Latest news with #NationalParty-led
Scoop
3 days ago
- Business
- Scoop
Worsening Poverty And Social Misery In New Zealand
Press Release – Socialist Equality Group The government is seeking to solve the worsening economic crisis by ramping up the exploitation of the working class, while protecting the fortunes of the super-rich. Last week New Zealand's Treasury released a Child Poverty Report, which forecast that the proportion of children living in poverty will increase from 17.7 percent in 2024 to 18.4 percent in 2029. The report was released along with the National Party-led government's austerity budget, which starves public services, while cutting workers' wages, reducing government contributions to retirement savings and barring thousands of unemployed teenagers from welfare. The government is seeking to solve the worsening economic crisis by ramping up the exploitation of the working class, while protecting the fortunes of the super-rich. Asked by a TVNZ interviewer why the government had not done more in the budget to address child poverty, Finance Minister Nicola Willis declared: 'there is not actually a magic money tree that allows me to show such generosity that I can solve every problem at once.' Year after year, successive Labour and National Party governments have trotted out this refrain, even as they have handed tens of billions of dollars to the corporate elite through tax cuts, subsidies and bailouts, and spent billions on the armed forces. The National-led coalition government—with the support of the opposition Labour Party—will spend an extra $13 billion over the next four years as part of its plan to double the size of the military and integrate New Zealand further into US-led imperialist wars. Sarita Divis of the Child Poverty Action Group, a non-government organisation, pointed out in a New Zealand Herald column last month that the $3 billion annual increase in defence spending is exactly what the Treasury itself estimated it would cost to halve the level of child poverty by 2028. The government's Child Poverty Report actually understates the extent of child poverty. Its data is more than a year old, covering the period from July 2023 to June 2024. Over the past year, the number of people in full-time work has fallen by 45,000 as unemployment increased from 4 to 5.1 percent, and living costs have continued to rise while wages stagnated. Moreover, the government defines poverty as less than 50 percent of the median household income after paying for housing costs—an extremely low bar. While the percentage of children below this poverty line was unchanged in the year to June 2024, the number of children living in 'material hardship'—the poorest of the poor—increased by almost a third between 2022 and mid-2024, from 10.5 percent to 13.4 percent. 'Material hardship' is defined as lacking access to six or more 'essentials,' such as decent housing, heating, healthy food, warm clothes and shoes, etc. Another survey, by the Ministry of Health, found that last year 27 percent of children 'lived in households where food ran out often or sometimes,' up from 21 percent the year before. Numerous reports illustrate an increasingly severe social crisis. The Christchurch Press wrote on May 22: 'Some families have moved into one heated room to keep warm, while others are taking out loans to pay their power bills as costs rise and temperatures drop.' It noted that last year, 'Consumer NZ estimated 140,000 households had to take out a loan to pay their power bill, and a further 38,000 households had their power cut at least once as they couldn't pay their bill.' In Wellington, the Post reported on May 10 that 'Food charities are facing an unprecedented surge in demand from struggling middle income earners.' In February, one soup kitchen 'served 7930 meals, 1200 more than across the same month in 2024.' Nationwide 500,000 people, one tenth of the population, relies on food banks on a regular basis. Homelessness continues to become more visible in every major centre. The government has boasted about reducing the number of emergency housing places from 4,000 in September 2023 to around 500 in December 2024—despite the 2023 census finding that 112,496 people, or 2.3 percent of the population, are 'severely housing deprived' (up from 99,462 people in 2018). According to government data cited by the Press, 'the number of emergency housing special needs grants, which fund temporary accommodation for people in need, have dropped from 8873 in July 2023, to just 1338 in March 2025.' Growing social misery and hopelessness is reflected in an unprecedented surge in the use of dangerous drugs. In Northland, the poorest region, as well as Southland and Otago, wastewater testing shows methamphetamine use has tripled in the past year. Nationwide, the amount of meth consumed between October and December 2024 was 78 percent higher than the average over the previous 12 months. There is also a profound mental health crisis, particularly affecting young people. A May 14 report by UNICEF revealed that New Zealand had the worst youth suicide rate of the 36 countries in the OECD, with 17.1 suicides per 100,000 people aged 15 to 19 (based on data from 2018–20). UNICEF appealed to the government to increase welfare payments for families with children and to address food insecurity by expanding the provision of free school lunches. The government has made cruel cuts in both areas. The government has deflected blame for young people's poor mental health onto social media. It is seeking to ban under-16-year-olds from social media platforms. This has nothing to do with protecting children but is aimed at strengthening state control over the internet and stopping teenagers from accessing political material, especially socialist articles explaining the real causes of inequality, poverty and war. While the Labour Party has criticised the latest budget cuts, this is entirely hypocritical. Homelessness, child poverty and the cost of living all became worse during the 2017–2023 Labour government, which is why it lost the 2023 election in a landslide. Labour transferred tens of billions of dollars to the super-rich through corporate bailouts, subsidies and quantitative easing measures during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year's National Business Review Rich List, profiling more than 100 of the country's richest individuals and families, showed that their collective wealth increased from $72.59 billion to $95.68 billion in just one year. More than half of this figure, over $50 billion, was held by just 10 billionaires. This enormous wealth, accumulated by exploiting the labour of working people, must be expropriated, along with the money being wasted on war, so that it can be used to eliminate poverty, expand schools and hospitals and meet all other social needs. The task facing workers and young people is to reject all capitalist parties, including Labour and the Greens, and the union bureaucracy which has suppressed any resistance from workers to the government's attacks, and to take up the fight for the socialist reorganisation of society. By Tom Peters, Socialist Equality Group 30 May 2025
Scoop
3 days ago
- Business
- Scoop
Worsening Poverty And Social Misery In New Zealand
Press Release – Socialist Equality Group The government is seeking to solve the worsening economic crisis by ramping up the exploitation of the working class, while protecting the fortunes of the super-rich. Last week New Zealand's Treasury released a Child Poverty Report, which forecast that the proportion of children living in poverty will increase from 17.7 percent in 2024 to 18.4 percent in 2029. The report was released along with the National Party-led government's austerity budget, which starves public services, while cutting workers' wages, reducing government contributions to retirement savings and barring thousands of unemployed teenagers from welfare. The government is seeking to solve the worsening economic crisis by ramping up the exploitation of the working class, while protecting the fortunes of the super-rich. Asked by a TVNZ interviewer why the government had not done more in the budget to address child poverty, Finance Minister Nicola Willis declared: 'there is not actually a magic money tree that allows me to show such generosity that I can solve every problem at once.' Year after year, successive Labour and National Party governments have trotted out this refrain, even as they have handed tens of billions of dollars to the corporate elite through tax cuts, subsidies and bailouts, and spent billions on the armed forces. The National-led coalition government—with the support of the opposition Labour Party—will spend an extra $13 billion over the next four years as part of its plan to double the size of the military and integrate New Zealand further into US-led imperialist wars. Sarita Divis of the Child Poverty Action Group, a non-government organisation, pointed out in a New Zealand Herald column last month that the $3 billion annual increase in defence spending is exactly what the Treasury itself estimated it would cost to halve the level of child poverty by 2028. The government's Child Poverty Report actually understates the extent of child poverty. Its data is more than a year old, covering the period from July 2023 to June 2024. Over the past year, the number of people in full-time work has fallen by 45,000 as unemployment increased from 4 to 5.1 percent, and living costs have continued to rise while wages stagnated. Moreover, the government defines poverty as less than 50 percent of the median household income after paying for housing costs—an extremely low bar. While the percentage of children below this poverty line was unchanged in the year to June 2024, the number of children living in 'material hardship'—the poorest of the poor—increased by almost a third between 2022 and mid-2024, from 10.5 percent to 13.4 percent. 'Material hardship' is defined as lacking access to six or more 'essentials,' such as decent housing, heating, healthy food, warm clothes and shoes, etc. Another survey, by the Ministry of Health, found that last year 27 percent of children 'lived in households where food ran out often or sometimes,' up from 21 percent the year before. Numerous reports illustrate an increasingly severe social crisis. The Christchurch Press wrote on May 22: 'Some families have moved into one heated room to keep warm, while others are taking out loans to pay their power bills as costs rise and temperatures drop.' It noted that last year, 'Consumer NZ estimated 140,000 households had to take out a loan to pay their power bill, and a further 38,000 households had their power cut at least once as they couldn't pay their bill.' In Wellington, the Post reported on May 10 that 'Food charities are facing an unprecedented surge in demand from struggling middle income earners.' In February, one soup kitchen 'served 7930 meals, 1200 more than across the same month in 2024.' Nationwide 500,000 people, one tenth of the population, relies on food banks on a regular basis. Homelessness continues to become more visible in every major centre. The government has boasted about reducing the number of emergency housing places from 4,000 in September 2023 to around 500 in December 2024—despite the 2023 census finding that 112,496 people, or 2.3 percent of the population, are 'severely housing deprived' (up from 99,462 people in 2018). According to government data cited by the Press, 'the number of emergency housing special needs grants, which fund temporary accommodation for people in need, have dropped from 8873 in July 2023, to just 1338 in March 2025.' Growing social misery and hopelessness is reflected in an unprecedented surge in the use of dangerous drugs. In Northland, the poorest region, as well as Southland and Otago, wastewater testing shows methamphetamine use has tripled in the past year. Nationwide, the amount of meth consumed between October and December 2024 was 78 percent higher than the average over the previous 12 months. There is also a profound mental health crisis, particularly affecting young people. A May 14 report by UNICEF revealed that New Zealand had the worst youth suicide rate of the 36 countries in the OECD, with 17.1 suicides per 100,000 people aged 15 to 19 (based on data from 2018–20). UNICEF appealed to the government to increase welfare payments for families with children and to address food insecurity by expanding the provision of free school lunches. The government has made cruel cuts in both areas. The government has deflected blame for young people's poor mental health onto social media. It is seeking to ban under-16-year-olds from social media platforms. This has nothing to do with protecting children but is aimed at strengthening state control over the internet and stopping teenagers from accessing political material, especially socialist articles explaining the real causes of inequality, poverty and war. While the Labour Party has criticised the latest budget cuts, this is entirely hypocritical. Homelessness, child poverty and the cost of living all became worse during the 2017–2023 Labour government, which is why it lost the 2023 election in a landslide. Labour transferred tens of billions of dollars to the super-rich through corporate bailouts, subsidies and quantitative easing measures during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year's National Business Review Rich List, profiling more than 100 of the country's richest individuals and families, showed that their collective wealth increased from $72.59 billion to $95.68 billion in just one year. More than half of this figure, over $50 billion, was held by just 10 billionaires. This enormous wealth, accumulated by exploiting the labour of working people, must be expropriated, along with the money being wasted on war, so that it can be used to eliminate poverty, expand schools and hospitals and meet all other social needs. The task facing workers and young people is to reject all capitalist parties, including Labour and the Greens, and the union bureaucracy which has suppressed any resistance from workers to the government's attacks, and to take up the fight for the socialist reorganisation of society. By Tom Peters, Socialist Equality Group 30 May 2025 Original url:
Scoop
4 days ago
- Business
- Scoop
Worsening Poverty And Social Misery In New Zealand
Last week New Zealand's Treasury released a Child Poverty Report, which forecast that the proportion of children living in poverty will increase from 17.7 percent in 2024 to 18.4 percent in 2029. The report was released along with the National Party-led government's austerity budget, which starves public services, while cutting workers' wages, reducing government contributions to retirement savings and barring thousands of unemployed teenagers from welfare. The government is seeking to solve the worsening economic crisis by ramping up the exploitation of the working class, while protecting the fortunes of the super-rich. Asked by a TVNZ interviewer why the government had not done more in the budget to address child poverty, Finance Minister Nicola Willis declared: 'there is not actually a magic money tree that allows me to show such generosity that I can solve every problem at once.' Year after year, successive Labour and National Party governments have trotted out this refrain, even as they have handed tens of billions of dollars to the corporate elite through tax cuts, subsidies and bailouts, and spent billions on the armed forces. The National-led coalition government—with the support of the opposition Labour Party—will spend an extra $13 billion over the next four years as part of its plan to double the size of the military and integrate New Zealand further into US-led imperialist wars. Sarita Divis of the Child Poverty Action Group, a non-government organisation, pointed out in a New Zealand Herald column last month that the $3 billion annual increase in defence spending is exactly what the Treasury itself estimated it would cost to halve the level of child poverty by 2028. The government's Child Poverty Report actually understates the extent of child poverty. Its data is more than a year old, covering the period from July 2023 to June 2024. Over the past year, the number of people in full-time work has fallen by 45,000 as unemployment increased from 4 to 5.1 percent, and living costs have continued to rise while wages stagnated. Moreover, the government defines poverty as less than 50 percent of the median household income after paying for housing costs—an extremely low bar. While the percentage of children below this poverty line was unchanged in the year to June 2024, the number of children living in 'material hardship'—the poorest of the poor—increased by almost a third between 2022 and mid-2024, from 10.5 percent to 13.4 percent. 'Material hardship' is defined as lacking access to six or more 'essentials,' such as decent housing, heating, healthy food, warm clothes and shoes, etc. Another survey, by the Ministry of Health, found that last year 27 percent of children 'lived in households where food ran out often or sometimes,' up from 21 percent the year before. Numerous reports illustrate an increasingly severe social crisis. The Christchurch Press wrote on May 22: 'Some families have moved into one heated room to keep warm, while others are taking out loans to pay their power bills as costs rise and temperatures drop.' It noted that last year, 'Consumer NZ estimated 140,000 households had to take out a loan to pay their power bill, and a further 38,000 households had their power cut at least once as they couldn't pay their bill.' In Wellington, the Post reported on May 10 that 'Food charities are facing an unprecedented surge in demand from struggling middle income earners.' In February, one soup kitchen 'served 7930 meals, 1200 more than across the same month in 2024.' Nationwide 500,000 people, one tenth of the population, relies on food banks on a regular basis. Homelessness continues to become more visible in every major centre. The government has boasted about reducing the number of emergency housing places from 4,000 in September 2023 to around 500 in December 2024—despite the 2023 census finding that 112,496 people, or 2.3 percent of the population, are 'severely housing deprived' (up from 99,462 people in 2018). According to government data cited by the Press, 'the number of emergency housing special needs grants, which fund temporary accommodation for people in need, have dropped from 8873 in July 2023, to just 1338 in March 2025.' Growing social misery and hopelessness is reflected in an unprecedented surge in the use of dangerous drugs. In Northland, the poorest region, as well as Southland and Otago, wastewater testing shows methamphetamine use has tripled in the past year. Nationwide, the amount of meth consumed between October and December 2024 was 78 percent higher than the average over the previous 12 months. There is also a profound mental health crisis, particularly affecting young people. A May 14 report by UNICEF revealed that New Zealand had the worst youth suicide rate of the 36 countries in the OECD, with 17.1 suicides per 100,000 people aged 15 to 19 (based on data from 2018–20). UNICEF appealed to the government to increase welfare payments for families with children and to address food insecurity by expanding the provision of free school lunches. The government has made cruel cuts in both areas. The government has deflected blame for young people's poor mental health onto social media. It is seeking to ban under-16-year-olds from social media platforms. This has nothing to do with protecting children but is aimed at strengthening state control over the internet and stopping teenagers from accessing political material, especially socialist articles explaining the real causes of inequality, poverty and war. While the Labour Party has criticised the latest budget cuts, this is entirely hypocritical. Homelessness, child poverty and the cost of living all became worse during the 2017–2023 Labour government, which is why it lost the 2023 election in a landslide. Labour transferred tens of billions of dollars to the super-rich through corporate bailouts, subsidies and quantitative easing measures during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year's National Business Review Rich List, profiling more than 100 of the country's richest individuals and families, showed that their collective wealth increased from $72.59 billion to $95.68 billion in just one year. More than half of this figure, over $50 billion, was held by just 10 billionaires. This enormous wealth, accumulated by exploiting the labour of working people, must be expropriated, along with the money being wasted on war, so that it can be used to eliminate poverty, expand schools and hospitals and meet all other social needs. The task facing workers and young people is to reject all capitalist parties, including Labour and the Greens, and the union bureaucracy which has suppressed any resistance from workers to the government's attacks, and to take up the fight for the socialist reorganisation of society. By Tom Peters, Socialist Equality Group 30 May 2025
Scoop
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
New Zealand Government Seeks To Ban Social Media For Under-16s
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced last week that his government will prepare legislation to ban under-16-year-olds from using social media. The right-wing National Party-led coalition government will model the ban on a similar law passed last December by the Australian Labor government, amid widespread opposition. It remains unclear how the Australian law—the first such restriction to be enacted in an ostensibly democratic country—will be implemented. Luxon and other politicians and media pundits have spent the past fortnight professing concern for the mental health and safety of young people. The prime minister told a media conference on May 11 that 'restricting access for under-16s would help protect our kids from bullying, harmful content and social media addiction.' He noted that, as well as Australia, 'the United Kingdom, the EU, Canada and states in the US are also exploring the issue.' These governments are not remotely interested in the wellbeing of children. They are all backing the US-Israeli genocide in Gaza, which has killed tens of thousands of children, while imposing brutal austerity measures against the working class. The calls to restrict teenagers' access to social media are driven by fear in ruling circles that young people are becoming politicised and are moving to the left in response to the breakdown of capitalism. Above all, governments are determined to prevent youth from accessing a socialist analysis of the crisis they confront, especially the articles published on the World Socialist Web Site, which is suppressed by the corporate media. Restricting access to social media is one of several repressive laws being prepared to deal with rising opposition in the working class. In New Zealand, these include new anti-strike laws and a bill that will enable the state to criminalise political opposition or anti-war activism by labelling it 'foreign interference.' Luxon blamed social media for harming children, but he presented no actual evidence for this. The government's austerity regime, on the other hand, including deep cuts to health and education, has undoubtedly contributed to the severe mental health crisis facing young people. The New Zealand Herald reported last week that Health NZ has a shortage of 1,500 mental health workers and that 'demand for psychiatry services has increased by almost three-quarters over the past decade.' Children are among those worst affected by the social crisis. Funding for school lunch programs has been slashed, leading to smaller and less nutritious meals for hundreds of thousands of children. About 1 in 5 children lives in poverty and one tenth of the population is regularly relying on food banks. School leavers face a bleak future, with 12.9 percent of people under 24-years-old not in education, training or work. This is the result of deliberate policies aimed at driving down wages and increasing the exploitation of workers. Sections of the media are now calling for unemployed youth to be conscripted into the military, as part of the government's multi-billion dollar boost to military spending to prepare the country to join US-led wars against China, Russia and elsewhere. There is growing anti-capitalist and anti-war sentiment among young people. A survey last year found that 71 percent of 18 to 34-year-olds in New Zealand agreed that the country's economy was 'rigged to advantage the rich and powerful.' Large numbers of youth have joined rallies opposing the US-Israeli genocide in Gaza and the support of the New Zealand ruling elite for this historic crime. Demonstrations have been organised through social media, amid a blackout by the corporate media. In recent years, hundreds of thousands of school students have walked out of class to protest against government inaction on climate change. The school strikes were also organised largely through social media. These are the sorts of actions the government wants to shut down. To give the appearance of public support for banning under-16s from social media, a high-powered lobby group called B416 has been formed. It submitted a petition to parliament saying that the policy is necessary 'to protect children from harmful and misleading online content.' Luxon thanked B416, referring to it as a group of 'concerned parents and parenting experts.' In fact, B416's core leadership includes Xero accounting software director Anna Curzon, investment banker Cecilia Robinson, financial consultant Blair Knight and Zuru toy company co-founder Anna Mowbray. The Mowbrays are one of New Zealand's richest families and prominent donors to the National Party. These corporate elites are absurdly posturing as opponents of tech giants making profits by getting children addicted to their platforms. One does not need to support companies like Meta and X—which are promoting far-right conspiracies while actively censoring anti-war and socialist content, including the WSWS—to recognise that a ban on teenagers will be a major attack on free speech. The proposed social media ban will not only affect under-16s. The NZ and Australian governments have not explained how age-based restrictions will be enforced, but it will almost certainly require the collection of information about existing social media users—a major invasion of privacy and expansion of state surveillance. There are divisions in the coalition government about the ban, but these are of a tactical, not principled character. The far-right ACT Party said the present proposal would not be workable, but its leader David Seymour told Radio NZ that social media was 'messing with kids' brains' and something must be done. He said there should be an inquiry before any policies are drawn up. Luxon has made clear that he will seek support from the opposition Labour Party if necessary. Labour leader Chris Hipkins said he was 'open' to working with the government to pass the bill. The last Labour Party-led government exploited the 2019 Christchurch terrorist attack, in which the fascist Brenton Tarrant massacred 51 people, to vastly expand the powers of the Office of the Chief Censor, enabling it to more easily remove content on online platforms that the state declared to be violent or extremist. Then prime minister Jacinda Ardern also launched the Christchurch Call to Action, in collaboration with France, the US and other right-wing governments and tech companies, to promote mechanisms to censor the internet on a global scale. None of this had anything to do with countering the far-right. What counts as 'violent extremist content' is determined by the same governments that have smeared protests against the Israeli genocide as antisemitic and are emboldening extreme right-wing forces. Donald Trump's fascist administration is imprisoning and deporting pro-Palestine protesters and immigrants based on fraudulent allegations of supporting terrorism. The drive towards authoritarian rule is inseparable from the assault on workers' living standards and the militarisation of society. It cannot be opposed by appealing to Labour or any other capitalist party. Democratic rights can only be defended by the working class, armed with a socialist political program to put an end to capitalism—the root cause of inequality, fascism and imperialist war. By Tom Peters, Socialist Equality Group 15 May 2025
Scoop
04-05-2025
- Health
- Scoop
On The Doctors Strike
Press Release – Socialist Equality Group The austerity measures imposed by his governmentand the previous Labour Party-led governmenthave produced the crisis of unmet need. About 5,500 doctors held a 24-hour nationwide strike in New Zealand on May 1 in protest against a pay offer of just 1.5 percent, spread over two years. This would be a major pay cut in real terms, with annual inflation at 2.6 percent for the year to March. It was the first ever full-day strike by senior doctors in the country's public hospitals, called by the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS). It follows strikes last year by thousands of junior doctors and by tens of thousands of nurses, and repeated strikes this year by medical laboratory workers. The doctors' strike coincided with strikes by 370 perioperative nurses at Auckland City Hospital, in protest over understaffing, and by nearly 1,000 home support workers employed by Access Community Health, who have received no pay increase for nearly two years. The unions involved—the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) and the Public Service Association (PSA)—limited these strikes to just two hours. These actions reflect widespread opposition to the right-wing National Party-led coalition government's intensifying assault on the public health system. The day before the doctors' strike, Health NZ confirmed that it has axed 540 jobs from its IT department, reducing its staffing by about a third. This will place further pressure on public hospitals' antiquated computer systems. Hospitals are being instructed to find hundreds of millions of dollars in cost savings and are leaving vacant positions unfilled. According to the ASMS, the vacancy rate for senior medical officers across the country is 12 percent, but in some areas it is more than 40 percent. Health Minister Simeon Brown said he was 'disappointed' with the strike. He cynically told the media that 'an estimated 4,300 procedures such as hip operations, knee operations, cataract removals and critical specialist assessments would be delayed as a result of this strike.' In fact, the austerity measures imposed by his government—and the previous Labour Party-led government—have produced the crisis of unmet need. According to Newsroom, 'The waitlist for elective procedures sat at 76,677 at the end of September, with 30,173 waiting for more than four months and 2,159 waiting for more than a year.' One News reported that 200,000 people are currently waiting to receive a specialist assessment, with long wait times often leading to serious harm. Doctor Allan Moffitt told the outlet: 'I have a patient who had cancer and I could tell that it was a serious type of cancer. Her referral took over six months to be seen.' Emergency departments are frequently filled above capacity, resulting in significant delays for urgent cases. Newsroom reports that data for 2024 shows ambulances 'waited 35 minutes, on average, to hand patients over to hospitals.' One doctor wrote in the r/newzealand Reddit forum that, for them, the strike was 'about retaining colleagues so that work isn't utter misery. We are haemorrhaging specialists at our hospital, and with each resignation, there's more strain on those who stay.' Striking Wellington physician Andrew Davies told Radio NZ the staffing crisis was the major issue: 'We've got vacant jobs that we're not allowed to advertise. It's lies that they're not getting rid of front-line staff.' In response to the crisis, the government is outsourcing thousands of procedures to private hospitals, further undermining the public system and paving the way for privatisation. More budget cuts are being prepared. Finance Minister Nicola Willis revealed on April 29 that in response to the deteriorating economic outlook—the US trade war targeting China could trigger a global recession—the government will slash new spending in this year's budget from the previously announced $NZ2.4 billion to just $1.3 billion. This will be the smallest spending increase in a decade. Treasury officials previously stated that $2.5 billion in new spending was the minimum required just to meet the growing cost of delivering services. The opposition Labour Party's criticism of the government's cuts is thoroughly hypocritical. The previous Labour-led government oversaw a worsening crisis in the health system, including expanding waiting times for surgery and an effective wage freeze, which prompted strikes by nurses, midwives, doctors and other workers. Labour's decision in 2022 to remove all restrictions on the spread of COVID-19 led to thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of hospitalisations, placing extraordinary pressure on hospitals. Labour supports the government's plan to double military spending from 1 to 2 percent of gross domestic product, which will be funded at the expense of health, education and other essential programs. The government has pledged an extra $12 billion for defence over four years to further integrate New Zealand into US-led imperialist war plans. Workers also confront a trade union bureaucracy that is enforcing government cuts and preventing an effective, unified struggle against austerity. The various health unions have ensured that different sections of workers remain isolated from each other, with strikes limited to a day or less. It has been more than five months since more than 30,000 nurses struck after rejecting a 1.5 percent pay offer, with the dispute still unresolved. The NZNO is seeking to wear down its members and persuade them to accept a sellout. The PSA is demanding that even more money be spent on the military, while the union collaborates in imposing redundancies across multiple government departments. The ASMS returned to negotiations with Health NZ the day after the doctors' strike. The government agency has requested facilitated bargaining by the Employment Relations Authority. The union's Sarah Dalton signalled that the union leadership is backing away from its claim for a 12 percent pay increase. She told the New Zealand Herald: 'It may not be that we achieve 12 percent, but if we can't achieve better than what is on offer at the moment, we will not be able to settle this.' The Socialist Equality Group warns that a sellout is being prepared. Doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers can only fight back against the government's cuts and privatisation plans if they take matters out of the hands of the union bureaucracy. Rank-and-file committees, controlled by workers themselves, should be established in every hospital to coordinate their struggle. The crisis in the health system also raises the need for a socialist political perspective. Workers must reject the fraud that well-funded, properly staffed and freely available public healthcare is 'unaffordable' and that they have to be 'realistic' and accept pay cuts. The billions of dollars hoarded by the super-rich should be used to vastly expand the public health system and put an end to poverty and inequality. Workers must also demand an end to military spending, with the money redirected into health and other vital social programs. By Tom Peters, Socialist Equality Group 3 May 2025 Original url:
