Well, PM Key said it : Pete Bethune is “downright ungrateful” for the support he had from NZ when he was locked up in a Japanese jail.
That’s a question that has already been hotly debated on Red Alert. But it set me thinking, especially after a day out in the community (that’s Key’s, McCully’s, Coleman’s, Mapp’s and Lockie’s (electorate) community) about what we should be downright ungrateful for:
- We should be downright ungrateful for having a PM that no-one challenges (much) because he smiles and waves and everyone forgets to ask the hard questions;
- We should be downright ungrateful for having a government that is attacking ACC, but hardly anyone notices, because after all, we’re just talking about the injured, the sexually damaged and older people;
- We should be downright ungrateful that our older people have had their home care and/or their meals on wheels cut, even although it meant they could continue to live at home, rather than costing a fortune elsewhere;
- We should be downright ungrateful for Anne Tolley, who is the worst Education Minister ever, and who has left the early childhood education sector completely bemused about why her government thinks it’s more important to spend money on prisons than our children;
- We should be downright ungrateful for the PM’s exhortation that we should all learn Mandarin, even although his government has cut Adult and Community Education – and there’s now no chance to learn anything, let alone Mandarin;
- We should be downright ungrateful for the vehicle regos going up on 1 July, the increase in ACC levies and power and petrol prices on the up and up, and that’s before we factor in the GST increase coming our way;
- And we should be really ungrateful that most middle and lower income people won’t get tax cuts that go anywhere compensating for all of the cost increases either here or ahead of us.
I don’t want anyone to get the wrong message. There’s a lot I am grateful for, but that’s nothing to do with John Key and his NAct government.
How about you? Are you an ungrateful b*st*rd too?
(PS, glad Pete’s home safe).
Simon, I think Hillside Engineering in Dunedin has been lobbying Labour. So yes, small local companies do lobby Labour when they do not find any reception from the National Govt.
So the only certainty is not the benefit, which may (perhaps) help the few but certainly not the many, it is the multi-million dollar cost to the health system which deprives everyone else. Loota how about the mengigitis inoculation that lasted 3 years cover (This was not widely made public) or the reaction to the govt buying drugs re Swine flue that now as past its expirely date. Or that even with surpluses exceeding $10b Lab cut funding for breast reconstruction surgery. Women get funded for Breast screening yet men are underfunded re prostate screening, unfortunately it is who screams loudest at election time.
We also have increased our skill oin extending life this has a consequence that many on us do not want to enter into discussion (especially polllys !!) tax dollar spend vs keeping our dearly loved ones alife longer, and this cost comes from somewhere to be funded do we cut education, DOC hard decissions that are not faced up to.
http://www.breastcancer.org.nz/reconstruction.htm
Hi Herodotus you raise lots of good points and contrasts.
What I find somewhat galling is when some medical benefit is totally mis-sold to the public to justify the spending. The MeNZ B vaccination was a classic in my mind. Parents expected several years of protection from that vaccination for their children, expecially considering that teenagers were an at risk group. But right at the end of the programme, authorities came forward and said – young toddlers who got the shot will probably only have protection for 6 months or less. Our research has been suggesting this for a while but we’re only announcing the results now.
Just awful, it makes a travesty of informed choice where the balance of risks and benefits is completely changed by a revelation like this, and wrecks trust.
Spud, there’s an easy way to overcome political depression. Vote for winners!!!
I’m gonna vote for the dream team (Lab
ur) 
And hope that they win! 
Oh Dear, more depression. (Whoops, that’s chat Spud, better stop)