Health specialists call for independent inquiry into funding, saying Lester Levy's plans for $1.4 billion of cuts will slice into services after years of under-funding; Elderly poverty already hitting
Music is my refuge from the political horrors. I have rediscovered our wonderful Concert programme, although that is probably on the chopping list too.
I think the more interesting point about Tama Potaka’s quote is that many of the people from emergency housing have gone into (I assume new) KO housing. Built by who, not this government… So was this a case of National claiming credit for the outcome of a Labour policy they opposed and have since cancelled?
Yes, it was an interesting twist there from Tama, I think the question was where did the 200 go when they left the motels, not where are they now. Surely they know what their intentions were when they kicked them out? Till otherwise proved, the headline should be Tama kicked 200 kids out onto the streets in the middle of winter, not 1000 children out of motels.
As an ex health specialist one might be seriously concerned about funding. I was involved in the health reforms of the 90’s( the cost cutting rhetoric I mistakenly believed at the time, was spearheaded by one Lester Levy and the American system which may be the present objective).
By the way I realise “anecdote is not evidence “but in the second week of July I drove the Inland Scenic route to Central Otago from Ch Ch( I originally am a South Islander). Lake levels then looked OK to me. I do not want to call bullshit on the gentailers but the images on One News were totally different. ? Old file pictures.
The graph on falling inflation with oil price is interesting, Ms Willis and her austerity policies have apparently saved the whole world from inflation and forced oil prices down - much of it before she was even a minister.
That's was a good quote of yours the other day Bernard: laundry list of policy vandalism
And It comes to mind again this morning.
I sure do appreciate your work- I seldom read any of the emails but I almost always listen to the recordings.
And just to reiterate:Thankyou for all your work.
I will understand if you move more into the kaka project space and away from laundry list space too- purely for job satisfaction and mental wellbeing reasons (grey warblers and kaka sure do take the edge off!)
I suspect like a lot of people I am becoming increasingly frustrated by the synthetic outrage from the government on the alleged “overspending” on health. It already seems clear from articles on the Kaka that the funding position was well known over a year ago.
But just step back from the sound and fury from the ministers. There seems to be no dispute that the health service is short of thousands of key “frontline” staff: doctors, nurses and GPs. If these positions were all filled the wage bill would go up by $1b?. So can there be any realistic argument against the fact that the public health service is seriously underfunded?
The other troubling point - trying to find the related article - that both Reti and Levy have interests in private medicine. Surely this is a far more serious conflict of interest than the holding in Auckland airport which saw Michael Woods sacked?
How to further the ideological programme of underfunding basic public services in order to facilitate the privatisation and financialisation of such services.
- do not start by defining what public services to provide and to what level, then providing the funding for this
RATHER
- pick some arbitrary point in time and catastrophise the absolute increase in in public servants/funding since then, the current arbitrary point used by this government and its NZ Initiative masters is just before the start of the Sixth Labour-led government,
- have zero evidence to support this arbitrary point, but fudge this by flooding the air waves with (often fact-free) anecdotes of disaster
- assert with no evidence that there must be billions of wasted spending occurring and getting rid of that wasted spending will not cut public services
- talk about front line/back office instead of integrated team
- ignore the fact that central government is a currency-issuer, instead treat public finances as the same as household finances
- never express the size of public sector in per capita or in real terms - this makes it possible to claim that the health budget has never been greater when , in fact, the last budget cut operational health spending by some 3% per capita in real terms
- endlessly assert that the private sector always does things better than the public sector
- don't talk about public money, misrepresent it as 'taxpayers money' (taxpayers money is what a person paying tax has left over after paying tax)
- outsource, dumb down the public sector, destroy public institutional knowledge and capability, let contracts to donors, run 'independent' reviews guaranteed to produce the ideological results wanted
- ignore conflicts of interest
No doubt there are other things than can be added.
I’d happily contribute to full size adverts/inserts in NZ Herald or Post, eg, to expose this Government’ underlying ideology.
The current chaos isn’t because of misplaced or ignorant, alignment to “balancing the household like national budget, but in pursuit of another agenda.
We need to demand that the net NZ Superannuation benefit for a couple be raised to the higher of 80% of the after-tax fulltime average wage or 100% of the after-tax fulltime median wage, and that the single living-alone allowance rise proportionately to continue to be 65% of that.
To help balance the cost, everyone signing up for NZ Superannuation must go on a separate tax scale that would put a surtax on all other income, as proposed by Susan St John:
Even if they are not, cheerfully cutting thousands of jobs claiming bloated public service and then establishing a new ministry with not only a much bigger number of employees at much higher salaries is the poster boy of hypocrisy. How do we get the media to hound Luxon about this?
Great photo - and a fitting one for an economics-based newsletter - because it brings to mind the saying 'a rising tide lifts all boats'. And Wikipedia quotes NZ's own David Parker on a variation of that saying:
Just listened to your contribution on the detail, thanks I hope that a good number of people listen to it. I enjoyed that this time you were quite unequivocal.
Am I on my own when I get concerned that our inexperienced PM backs up a loud mouthed Cabinet Minister in that Tova O'Brien article and points out that the Judge being attacked was a member of the Socialist Unity Party in her youth? Is this not shades of McCarthyism?
Nice riroriro as well as kākā this morning. I find I’m listening to the birds more and more. Can’t cope with human reality.
Music is my refuge from the political horrors. I have rediscovered our wonderful Concert programme, although that is probably on the chopping list too.
I keep meaning to retune my old radios…
If you have internet radio you can also get the Australian ABC's jazz station.
The more people who know what’s going on the better
I think the more interesting point about Tama Potaka’s quote is that many of the people from emergency housing have gone into (I assume new) KO housing. Built by who, not this government… So was this a case of National claiming credit for the outcome of a Labour policy they opposed and have since cancelled?
Yes, it was an interesting twist there from Tama, I think the question was where did the 200 go when they left the motels, not where are they now. Surely they know what their intentions were when they kicked them out? Till otherwise proved, the headline should be Tama kicked 200 kids out onto the streets in the middle of winter, not 1000 children out of motels.
As an ex health specialist one might be seriously concerned about funding. I was involved in the health reforms of the 90’s( the cost cutting rhetoric I mistakenly believed at the time, was spearheaded by one Lester Levy and the American system which may be the present objective).
By the way I realise “anecdote is not evidence “but in the second week of July I drove the Inland Scenic route to Central Otago from Ch Ch( I originally am a South Islander). Lake levels then looked OK to me. I do not want to call bullshit on the gentailers but the images on One News were totally different. ? Old file pictures.
Patrick Medlicott
https://www.transpower.co.nz/system-operator/notices-and-reporting/weekly-reporting/hydro-information
Thanks Andrew
P
The graph on falling inflation with oil price is interesting, Ms Willis and her austerity policies have apparently saved the whole world from inflation and forced oil prices down - much of it before she was even a minister.
Notice the uptick in oil prices in the last period - a hint that inflation is going to increase again?
That's was a good quote of yours the other day Bernard: laundry list of policy vandalism
And It comes to mind again this morning.
I sure do appreciate your work- I seldom read any of the emails but I almost always listen to the recordings.
And just to reiterate:Thankyou for all your work.
I will understand if you move more into the kaka project space and away from laundry list space too- purely for job satisfaction and mental wellbeing reasons (grey warblers and kaka sure do take the edge off!)
(But the laundry lists I find very useful!)
Thanks! I'll do my best to include The Kākās regardless.
I suspect like a lot of people I am becoming increasingly frustrated by the synthetic outrage from the government on the alleged “overspending” on health. It already seems clear from articles on the Kaka that the funding position was well known over a year ago.
But just step back from the sound and fury from the ministers. There seems to be no dispute that the health service is short of thousands of key “frontline” staff: doctors, nurses and GPs. If these positions were all filled the wage bill would go up by $1b?. So can there be any realistic argument against the fact that the public health service is seriously underfunded?
The other troubling point - trying to find the related article - that both Reti and Levy have interests in private medicine. Surely this is a far more serious conflict of interest than the holding in Auckland airport which saw Michael Woods sacked?
How to further the ideological programme of underfunding basic public services in order to facilitate the privatisation and financialisation of such services.
- do not start by defining what public services to provide and to what level, then providing the funding for this
RATHER
- pick some arbitrary point in time and catastrophise the absolute increase in in public servants/funding since then, the current arbitrary point used by this government and its NZ Initiative masters is just before the start of the Sixth Labour-led government,
- have zero evidence to support this arbitrary point, but fudge this by flooding the air waves with (often fact-free) anecdotes of disaster
- assert with no evidence that there must be billions of wasted spending occurring and getting rid of that wasted spending will not cut public services
- talk about front line/back office instead of integrated team
- ignore the fact that central government is a currency-issuer, instead treat public finances as the same as household finances
- never express the size of public sector in per capita or in real terms - this makes it possible to claim that the health budget has never been greater when , in fact, the last budget cut operational health spending by some 3% per capita in real terms
- endlessly assert that the private sector always does things better than the public sector
- don't talk about public money, misrepresent it as 'taxpayers money' (taxpayers money is what a person paying tax has left over after paying tax)
- outsource, dumb down the public sector, destroy public institutional knowledge and capability, let contracts to donors, run 'independent' reviews guaranteed to produce the ideological results wanted
- ignore conflicts of interest
No doubt there are other things than can be added.
Indeed.
I’d happily contribute to full size adverts/inserts in NZ Herald or Post, eg, to expose this Government’ underlying ideology.
The current chaos isn’t because of misplaced or ignorant, alignment to “balancing the household like national budget, but in pursuit of another agenda.
How long will your retirement savings last? Answer: Not long enough.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/money/350384118/how-long-will-your-retirement-savings-actually-last
We need to demand that the net NZ Superannuation benefit for a couple be raised to the higher of 80% of the after-tax fulltime average wage or 100% of the after-tax fulltime median wage, and that the single living-alone allowance rise proportionately to continue to be 65% of that.
To help balance the cost, everyone signing up for NZ Superannuation must go on a separate tax scale that would put a surtax on all other income, as proposed by Susan St John:
https://www.auckland.ac.nz/assets/business/about/our-research/research-institutes-and-centres/RPRC/PensionBriefing/Pension-briefing-2021-2-NZS-as-basic-income.pdf
That will still provide only for a bare-bones existence, and won't be enough for people who must rent in retirement.
The state must build, own, and manage vast numbers of homes for secure, lifetime, income-moderated rent by all who want them.
Conspiracy Theory for today.
How many of the well-paid public servants in the Ministry of Regulation are ACT members and/or donors?
Even if they are not, cheerfully cutting thousands of jobs claiming bloated public service and then establishing a new ministry with not only a much bigger number of employees at much higher salaries is the poster boy of hypocrisy. How do we get the media to hound Luxon about this?
Great photo - and a fitting one for an economics-based newsletter - because it brings to mind the saying 'a rising tide lifts all boats'. And Wikipedia quotes NZ's own David Parker on a variation of that saying:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_rising_tide_lifts_all_boats
Just listened to your contribution on the detail, thanks I hope that a good number of people listen to it. I enjoyed that this time you were quite unequivocal.
Am I on my own when I get concerned that our inexperienced PM backs up a loud mouthed Cabinet Minister in that Tova O'Brien article and points out that the Judge being attacked was a member of the Socialist Unity Party in her youth? Is this not shades of McCarthyism?
Interesting comment from Sir Geoffrey Palmer, highlighting and clarifying issues that are so disturbing to me.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/08/23/geoffrey-palmer-lurching-towards-constitutional-impropriety/?utm_source=Newsroom&utm_campaign=a37d92212f-Daily_Briefing+23.08.2024&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_71de5c4b35-a37d92212f-97857323&mc_cid=a37d92212f&mc_eid=d5068b6e8a