If you can't run on your record, you have to fake it

If you have to lie, it looks like the facts don't suit you. Here's Lindsay Mitchell fact-checking Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni's lies this week on the campaign trail:

CARMEL: “Her government [she says] had seen higher numbers of beneficiaries moving into jobs …”

LINDSAY'S FACT CHECK: "Higher numbers may have been moving into jobs, but even higher numbers have been moving onto benefits. It’s the net difference that matters... At September 22, 2023 there were 181,167 people on a Jobseeker benefit. In September 2017, just prior to Sepuloni taking up the reins, the number was 120,726. She has overseen a fifty percent increase."

CARMEL: "I’m proud [she says] of the work Labour has done to lift over 77,000 children out of poverty.”

LINDSAY'S FACT CHECK: "At September 2017 there were 172,302 children on benefits. By June 2023 that number had grown by 23 percent to sit at 211,617."

Jacinda's Administration went into government saying they would "fix child poverty." Yet they still stare into the uncomfortable truth that simply throwing someone else's money at poverty doesn't help.

If you can't run on your record, you have to fake it.