Laughter and Lies: The Legacy of A Luxon Government
The movement against health privatisation is gaining momentum and it’s for a good reason.
Health privatisation kills, and unfortunately it’s not an exaggeration.
Yet that of course hasn’t deterred PM Luxon, Health Minister Shane Reti, or Health Commissioner Lester Levy.
Last week Luxon was on Newstalk ZB to talk up the need to ‘control costs’ on Dunedin hospital and hospitals in general, even as the government spends big on tobacco companies, private charter schools, roads, trusts, and landlords.
NB: This is a softball Newstalk interview -
The interview was last week and Luxon ended with the infamous line:
It’s the sort of thing you might find on a Saturday Night Live episode, but no, this was real real life.
And by now, I’m used to the surreal.
One thing that struck about the interview is how relaxed, jovial and in charge Luxon feels any time he fronts up to Newstalk ZB.
It’s as if Luxon knows he’s amongst friends there and he can let loose and be himself.
At least the self that he has marketed up, telling du Plessis Allan in the interview:
“You just fake it until you make it. I have spent a whole career doing that“.
And instead of the somewhat aggressive, bullying style he employs at the helm of a general press conference when asked difficult questions, at Newstalk ZB, Luxon simply aims to please.
When du Plessis Allan points out she wants public servants to work a minimum number of days in the office, he responds that they will have to: 5 days.
She is happy.
They laugh. And are jovial.
But what’s more striking to me is the litany of lies Luxon leaves behind at every single turn.
On that one episode, he repeated the $3bn hospital build line, even though that was debunked. i.e. The government’s report inflated numbers by including out of scope items. After being criticised for that, Chris Bishop refused to release further details on the hospital build, citing “commercial sensitivity”.
In the interview, Luxon also fanned the ‘we have no money’ myth and ‘we need to run government finances like a household budget’ simplification.
No government in the world runs the budget like a household budget for the very good reason that the role of government is not equivalent to a mum or dad household.
The role of government is to govern, to promote policies that expand productivity, generate well being, invest for the future, take care of the people that have entrusted ourselves to it, and keep our public services and infrastructure robust and future proof.
Governments raise taxes, make policy decisions, and can raise responsible debt. i.e. debt that is critical and essential for our well being and our future prospects.
In that regard, prudency means investing for our future i.e. renewable technology, our transport links, our health system - and doing that in a way which supports lives and well-being.
Labour’s Health Minister Ayesha Verrall pointed out yesterday the government is spending less than we did last year on health.
Craig Renney from the NZCTU calculated the increase in the health budget in nominal terms is 0.4%.
And health researcher Peter Huskinson published his paper in NZ Doctor that showed this government is funding health care to the lowest per capita level in a century - a low incomparable to an equivalent country.
Readers of this publication will not be surprised.
But the lies are still disappointing.
PS I’ve never been a Union member but for the last few months I’ve been struck by how accurate their claims about Luxon were. Maybe the laws to weaken unions, and make sure members can’t easily speak out, was not a good idea.
PPS Recent revelations by Health NZ show that Luxon and Reti lied about the “unexpected” Health NZ deficit in July.
Health NZ’s own documents now confirm reports from Marc Daalder and others that successfully hiring nurses to meet clinical demand was the primary reason.
Other reports at the time suggested the old Board was being responsive to Luxon’s KPI directives and were increasing clinical staff to reduce wait times.
There was never any 14 layers of management despite them saying it was the reason i.e. this is a manufactured crisis and outright deception by the government.
And yet it somehow gets a pass.