National keeps making shit up

Written By: - Date published: 8:34 am, May 1st, 2023 - 33 comments
Categories: Christopher Luxon, making shit up, national, same old national, Shane Reti, spin, you couldn't make this shit up - Tags:

Judging by recent events we are in for a hell of a year.

Yesterday I posted about National’s redidential tenancy policy.  I could not believe the degree of spin applied to their language, especially when their claims of landlords leaving the rental market en masse appeared to be wrong because the numbers of residential tenancies had actually increased by 10% since this Government took power.

But this was dwarfed by claims made yesterday by Christopher Luxon that the number of nurses employed by Health had reduced by 19,000 over the past five years.

The figure came from information supplied to Shane Reti by Ayesha Verrall.  And she provided important context to the information and basically begged him not to misrepresent the data.

Fat chance of this happening.

From Claire Trevett at the Herald:

Health Minister Ayesha Verrall has accused National’s health spokesman Shane Reti of mis-using numbers to try to beat up the scale of the exodus of nurses from New Zealand’s health sector.

When announcing new policy to help pay new nurses’ student loans and attract more nurses from overseas, Reti and leader Christopher Luxon claimed that since Labour got into power in 2017, “almost 19,000 nurses have left the public health system”.

However, Verrall said that was “plain wrong and he knows it.

“The data Shane Reti is referring to is the number of nurses who have both left or moved into another nursing job such as moving from Whanganui to work in Auckland, or moving from a hospitals to work in aged residential care or for a GP. Many have not left the health system, they are just in a different part of it.

“When I provided Shane Reti this data, I told him that. But he chose not to mention that when he released it publicly.”

She said the total number of nurses employed by Te Whatu Ora had actually increased between March 2017 and December 2022 by 4108 full-time equivalent nurses – a 19 per cent increase.

“I’m not saying that’s enough, and I’m very aware of the pressure our nurses are under. But our starting position needs to be based on facts and not headline-grabbing untruths from the Opposition.”

When asked, Reti said National had made it “very clear” that the number included transferred and re-employed nurses.

National’s initial press statement on the 19,000 figure had included a note at the very bottom saying that the data “does not take into account those who have been transferred or have be re-employed”.

However, that was not mentioned in the body of the press release in which Reti claimed “New data shows that almost 19,000 nurses have left over the last five years under Labour”.

Te Whatu Ora also stepped in to clarify.  From TVNZ:

Te Whatu Ora told 1News that the figure cited by National included nurses moving between districts and moving out of the hospital system.

“We have not lost 19,000 nurses from Te Whatu Ora or former district health boards in the last five years,” a spokesperson said.

“The data provided in the Written Parliamentary Question includes people who leave one district to work in another role in New Zealand – so it includes nurses moving from Auckland to work in Taranaki, or who move from working in one of our hospitals to working in a community service like aged residential care.

“We are focused on ensuring more care is provided close to home and that New Zealanders have more access to early and preventative care in the community – which requires that more of our nurses work in primary and community settings.

“When we look at data on the number of nurses employed by Te Whatu Ora, it shows there has been an increase in the number of nurses Te Whatu Ora employs of 4108 FTE (19% increase) since March 2017.”

Shall I spell this out?  Nurse numbers employed in Health over the past five years have not decreased by 19,000, they have increased by 4,108.

Luxon being a committed Christian ought to know that telling porkie pies is against one of the Ten Commandments.  And this is without doubt a porkie pie and a big one.

I hope he is saying a few Hail Marys right now.  And promising not to do this again.

33 comments on “National keeps making shit up ”

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  1. Reality 1
    1 May 2023 at 9:59 am

    Reti looked very "shifty" on TVNZ news last night. At least Dr Verrall was given a reasonable opportunity to rebut his false claim. We need more vigilance especially in the coming months.

  2. Bearded Git 2
    1 May 2023 at 10:08 am

    I thought Reti was better than this-not any more.

    • Peter 2.1
      1 May 2023 at 10:28 am

      Dr Reti can look as shifty or uncomfortable as he likes. He often gets credit for the mere fact he was a doctor and he seemingly is of mild manner.

      In reality he is just playing a weasel’s game. He mightn’t like doing it but he’s just as dishonest as the worst dogs in their camp.

      • Ngungukai 2.1.1
        2 May 2023 at 6:52 am

        He's a Religious Doctor now playing the Political Game, for White Right Fulla's.

      • PsyclingLeft.Always 2.1.2
        2 May 2023 at 8:29 am

        IMO Dr Shane Reti is to Doctor…as Doctor Jonathan Coleman….

  3. Darien Fenton 3
    1 May 2023 at 10:35 am

    The other things missing were that there is already a voluntary bonding scheme in place – larger in scope than nurses, but smaller in money. National will do away with fees free for the first year of study so this will be offset against the first year ; it costs around $8k for a nursing student without this. Then there are the figures ; 15% wage increases under National over nine years (average 1.6% a year) vs 35% under Labour over 5.5 years (average 6.3%). They didn't do their homework – not least the figures Dr Shane was blithely quoting, The detail about the actual numbers in the Health Sector buried right down in their quest to seem like they give a shite. Ayesha gave him the figures in good faith and told him ; he ignored it. Also ignores the nursing and other health staff who are not new entries, who have worked their souls out for years and years. I find that pretty astonishing and shallow from Dr Shane. Mind you I never rated him anyway.

  4. Sanctuary 4
    1 May 2023 at 10:44 am

    "…I hope he is saying a few Hail Marys right now…"

    he is an Evangelical propserity doctrine kinda guy. He is more probably examining the performance of his housing portfolio for evidence of God's favour.

  5. aj 5
    1 May 2023 at 11:06 am

    Luxon in not a Christian in the sense I was taught in my childhood, nor my current understanding of the word.

    • Red Blooded One 5.1
      1 May 2023 at 12:07 pm

      Christian, fundamentalist or otherwise seem to share mostly the same "values". Reti himself, is a Mormon, I believe. None of them can be trusted it seems.

  6. Incognito 6
    1 May 2023 at 11:38 am

    If only Dr Reti were to interpret & apply his Hippocratic Oath more broadly. But then he would not be a National MP ranked #4, would he? It is a real shame when highly capable people succumb to self-interest and self-righteous entitled behaviours that are not mutually beneficial to others.

    • tc 6.1
      1 May 2023 at 11:50 am

      Wonder what his former medical peers think of his 'honesty' as a week's a long time in politics and what goes around comes around etc

  7. AB 7
    1 May 2023 at 1:47 pm

    National exists to tilt the economic table in favour of business and investor interests. Virtually any dishonesty is justifiable if it serves National gaining office and performing this core function.

  8. SPC 8
    1 May 2023 at 2:55 pm

    I hope he is saying a few Hail Marys right now. And promising not to do this again.

    I am not sure that confession is a pentecostal thing, the "born again" new "favourites" (wealth entitlement) expect their god to judge all others (they see themselves as the only true Christians) while they rapture into their 1% place.

  9. Mike the Lefty 9
    1 May 2023 at 3:52 pm

    You can't expect anything better from a party that has specialized in dog-whistle populist policies, with scarcely an original idea, since it's formation.

    • Sanctuary 9.1
      2 May 2023 at 8:53 am

      As I said over in open mike, Simeon Brown was extraordinary on RNZ this moring. His EV vehicle policy consisted of shrieking slogans aimed at pitching New Zealanders against each other.

      These guys are not serious.

      • Incognito 9.1.1
        2 May 2023 at 8:55 am

        They are very serious, about winning the election, no matter what it takes.

  10. adam 10
    1 May 2023 at 4:26 pm

    The Tories have lost the plot.

    They are this awful hybrid of lies, lies, lies mixed with pure spite.

    6 years out of office, and they just don't look like a government in waiting. They are acting like a rugby team, who think they are better than opposition, except the scoreboard says otherwise.

    • James Simpson 10.1
      2 May 2023 at 10:30 am

      The scoreboard says 21 all at half time with the government playing into the wind in the second half (recession and high interest rates)

      Don't write them off. This will be a very close election.

  11. Graeme 11
    1 May 2023 at 5:06 pm

    Considering Luxon didn’t bother to read the report on the pension age and had no idea how much a single pensioner was paid, this is nothing to how lazy they will be.
    they can not be allowed to become government with so little effort to get things right.

  12. Ngungukai 12
    2 May 2023 at 7:03 am

    I haven't been able to figure Dr Shane Reti out, don't know a lot about him, might have to do some research I know he is a Bible Banger which makes sense as Chromus Domus Luxton is of the same ilk.

  13. aj 13
    2 May 2023 at 10:35 am

    If Labour are asked by National/ACT for stats, they need to front foot straight away by issuing press releases to put out the full story – head them off at the pass.

    Attack is the best form of defense.

    • Incognito 13.1
      2 May 2023 at 10:51 am

      I always thought that National were hopeless with numbers, stats, and cold hard facts and that they would turn things into a shambles every time they opened an Excel spreadsheet. However, it is becoming clear that it is not just incompetence but also deliberate and wilful misleading of the NZ public. National cannot be trusted.

      • Mac1 13.1.1
        2 May 2023 at 12:35 pm

        "National cannot be trusted." A most powerful election theme.

        Can we trust those who slam everything a government does?

        Can we trust those who favour the wealthy?

        Can we trust those who misuse facts and figures?

        Can we trust those who will not quantify their own policies?

        Can we trust those who have been seen to be dishonest in the past?

        Can we trust a party that appoints very dodgy people to be its candidates?

        Can we trust a party for whom accuracy of language is not important, preferring instead the language of rhetorical exaggeration- eg 'shambles', 'crisis', 'war on'?

  14. James Hegarty 14
    2 May 2023 at 2:02 pm

    I think only Catholics say Hail Marys for penance. Shouldn't bring (extra) disrepute to them by associating them with Luxon on what ever brand of right wing religion he purports to be associated with.

  15. Frank 15
    3 May 2023 at 5:33 am

    And this 'open and honest transparent government' that has 'over promised, zero delivered' is your benchmark of difference?

    Worst government. Period.