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This government arrived on a promise of “fixing” our financial problems. A lot of these shortfalls have been artificially created; as an example, our healthcare
by frio 2y ago
This government arrived on a promise of “fixing” our financial problems. A lot of these shortfalls have been artificially created; as an example, our healthcare sector went from breaking even to being “hundreds of millions” in deficit after the budget was massaged. That created the “crisis” that let them fire the board in charge and appoint a commissioner who has been aggressively slashing public services in order to meet the new budget. The reduction in service is driving growth in the private insurance sector.
Science is in a similar position. The shortfalls they’re talking about now are shortfalls they created last year and left to rot so they could have a crisis now.
It’s cynical and depressing.
- raydiak 2y agoChilling foreshadowing playbook for the next four years of DOGE, DOE, DOJ, DOD, et al in the US
- robocat 2y ago> A lot of these shortfalls have been artificially created Can you point to a link showing this? Officially: Our revised budget for 2024/25 is a $1.1 billion deficit. This is significantly lower than the $1.76 billion deficit we were heading towards without our cost reduction programme,” Ms Apa says https://www.tewhatuora.govt.nz/corporate-information/news-and-updates/health-nz-end-of-year-deficit-confirmed https://www.tewhatuora.govt.nz/corporate-information/news-an...
- frio 2y agoI’m on my phone right now and getting search engines to limit their time frame in a mobile UI is tiresome, so I’ll do that when I’m back at a computer :) (but the core thing to do is compare projected budget under the previous govt and actual budget under this govt). Both of those numbers above are post-new budget. The budgeted “increase” in healthcare was less than the increases in population and inflation. It gets worse when we add in the fact that NZ has an aging population with requisite cost increases. This govt gave us tax cuts and restored billions of dollars in tax rebate for landlords which decreased the spending pool available for things like healthcare.
- robocat 2y agoHealthcare is insatiable: we can always spend more and most people feel awful for those that miss out (due to budget constraints). Choices need to be made, compromises decided. And everybody will complain that the decisions were wrong for them.