NRT: National’s New Zealand

Written By: - Date published: 12:05 am, December 25th, 2013 - 16 comments
Categories: national, same old national - Tags:

no-right-turn-256No Right Turn nails what National means for Christmas. Long term costs for our society because they choose to deprive kids of an even chance. Instead they prefer being the government for the rich, and those less affluent can bugger off overseas.

National’s New Zealand: wage-suppression through one-sided employment law. A jobless “recovery”. Cuts to state housing and to welfare. 265,000 kids in poverty. An indecent society of haves and have-nots. I’ve talked about this all year, but what does it mean in practice? It means kids asking Santa for something as basic as a roof over their head for xmas:

Santa Claus says he is going home emotionally exhausted as poverty-stricken children ask not for toys but basic necessities this Christmas.

Robert Fisher, 74, who has been a Santa at Auckland’s Westfield WestCity in Henderson for nine years, said at least half a dozen kids a day asked him for a house because their families were sleeping in cars.

“It’s worse this year than what I can remember,” he said.

Housing is a human right. And its the government’s job to deliver it, not Santa Claus’s. Our government is failing at the basic task – and the wider task of ensuring that everyone in our society has a decent standard of living.

As for what to do about it: yes, you can (and should) donate to your local food bank and other charities at xmas. But this is a political problem, and it has a political solution. Our government chooses, through its economic, welfare, housing and other policies, how much poverty it is willing to accept, and how far it will let people fall. It chooses, through welfare, health, education and child-support policies, whether all kids will get a good start in life, or whether their prospects will be blighted by their parents. The present government, a government of, by and for the rich, has chosen to tolerate, even exacerbate poverty, rather than impose on their wealthy supporters. We need to elect a government which will choose differently.

16 comments on “NRT: National’s New Zealand ”

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  1. karol 1
    25 December 2013 at 8:08 am

    Well said I/S.

    Hope you have a good summer. Thanks for all the great posts – holding the government, and (when needed) the opposition to account.

  2. Olwyn 2
    25 December 2013 at 10:17 am

    “Instead they prefer being the government for the rich, and those less affluent can bugger off overseas.”

    This sentence captures the Key government in a nutshell. Everything they do is understandable in the light of it. It is what we are up against, and it shows why only fundamental change will do. Third way accommodation is not possible under such circumstances. It is not enough to save those being crushed under the wheels, and those who think they can have it all cannot be appeased by it.

  3. Will@Welly 3
    25 December 2013 at 10:25 am

    Christmas, turning to crap for too many kids? There was a time when Christmas meant a carefree time for most children, but now, who could have imagined children bowling along to Santa, and asking for a roof over their head, and food on the table – what has this society become?
    My parents grew up during the real “great depression” – getting an orange in the Christmas stocking was a real treat, bananas were virtually unheard of. But there was none of the crap we see today. People bandied together, now under the neo-liberal facade, it’s every man/woman and their dog for themselves – I’m alright – till they themselves find they are in the crap.
    This reminds me of a war footing, people struggling just to get by, and all the right can do is cut, cut, cut. Where are the real jobs – not everyone can work in IT, do we condemn half of society to live in poverty because there are no jobs or what jobs there are pay so little that people can not live on what they are paid?
    The children of the wealthy are getting the latest X-Boxes and Play Stations, the children of the poor and impoverished will be having lunch, if they’re lucky, at places like the City Mission. Truly, a nation of two halves.
    I should be wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, but then I think, f**k, John Key, Bill English, Steven Joyce, and all those f**k you !!

  4. Adrian 4
    25 December 2013 at 2:31 pm

    Best wishes to all, lets hope ours come true when the big vote comes. We did it in Chch East, we can do it for the whole country.
    The children are home for the holidays from Uni and the striking difference this year is the number of their mates who are not working,not because they don’t want to but because the jobs aren’t there. Our two have work at home but not fulltime and pick up a bit of fruit picking and odd jobs for people we know, but even those who have had jobs in previous long Uni breaks can’t get back to those jobs as the proprietors are being a lot more careful.
    Ours are lucky that we can pay them something but they say that they would find it bloody hard to find a decent number of hours anywhere else.
    I’ve never seen it this bad before.

    • Draco T Bastard 4.1
      25 December 2013 at 4:03 pm

      I’ve never seen it this bad before.

      And yet National and the RWNJs have the gall to say that the economy is doing well.

      • adam 4.1.1
        25 December 2013 at 6:45 pm

        It’s the bigger the lie type of propaganda. Herr Gobbles lies are in effect – so called neo-liberalism is turning into something else – slowly but surly.

    • Will@Welly 4.2
      27 December 2013 at 11:47 am

      Wellington Student Job Search have 12 jobs listed, each paying $14.00 per hour, 15 hours per week.
      10 years ago, 2 students I knew got a job for a week escorting a group of corporates around Wellington who were here for a conference, and were paid $15.00 p/h cash. They couldn’t believe their luck. It seems that today even uni students no longer command a premium on the job market they once did.

  5. Matthew 5
    25 December 2013 at 10:26 pm

    My Christmas wish is for a higher standard of reporting in the new year on this website.

    Hopefully we wont see this sort of article which repeats tired rhetoric that has already been disproven.

    • Paul 5.1
      25 December 2013 at 10:46 pm

      Oh Scrooge just turned up for Xmas.

    • Draco T Bastard 5.2
      26 December 2013 at 4:31 am

      Assertion with no backing. Tell me, have you noticed the record breaking queues outside the foodbanks?

    • Adrian 5.3
      26 December 2013 at 8:24 am

      Why do you think the unemployment numbers are down Matthew? Try getting the dole if you are a Uni student in the summer holidays. It is almost impossible and even if fluked, a days enforced fruitpicking results in a lengthy stand down. The true rate of jobless this year is by my casual and anecdotal experience worse than ever.

      • Matthew 5.3.1
        26 December 2013 at 3:42 pm

        When I was at University I did the old fashioned thing and worked while I studied. You know, not expecting the rest of society to pay for my lifestyle while I studied. Old fashioned attitude that.

        No I haven’t seen record breaking queues outside foodbanks. I heard the predictions but haven’t heard what eventuated.

        • Murray Olsen 5.3.1.1
          26 December 2013 at 6:23 pm

          You need to remember that a Bachelor of Property Administration isn’t really a real tertiary qualification. It’s just a sop to the intellectually underwhelming ACT on Campus types. Real ones need a bit more than half an hour’s work a week.

    • Francis 5.4
      27 December 2013 at 11:10 am

      My wish is for a higher standard of reporting across the entire MSM…