A surge of good bookkeeping

National is claiming that there has been a "surge" in Maori women on the DPB, giving them the wonderful opportunity to bash both Maori and solo mothers at the same time. Unfortunately, it seems that the "increase" is entirely due to the Ministry for Social Development tidying up its books and updating ethnicity data for about 12000 beneficiaries who had no ethnicity recorded.

I really like the way Maharey points out the emptiness of National's beneficiary-bashing, though:

Katherine Rich may talk glibly about "encouraging bigger dreams" but New Zealanders deserve to be told what that actually means. Does it mean cancelling the DPB for mothers thought less deserving? Does it mean forcing them out to work while their children grow up without parental supervision and support? Does it mean making mothers adopt their children out at birth?

National doesn't want to say so, because it knows that none of those policies will fly with the electorate. They may be popular with Auckland Business Wankers who don't believe in the social contract, but ordinary New Zealanders don't see any value in further fucking over people who already have it hard enough.