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The mother of the mother of all budgets is unrepentant

Written By: - Date published: 3:07 pm, June 20th, 2025 - 15 comments
Categories: child welfare, national, national/act government, political parties, poverty, same old national - Tags:

Who else saw Q&A on TVNZ last Sunday and the Jack Tame interview the mother of the mother of all budgets Ruth Richardson?

And who else developed instant Taurettes as they saw her try and justify some of the most evil and reprehensible decisions every made by a New Zealand Government?

The interview started out in a way which people should note because it speaks volumes.

Jack Tame said “kia ora good morning”. Richardson responded with a curt “good morning”. Refusing to use Te Reo Maori says a lot about a Kiwi’s view of their country.

She then displayed what a delusional and shallow depth of understanding she has.

She claimed credit for slaying inflation and promoting a high-growth high-wage high-employment economy.

Which is to use the technical term total bollocks. Unemployment under her reign, peaked and subsided but then rose again during the late 1990s. The only times it has consistently come down was under the Helen Clark and Jacinda Ardern governments although there was a spike with Covid.

Her suggestion that we are a high wage country is embarrassing. If this is the case then why do so many kiwis move to Australia?

She claimed simplistically that Three Waters was a confiscation of property. This is interesting and simplistic phrasing given that it was by one public entity from another public entity.

Her shallow depth of understanding is shown by her infatuation with debt. In a rather scathing assessment of Nicola Willis’s stewardship she said this:

It’s clear that we have a fiscal position where debt is soaring to dangerous levels no sight of a balanced set of books and we are not managing the fiscal risks prudently and we are piling up the cost for the next generation and the taxpayer union calls the next generation “generation screwed” because they will pay the price for inaction now.

She is obsessed with debt. She showed no sign of understanding how for long term infrastructure to be viable public entities have to borrow.

She was proud that she increased the age of eligibility for superannuation from 60 to 65. She advocated for the age of eligibility to be raised. She was more reluctant to reintroduce means testing. I suspect that self interest may have got in the way of her principles on this occasion.

Asset sales according to her were fine.

At one stage Tame confronted Richardson with this table showing that child poverty had surged under her watch, reduced under Helen Clark’s reign but then increased and plateaued again under National.

Richardson’s response was to totally ignore the reality of what happened.

She said:

The spike that New Zealand had to deal with was debt and deficits and there was no shrinking that responsibility because if i was part of a government that looked the other way we would have condemned the country to generalized poverty.

When asked who should be blamed she showed her agility by blaming Jacinda Arden and claimed essentially that we should have continued with the far right approach to economic management.

Thirty four years on Richardson is still utterly convinced that she was right in what she did.

And she shows no ability of self reflection. Like when she said in response to a question about the term Ruthenasia “well that was Cullen and he was smarmy and he liked to denigrate, I don’t engage in the politics of denigration”. Calling someone “smarmy” and claiming you do not engage in the politics of denigration in the same sentence is pretty amazing.

Richardson is the current head of the Taxpayer’s Union and a recent recipient of the Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. Which shows what this Government’s priorities are.

Here is the video if you can stomach it.

15 comments on “The mother of the mother of all budgets is unrepentant ”

  1. SPC 1
    20 June 2025 at 4:17 pm

    Slashed benefits and applied market rents in state housing because … TINA.

    Required those thrown out of jobs, or unable to work, to live on those benefits age 60 to 65. TINA.

    ECA. Held down MW. TINA.

    Then used the budget gains to get rid of the estate tax (making us the only OECD nation without a CGT or estate tax).

    Neo-liberal+ – class war practitioner.

    Removed after a term, so Bolger could live with himself.

    Unemployment peaked at 10.6% in 1991 and 1992 (two of her three years).

    People began to move to Oz (had growth) rising from less than 3,000 in 1991-92 to almost 30,000 in 1999-2000.

    Reply
  2. tc 2
    20 June 2025 at 4:22 pm

    She'd be annoyed Willis isn't going far enough. She'd run rings around most of the entire current cabinet such is its depth IMO.

    As for blaming Jacinda, jeez how thick do they think kiwi's are lets see how that works out for them as I see Rimmer still can't help himself reminding kiwi's about the last decent PM we had.

    Reply
  3. Kay 3
    20 June 2025 at 4:23 pm

    My late best friend suffered from fixed delusions which fall under the psychosis umbrella. It is impossible to reason with someone suffering from this because the delusion is totally real for them, and they cannot be convinced otherwise.

    Richardson still being adamant that she's right, everyone else is wrong about the same topic, reminds me of how my friend was on a particular issue, except I'm pretty certain Ruth isn't suffering from any diagnosable psychotic disorder.

    Narcissistic, sadistic and possibly in pathological extreme denial about her actions. In other words, your bog-standard RW politician.

    Reply
  4. ianmac 4
    20 June 2025 at 4:41 pm

    When watching the original with Jack I believed that she believed that poor people deserved what she gave them. And was so pleased with herself for delivering the blows. I had forgotten the State Houses being put on market rents. Her arrogance and denials do suggest some sort of sickness but wielding the leadership of the Taxpayers blunt weaponary seems to be a fitting repository for her.

    Reply
  5. Corey 5
    20 June 2025 at 7:05 pm

    Aaaah!! Ruth Richardson jump scare!

    She's unique amongst former high level NZ politicians, because she has shown no reflection.

    Not to defend Douglas, but one thing that deeply annoys me is NZ's left rewriting history and blaming the 4th labour government for the policies of the 4th National government.

    There's a lot to criticize Douglas but Ruth Richardson has done immeasurable damage to NZ yet amongst lefty's she's largely unknown and Douglas is blamed for everything she did.

    Ruth Richardsons name should go down in total infamy like Liz Truss

    I often wonder what NZ would be like Douglas if Douglas instead of being a reckless ideological high paced reformer, instead copied Paul Keating, focusing on using the market to grow NZers share of the pie like ALP did

    And if Douglas had of protections and regulations on place so we weren't overexposed to the 87 wall street shock.

    I feel like the fourth labour government could have governed for a similar length to hawke Keating at such a crucial time.

    I wish we had our own Paul Keating

    Reply
    • Muttonbird 5.1
      20 June 2025 at 7:07 pm

      We know who Ruth Richardson is, champ.

      Reply
    • tc 5.2
      21 June 2025 at 2:01 pm

      Even if we had a keating type to introduce some decent reform it would get repealed if it didn't suit the hollowmen.

      NZ goes backwards because there's no bipartisan approach on key areas like health, education, infrastructure and housing.

      Every national led govt reduces our capability and stops or refuses to do the required work by kicking those cans down the road.

      The numbers dont lie, people are departing because they see no future here with this wrecking crew and a nest being shit in wherever possible it seems by jones, bishop, hoggard, brown, ACT etc.

      Seeing Ruth still at it from her TPU sinecure and the obligatory once over lightly effort from Tame……depressing.

      Reply
  6. Ed1 6
    21 June 2025 at 1:46 pm

    It is clear that the NZ Taxpayers Union is a political lobby group, with the aims of supporting some political parties and opposing others; and there are no other significant aims for that organisation. As a "Political Action Group" they should be required to disclose donations above a certain size on the same basis as political parties. Other organisations that appear to be in the same category are the NZ Initiative, NZCPR, Groundswell, and The Centrist – there may well be others. There may be some that are similar that support other parties. Regarding disclosure of donations, I see no reason not to require returns to be made no less than three months following each reporting date. Those that provide services to political parties, or to a political lobby group should also be identified, and appropriate checks made that services are not being supplied at a significant discount to normal commercial costs.

    Reply
  7. Phillip ure 7
    21 June 2025 at 4:14 pm

    It could be argued that imposing market rents on social housing tenants was the cruellest thing done to the poor..ever..

    That Richardson now fronts the let's kick the poor even more taxpayers thing/pile of right-wing bullshit..is entirely fitting…

    Reply
  8. Ad 8
    21 June 2025 at 4:41 pm

    … and gone was the sustained welfare net from Prime Ministers Savage, Fraser, Nash, Holyoke, Kirk, and Muldoon.

    A strong-state legacy for all states rebuilding billions of families after Depression and global war……

    …. now the weak-state wefate legacy of Pinochet, Thatcher and Major, Reagan and Bush 1, Yeltsin, and the rest, which our Minister of Finance burned as a new dark social trajectory faster harder and meaner than any of them….

    ….

    ……… and here we are today.

    Reply
  9. gsays 9
    21 June 2025 at 6:58 pm

    There should be a health warning with the Q&A video.
    Readers should arm themselves with a crucifix and a braid of garlic.

    The crypt has been opened.

    Reply
    • Phillip ure 9.1
      21 June 2025 at 7:06 pm

      I couldn't bring myself to watch her gloating over what she did to the fabric of this country..

      ..what she and the other bastards did…

      Why would I…?

      And as others have noted…what the current crop of bastards are also doing…

      ..to both people..and the environment…

      Reply
  10. Champagne Socialist 10
    22 June 2025 at 5:01 pm

    Jack Tame becomes a paleontologist digging up evidence of pre-historic economic world-views. After one catastrophic financial meteor after another such views have been consigned to pre-history and we have, surely, moved on.

    Willis – like Bill English – is a pragmatist and has been somewhat constrained by Keynesian economic reality. The limited contractions that have been made to government spending have tanked the NZ economy much harder and longer than anyone expected.

    Reply
    • SPC 10.1
      22 June 2025 at 5:23 pm

      1.Landlords do not spend money they look for opportunity for CG (wealth hoarding).

      2.People work from home to reduce costs while they wait further OCR decline and try and get equity growth by paying down debt.

      3.MW increases less than inflation.

      4.Expectations of improved income gone like pay equity in the wind.

      5.Laying off workers and restoring the caged beast (Work and Income) back to its former self.

      6.Placing many workers under so much such stress they just go home and survive.

      7.Pragamaticatistical … callous lout.

      Reply

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