Source: PSA
The Taxpayers’ (not-a-) Union stunt with Ruth Richardson “debating” Finance Minister Nicola Willis and promoting this with expensive boxes of fudge is a deliberate false-flag operation to make Willis seem more moderate than she really is.
“New Zealanders won’t be fooled by this gaslighting – these right-wing zealots would have done more good by donating the cost of the fudge to food banks where the pain of the Government’s austerity drive is being felt,” said Fleur Fitzsimons, National Secretary for the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi.
“Nicola Willis is no moderate – it’s her decisions that have seen $20 billion given away in tax cuts and handouts to landlords, big tobacco and businesses.
“It’s her decisions that led to our health system being underfunded and under strain.
“It’s her decisions that cancelled pay equity for over 150,000 women to prop up her Budget.
“It’s her decisions that have seen thousands of public servants laid off, including over 600 scientists and researchers.
“We know what this is really about – Richardson and her mates are trying to shift the Overton Window – to make this prescription for austerity appear mainstream and normalised so it doesn’t cost votes.
“Let’s not be deceived. Bottom line Ruth Richardson and her misguided right-wing acolytes want even worse pain to be inflicted on New Zealanders.
“Let’s not forget she was the finance minister who lost her job in 1993 when the then Prime Minister, the late Jim Bolger, woke up to the damage her austerity drive was inflicting on the economy, pain that nearly cost National the election that year.
“The real debate on our economic future isn’t Willis v Richardson; it’s a prosperous future for Kiwi workers and their families compared to the failed economic medicine Willis and Richardson want us to swallow. They are out of touch.
“The PSA will not be eating the tainted fudge we received.”
