Mike's Minute: Cost of living payment circus turning into a political mess

The Ggovernment's cost of living sop, cock up, circus, or whatever you want to call it, now has the potential to turn into a real political crisis.Issue one; they knew those offshore would get the money. So, money was going to people that weren't in the country, which was one of the Government's key criteria.Issue two; their excuse was it was too hard to do it any other way.Issue three; it added to inflation. The very problem they were trying to address by handing out the money.Issue four; it was money they never had in the first place.Issue five; they had no idea how many people would get it, that really didn’t want it, need it, or deserve it.Issue six; the Salvation Army weigh in saying the people they work with, the people who need it the most, aren't getting it because many of them are on welfare. Welfare meant you weren't eligible, unlike the Kiwi in Switzerland who hadn't been here for two decades.Now we have issue seven; 2.1 million were supposed to get it, but 800,000 of those haven't. The first round of payments has gone to 1.3 million people, so why haven't the others got it? We don’t seem to know.This is the Labour Government to a T.Spend money you don't have, make it scattergun because it's too hard or they're too lazy to do it properly, ignore the advice about the wastage and inflationary issues,  when it comes to delivery, balls it up from the get go, get a long queue of disaffected, and then spend the rest of the week defending yourself.Here is the next thing, this was only payment one of three. They have potentially bought themselves a nightmare for the next three months.What they would have been hoping for was adulation, thanks, gratitude, and some sort of poll bounce. Instead, they have frustration, anger, and disbelief.For a government that entered into this with a shocking reputation around delivery, and I mean delivery of multi-faceted projects like light rail, roads, and public housing, it now appears they can't even spend money properly.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.