It’s April 1st and Santa Claus has visited with gifts for the low paid, beneficiaries and even me.

Yes, today my ferry ride dropped 50 per cent.

It took a load of negotiation with the ferry operator Fullers, but it still happened.

So from Devonport to Auckland on a HOP Card now costs $2.45. What a bargain! I’m gonna be back and forth from Devonport to the city like a yo-yo.

$2.45. That’s nothing, but I didn’t need help. I don't need help in these inflationary times.

I’m an old guy. I’m mortgage-free, the kids have left home, I can live on the smell of an oily rag. I came in on a scooter today, and not even an electric one — a manual one — that’s how cheap I am.

So I didn't need help. But thank you Government, you gave me help.

But I know a lot of people do need help.

So today we also saw increases in the minimum wage, benefits working for families, national super, winter energy payments and a whole heap more.

Apparently, 1.4 million people will be getting a little bit extra. The Government says half of New Zealand will be $20 a week better off.

Some people don't like these increases and they raise fears that this could be inflationary, give the poor more money, they’ll spend more money and that's gonna end out in inflation, more money pouring gasoline on prices.

Which they might've been if inflation wasn't already out of control, or as ANZ called it this week, moon-bound, because of this inflation.

The fact is that even after this increase in government spending today, families will be no better off in real terms.

The government handouts may have increased, but prices have increased more.

Take power. There was a warning today that the average power bill for families over the next year will be $1000 greater than it is now. There goes any of that extra money the Government just gave you.

No matter how much the Government wants to blow its trumpet, the increases today are really nothing more than a CPI increase. In fact, they might even be less than that.

But despite all of this, the Government has been saying that their stewardship of the country, and the helping hands offered, means that this country is a kinder place than it was four years ago.

That was put to talkback today. Talkback disagreed. 

And even if you ignore the divisions that have surrounded the Covid response and the vaccines and the lack of kindness there, this was a massive over-exaggeration by the Government because, in real terms, we’re no better off than we were four years ago, arguably our poorer poorer.

You could’ve said “it could be worse”, but that’s not a statement a country can be proud of.