The announcement by Jacinda Ardern of a day off to celebrate Matariki of itself pretty much sums up her three years as Prime Minister. This is nothing more than a simplistic ploy to cement in votes from one of Labour’s core constituencies. I could say any simpleton could have come up with the suggestion. Not wishing to label Jacinda as such, I found a similar word which is gothamite. This is apt for her as gothamites are inhabitants of New York where she is probably hoping to reside, in my view hopefully sooner rather than later.
On Tuesday afternoon Sean Plunket spoke to both Stuart Nash and David Seymour on the ramifications of this decision. Nash spoke of the terrific upside for the tourism sector and the economy in general. Seymour brought commonsense and reality to the discussion and the audience reaction was that Nash was talking a load of BS and their party votes were going to Act. Again this highlights Labour’s complete ignorance of business and how it operates.
Rather than reiterate all the obvious past non-performance such as Kiwibuild we should look at recent documentation highlighting failures relating to social issues some of which Jacinda is directly responsible for. The Unicef report shows that New Zealand continues to fail children. Personally, I’m not a great fan of Unicef but facts are facts. The first fact is that New Zealand is one of the worst countries in the developed world to be a child. We rank 35th out of the 41 richest countries. The second fact is that our youth suicide rate is the second-worst at 14.9 deaths per 100,000 adolescents. While the report noticed a drop in the past year it also observed an increase in suicides in Asians and older people.
We have major problems with child well being outcomes including obesity with the second highest rate in the OECD. More than one in three are overweight. I thought most people were too poor to put food on the table. Must be the takeaways. The report further notes that only 64.6 per cent of 15 year olds have basic proficiency in reading and maths. No doubt they are highly proficient in climate change matters and other left wing ideologies. Obviously, we need to bring back charter schools.
A pretty damning report. Of course, it’s all the fault of the previous government according to Chris Hipkins. It’s never their fault is it? Nothing they do, like getting rid of charter schools, is ever their fault when patently it is. There is absolutely no accountability for decisions they make or money they spend. Hipkins said obesity was a complex problem. Yes Chris, we know, just like the “tricky virus” you’re proving to be so useless at coping with.
Jacinda is equally dismissive saying it predates the Government’s $5.5 billion Families Package and setting child poverty targets which she as Minister has failed to meet. Labour Governments need to learn that money is not the answer to every problem. She also says they’ve lifted 18,400 children out of poverty (wonder where she got that figure from?) and improved seven out of nine child poverty measures. Obviously, she’s been too successful and now has an obesity problem on her hands.
Since Jacinda was anointed welfare numbers and those on the Job Seeker Support have both risen. This trend was well in place pre-COVID. Mind you, this always happens under a Labour Government, a good percentage of whom form part of their core voter base. She’ll no doubt be happy about that. The reality is this Government has been an abject failure in all portfolio areas. But hey, not to worry. Audrey Young said that the announcement of an extra day to laze about meant Labour won the first day back on the campaign trail hands down. Spare me.
To finish off, an English tale that could apply to Jacinda or in fact anyone in the Government as it concerns a man from Gotham. In order to make it more applicable here the man will become a woman.
There was a woman of Gotham who rode to market with two bushels of wheat. In order to spare her horse from carrying too great a burden, she decided to carry the corn herself upon her own neck while riding her horse until she arrived at the end of her journey. Now I will leave you to judge who was the wisest, her horse or herself.
I rest my case.
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