The Mike Hosking Breakfast

Mike's Minute: Labour's approach to poverty was a dismal failure

22 Feb 2024

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The poverty figures out yesterday confirm once and for all that what the previous Government tried to do was all theory and no reality. We are going backwards, and no amount of free money was going to fix it. Poverty reduction was Labour's calling card, it was the Jacinda Ardern nuclear moment. She was the minister in charge of it and yet, they failed. For all those bleating and worrying about the new Government's approach to welfare you might want to ask yourself why you are so upset at a change of approach, given the previous one has been proven to be an abject failure. Even Carmel "it's complicated” Sepuloni admits now they will not reach their three-year goals. The figures out yesterday entirely encompass the Labour Government approach. We saw increases in minimum wages like we had never seen. We saw an increase in Jobseeker numbers at a time no employer could actually find workers because the borders were closed. We saw state or social housing, we saw every welfare lever pulled in a way that advantaged anyone who wanted help, or food, or housing, or an excuse as to why they couldn’t actually get on with life. If you wanted the state to wipe your bum, Labour was your Government. It was all designed to deal to poverty. Their ideology, their progressive, caring approach to your plight was going to sooth, if not cure, your ills. Yet, it didn’t. It got worse. In that is the lesson of simple maths vs mad welfarism. It's crazy, left-wing, voodoo economics. Free money, printed money, handouts, no expectations and no incentives. Just scratches for itches. I would have thought it proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that a state cheque, no matter how well intentioned, does not solve your long-term problem. Work does. Accountability does. Expectation does. And that’s the change we are about to see. Yes, it's harder than taking free money. But I think you will find, because history shows, it works. Kindness, and six years of it, got us going backwards. The numbers don’t lie. It was a failed experiment, so the trick now is to fix it and never repeat it. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Mike's Minute: Labour's approach to poverty was a dismal failure

This episode hasn't been transcribed yet

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