Understanding the 2020 Budget - one bite at a time

Chapter 1: The Occasion

Thursday 14 May 2020, the day New Zealand moved to level 2 lock down and 90% re-opening of the economy. The day Ministers could return to parliament in greater numbers. The day the budget-show could be presented in the way the Honorable Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, desired it to be. And the day of the biggest government response to a calamity - Covid-19 - in living memory.

Marie (young voter studying philosophy and politics), "The clash of events a viral coincidence bordering on the highest order of political negotiation, diplomacy and relentless focus on the good and health of the people and the economy?"

Plato (the father of philosophy to which all since have reputedly contributed mere footnotes and speaking from 2370+ years in his grave), "No. This Government manages its messaging just as every other democratic government through time before it - in fact better than most and to, I am sure, the disappointment of its opponent."

Marie, "Then, Simon Bridges, leader of National and the opposition bench, might not he have staged a strong moral objection at this blatant politicking? Yes, I see that Jacinda lined that path with the 'most challenging economic conditions since the Great Depression' and doused it with - ironically - immorality (to challenge it in the midst of such a grave crisis) but surely this goes directly to the espoused ordering of the Government's moral priorities - a most serious concern? And was there not a higher moral platform for his own voice on offer?"

Plato, "That is democracy my dear. In the democratic system of governance such staging is unavoidable, so to be expected and to even be admired by the community at large."

Marie, "So both Government and opposition fail to measure up in equal amounts and it is not a basis for separating them at the vote?"