How is Simon Wilson’s dream going?

After Winston chose Labour in 2017, Simon Wilson shared his dream of how wonderful New Zealand would change because of this. Let’s look at his dream and see how it is going:

I’m looking forward to all the interthings – the intergenerations and genders and ethnicities and urban/provincialities and all the rest – that the combined party leaderships of the new government represent, because our government suddenly looks a lot more like all of us.

The Cabinet has less women than the previous National Cabinet and the front bench is more white than National’s.

I’m looking forward to climate change being taken seriously

The Government says emissions will rise under this Government for the next few years and they have just declined a hydro dam.

I’m looking forward to a proper commitment to building tens of thousands of affordable houses in Auckland

LOL. They’ve managed around 50 or so.

And I’m looking forward to watching Winston make the most of his wise old years in parliament, because I’ve seen nothing in the last few weeks to suggest he won’t

Keep sipping the kool aid.

I’m looking forward to having a decent minister of health and to the day when we really have abolished rheumatic fever, and to the day the staff at our emergency departments don’t feel driven in their desperation to put out “full up” signs. 

The reality is ED waiting times have got much longer (and the Government no longer even publishes them). Clark is widely seen as underwhelming as Minister and the number of children with rheumatic fever increased in 2018.

I’m looking forward to the day when mental health services are not in crisis and we do not have the most appalling rates of suicide.

Also sadly gone up.

It looks like Simon’s dream remains very much a dream.