the ‘transformational budget’ was about as transformative as a lump of coal, you are the last chance progressive NZ has to show people power is the only truly transformative force in politics.
The biggest losers here are the hundreds of thousands of New Zealnder’s desperately needing hope in mental health, poverty, low income wages and housing who were cruelly let down by the hacking/leaking drama played out by politicians who care less for the issues and more for the cheap headlines.
The Nazgul of the Treasury were the feared Government High Priests who would rain down on high scathing criticism of anyone who challenged free market doctrine. Treasury were like like the Nights Watch, except they actively encouraged the Night King to effortlessly pass through the border.
