"TAKE A HARD RIGHT DRIVER"

 I'll lead with the cartoon I borrowed from Rod Emmerson, one of our best political and social cartoonists.

"Take a hard right driver."

                                          

This is worth many, many words. I watch out for good satirical cartoons from Australia, UK, USA and Europe and am often disappointed whereas our own cartoonists at home are often not only more biting but able to nail the point succinctly. We've a long line of great satirists including the great Tom Scott and Rod Emmerson is up there with the best of them.

We survived (barely) Chris Luxon's first 100 Day Plan which was really just a hissy fit cancellation of most of the things that the previous Labour Government had done. We saw that sort of schoolyard behaviour in the 2016-20 Trump Administration in USA and look at the domestic and international mayhem that caused. We've yet to feel the full effects of the 100 day policy implementations in New Zealand but over the last month the slash and burn approach to government spending beggars belief.

Thousands of jobs have been lost in the public sector supposedly to save money (and fund the tax reductions and discounts promised to the country's wealthiest).

OK, I hear some of you say, under the last several years of Labour administration, government spending has blown out with the creation of thousands of new jobs and big spending on consultancy. That's fair but ... the slash and burn being undertaken by the new coalition government isn't being done with proper consultation or a vision for the future, it's being done for cosmetic reasons to try and look tough while honouring unsustainable fiscal promises. Willis, the finance minister is in a hole having promised big tax cuts and now has to find the money through borrowing (not a vote earner) or cutting 'unnecessary jobs and government spending (Hurrah!).

OK. I'm up for that - cut out the stupid and unsustainable spending but do so with full and open consultation and governance with a long term view. Don't just go for the low hanging fruit.

Social services including health, education, policing and social welfare are low hanging fruit. These are the ones that 'hot-under-the-collar' reactionary people, and, to be fair, revolutionary people get so 'het up' about because they make up a big chunk of the annual expenditure. But ... we need them. Desperately depending on your personal situation. And, guess what? Taxation funds it. Yes, If Nicola Willis wants to give away unnecessary and in most cases unneeded tax discounts and rebates then in order to balance her books she's going to have to gun for the biggest items on the credit side of the ledger - the low hanging fruit of  health, education, policing and social welfare.

"It’s a simple deal. We pay taxes in order to finance the social services we want and need. The carnage now occurring across the public sector though, is breaking that contract. Over 3,000 jobs have been lost so far. Many are in crucial areas like Education where the impact of losing support staff is either going to fall back on teachers, or result in crucial things being done poorly by the overworked survivors at the Ministry. Similarly, Oranga Tamariki is set to lose nearly 10% of its staff. While OT has problems, a reduction on this scale can only make things worse.

These public service cuts are being enacted without the coalition government having a clue (or visible concern) about what the impact will be. The prior promise to go through this stuff “ line by line” has gone out the window. Scientific research and climate change knowledge is also being cut – 90 jobs gone at NIWA, 270 jobs gone at Conservation. Some of the dumbest people in politics are dumbing down the country."

        Gordon Campbell in Scoop.

 

Yes, conflicted Willis and weaselly Luxon are systematically gutting our important services and institutions. The changes will have severe repercussions in burning out the front liners in police, health, education and no doubt we'll see more of the best leaving the country.

"Some of the dumbest people in politics are dumbing down the country."

And I'll finish with another Emmerson cartoon where he nails it again.