LINDSAY MITCHELL: Did Paul Henry deserve to be called a liar?
Last Thursday Paul Henry was in Dunedin campaigning for ACT. There were planned protests at the speaking venue and one attendee was a left-wing podcaster who took issue with a claim Paul made about how much someone on welfare was receiving. The podcaster repeatedly called Henry a liar which resulted in him being ejected from the meeting.
The matter was discussed on NewstalkZB the following day framed as a free speech issue.
But I want to focus on the claim itself.
There is some confusion over what exactly Henry said but the gist of it was that a mechanic/engineer employed in a muffler business in Palmerston North told Paul he was working six days a week and earning less than the unemployed guy next door whose partner had just had a baby. The guy had never worked and showed no interest in doing so.
The protesting podcaster took issue retorting that a beneficiary would never get more than an employed person. That Henry was just making stuff up.
Henry himself appeared on the NewstalkZB show and said, "I certainly didn't say this person was single. My assumption actually was that this was a couple that just had a child."
An earlier texter to the show wrote, "My sister's got four kids, mate. Under 12, mate. And she gets $1,500 a week. Plus sells weed."
The host was quick to add, "We can't verify that. It's just a text."
When pressed again by the show hosts on whether Paul had checked the mechanic's claim he replied, "...yes, we've done the numbers, and it's entirely possible it's true."
So let's run some numbers.
An entry-level/apprentice mechanic wage starts around $23 to $26 per hour (training wages for registered apprentices can start lower around $19.16/hour). A qualified/General Mechanic earns an average of $30 to $43 per hour.
So the mechanic's wage for a six day week would range from $763 - $1,541 take home pay.
What would an unemployed couple with just one child receive? No need to guess or speculate.
The latest MSD report on beneficiary incomes (April 2025) shows the couple would receive, on average, $976 net. If they had two or more children that figure would rise to $1,255. These figures would have increased on April 1, 2026.
So it is entirely likely that the mechanic wasn't lying and, by proxy, neither was Paul Henry.
And conceivably, neither was the texter with the dope-selling, mother-of-four, sister.
And this is why hard-working, knackered people are angry with 'the system'. They are forced to support people who refuse to support themselves.
They daren't express their resentment because people like the Dunedin protestor shout them down as liars or shame them as 'privileged'.
Rather than suppressed, these figures need to be spread far and wide so that working people can feel on very safe ground when they question or complain about this damaging and unsustainable situation.
References
When the manager of a WINZ office said he was only $10 a week better off working that he would be on the dole, I'd assume he would know what he was talking about. Comment was made after the birth of a child when his wife was on maternity leave. I also volunteered at an organisation the people came for help. Multiple children in a solo parent household led to an income my husband and I never received when our four children were young. Somehow the balance got lost years ago. No one wanted budgeting advice, they just wanted more money.
I am glad to see Paul is forth on the list. He is a real asset to Act.
no sympathy for you gutless kiwis we have the most spinless treachours Primminister ,supported by at least 90% of his ministers so what do we expect??????
UK is almost in a civil war and it will spred around the Western World and we will be able to get rid of our brown and white social scum /communists/ and may be just maybe able to become a democratic Country again,but KIWIS will have to gro some balls and wake jup
Wasn't there a time when if mothers had children with different fathers they got even more.
The problem is that it is acceptable today to call someone a liar publically. We were taught never to do that. I have never to my knowledge said anything but "I am not sure that is right" Not because I am a nice person,but because I can't.What you learn at your mother's knee,as they say,stays with you the rest of your life. Those who shout "Liar,liar, were not brought up,but dragged up" as used to be said.