Paula Bennett, Minister for Social Development and Employment, appeared on TVNZ’s Breakfast programme this morning and with the first question out of the gate it was obvious she was there only to spin and spout the National party’s talking points.
Breakfast isn’t even close to a hard news programme, routinely serving up soft, fluffy questions, but, much to my surprise, co-host Petra Bagust began the interview with a tough question. She asked if, since National has now been in government for a term, whether they had to take some responsibility for the rise in NZ’s unemployment rate. “Well, we have to think about what we inherited,” Bennett said, spinning the excuses and propaganda faster than an ice skater can twirl.
Bennett touted infrastructure spending as something that created jobs, but somehow forgot to mention that such jobs were temporary. She also tried to dismiss the rise in unemployment, suggesting that people are “going into study”, as if to imply they don’t count, they’re not really unemployed.
The solution? Increasing “business confidence”, as if the business sector is suffering from chronic depression. Bennett is full of it. Jobs aren’t being created because businesses aren’t getting enough business because people aren’t spending. It has nothing to do with “confidence”—that’s just typical rightwing propaganda—but has everything to do with getting people spending again, and people need jobs to be able to do that.
But, then, why are we worried? Bennett preached, “there are jobs out there”. With any luck, after November Bennett can test out that theory by looking for a new job for herself.
No comments:
Post a Comment