Nothing to show for big hike in spending

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

So, in a week when Hipkins visited a partially complete bridge over the Hikuwai River, he must have had visions of his Labour caucus in a bus driving off the end of it.

We’ve had Wood and his Machiavellian handling of his airport shares, we’ve had Tinetti in front of the Privileges Committee for lying to Parliament, we’ve had Anderson continuing to defend her stance that we all feel safer, and we learnt Hipkins no longer listens to the news so has no idea what is happening in the country.

New economic stats were revealed for this Govt’s tenure and it was sobering reading. Since they came to power in 2017, core crown revenue has risen 22.1 percent — so they are taxing us up the wazoo. However, core crown spending has increased a whopping 35.6 percent.

Even a Year 4 student in our failing education system could tell you that the increase in expenses being 61 percent more than the increase in revenue is not a sustainable position.

If the huge level of borrowing was being invested into improving the country’s future and the lives of those within it, it could be acceptable. But after six years, we have next to nothing to show for it but a long line of dismal failures.

We have an economy on life support, a failing education system, a health system on the brink of collapse, a roading network the Victorians would be ashamed of, and a police force which chooses when and when not to enforce the law.

That the Govt forecasts they will be back in surplus by 2026 shows just how far they have travelled into la-la land.

To balance the ledger, though, we should look at what this Govt has delivered.

Inequality has greatly increased, a society divided more than ever, groups of marginalised people, and a media that is largely bought off.

And for five years, this “progress” was driven by a devout republican, who recently decided it would be good for her image to accept a monarchical title.

Being kind, she is clearly a person of “loose moral compass”.

Iain Boyle