The Prime Minister’s Big Fail
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Lindsay Mitchell
Stuff Stubbornly Refuse to Issue “Any Correction or Clarification”
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com Last week I posted about one of Stuff’s ‘The Whole Truth’ columns which attempted to fact-check Judith Collins’ claim that 400 people a week are losing their jobs. The BFD subsequently picked up my post and a BFD reader complained to Stuff about their
PM’s Perilous Promise
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com Am I a bad person? Because I would not don the hijab. Ever. It’s not my culture, it has no meaning for me and while I accept someone else has reasons for wearing it, I don’t share them. True tolerance for each other
Stuff Fact-Checks Judith Collins’ Claim “400 People a Day Are Losing Their Jobs”
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com After looking solely at Jobseeker Benefit and COVID Income Relief Payment numbers the Stuff journalist says, Many jobs are being lost as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. But not 400 a day. Towards the conclusion of the first leaders’ debate, Judith Collins said “the
Opinion: The PM Never Promised to Cut the Number of Children Living on Benefits
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com The Prime Minister promised to cut the number of children living in poverty but she never promised to reduce the number of children living on benefits. And it’s a good job she didn’t or she’d have failed on that score too. Before
Children’s Commissioner Thinks More Children on Benefits Is Okay
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com Since becoming Children’s Commissioner, Andrew Becroft’s strong left leanings have become increasingly apparent. In this interview he gets right into blaming Rogernomics and neoliberalism for child poverty. But this is the soundbite I heard: Becroft says the present Government has done more than
An Electorate Tick for the National Candidate
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com When I get annoyed with National for taking positions I disagree with it makes it harder to support their MPs. But Chris Bishop has been a highly visible and effective local MP and this seals the deal for me: Hutt South MP Chris Bishop helped
John Tamihere Romanticising Maori Crime
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com According to John Tamihere, who has regrettably in my view taken the Maori Party down a full-blown victimhood track: Maori make up 60% of the prison population in New Zealand Women’s’ Prisons alone. “We are the most incarcerated indigenous population in the world. This
Outrageous Claim From a “Trustworthy” Source
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com Michelle Duff claims in an ‘analysis’ for “trustworthy, accurate and reliable” Stuff: 90 per cent of those who have lost their jobs post-Covid are women Yesterday I quoted another source that debunked the number. The shocking revelation – that of the 11,000 fewer people in
Have a Baby Every Three Years & You’ll Never Have to Get a Job
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com National’s ‘subsequent child’ policy said a woman who has another baby on welfare would still have work obligations when that child turns one. It wasn’t discouraging the habit though because seven years after implementation (in 2019) 6,000 babies were still being born
Opinion: Out of the Mouths of Babes
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com Our Prime Minister entered parliament vowing to make New Zealand, “…the best place in the world to raise children.” Even before COVID she had over two years to advance this goal. She said she devised a plan to reduce child poverty on a flatmate’s
The Generational Voting Divide
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com Ten days ago I wrote a post entitled “The Young Don’t Vote” Here are the latest enrollment stats: And here are the actual voting percentages in 2017: In raw numbers, there are an estimated 450,500 18-24 year-olds with 277,151 or 61.5%
Tale of Two Tenets
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com As the election looms, two minor parties, both likely to feature in the next parliament – ACT and the Greens – couldn’t be further apart in their tenets regarding welfare and child well-being. Perhaps the single-most underrated and under-reported issue in New Zealand is the practice
A Poverty of Plain Speaking Never Affected Judith Collins
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com Judith Collins has been in parliament for a long time and I have blogged about her for the duration. Not extensively but when I agreed or disagreed with her comments. She was, after all, National’s spokesperson on Social Development from 2005-08. She once made
Two Minute Todd
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com Who knows what goes on in the National Party? Like most of the public I can do no more than speculate on the veracity of the reasons Todd Muller has given for resigning this morning. But I can limit my response to that perspective. Todd
Govt Attacking “Traditional Masculinity”
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com Extension of the government’s “It’s Not OK” anti-violence strategy was released yesterday. The campaign has run since 2007 but it is now turning it focus wholly on “gendered intimate partner violence.” Men as perpetrators. Some extracts: The campaign has re-set its strategic intent,