Giving humanity the cold shoulder

It’s a cold Government that pays lip service to refugees, vetoes extra help for parents and leaks personal details of a man trying to help with Auckland’s homeless crisis.

But this one did. And all in the space of a week.

At least two of those fires never needed to spark, and perhaps only one can be described as pure callousness – the decision to increase New Zealand’s pitiful refugee quota from 750 to 1000, in two years’ time.

Political parties from across the spectrum supported Amnesty New Zealand’s campaign to double the quota to 1500 a year. That target was settled on because it was the bare minimum New Zealand could comfortably take.

Prime Minister John Key and Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse simply didn’t want to do it. Ouch.

A streak formed with a leak from Paula Bennett’s office to TVNZ journalist Rebecca Wright, that a police investigation was under way into Te Puea Marae chairman Hurimoana Dennis.

On the surface it had the markings of a Machiavellian plot to undermine a man helping the homeless when the Government had fallen short. Labour did all it could to steer the narrative in that direction. But in no way does that stack up. Bennett learned a harsh lesson in 2009 about leaking information, when a beneficiary criticised her.

That she would then intentionally undermine someone who was doing good work, which the Government had supported with money, makes no sense.

That a press secretary was gossiping with a journalist who didn’t actually end up using that information in a story has been delivered as the explanation. Still, it doesn’t help the Government’s image on homelessness. Try for a hat-trick? In fairness, Finance Minister Bill English’s decision to exercise his financial veto over Labour MP Sue Moroney’s bill extending paid parental leave to 26 weeks is more complex than a simple case of keeping Labour down.

It was ideological, sure, but grounded in a solid economic argument, rather than ‘‘contempt for children and their families’’, as Labour would have voters believe.

English has finally hit a home run of surpluses, and as much as he openly downplays their importance – secretly, they’re still his everything.

It shouldn’t be surprising that he chose the money instead of pleasing parents, and, given the grief the Government often gets for abandoning its ideology for the sake of hugging the centre line, it’s maybe even understandable.

Still, it’ll be a proverbial cold day before this Government is accused of being socially progressive.