Not quite living the dream, perhaps, but as good as it gets these days. At least that’s the rosy picture he drew in the Northland Age on Tuesday (“Putting people at heart of economic recovery”).
Putting the seriously questionable assertion that we are experiencing an economic recovery, Davis reckons he and his Government are doing a pretty good job for those who are doing it tough.
He started with the cost of petrol, which is cheaper than it otherwise would be thanks to the Government’s “swift action” to reduce the excise tax. That “swift action”, in response to strong public criticism (and falling polls), was taken when a litre of 91 octane was nudging $3. Today the cheapest in Kaitaia is $3.13. Without the 25¢ (29¢ with GST) tax reduction it would have been pushing towards $3.50 last week. And the tax cut is temporary.
Fair enough, petrol is cheaper than it would have been without the tax reduction, but the Government’s response amounts to little more than a token gesture. And its tax take is probably greater now than it was before it took “swift action”: on our behalf. Hardly cause for celebration.
He went on to point out the Government’s cost of living package (an extra $27 a week, for three months, for those earning less than $70,000 a year, not counting beneficiaries and pensioners who are already getting the winter heating allowance), the April 1 increase in superannuation (linked by legislation to the average wage — or is it the CPI?), which is old news, “taking action” on supermarkets (which has yet to bear fruit, and may never do so, and also a knee-jerk reaction to public discontent and falling polls), the winter energy payment (more old news, in place long before the current crisis), higher wages (really?), cheaper doctors’ visits (eh?) and free lunches in schools.
“Free” is his word. As the rest of us know, there is no such thing as a free lunch.
All examples of the Government’s largesse with our money, designed to plug little leaks in a dyke that is about to collapse.
He conceded that there was still plenty to do, ”but these changes (which are by no means all changes at all) are all making a real difference for those doing it tough right now,” he added.
“I believe supporting people and speeding up our economic recovery is the way through this, and the Labour Government has always focused on putting people first.”
Bollocks. Labour has always believed in turning people into beneficiaries, and what we are seeing now is that philosophy on steroids. The only shots he could fire at the Opposition was to accuse National of “squirming” when asked to state its position on abortion, and Act of wanting to scrap the Human Rights Commission.
The fact is that this government, free-trade agreements notwithstanding, is not speeding up our economic recovery, it is sabotaging it. In the past five years it has made doing business more complex, and expensive, for many of those who earn the income that keeps this country solvent. It hasn’t finished yet; its climate change proposals, as they stand, threaten to undermine, if not destroy, the primary industries that underpin our economy.
Meanwhile its appallingly inept immigration policies and process continue to apply the handbrake. If someone doesn’t do something soon to make the importing of labour, skilled and unskilled, possible again, we are going to witness a fully fledged economic collapse.
Apart from most things economic, education system is a national disgrace, public health system, whose minister insists, contrary to all the evidence, is coping, and will be saved by a whole new bureaucracy staffed by the same people who made a pig’s ear of the old system, is struggling to meet Third World standards that once would have been utterly unacceptable in this country.
What it desperately needs is more doctors and nurses, but Immigration clearly doesn’t think so.
Meanwhile, stabbings and shootings have become so commonplace that they hardly make the news any more, and the housing “crisis” that Davis’ government says it inherited from its predecessor has become a catastrophe.
Ask National’s housing spokesman Chris Bishop and he will tell you that Kiwi Build has so far built 1366 homes, just 98,634 short of its four-year target (which at this rate will be achieved in the year 2315). The state housing waiting list had increased to more than 27,000, up 500 per cent, since Davis’ government took office, and more than 4500 children now live in taxpayer-funded motels.
The total motel bill so far has topped $1 billion. Won’t be too long and it will exceed the $1.6 billion value of the free-trade agreement the PM signed in Europe last week.
Davis said on Tuesday that there was still plenty to do, and he wasn’t kidding. In fact, in terms of many fundamental areas, we’re still waiting for a start, or at least a halt to the rot that has been worsening on a daily basis for the best part of five years.
How exactly is it an achievement to concede that national superannuation is insufficient to enable goodness knows how many pensioners to keep warm over winter, without a top up?
How is it an achievement to concede that more than two million of us, earning less than $70,000 a year, which until recently was the threshold for the top income tax bracket, are unable to feed themselves and their families without extra help (over and above Working for Families, which supposedly makes the tax system fair)?
And how, exactly, is $27 a week for three months going to solve that problem?
Meanwhile the Prime Minister has been telling the world that our tourism industry is open for business, despite the fact that many tourism/hospitality businesses cannot find the staff they need to function, thanks in no small part to a Minister of Immigration who refuses to listen to them.
Perhaps she should be telling would-be tourists to bring a cut lunch and a tent with them, or perhaps a sleeping bag, in the hope that they can find a space that hasn't yet been taken under a bridge.
Surely, what we're seeing now isn't the limit of Kelvin Davis' ambitions for this country. If it is, then God help us all.
The only people who seem to be thriving are those who work for the Government, and that seems to be most of us these days. And why shouldn’t they be buoyant? They are well paid, secure in their employment (at least until the next election), and now they can aspire to very senior positions in the civil service without even having to produce a CV. Good times indeed.
For the rest of us, this country is rapidly becoming a cot case, and it is galling to hear senior members of the administration, who have done to this to us, boasting about what they have achieved. Forgive us, Kelvin, if some of us are struggling to get into party mood. Apart from those who might have been hanging out for an extra $27 a week for three months, there doesn’t seem to be much to celebrate, let alone cause for congratulations.
Peter Jackson MNZM, former editor of the Northland Age newspaper, 38 years at the helm of this popular paper, now happily retired. Except for the odd addition this article was first published in the Northland Age 7/7/22.
Fair enough, petrol is cheaper than it would have been without the tax reduction, but the Government’s response amounts to little more than a token gesture. And its tax take is probably greater now than it was before it took “swift action”: on our behalf. Hardly cause for celebration.
He went on to point out the Government’s cost of living package (an extra $27 a week, for three months, for those earning less than $70,000 a year, not counting beneficiaries and pensioners who are already getting the winter heating allowance), the April 1 increase in superannuation (linked by legislation to the average wage — or is it the CPI?), which is old news, “taking action” on supermarkets (which has yet to bear fruit, and may never do so, and also a knee-jerk reaction to public discontent and falling polls), the winter energy payment (more old news, in place long before the current crisis), higher wages (really?), cheaper doctors’ visits (eh?) and free lunches in schools.
“Free” is his word. As the rest of us know, there is no such thing as a free lunch.
All examples of the Government’s largesse with our money, designed to plug little leaks in a dyke that is about to collapse.
He conceded that there was still plenty to do, ”but these changes (which are by no means all changes at all) are all making a real difference for those doing it tough right now,” he added.
“I believe supporting people and speeding up our economic recovery is the way through this, and the Labour Government has always focused on putting people first.”
Bollocks. Labour has always believed in turning people into beneficiaries, and what we are seeing now is that philosophy on steroids. The only shots he could fire at the Opposition was to accuse National of “squirming” when asked to state its position on abortion, and Act of wanting to scrap the Human Rights Commission.
The fact is that this government, free-trade agreements notwithstanding, is not speeding up our economic recovery, it is sabotaging it. In the past five years it has made doing business more complex, and expensive, for many of those who earn the income that keeps this country solvent. It hasn’t finished yet; its climate change proposals, as they stand, threaten to undermine, if not destroy, the primary industries that underpin our economy.
Meanwhile its appallingly inept immigration policies and process continue to apply the handbrake. If someone doesn’t do something soon to make the importing of labour, skilled and unskilled, possible again, we are going to witness a fully fledged economic collapse.
Apart from most things economic, education system is a national disgrace, public health system, whose minister insists, contrary to all the evidence, is coping, and will be saved by a whole new bureaucracy staffed by the same people who made a pig’s ear of the old system, is struggling to meet Third World standards that once would have been utterly unacceptable in this country.
What it desperately needs is more doctors and nurses, but Immigration clearly doesn’t think so.
Meanwhile, stabbings and shootings have become so commonplace that they hardly make the news any more, and the housing “crisis” that Davis’ government says it inherited from its predecessor has become a catastrophe.
Ask National’s housing spokesman Chris Bishop and he will tell you that Kiwi Build has so far built 1366 homes, just 98,634 short of its four-year target (which at this rate will be achieved in the year 2315). The state housing waiting list had increased to more than 27,000, up 500 per cent, since Davis’ government took office, and more than 4500 children now live in taxpayer-funded motels.
The total motel bill so far has topped $1 billion. Won’t be too long and it will exceed the $1.6 billion value of the free-trade agreement the PM signed in Europe last week.
Davis said on Tuesday that there was still plenty to do, and he wasn’t kidding. In fact, in terms of many fundamental areas, we’re still waiting for a start, or at least a halt to the rot that has been worsening on a daily basis for the best part of five years.
How exactly is it an achievement to concede that national superannuation is insufficient to enable goodness knows how many pensioners to keep warm over winter, without a top up?
How is it an achievement to concede that more than two million of us, earning less than $70,000 a year, which until recently was the threshold for the top income tax bracket, are unable to feed themselves and their families without extra help (over and above Working for Families, which supposedly makes the tax system fair)?
And how, exactly, is $27 a week for three months going to solve that problem?
Meanwhile the Prime Minister has been telling the world that our tourism industry is open for business, despite the fact that many tourism/hospitality businesses cannot find the staff they need to function, thanks in no small part to a Minister of Immigration who refuses to listen to them.
Perhaps she should be telling would-be tourists to bring a cut lunch and a tent with them, or perhaps a sleeping bag, in the hope that they can find a space that hasn't yet been taken under a bridge.
Surely, what we're seeing now isn't the limit of Kelvin Davis' ambitions for this country. If it is, then God help us all.
The only people who seem to be thriving are those who work for the Government, and that seems to be most of us these days. And why shouldn’t they be buoyant? They are well paid, secure in their employment (at least until the next election), and now they can aspire to very senior positions in the civil service without even having to produce a CV. Good times indeed.
For the rest of us, this country is rapidly becoming a cot case, and it is galling to hear senior members of the administration, who have done to this to us, boasting about what they have achieved. Forgive us, Kelvin, if some of us are struggling to get into party mood. Apart from those who might have been hanging out for an extra $27 a week for three months, there doesn’t seem to be much to celebrate, let alone cause for congratulations.
Peter Jackson MNZM, former editor of the Northland Age newspaper, 38 years at the helm of this popular paper, now happily retired. Except for the odd addition this article was first published in the Northland Age 7/7/22.
5 comments:
Peter - Many great examples of how very badly NZ is now doing under this inept Labour government.
But probably the best example of our terrible performance across the board would be Kelvin Davis, himself.
That someone so utterly useless can achieve high office in this country says it all for me.
Until politics can attract real talent then I'm afraid we'll be stuck where we are.
Thanks for speaking out Peter, we need people to become emboldened and stop sitting on the fence. My experience is that the populace has become fearful and apathetic and probably also feel a bit helpless. Many older people I know don't have computers and rely on the MSM ( mainly tv1 and tv3) for their information. I talked to a Dutch couple the other day who knew nothing of the huge farmers protest in their homeland. They are pro-vaccine, pro-mask and probably pro-Jacinda. So, basically it is a lack of factual information from a bought and paid for MSM.
Unfortunately, our main opposition party also seems fearful of the media. Rather than support their voter base they are trying to appear worthy in the eyes of the media.I think people recognise courage when they see it. Unfortunately anybody with courage is squashed.
Great to hear that Kelvin has everything under control and that we are experiencing an economic recovery.
Would this be the same person who, as Minister of Corrections did not appear anywhere near Waikeria during the riot which lasted six days, even with MPs negotiating(Kelvin not included)? The Mt Eden riot lasted 33 hours when the army with armed troops(with live rounds) attended.
Would this be the same Kelvin who, as Minister of Corrections is assisting in early releases which coincide with increasing shootings and gang violence on the streets?
Would this be the same Kelvin who, as Minister for Oranga Tamariki, employs people, without a proper background check, on the word of his mates? Oversees a ministry that interferes with a judicial procedure? Oversees a ministry that has responsibility for a young boy who, while under their supervision, is so badly abused that it cost him his life?
Yep having ministers like that gives people a feeling of optimism and confidence that the labour cult has things under control.
Their only achievements to date are the insidious dismantling of our democracy, corruption, nepotism, the failure to deliver on any promise, the destruction of the economy and setting up ministries for the imminent launch of apartheid.
Kelvin Davis is an absolute disgrace masquerading as a politician. It is unbelievable that someone with such a lack of old fashioned "nouse" can have risen so high in the affairs of this country, although looking at his party he is probably not much better or worse than the majority of his peers in terms of ability.
I am absolutely sick and tired of these useless people running our country into the ground, the sooner they are kicked out the better.
Well said Peter ! Your former age readers miss you . Please keep commenting!
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