David Shearer was on The Nation on Sunday, continuing to emphasise for us all that he sees absolutely no problem in psychically diagnosing people’s health based on their neighbour’s greedy, judgemental envy.
And he rejected criticism from his party’s left over his references to a sickness beneficiary who had been well enough to paint a roof.
“You know you work, you pay your taxes, and then when you need it you lose your job, you have an accident, the State looks after you.
“As soon as you’re able to get back onto your feet again, the expectation is that you go back and you start paying your way again.”
He elaborates:
the speech that I made is about fairness, and it is about a social contract, and it is about paying your way, and then living up to your responsibilities at the other end. That’s all it was, and New Zealanders are very very attuned to somebody doing the right thing, whether it be paying their taxes, or not taking advantage of the welfare system.
Now sure, there’s nothing wrong with fairness, and there’s nothing wrong with talking about “doing the right thing” – what is wrong is the Leader of the Labour Party claiming he gives a crap about fairness while continuing to defend that anecdote.
Because if he wasn’t calling the guy painting his roof an evil bludger, if he wasn’t taking it upon himself to judge another person’s right to a benefit, if he wasn’t in favour of believing everything a grudge-holding stranger tells him … he wouldn’t still be saying “as soon as you’re able to get back onto your feet again”. He wouldn’t be saying “New Zealanders are very attuned to somebody doing the right thing.”
Because all that says is “clearly, this guy was back on his feet, and clearly his neighbour was “attuned” enough to make medical judgements about him.”
David Shearer, plainly, still thinks it’s okay to make assumptions about other people based on gossip. David Shearer still thinks it’s okay to label people he’s never met as bludgers just to make some point about “fairness” – and per my previous post, it’s a very nasty kind of “fairness” that involves throwing sick people into the gutter just because it’ll win a vote from their petty, mean-spirited neighbours.
David Shearer, Leader of the Labour Party, literally uses the phrase paying your way to describe how people should behave.
Meanwhile, somewhere else, another David was delivering an interesting speech about economics and supporting the vulnerable. Lucky for him Labour’s a “broad church”, right, David S?
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