Cynical Government programmes represent real low value

The Government is set on scrapping what it calls lower quality spending --- like home support for the elderly --- at the same time as continuing to fund what the Treasury calls low value spending on the national cycleway, says Labour Finance spokesperson David Cunliffe.

“It is extraordinary,” David Cunliffe said. “On April 22 Finance Minister Bill English said the Government would redirect $1.8 billion of lower quality spending over the next four years.

“Going on what he’s been doing so far, that means axing services like home support for the elderly, savage cuts to training incentive allowances to help women get off the DPB, $100 million of cuts to the Pathways to Partnership programme enabling NGOs to provide community-based services, and services for the seriously ill and dying.

“While Bill English is presiding over all that, and will be announcing more savage cuts in the Budget in two weeks, we have learned today in papers released to Radio New Zealand that Treasury advised Prime Minister John Key that his national cycleway represented poor value for money,” David Cunliffe said.

“But apparently Mr English thinks a cycleway providing a handful of jobs represents better value for our society than home support for elderly people who desperately need help to continue living independent lives. I know what I think is lower quality, and it’s not our elderly people.

“Treasury also asserts strongly that programmes like Job Ops and Community Max are poor value because they rely on wage subsidies and short-term job creation measures,” David Cunliffe said.

“Expensive programmes like those that last only a finite period, and don’t provide long-term jobs, represent genuine ‘lower quality’. They are certainly no substitute for creating meaningful jobs and enhancing the skills of our workforce.

“New Zealanders should be very afraid of what National’s plan to axe so-called lower quality programmes in Budget 2010 means for our society. National seems set on slashing more vital public services to fund tax cuts for its rich mates.”

ENDS

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