It is quite interesting to look on the Labour website at what they claim to have achieved in their policy areas versus what has actually happened. In very few cases do the claims stack up when matched with the reality. They have 190 headings on their website under achievements. This is nonsense for a start but some of the more important headings are worth a look in terms of what they have claimed to have done.
COVID – 19: RESPOND RECOVER AND REBUILD
- Went hard and early. Clearly a lie.
- Launched the flu immunisation early to ease pressure on hospitals. It was a shambles.
- Acted quickly to ensure personal protective equipment got to where it was needed. A lie.
- Introduced the tracer app. Found to be problematic.
- Provided interest-free loans of $100,000 dollars to keep 50,000 businesses afloat. The last thing businesses needed was a loan so there was virtually no take-up.
- Fast-tracking key development and infrastructure projects to keep New Zealand moving. These projects aren’t moving quickly and neither is the country.
CHILDREN AND FAMILIES
- Boosted the income of around 384,000 families by $75 a week through the Families Package. Why then do we need an increase in the minimum wage?
- The Best Start payment gives parents of young children $60 a week extra up to the first three years. If you are eligible for this and the Families Package that’s an extra $135 a week.
- Passed the Child Poverty Reduction Act and confirmed child poverty reduction targets. A joke. Numbers have increased dramatically. Remind me who the Minister is?
- Lifted 18,400 children out of poverty. Another blatant lie. More than that have gone into poverty since Ms Ardern put herself in charge.
- Extended the free school lunch programme to benefit 200,000 children by the third term of next year. Lazy parents are now excused from providing lunch. A job creation scheme according to Ms Ardern. Must be their largest.
- Scrapped women having to name the man they went to bed with nine months ago, (Probably most couldn’t remember which one), in order to get the benefit. That’s the opposite of an achievement.
HEALTH
- Taking mental health seriously. Seriously, they think that’s an achievement? Suicide numbers amongst the young and the farming community are way too high.
- Breaking the cycle of family and sexual violence by making the biggest ever investment in support services. No mention of a programme to get to the bottom of the causes, just throw more money at it. They basically need to rip up their heath policy and seek an audience with Shane Reti.
HOUSING
- Funded an additional 8,000 new and transitional homes through Budget 2020. I wonder if they’ll ever be built?
- Better balanced the rights of tenants and landlords by banning unfair letting fees and reforming the Residential Tenancies Act. No, they haven’t. Landlords are leaving the market in droves, exacerbating the housing crisis. We now have an unbalanced housing market.
- Banned offshore buyers from the housing market. Hasn’t worked. Offshore buyers in the form of returning cashed-up Kiwis have the property market on the boil.
EMPLOYMENT AND BUSINESS
- Increased the minimum wage to $18.90 and now again to $20. A burden on employers meaning loss of jobs. How clever is that?
- Established a Business Advisory Council. Good move. They desperately need advice from somewhere.
- Restoring rights for Kiwi workers by reinstating meal breaks and rest breaks, strengthening collective bargaining, restoring protective rights for vulnerable workers and the 90-day trials will only be allowed in businesses with under 20 employees. Unions in control then. To quote Ardern on National’s farming policy which she described as backwards-looking and hugely disappointing, the same could be said of this. It’s 2020, not 1970.
ECONOMY
- Primary export revenue have soared to record highs. They’re seriously deluded if they think it has anything to do with them.
- Pro COVID delivered sustainable surpluses, growth well ahead of the OECD average, and low debt which has enabled a strong response to COVID. They inherited the surpluses and managed to blow the lot, low debt is no longer and the OECD average bit warrants scrutiny.
- Injecting $3 billion to support growth in the regions through the Provincial Growth Fund. A sick joke. A windfall for Shane and his mates. Should have been named the Northland Growth Fund.
- Backing Maori landowners by creating new opportunities. Is that code for a rumoured payout of $45 million at Ihumatao?
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