Govt should hang head in shame over report

The Government is deliberately manipulating statistics around poverty, crime and hardship and is putting pressure on the public sector to participate in its charade, Opposition Leader Andrew Little says.

“Today’s Salvation Army State of the Nation report is a damning indictment of a National Government intent on hiding the true state of some of New Zealand’s most vulnerable people. It is appalling that, as the report says, enormous pressure is being put on public sector managers to go along with their agenda.

“The report says there are constantly shifting targets around child poverty and crime designed to provide ‘reasons to celebrate success or progress’ even when little has been achieved.

“The report says this ‘moveable feast’ of moving targets is producing favourable results from agencies such as the State Services Commission. They are targets designed to be met, not to change anything.

“This Government’s obsession with the euphemistically named Better Public Services targets is hiding what’s really happening in New Zealand – the rise of the working poor. There are hundreds of thousands of children in poverty, many of whose parents are in work.

“John Key’s Government should hang its head in shame when an organisation as respected as the Salvation Army is accusing it of obfuscation in an area of such great need,” Andrew Little says.

ENDS

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