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Monday, June 4, 2012

Mike Butler: Sir Michael's woeful record

Michael Cullen, the former Labour deputy prime minister known for slinging the phrase “rich prick” around parliament, is now a “sir”. The fact that the New Zealand Herald editorialises that Cullen “richly deserves a gong” seems confirmation that at least one editorial writer at “Granny Herald” does indeed live in some sort of parallel universe.

The editorial describes Sir Michael as a worthy recipient, because “he presided over a generally healthy and resilient economy”, he recognised “the need to save for the inevitable rainy day ahead”, and “served the country particularly well as the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations”.

But remember, Cullen saddled the nation with Working for Families, a scheme that will cost $2678-million this year, brought in vote-catching interest-free student loans that will cost $1835-million, and KiwiSaver that will cost $688-million. He presided over a $1000-million blow-out in Accident Compensation Corporation debt, and in 2008 paid Toll Rail $690 million for a clapped-out train set after injecting $200-million into Tranz Rail in 2003.

3 comments:

Barry said...

You missed out so-called treaty so-called settlements

Mike Butler said...

Cullen was responsible for Treelords in 2008 ($149.56-million), and Te Pumautanga o Te Arawa in 2008 ($38.9-million).

Anonymous said...

What happened to the NZ Herald? It used to be a good newspaper - now we get car crashes, man bites dog stories and celebrity gossip on the front page.

Good luck reading the editorials - I haven't read one for a decade or more.

And the anonymous editor cowards should put their names to the trash they write anyway. Cheers Stuart L