John MacDonald:Government needs to sort out its priorities

Finance Minister Grant Robertson. Photo / Mark Mitchell

When it comes to knowing what it should be prioritising, this government is hopeless.

If you want evidence, where would you like me to start? Centralised control of the health system. A priority? No. Centralising all the polytechs around the country. A priority? Wouldn't have thought so. Restructuring water services up and down the country. A priority? Maybe in some places, but not everywhere.

That's just a start. And I actually think there are two headlines in the news today that trump all of those examples. Two headlines that, in just a few words, show how way off beam the Government has got when it comes to knowing what its priorities should be.

The first headline: 'The worst we've ever seen it': Kidscan's support for hungry children grows as food prices hit 13-year high'. And the second headline: "Government expects to spend $6 million on contractors working on public media mega-merger".

The first headline is about Kidscan saying today that it's feeding 10,000 more school kids than it was at the start of this year.

The organisation started in 2005 and it's saying the level of hunger and poverty it's seeing is like nothing it's seen before.

Its CEO Julie Chapman says: "Parents are living in deficit every week. For the first time in 17 years, we are having teachers and principals break down on the phone to us because they are seeing the level of deprivation." And she says the main thing is the kids not having enough to eat.

As for the second headline: the 6$ million being spent on contractors is part of the Government's nutbar idea to merge TVNZ and RNZ.

I say nutbar for several reasons. First, I don't think I've ever seen anyone marching in the streets or standing outside Parliament with megaphones demanding that time, effort and money go into merging two media companies which are doing fine as they are.

I've seen plenty of people marching for more cancer drugs. I've seen people marching over inadequate sentences for criminals. But never have I seen anyone demanding that truckloads of money be spent on what is nothing more than an ideological nice-to-have.

The $6 million being spent on the contractors, by the way, is a drop in the bucket compared to the $330 million the Government has in the budget for the TVNZ/RNZ merger.

Money it seems quite happy to spend when there are kids going back to school after the holidays hungry.

As one principal in the news today puts it: "The kids are tired about 20 minutes into class time. They are literally lying on the floor and I'm thinking 'What on earth is the matter?' They can't concentrate because they haven't got anything in their tummy."

Now I know as much as anyone that governments always have competing demands. Spending money on one thing means they can't spend money on something else.

But just these two headlines tell me that the Government has well and truly lost its way when it comes to knowing what really matters and when it comes to knowing what it should be spending money on first.

Mmmmm…a media merger? Or feeding hungry kids? Media merger/hungry kids/media merger/hungry kids. Let's go with a media merger. Because then we'll be able to say we've created the BBC of the South Pacific. Something this new outfit will never be - but let's put more money into that and let the kids go to school hungry.

I remember saying the day after Grant Robertson delivered this year's Budget that I thought it was shameful the Government was planning to blow money on a media merger and not give Pharmac the money it needs to buy all the drugs it wants to buy.

But I think the news today that KidsCan is feeding 10,000 more kids than it was at the start of the year, and this government still thinks it's a great idea to blow more than $300 million on merging RNZ and TVNZ, makes the whole thing even more shameful.

And just tells me that it has got its priorities all wrong.