Malpass on Green hypocrisy

Luke Malpass writes:

Hypocrisy, thy colour is Green.

Or, perhaps more specifically, thy name is James Shaw. …

The leader of the Green Party, which purports publicly to be the party of the downtrodden and dispossessed, has inadvertently revealed itself for what many think it actually is – a party that mostly serves well-heeled Kiwis in secure and well-paid employment that care about the environment, climate change and want to go cycling and tramping on the weekend.

Funding private schools for certain things isn’t necessarily a bad idea, provided it is done through some sort of equitable and transparent process, but the kicker is that this was discretionary money given to just one school at the behest of Shaw.

Shaw wasn’t a passive decision maker on this. He promoted it, and pushed it to other Ministers.

Stuff understands that the school’s proposal for funding was originally rejected by both the Treasury and the Cabinet committee of the Government’s economic development ministers.

No surprise. The major economic benefit goes to the shareholders of the school who get free money for what they were planning to do anyway.

It is almost inexplicable that Shaw thought this was a good idea on political grounds, or justifiable on equity grounds. Even the idea that this “creates jobs” also looks dubious (interestingly, the Government’s fix-it man, Sir Brian Roche, sits on the group that looks at these proposals). At best, it substitutes one set of jobs for another, as much of the employment will be temporary and go to builders and contractors.

Again it was a transfer of wealth decision, not a job creation decision.