Andrew Dickens Afternoons

I'm not one to blow my own trumpet, but sometimes someone has to step up to plate and so I am.Exactly one week ago, the last time I was on Newstalk ZB, I predicted a boring budget with the only big item, an increase in benefits.Other than that I said that it would be business as usual.And that's exactly what transpired. A boring Labour lite budget for beneficiaries sprinkled with a little honey for rail.As an aside, considering its desire to be perceived as the wellness Government there was a pathetic increase to the Pharmac budget.After four years on the Treasury benches, the transformative Government has transformed nothing at all. With the exception of a new tax rate for the wealthy that will raise half a billion and a regional road tax that raises a couple of hundred million there has been little or no change to the macro settings that have been in place for over a decade now.The most galling for me was the 1.9 billion promised to mental health in the first Wellbeing budget which 2 years later remains uns