Perspective with Ryan Bridge: Unpacking Labour and the Greens' track record with the vulnerable

What's worse than somebody who doesn't give a s*** about poor people and victims of domestic violence? 

Somebody who says they care about them, spends billions of dollars in vain trying to fix it and actually makes the problem worse.

At the weekend, Minister Karen Chhour launched the family violence action plan, which is basically a re-do of a 25-year plan that her predecessor, Marama Davidson, launched during her three years in office.

And we all know the prevailing narrative - nobody cares about the poor and the downtrodden quite like the Greens.

So, they had these two very important portfolios in the last Government - homelessness and family violence. People are already trolling poor Karen over her plan, but let's take a look back at the Greens' results, shall we?

And remember - in the three years prior to the Greens, it was Labour in charge.

So, fellow travellers, homelessness in the Census from 2023 - which is when Labour was booted out of office - those people living in severely deprived housing was up 2.1 percent, an extra 13,000 Kiwis. So that's a big fat F for fail.

Family violence - in June 2023, the numbers tell us 177,000 family harm investigations were recorded by the New Zealand police. That's a 49 percent increase on 2017. So that's a big fat Fail with a capital F.

So the minister who supposedly cared more about these issues than any other, from a party who cares more deeply than any other, took our most vulnerable backwards.

All that, despite being part of the highest-spending Government in this country's history, who doubled our national debt to GDP ratio and pumped hundreds of millions extra in dollars into wellbeing initiatives - and wrote a 25-year plan. What is that, anyway?

What major company do you know writes a 25-year plan? It's nonsense. 10 at most, yes, but 25?

Here's a prediction - by the time this plan turns 25, nobody in Parliament will remember it. The dust collected on it so thick, you could probably house the homeless underneath it.

The point here is, just because somebody tells you they care more about something, it doesn't mean it's true. And most importantly - it doesn't mean they can turn care and compassion into action.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's worse than somebody who doesn't give a shit about
poor people and victims of domestic violence, somebody who says
they care about them, spends billions of dollars in vain
trying to fix it and actually makes the problem worse.
At the weekend, the Minister Karen Shaw launched the Family
Violence Action Plan, which is basically a redo of the

(00:20):
twenty five year plan that her predecessor, Madame and Davidson
launched during her three years in office. And we all
know the prevailing narrative. Nobody cares about the poor and
the downtrodden quite like the Greens, So they had these
two very important portfolios in the last government, homelessness and
family violence. People are already trolling Poor Karen over her plan,

(00:41):
but let's take a look back at the Greens results,
shall we? And remember the three years prior to the
Greens it was Labor in charge, So fellow travelers, homelessness
and the census from twenty twenty three, which is when
Labor was booted out of office, homelessness those people living
in severely deprived housing was up two point one percent,
an extra thirteen thousand kiwis so a big, fat F

(01:05):
for fail Family Violence. June twenty twenty three. The numbers
tell us one hundred and seventy seven thousand family harm
investigations recorded by the New Zealand Police. That's a forty
nine percent increase on twenty seventeen. So that is a big,
fat fail with a capital F. So the minister who

(01:26):
supposedly cared more about these issues than any other, from
a party who cares more deeply than any other, took
our most vulnerable backwards. All that despite being part of
the highest spending government in this country's history, who doubled
our national debt to GDP ratio and pumped hundreds of
millions extra in dollars into well being initiatives and wrote

(01:50):
a twenty five year plan. What is that anyway? What
major company do you know writes a twenty five year plan.
It's a nonsense, most yes, but twenty five. Here's a prediction.
By the time this plan turns twenty five, nobody in
Parliament will remember it. The dust collected on it so

(02:10):
thick you could probably house the homeless underneath it. The
point here is just because somebody tells you they care
more about something, it doesn't mean it's true. And most importantly,
it doesn't mean they can turn care and compassion into action.
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(02:30):
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