John Key's response to reports that demand for food parcels is at a record high, and that food poverty - academic / bureaucratese for "people going hungry" - has doubled in National's time in office:
[I]t is also true that anyone on a benefit actually has a lifestyle choice. If one budgets properly, one can pay one’s bills. That is true, because the bulk of New Zealanders on a benefit actually pay for food, rent, and other things. Some make poor choices, and they do not have money left.So, there we go. According to Key, if people are slowly starving on benefits, its not because his party set benefits at starvation levels back in 1991 as an "incentive", its not because they're basically inadequate to sustain people at a decent (as in "not indecent") standard of living, able to ensure their basic needs for food, clothing, and a roof over their heads are properly met; no, it's because they made the wrong choice. Qu'ils mangent de la brioche indeed.
What an arsehole.
