Recently a Timaru Woman, Melissa Voice, challenged John Key to spend a few days in her shoes to find out how much of a financial struggle life can be.
Melissa is a single mum with two children. She works, she is debt free and lives within her means. She is doing all the right things but is still finding life a financial struggle. Like many Kiwis she is going backwards.
Her request to meet with John Key isn’t unreasonable – he has been PM for 2 ½ years now, during which time the cost of living has far outpaced incomes. This despite promising that everyone would be better off with him at the helm.
Melissa Voice should be applauded for speaking out and I will be more than happy to meet with her when I am next in Timaru.
For John Key, meeting everyday New Zealanders like Melissa Voice and hearing their stories should be a golden opportunity to show he is in touch with their concerns.
Clearly though, these kinds of meetings don’t meet his test of what is a good media “photo op”.
Mr Key has also recently declined invitations to spend time at food banks to see first-hand how tough life is for growing numbers of Kiwis.
Food banks around the country have reported a massive increase in demand for food banks and some like the one here in Wellington have run out of food, for the first time since the 1990s.
John Key and his government have brought in policies that have made most middle and low income people worse off, including raising gst at a time of rising prices, giving the lion’s share of tax cuts to the well off, increasing the cost of ECE and increasing ACC charges and doctors’ fees.
The least he can do is face them when asked why.
you must be joking. Would Helen or Phil do this Annette?. I would suggest that the PM is pretty busy and he spends a huge amount of time away from his family now.
Not sure what the dig about the BMW’s you ordered has to do with this.
I know talk of a world wide recession is boring but!!
j abba – I ‘m pretty sure no kids stuff Trevor he knew he would be apart from his family when he became a politician. Yup, he has to get to racing car finishes and attend the royalising of premier elite golf clubs, go to $7000 dinners and All Black games, no time for pesky idleness like food banks and people struggling to make ends meet. Funny he spent quite some time with these kinds of folks in campaign 2008?
Are you saying that once elected all bets are off and a leader only needs to spend time with those that vote for them?
jabba What nonsense, the guy minces on a catwalk, opens golf courses, is a cocktail circuit junkie but won’t visit a food bank or talk to a hard working kiwi.
It is his call and he doesn’t want to know.
Food banks running out of food for the first time since the last National government. Not a good photo opportunity for John Key, so I guess he won’t be there.
It shouldn’t be hard for you to meet her Annette, provide evidence or get banned. Trevor
Sorry Trev, thought it was in public domain. Understood.
I asked .. “Would Helen or Phil do this Annette?”.
also. did Helen, and would Phil attend sports events, expensive dinners, arty type shows mixing with the rich and famous?. Yes or n0.
I think your suggestion that he doesn’t care is wrong. The issue from what I saw, as with the question about whether Bill will continue as Min of Finance, were seen as lame attempts to get a shot on him. There are 1,000′s of questions he should be asked but you guys keep wasting opportunities.
If you don’t like the new BMWs, Annette, maybe you shouldn’t have purchased them on the taxpayer’s tab?
BMWs good value when purchased. Didnt need replacing.
Very disappointing. Key should, by the nature of his job, be interested in the plight of people down on their luck and facing hardships. Saddening, and wrong. Should not be about the ‘best’ photo ops.
I think it would be preferable if John Key met the man responsible for leaving this lady with 2 kids and told him to man up with financial responsibility. Too many men drop kids off and leave the woman to clean up the mess, which more often than not means the taxpayer.
now there’s a thought Cactus .. Annette, can you please ask the Govt what they are doing about this situation instead of going on about the BMW’s you ordered and generally the old “ambulance at the bottom of the hill” theory?
I don’t remember Helen agreeing to highly-publicised meetings with people whom the Labour government had not managed to lift off struggle street. Please provide video or mainstream publication evidence of said meetings and I will eat my words.
Yeah Cactus Kate, “man up with financial responsibility” then some idiot from Social Welfare’s fraud squad, working on a bonus/quota arrangement, turns up and pings the woman for benefit fraud. Some red neck neighbour with their ear glued to talkback radio sees the guy turn up to see his kids, being a responsible dad, then phones the “fraud line” and next minute the woman gets told she’s in a relationship, is persuaded to plead guilty to avoid a custodial sentence, then gets one anyway because the prosecution request it and red neck thinking has pervaded our judiciary so they’re all along for the ride, too. Everyone knows that “stealing from the taxpayer” is the worst crime of all, whether it’s legal or not. Is this what you mean by ‘manning up’?
And so the denigration to pathetic personal attacks continues. It is going to be a rather boring and rather one sided election if this all you have to serve up to try and win votes. Labour needs to step out from being the party of the petty green eyed monster and actually deliver policy alternatives that it is willing to have sensible debate on. MP’s are our nations leaders and as such should demonstrate the behavioural standards that set the benchmark for the rest of us. Not scrape the bottom of the barrel like this.
If you suggest Key should meet everyone primed for a cheap publicity stunt he would never lead. The same applies for Clarke, Goff, Shipley, Bolger or any other PM of the past. It is about balance and delivering a platform that is the best for the public based on the mandate they were elected to deliver. It is time to grow up people.
Banned for what you said and for being an imposter. Clare
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Smiling in his car he doth wave!
Hi Catus Kate.
To your message………….
I dont need Mr Key to find the father of my two children and clean up any mess.
Its that age old saying “know me befor you judge me” Thank you.
Thank you Annette for listening to the small fish in such a large pond.
I’ve decided to celebrate the 2nd birthday by dumping trolls without warning. You are banned. Goodbye. Trevor
Do you accept that the so-called ‘well-off’ received the ‘lions share’ of income tax cuts because they pay the most tax as a percentage of income?
V do you accept that it’s hard to survive with a life partner on $13 per hour, let alone buy private health insurance, get your kid into a school that’s rated amongst the best,and that $10 a week loss of real buying power to this earner amongst us is harder to counter than a person on $100,000 a year being taxed an extra $10 per week?
Jabba – You suggest that Phil wouldn’t go out of his way to meet the people who are struggling, this is utter rubbish. I work at the City Mission in Wanganui and was present when Phil came and spent an hour meeting with clients late last year. This was not a campaigning strategy but rather a vist from a leader to meet some real people to demonstrate that someone cares. I’m not holding my breath waiting for a phone call from John Key
According the NBR, John Key makes $100,000 a week after tax, every week, from his blind trust, even if he stayed in bed all day. How the hell would someone like that have the faintest clue what it’s like to live on a couple hundy bucks a week? In fact, if he did spend ‘a couple of days’ in Melissa’s shoes, he would be $28,571.43 richer than when he started!
Perhaps the point many miss here in the article is about the food banks. having recently tried to help them out in the Porirua area there is a whole bigger issue here. A photo opportunity with the food banks or an invitation to spend time there means addressing a much bigger problem.There is a flawed model run by 5 competing not for profit or charitable organisations just in Porirua alone. All claiming the cupboard is bare and some blatantly courting the media for their own 15 minutes of fame, but when offered genuine support or donations from the community or politicians they decide that help is not required.
It doesn’t suit their image, sadly many have lost their way and in the game of empire building and sadly are no longer working for the greater good of the cause.
There is no quick fix it will take a committed taskforce to work with the right people to produce a model that will create a more sustainable effect and in turn will be more open, honest, transparent and accountable.
Many of these charitable groups are in the business of keeping people in the poverty trap, whilst many volunteers have the cause at heart and genuinely want to make a difference those above have a somewhat different idea. Many decisions are made in order to protect what they see is Big business, and it doesn’t occur to them to see that if they are sucessful that this in turn leads to better sustainable opportunities.
Things have become all about what we can’t do, I am interested in what we can do. As an ordinary member of the community in Titahi Bay, I have decided to be part of the solution and looking for people who are all about what we can do.Looking forward to meeting Kris Faafoi today to discuss this.
Whatever the outcome of the meeting I will continue to lobby and bring attention to the real underlying issues as opposed to what the community are led to believe by silver tongued empire builders in disguise.
Because I believe our communities desrve better and there is an opportunity for the food banks to become a part of a bigger solution for everyone, and not just be the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.
So HANDS UP ANYONE who is willing to put differences and prejudices aside to focus on what we can do, after all this is our community we need to be stakeholders and stop being arm chair critics.
Good luck with your meeting and with being part of change in your community (and maybe NZ)