Matua Kahurangi
Just a bloke sharing thoughts on New Zealand and the world beyond. No fluff, just honest takes.
About a month ago, I wrote about the $16 million Prime Minister Chris Luxon proudly pledged to Ukraine. At the time, I asked how can this government justify giving millions to a war 17,000 kilometres away while New Zealanders are struggling through a cost-of-living crisis, homelessness, and exploding surgery waitlists?
Now we’ve got an answer.
On July 20th, Luxon posted this on X:
Today I saw first-hand the significant impact the Nelson Tasman region floods has had on families and businesses.
So I was pleased to announce that in addition to a $600,000 support package, we’re funding a new weather radar for the region, which plays an incredibly important role in emergency management events.
Farming communities in Tasman have just been hammered by two major flood events. Fences flattened, paddocks drowned, livelihoods destroyed. And the government’s response is a support package of just $600,000. That’s bloody pocket change.
Last night, as I sat down to my Sunday roast and flicked on 1News (yes, I watched it so you don’t have to), a local farmer said insurance will only cover $5,000 for his fences and he now faces an $80,000 bill to repair them. Add GST and you’re looking at over $92,000. That’s just for one farm. Multiply that across the whole region and tell me how far $600k will go.
The government also threw a one-off grant of $50,000 to the Student Volunteer Army. A nice gesture, sure, but not nearly enough. These students are doing more on the ground than half the Cabinet. Meanwhile, Chris Luxon turned up in freshly-shined gumboots looking like a bloke who’d never seen a farm in his life. It was nothing more than a PR stunt.
If this government really cared about its own people, it would add a zero to that $600k and start taking rural New Zealand seriously. You can’t drop $16 million on a war we’re not part of and then turn around and offer loose change to farmers who’ve just lived through something that looked like a warzone.
This government’s priorities lie overseas, playing global politics and pleasing foreign mates, not supporting the people on the ground back home who are going through their own wars. Next year I will not be voting National.
This article was originally published on the author’s Substack.
