A hard thing to explain about social democracy is that we WANT our taxes to go to the ‘undeserving.’

Not because we’re naive.

But because it works.

Healthy people cost less.

Educated people contribute more.

Housed people are more stable. 

The ‘undeserving’ are actually pretty good investments.

But the main point is that in a healthy society there are no ‘undeserving.’

There are just people.

 Trond Solberg, Norway

List provided by:

rogirogi2

Over the last three years…

Luxon & NACT have:

The so-called party of infrastructure … cut Cook Strait ferry deal, then paid $8 million for consultants to tell them they need new ships. $700 million wasted in total. Still no ships.

Stopped work on Auckland light rail.

Scrapped Three Waters, pushing costs onto ratepayers and increasing rates.

Wasted $4 million on a six-person advisory group to talk about crime and reduce youth offending. They achieved nothing. 

Stopped all work on the Lake Onslow renewable battery project.

Spent half a million dollars per child on boot camps despite it not to working for most kids.

Stopped school rebuilds.

Scrapped the smoke-free law to fund tax cuts.

Scrapped Fair Pay Agreements.

Gave $3 billion in tax cuts to landlords.

Paid himself $52,000 to live in one of his own 30 properties, on top of his $471,000 salary.

Stopped the Clean Car Discount, after Luxon took an $8,000 discount himself.

Blocked statistical reporting on who does and doesn’t pay their share of tax. Think about that!

Broke its election promise and didn’t scrap the app tax.

Used $4,150 of taxpayers’ money to pay for his te reo Māori classes after saying, “People in the real world should pay for it themselves.”

Halved the crayfish take for locals, but cut the commercial take by only one-fifth.

Gutted freshwater protections so cruel intensive winter grazing could continue to pollute water ways.

Took $80 million from hospitals.

Cut DOC funding by $125 million.

Scrapped the First Home Grant.

Gave half a million dollars of taxpayers’ money to their mate Bill English to do a “review”.

Blew $8 million on consultants for a proposed tunnel under Wellington.

Gave big tobacco a $216 million tax cut.

Refused to reinstate Jobs for Nature while unemployment soared.

Reduced the qualifications needed for relief teachers.

Introduced new road tolls.

Deprioritised police responses to mental health and family violence call-outs.

Slashed $107 million a year from school lunches, costing more than 2,000 local jobs.

Spent more than $6 million on the Treaty Principles Bill, despite saying it would not support it.

Put $150 million towards partially privatising schools.

Scrapped the Productivity Commission and set up the Ministry for Regulation, which is four times bigger and more expensive.

Put a toll on a road that had already been built and paid for.

Stripped $30 million from a programme funding teachers to learn te reo Māori.

Cut the allocated $750 million for the new Whangārei Hospital.

Broke its promise and downgraded the Dunedin Hospital rebuild.

Allowed commercial fishing in highly protected areas. Yes you read that right.

Increased ACC levies.

Broke its pre-election promise to lower the bowel cancer screening age.

Halved support for apprentices.

Took away the first-year Fees Free scheme for tertiary education.

Removed the Reserve Bank’s mandate to support maximum sustainable employment.

Took away support designed to help people back into work.

Sacked 700 scientists.

Cut the First Home Loan scheme.

Halved the government contribution to KiwiSaver.

Halved the Community Conservation Fund.

Defunded Māori services by $757 million in one Budget.

Changed the RMA to allow farmers to discharge pollution into rivers without consent.

Gave $300 million to oil and gas companies.

Went back on a law to ban cruel pig sow crates.

Raided the Climate Emergency Response Fund.

Put a tax on everyone’s power bill.

Spent money and time making English an official language, while saying there wasn’t time to pass modern slavery legislation.

Cancelled a 70-million-litre diesel storage facility, then had to build another one at a far bigger cost.

Gave the racing industry more than $1 million in fuel subsidies.

Let the fishing industry write rules that would have resulted in no size limits for them. Those changes are now on hold for if they get back in.

Raided $100 million from the Tourism Levy that was meant to go towards conservation.

Is trying to change DOC’s mandate towards generating profit rather than protecting conservation land.

Is stripping fisheries management powers from regional councils and handing them exclusively to Fisheries New Zealand.

Changed the law so citizens can’t take polluters to court.

Rigged the voting system so people can’t vote on voting day unless they’ve enrolled a month earlier.