John,
We’re focused on holding the Government to account for it's lack of
delivery on issues that affect the lives of all New Zealanders, like
the cost-of-living crisis, making our communities safer, and
delivering outcomes in health and education.
Catch up on the latest in politics with our Week in Review
below.
Nicola Willis: Probe needed into cost of living payment
Over the past few days, we have had people around the world contact
us saying they have received the cost of living payment, despite being
ineligible because they don’t live in New Zealand. They haven’t asked
for it and many were embarrassed to receive it.
Alarmingly, Ministers have been unable to quantify the scale of
payments made to ineligible people, with Minister Parker saying they
‘don’t know what they don’t know’. We do know that some recipients
have been out of the country for many years, which suggests
potentially hundreds of thousands of expat New Zealanders and former
visa-holders could be caught in the mis-payment net.
We will be writing to the Auditor-General today to ask for an
investigation to determine the scale of these mis-payments and to
determine whether taxpayer funds have been used without the proper
authority of Parliament.
The scale of these issues could be massive. We know that there are
a million New Zealanders living overseas. We have had a report of
someone who has lived in Dubai for 22 years has got it, and of people
who have been living in Australia for many years receiving it.
The worst part of this is that it was entirely foreseeable. The
Government was warned there would be a host of problems with the
payment, and they went ahead with it anyway.
Read more from Nicola
Willis.
Chris Bishop: People living in cars has quadrupled under
Labour
Despite claiming they would fix New Zealand’s housing crisis, the
number of people forced to live in cars under Labour has more than
quadrupled to 480 in June 2022, from 108 in December 2017.
While in Opposition in 2017, Jacinda Ardern tweeted that ‘kids
living in cars and motels is not a sign of care’. Yet under her watch,
there are now over 370 more people sleeping in their cars every night
and 4100 kids are waking up each morning in motel rooms.
Simply saying that you ‘care’ is not good enough. If you care about
a problem, you act on it. There needs to be a plan, but Labour doesn’t
have one and that’s why the problem is now exponentially
worse.
Since Labour came to Government, rents are up $140 a
week and 27,000 people are on the social housing waitlist, an increase
of more than 21,000. People are being pushed out of the housing market
because of Labour’s complete and utter failure to deliver on their
housing promises.
This Government talks a big game, but nice
words won’t get people out of their cars and into a home. Having a
plan and delivering on that plan will, but sadly for New Zealanders,
Labour can’t deliver anything except worse outcomes.
Read more from Chris
Bishop.
Simon Watts: 88,324 submissions and Labour still isn’t listening
on Three Waters
Labour doesn’t care what the public has to say and will rush
through its Three Waters legislation despite intense public
opposition.
Parliament received an overwhelming 88,324 public submissions on
the Water Services Entities Bill, so National suggested a time
extension to consider them.
Despite all other political
parties on the Parliamentary committee agreeing with an extension,
Labour used its absolute majority to block it.
Labour also used
its majority to prevent most of the 16,000 people and organisations
who made submissions collected by the National Party, from making an
oral submission.
A Parliamentary committee will now spend only
four days travelling the country to hear submissions in-person from
concerned communities. Astoundingly, advertising has already begun to
fill executive positions in the water service entities, before the
committee has heard a single submission.
National will repeal
these broken reforms and will listen to New Zealanders, not shut them
out.
Read more from Simon
Watts.
Hon Louise Upston: Low unemployment hiding benefit dependency
New Zealand’s low unemployment rate is masking the explosion in
benefit dependency overseen by Labour.
Under Labour, 55 per cent more people are on the Jobseeker benefit
longer than one year. Low unemployment is only positive if more people
have jobs and fewer people depend on benefits. But that’s not what
we’re seeing under this Government.
The Prime Minister said last week ‘it does matter to us as a Labour
Government that we have people in the dignity of work’. Why then, has
her Government allowed 50,000 more New Zealanders to become dependent
on the Jobseeker benefit under their watch, particularly at a time
when employers across the country are desperately crying out for
workers?
Labour is squandering a golden opportunity to connect people on a
benefit with job vacancies, and is instead creating a social and
economic crisis down the road.
Clearly, Labour’s approach to welfare is failing Kiwis. The
Government needs to be doing far more to help people stuck on the
Jobseeker benefit to overcome barriers to getting into paid work.
Read more from Hon
Louise Upston.
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