(no subject)

[labellementeuse]

Oh, National's just going from strength to strength this week! In a spirited attempt to wrest the title of "most moronic National Party spokesperson of the month" from Bill English, Tony Ryall today revealed that the National Party would remove the restrictions which prevent GPs from charging whatever they like for their services. The cap was instituted by the Labour Government, as part of a deal which included increased funding for health services from the gvt. Ryall said that GP costs were not a priority for New Zealand voters. Most tellingly, according to 3 News, this policy is not in National's publicly available health policy brochure/manifesto/whatever.

These repeated slip-ups demonstrate that the National Party is not being honest with voters - or is choosing not to divulge what their real plans are should they be elected. When considering who to vote for next year, remember this stuff, guys. This is still the same party that raised state housing rents to market prices and slashed welfare payments in the 90s: this is the party that wants to give you a tax cut, but doesn't want to take care of the needs of every person in the country. This is the party whose answer to everything is "the market will take care of it." That's what John Key said today when asked whether he thought GP's prices would rise if National removed the cap. The proverbial market will apparently take care of your rents, your wages, your job, your education, your health.

Of course, the same market will guarantee privileged access to health and education to the wealthy, and happily forget people who can't afford to pay.

I'd rather pay taxes.

Meanwhile, the keywords for this new icon are "har har BULLSHIT."

Comments

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I mean, in general, rent increases every year. State housing is owned by the gvt, I believe, and yes, rented to people who qualify. An interesting factoid is that the last time the Nats brought state housing rent up to be equal with non-subsidised housing, child poverty in NZ tripled (source (http://labellementeuse.livejournal.com/130454.html)).

Your comments about house vs apartment are interesting - apartments/flats are very uncommon in new zealand and most of them are flash inner-city apartments. The ones that aren't flash are probably big blocks of state housing.