Tuesday, May 19, 2015



Priorities

Two news stories today highlight National's priorities. Firstly, they're going to let Relationships Aotearoa, which provides counseling to victims of rape and domestic abuse, fold. And then there's this:

John Key has hinted that New Zealand's spy agencies will get more funding in the Budget, but signalled it would not be the same boost as in Australia.

As part of the May 12 Budget the Australian Government announced that they would be allocating another A$450 million (NZ$487.5m) would be allocated to federal police and spy agencies, to help collect information and identify security threats.

On Tuesday morning Key told reporters that there could be some more funding in Thursday's Budget, to cover increased workload, but signalled that the level would disappoint the spies.

So, no money to help domestic violence victims, but more money for spies. No resources for real problems, but buckets of cash for fake ones.