With just seven months until the election, the legacy of this Government will be of a core constituency cruelly conned. There is plenty of evidence to support the claim. All arrows in virtually all areas are pointing in the wrong direction – down when they should be up and up when they should be down. This is due in large part to a Government made up of people who are frankly out of their depth. A look at left parties globally shows that they are made up of those who are, above all else, ideologically driven. Their policies are framed accordingly, with no regard to the reality or the economic feasibility of implementing them. Their lack of understanding of economics accounts for the nonsensical idea of a wellbeing budget.
In her introduction to last year’s wellbeing budget the Prime Minister commented that though New Zealand has had strong growth for a number of years, it is still experiencing some of the highest rates of suicide, unacceptable homelessness and shameful rates of family violence and child poverty. She went on to say that growth alone does not lead to a great country. So it’s time to focus on the things that do.
So let’s look at five main areas and see what her so-called focus has achieved.
Child poverty is a good one to start with as she is the responsible Minister. In 2013 when measurement started 18.1% of children were living in material hardship. In 2017 the figure was 12.7%, a huge drop of almost a third. Between 2017 and 2019 the figure has increased from 12.7% to 13.4%. So under National, there was a significant decrease while under Labour and the Minister’s focus the figure has gone up.
Housing has been one of this Government’s biggest failures. When National left office the waitlist for state housing was 5,884. In August last year, the figure was 13,167, up from 12,644 in July. This broke the record set by the Labour Government of 2004. Penalising landlords is stupid beyond belief, as was pumping money into the KiwiBuild fiasco. Hence where we are now.
When it comes to welfare it is usual for those on the right to theorise that the left encourages people onto benefits so as to increase their core support. Is there proof of the validity of this supposition? The latest benefit statistics provide it. Published in January they show 37,000 more people on welfare since the change of Government. There has been a 22% increase of those on the jobseeker benefit. There are 16,000 more people who have been on the benefit for over a year. Figures show a 30% increase in Maori and Pacific Island jobseeker benefit levels, and 15,000 more children are living in a benefit dependent household. Quite an achievement!
In education, the attendance rates at school are of concern. They have been falling since 2015 and the trend has continued under this Government. The regular attendance rate was down from 63% in 2017 to 57.7% in 2019. The unjustified absentee rate increased from 4% to 4.7%. Asian attendance rate was down from 73.4% to 68.9%. Maori was down from 50% to 43.8% and the Pasifika rate was down from 51.7% to 44.7%. Was the closing of charter schools just a coincidence? These figures all represent the 2017 to 2019 period.
In the area of health, all the arrows are again pointing in the wrong direction. The scrapping of health targets by the Government hasn’t helped. Comparisons are revealing. When National was in power during the years 2008 to 2014 figures show those getting cancer treatment within four weeks rose from 65% to 100%. There was a 33% increase in elective surgery. Those treated within six hours in ED showed a rise from 70% to 94%. Immunisation rates for two-year-olds went from 76% to 93%. Where are we today? The immunisation rates for eight-month-olds has fallen from 92.2% in 2017 to 90.1% last year. The percentage of cancer patients starting treatment within 92 days has fallen from 93.2 in 2017 to 87.7% last year. The percentage of ED patients seen within six hours has dropped from 93.1% in 2017 to 90% last year.
Other areas of failure to meet targets include the number of homeless – up, the number of trees planted – down, the number of affordable houses built – down, the number of new police officers – down, net migration – up, gun buyback numbers – down, and a significant increase in the use of coal for electricity.
In terms of last year being a year of delivery, in postal parlance it should be addressed RETURN TO SENDER with an accompanying note – couldn’t put their stamp on anything, probably not even an envelope.
Thanks a lot Winston.
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