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Mike's Minute: Mental health spending another government delivery failure

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Wed, 23 Jun 2021, 9:26AM

Mike's Minute: Mental health spending another government delivery failure

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Wed, 23 Jun 2021, 9:26AM

Andrew Little can be as frustrated as he wants to be, but the reality is they’ve been busted.

Mental health, yet another one of the government's calling cards, has been blown wide open this week, with the revelation that of the $1.9 billion they set aside a couple of budgets ago, most hasn't been spent.

Not only has it not been spent, they don't know where the money is, what's it's going on, when it's being spent, or what it buys.

The Prime Minister this week has been shown up, yet again, as having no idea what's going on. Andrew little, the Minister, has no idea what's going on. Grant Robertson, who I saw on the television last night, has no idea what's going on.

This is Labour to a tee. Big on theory, big on announcements, but no idea on delivery.

And yet again, who is the problem? The Ministry of Health. It has no answers. They have no answers apparently even when the Prime Minister's office rings and asks questions.

Once again, who is in charge of the Ministry of Health? Ashley Bloomfield. The same man that got beatified over Covid because everyone liked him, no one asked any questions of note and even when they did, he basically made stuff up.

PPE, flu jabs, testing kids, the vaccine rollout, the MIQ debacle, the promises over border workers. The list is so draining, so boring, and so embarrassing.

At what point does the government join a few health dots and work out, outside of housing, health is their biggest shambles? Apart from their own ineptitude, Bloomfield is their weak link.

Or more realistically, is the simple truth that because Jacinda Ardern didn’t have a clue about anything, she hooked into Bloomfield at the start of Covid,  hung on tight ever since, and is now so embedded she is stuck with him?  

Either way, if you're still loving this government, and think they're crash hot, when are you getting real?

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