Bouquets for the new government
Mining, big data, social investment, paid parental leave, and pēpi in the House. The new government’s not mucking around remedying some of the previous government’s plunder and pillage policies.
social investment
Still spinning “social investment”
Directing welfare spending where it will do most good makes sense. But let’s make sure that that is what it is, not an excuse to simply cut funding, stigmatise, and target “undesireables”. National’s record does not inspire confidence, to say the very least. Then there’s the hypocrisy…
MSD and our privacy
National’s plans for our privacy and access to social services are a perfect cocktail of over-reach and incompetence.
Spinning ‘social investment’
Bill English has co-opted the old term “social investment” to replace another old term “targeted welfare”. Simon Wilson (writing at The Spinoff) has bought into the spin and written a deeply confused piece about it.