We are sad and fearful that New Zealanders have voted for some pretty cruel policies. National have never been friends of the poor and have said they’ll sanction beneficiaries once again. We remember Ruth Richardson and then Paula Bennett and Anne Tolley did the same.
We remember Peggy Noble and Susan Cleveland, the two Winz workers who were shot and killed by a client in their Ashburton office. There was a subsequent need to pay for security staff at all of their offices to protect the staff from deprived, hungry and desperate people. It was later found that many had not been given their full entitlements.
All we see is harsher poverty coming for many. It is without doubt the single worst kind of outcome because that is the foundation of every negative statistic that we see — crime, poor health, lack of education and loss of opportunity, street dwelling or living in cars; all are derivatives of poverty.
In the end it breeds violence and unrest, leading eventually to the rise of gangs and terrorism.
New Zealand has voted for that; it is how first world countries become third world.
