John Key was spinning again in the House last week. So desperate is he to deflect criticism of his government’s poor performance, that he has been talking about how take-home wages didn’t rise fast enough under the Labour Government.
It is time we got away from Mr Key’s focus on individual greed and got back to a focus on better hospital, schools and care for those who are struggling. Gains should be shared amongst all of the people. David Clark argues that Key’s tax cuts are going to actually drive away our high-achievers while Mr Key is telling us it’s going to bring them home. I think Clark is right, people want fairness and don’t want to live in a society with ghettos and skyscrapers. If they wanted that, they would move to the states or the middle east.
Let’s stick to the facts. Measures of inequality show that inequality grew massively in the 90s under National, but did not increase significantly with Labour. In fact, the fifth Labour Government grew the pie by a quarter in real terms, and this quarter strengthened public services and was shared widely. They didn’t get everything right, but at least they were heading in the direction of creating a fairer society.
No doubt Key will blunder on. Although we don’t know much about what he stands for, a fair society is one thing that is definitely not on his agenda
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