So, the National party's fiscal plans

[Praktica]

show that they will take money from the least well off, to pay the rich tax cuts. That should tell you all you need to know about them.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Punish the poor. After all, being poor is a punishment for being bad, right?

[harm_less]

Nicola Willis's interview on RadioNZ earlier is another lesson in how to dodge answering any questions put to her. As dodgy and deceitful as Luxon.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018909108

No empathy or understanding whatsoever for the beneficiaries who will be missing out on 2 billion dollars under the Nat's policy.

[Lilith7]

Nicola Willis's interview on RadioNZ earlier is another lesson in how to dodge answering any questions put to her. As dodgy and deceitful as Luxon.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018909108

No empathy or understanding whatsoever for the beneficiaries who will be missing out on 2 billion dollars under the Nat's policy.

She reminds me very strongly of Ruth Richardson.



https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/2863...on-cartoon


https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/28-09-2019...g-us-today

"I was three years old when the then-National government passed the ‘Mother of all Budgets’. The finance minister at the time, Ruth Richardson, believed jobs would miraculously appear for people if she cut their income support, so she ruthlessly slashed the unemployment benefit by $14 a week, the families benefit by $25 and the sickness benefit by $27 (about $60 in today’s currency). Benefits basically stayed at those rates until 2016, when they were marginally increased by then finance minister Bill English.

It’s a strange ideology that believes cutting support to sick people, solo parents and working-class families helps them live happy and healthy lives, but it’s an ideology that’s pervaded government policy ever since. 

Overnight, and with the stroke of a pen, Ruth Richardson trapped tens of thousands of people in a poverty whose harms continue today. My mum and I lived with my grandad and aunty in Māngere when that budget was passed in 1991. There were a lot of families in our neighbourhood who relied on income support at that time. In South Auckland in the 1980s, adult unemployment was 40-50%.


For the past two elections, New Zealanders have consistently ranked “child poverty” as one of their number one concerns, but our tendency has been toward supporting solutions that only solve one part of the problem. We buy Eat My Lunch but we distrust the idea of just giving people enough money to live on, despite all the evidence that says it would be the most effective way to fix poverty."