So at the same time as the left is steeling itself to work out what it can actually do to contribute properly to this county’s commitment to saving our environment the right have something else they want to champion. Tormenting poor people.
From Jason Walls at the Herald:
National is looking into fining the parents of young people who leave school early, and don’t go into education or training, up to $3000 if it returns to Government.
This is just one of the policies understood to be under consideration by the party as part of its social policy review, due to be unveiled later this month.
Other policy areas the party is looking into include:
• requiring gang members to prove they don’t have illegal income before they receive the benefit
• a 25 per cent reduction in the number of people on the benefit
• reassessing the obligations of people who are on the benefit
A spokesperson for National Leader Simon Bridges said the party was yet to finalise its social development policies and it would be releasing discussion documents before the end of the year.
The Herald understands that at the end of this month, National will release a number of different policy proposals it plans to develop ahead of next year’s election.
The proposals will be in areas such as social welfare, skills and employment, vulnerable children, sexual violence and social housing.
National’s first problem is that these proposals were leaked. National’s reputation for discipline is a joke and clearly it is not Jami Lee Ross leaking this information.
The second problem is that the proposals are so naff. Clearly the only motivation is to bash poor people for political gain. Auckland University researchers found a strong correlation between poverty and truancy. Reducing beneficiary numbers by 25% has that lets pluck a figure out of thin air feel about it. Where are the jobs going to come from and what will they do with all the old people? And the gang requirements will prevent a gang member from ever going straight.
It will be interesting to see the final policy proposal and what changes happen. But I suspect we are going to see something similar to what the leak shows and that National’s recent lack of policy restraint is going to continue.
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