{"id":194710,"date":"2025-12-21T09:26:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T09:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/194710\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T09:26:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T09:26:13","slug":"my-word-of-the-year-deja-vu-heather-du-plessis-allan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/194710\/","title":{"rendered":"My word of the year, deja vu – Heather du Plessis-Allan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThey haven\u2019t done that yet. They still employ 14,000 more public servants than John Key\u2019s government did. They\u2019ve only cut one agency: the Productivity Commission. Nicola Willis spent more in her last budget than Grant Robertson ever did and will spend even more next year. She can\u2019t blame inflation. Her increase is far more than inflation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ParliamentParliament in Wellington, where familiar end-of-year budget warnings are once again playing out. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n

One year on, all of that is still true, right down to the number of public servants. Do you need better proof that Willis\u2019 cost cutting has been a charade if even the bloated public service is still untrimmed.<\/p>\n

Hence the criticism from the Taxpayers\u2019 Union<\/a>. It\u2019s hard to defend them this week after they bottled the debate they had hyped up to ridiculous levels, but they are right to demand better of Willis.<\/p>\n

There is plenty she can cut that wouldn\u2019t cause the human misery she warns of.<\/p>\n

She could \u2013 and should \u2013 cut the free year of university. The policy is a flop that hasn\u2019t increased enrolments. It costs up to around $250 million a year. The rest of us managed to pay for three years\u2019 study and survive.<\/p>\n

\"CommutersCommuters tag on to public transport, as the cost of the national ticketing system comes under criticism.<\/p>\n

She should cut the National Ticketing Solution<\/a> that aims to allow passengers to tag onto public transport around the country. It is due to cost $1.4b but Wellington Regional Council is doing it itself for a fraction at $5.5m. That system is now a gravy train. One consultant has been charging $535 an hour for three years.<\/p>\n

She should withdraw childcare subsidies from households earning over $200,000 a year. People on that kind of coin earn too much to be beneficiaries.<\/p>\n

Willis may feel aggrieved at the criticism given how much she and other ministers have managed to save and to reform. But the country\u2019s economic problem is so big and the structural deficit so persistent that, unfortunately, all that work is still not enough.<\/p>\n

\"SuggestionsSuggestions for cuts include the free year of university and the costly National Ticketing Solution. Photo \/ Hayden Woodward<\/p>\n

All the talk of lifting the pension age sounds like that may be the hail mary Willis is banking on. If she gets voter permission at the election to lift the age of eligibility she would save billions in one go.<\/p>\n

I wouldn\u2019t bank on that. Enough voters hate the idea for it to be 50-50 on whether it\u2019s doable.<\/p>\n

My suspicion is Willis is smart enough to know she needs to do more but also smart enough to know it\u2019ll cost National politically. And, ultimately, almost every politician is the same. They want to fix the country, but they want to be re-elected even more.<\/p>\n

Deja vu.<\/p>\n

Catch up on the debates that dominated the week by signing up to our Opinion newsletter<\/a> \u2013 a weekly round-up of our best commentary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThey haven\u2019t done that yet. They still employ 14,000 more public servants than John Key\u2019s government did. They\u2019ve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7500,120726,120728,6630,42,10900,685,13840,58661,57537,3234,4977,43,1118,1642,15407,10901,223,40,38,41,39,120727,27630,379],"class_list":["post-194710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-december","tag-deja","tag-dictionaries","tag-du","tag-headlines","tag-heather","tag-last","tag-like","tag-magazines","tag-mine","tag-months","tag-my","tag-news","tag-of","tag-online","tag-pick","tag-plessisallan","tag-the","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-vu","tag-word","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}