In an editorial, The Bay of Plenty Times calls attention to the fact that “good public services matter.” They write, “consider the efforts that are constantly made to replace or cut back on a wide range of public services. One constantly touted option is privatization, but that always carries with it a number of risks and downsides—that the drive for private profit will outweigh the delivery of a proper level of performance (think Serco and prison management), that there will be no accountability for failure (think Novopay and the disastrous handling of teacher's pay), that jobs will be lost and pay rates slashed (think the problems faced by care workers in earning a decent living). (…) The government may seek an electoral gain in the short term, but we are weaker and less well served as a society if our government does not have the courage to tell us the truth—that good public services matter and have to be paid for, and that means by us.” [Bay of Plenty Times, 4 April 2017]