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Home > The Mike Hosking Breakfast > Mike's Minute: What's gone so wrong with the Govt's welfare policy?


	Podcast:		The Mike Hosking Breakfast
	Episode:		Mike's Minute: What's gone so wrong with the Govt's welfare policy?
	Category:		News & Politics
	Duration:		00:02:10
	Publish Date:		2022-03-21 20:40:09
	Description:		Read Steve Chadwick's letter to Carmel Sepuloni. She is the mayor of Rotorua and she is seeing her city wrecked by the behaviour in the motels. The emergency housing scheme in motels cost this country $1 million a day. And they cost $1 million a day because the social housing queue is 25,000 deep and growing. And it's 25,000 deep and growing because the Government thinks that solving it by building houses is somehow going to be a solution. You wonder how long it will take them, given it's been 4 years so far, before they realise that it isn't and that all they have done is create an industry of abuse of the taxpayer. The only saving grace of the motels being home for the troubled and homeless is it’s a revenue stream during a time when the tourists weren't coming. But how you can be a motelier and put up with all the nonsense I have no idea, but maybe it's desperate times and desperate measures. What is not really talked about by this Government either because they are embarrassed or they simply don’t get it, is that the homeless in motels are homeless generally for a reason. The Government would like you to believe they are on hard times. Through no fault of their own, life has turned against them, and if only they could just catch a break, they can put things right and be on their way. It's the argument for the social welfare net, it's a short-term reprieve from life's unluckiness. The reality, as Chadwick's letter portrays, is that, by in large, that is not remotely close to reality. Are there genuine cases? Of course. Are those genuine cases the bulk of the 25,000 and growing? Of course not. It's the same way the ram raiders of the local shops are poor, deprived youths looking for someone to love them. So Chadwick's city gets a reputation, no one is going to Rotorua, people fear Rotorua, even people who call Rotorua home. Sepuloni says she can't do anything about it. Really? Is that honestly their view? What's going so badly wrong with this Government's social agenda is it offers too many excuses for basically being a thug. You don't have to pay your rent, you don't have to look for a job, the police won't arrest and charge you, and no one gets evicted. This Government offers the troublemakers a free pass. And as such, the industry in bad behaviour booms. The mayor writes to the Minister, and gets fobbed off. Meantime the rest of us work hard to pay the bill for it. What happened to accountability and aspiration? And when did the Government stop backing the regular Kiwi and start favouring the down and outers? Why is being the lowest denominator a boom industry? And why does Labour put up with it, if not encourage it? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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