I have no sympathy for a government that believes if you throw money at poverty unmeasured and un-targetted then the problem of families and children living in poverty will go away.
The extraordinary comment on Morning Report Tuesday, 2 December, that there were now more children and families in poverty than there were people over 65 living in poverty caused a rush to the head for many I am sure.
In addition today the decile ratings for some schools have changed for no apparent reasons that make sense to school principals and teachers at all. The result is that some schools in the country's poorer areas will get less funding and some of the wealthier schools will get more, even though the wealthier schools said that did not ask for it. Weird is the word that comes to mind.
One could look completely off the page and wonder whether it is a plot to disconcert and discomfort all of us across the population into believing that we are all completely wrong and that right now the politicians and Government Ministries have got it just right?
Frankly it would seem that the Third Term is a step too far for this Government from the Prime Minister downward. No-one seems to be briefed to cope with the media and press generally and the opposition would seem to be allowing all of the government Members of Parliament and their officials to blunder along in a very scary manner. One could say that the Opposition Parties are waiting for that final fall and another election!
So what next?
It would seem that poverty will continue and the manner in which it is to be measured adjusted to make poverty seem not as huge as it actually is.
Schools Decile ratings will take our minds off poverty in families for a short while whilst school principals demand a return to the status-quo in many areas and an appropriate increase in funding in other areas.
Our children and grand-children's health is under attack now from two quarters. Apparently families need to understand that they are not really living in poverty and two meals a day can be supplied by others at schools - breakfast and lunch. Schools of course will not struggle because of a shortage of funding for this feeding they can always manage with less or have a school fundraising fair!
Someone needs to sit down with the Government and give them a lesson in people politics, the real and practical effect on people of the activities of the politicians and their government servants. Those in Parliament need to recognise that using business processes is probably not the best way to resolve in-depth poverty and educational poverty. Also throwing unmeasured amounts of money with no appropriate useful audit processes in place as support will not resolve the problems we are being overwhelmed with because of bad political management methinks!!