BUDGET HAVE YOU GOT A DIME?

I don't know about you but I was pretty pleased with yesterday's government budget.

It appears to be sensible and, given COVID-19 and worldwide uncertainty, rightly cautious.

In some ways many of the benefits don't apply to The old Girl and my situation as critics have said that there was no appreciable benefit to 'middle New Zealanders' who, I guess, we are, but I'm happy to see that some inequalities for the poorer part of society have been addressed within the constraints of available funding.

We all have to be sensible. The top end of society and to some degree the middle, have enough earnings, assets or capability to get them through some hard times over the next couple of years. We will all have to 'tighten our belts' if necessary.

I'm pleased that the budget didn't go overboard with dangerous borrowing and still managed to get many good things done.

Here are some of them:

• Welfare beneficiaries - increases overall.
• Maori housing initiatives.
• Maori health issues addressed, particularly in regard to smoking harm.
• Children in poverty - starts made to fix some things.
• Reinstatement of Training Incentive Allowance for tertiary level study.
• Student allowances  and loans for living costs increase.
• Development of a social unemployment insurance scheme for workers,

Generally the budget is forecasting  a decrease in unemployment, growth in the economy and a slowdown in the rise of house prices.

There are obviously going to be moaners and whingers from all sectors, particularly the speculators who've been taking out big loans to buy extra houses in order to make obscene profits. The 'Maori knockers' will also be up in arms, particularly this nasty piece of work:

Oops, wrong pic.

Here she is , and even scarier than Chucky.

The rabid Judith Collins, predictably, bashed the budget complaining that it was "a budget for beneficiaries not for workers" only thinly disguising her racist and reactionary views.

It was great to see many of her own National party disagreeing with her views though. They no doubt are worried at how she has recently been attacking and alienating the Maori faction in Parliament - a once Labour supporting faction that, bewilderingly, switched to National some years ago although has now indicated they would not form a coalition with National again. Let's hope that they will see sense and go back to Labour - not that Labour needs them at present, having the seats to govern alone.

The rabid right as personified by the nasty and cranky Mike Hoskings threw their toys out of the cot:

"The world isn't rejecting left-leaning progressive thinking for no reason, they're rejecting it because it doesn't work," Hosking wrote for the Herald.

"We'll get there, next year or at the next election. If we don't, I'm off to Australia."

Well I for one would like to see this twonk fuck off to somewhere else. His nasty, negative and undermining views are more suited to the American GOP rather than here.

I'm glad to see that I'm not alone in this as there has been a massive response from newspaper readers to his comment. Most are along these lines:

Hoskings backs Collins and indeed any National leader believing that the sun shines out of their arses.