It’s what you do with it that counts

Homepaddock blogs on Phil’s “admission of guilt”.

He cites Working For Families as one of Labour’s achievements.

Turning middle and upper income families into beneficiaries is nothing to be proud of. This policy and others like interest free student loans, KiwiRail, buying vast tracts of the high country at inflated prices . . . put New Zealand into recession early and continue to hold back the recovery.

The first time I saw WFF listed as one of Labour’s “achievements” I took a double take.

Writing a large cheque is not an achievement.

As HP mentions, Labour wrote a lot of other cheques too, like the one for KiwiRail. That’s a good example of where an achievement can be found – in getting something for that cheque that is worth more than the cheque. Obviously the KiwiRail purchase is one of the biggest financial failures of the Labour years.

In fact, if success were measured by a “bang for buck” measure, the Labour years were one long failure. Even the Section 59 changes fall into this category. By attacking force at the most “reasonable” end of the spectrum, thousands of dollars and hours of effort have gone into fighting over parental rights, while children are still abused.

New Zealand prospered during the 00’s, unfortunately the government took more of that prosperity through taxes and inflation (and often at the same time!) and spent it incredibly foolishly.

When will Phil apologise for that?