Tuesday, March 16, 2004
It's all relative Mike
Taken from Cullen's speech to the Labour party conference is this piece of simplistic tripe (got to pitch at your audience I suppose):
We must begin by reminding people of the difference Labour has made to their lives compared with what would have been the case had National been re-elected in 1999 and 2002.
Let us begin with superannuitants. On 1 April the rate of New Zealand Superannuation for a married couple will rise to $383.22 . Had National stayed in office that figure would be only $361.40. The minimum wage has been increased to $9.00 an hour. Under National it would probably be about $7.50. The average fee for arts or commerce students at the University of Otago is $3,245. Under National fees rose on average 15.2 per cent a year, which means that the average fee would be $5,200. And the cost of repayment of any loan has been reduced on average by about 25 per cent.
For a state house tenant in Auckland the difference is nearly as dramatic. For a sole parent with two children their rent is now $74 a week. Under National’s policies that person would now be paying an average rent of $132 a week, after allowing for accommodation supplement.
Apart from being a fairly gross assumption that those rates reflect what they would have been under National, one could counter the argument by being equally simplistic. Under a National Government someone on the minimum wage would be paying around 6 cents a litre less for petrol, a superannuitant would pay around 5 dollars a bottle less for their Sherry, renewing a drivers licence would be cheaper for us all, even a certificate to prove that you are dead now costs more under Labour.
