The Left look to the State as the force to counter free market greed, but when the agents of the State are enacting social policy that is counter productive via burnt out staff who are too bitter to care, then a major overhaul is necessary.
The policy is certainly a problem, but the way public servants are treating the most vulnerable is now part of the problem.
- 60% of beneficiaries owe WINZ money because WINZ snoop on peoples private lives and refuse to tell beneficiaries what actually is the definition of a relationship.
- We have Housing NZ sending the homeless to illegal housing and throwing people out of their homes for 12months using deeply flawed meth tests.
- We have a Ministry of Development that sends homeless people to motels and then charges them for it.
- We have tens of thousands thrown off welfare with no idea of where they are going.
- We have a corrections system that has illegally locked up prisoners for longer than they were allowed and are sending out men more broken than when they went in.
- We have a probations service that is using every loophole in the system to try and recall every prisoner regardless of their rehabilitation chances.
- We have a CYFs that hurt children more when in state care than if they are left in the community.
- We have a CYFs who are about to start a new stolen generation.
- We have an MPI who are protecting the fishing Industry raping and pillaging our oceans.
- We have a mental health system that is being accused of torture.
And the bloody list goes on and on…
CYF used ‘inappropriate force’ against teens
Teenagers were unlawfully detained for weeks on end in the seclusion wing of a youth justice facility run by Child Youth and Family, according to its own senior staff.
Documents obtained by the Herald also reveal:
• staff used “inappropriate force” against young people.
• secure care was used as punishment.
• some young people were stripped and put in suicide gowns..
• a “significant number” of teens should not have been put in seclusion in the first place.
…these departments used to be the bastions upon which a liberal progressive democracy were built, under National however they have become torture devises to punish those weak enough to need their sub standard services and they have become staffed by people who wholeheartedly perform this state sponsored cruelty with a certain amount of glee.
No wonder the poor run a mile rather than have any interaction with these state departments.
Any incoming progressive Government must take a chainsaw to these departments with a radical agenda to force them to stop punishing people and start actually caring about their welfare. Taking 5% off their collective budgets to give to NGO and Community organisations to be able to advocate for users rights, help users navigate the purposely confusing paperwork and produce critical reports of the agencies who are supposed to be helping would do more to force a change of culture on these public agencies than anything else.
We don’t need to smash the state, just hack it.
UPDATE: PSA Coms person ‘Megapope’ during work hours says this…
…really ‘megapope’ so the 1000 beneficiaries who turned up at the Auckland Action Against Poverty beneficiary clinic actually last year didn’t exist did they ‘Megapope’. The homeless sent to the motels with bills attached didn’t exist hu? The claims of torture within the mental health system are all a fiction according to Mr PSA
I don’t mind white middle class elites from Wellington bitching on about their privilege and demanding more at the cost of those they are supposed to be serving but let’s call it for the bullshit it is shall we?
AAAP, CPAG, Greenpeace, NUMA, MUMA, Lifewise – all deserve resources to help the weakest and most vulnerable amongst us to gain the basic standard of service that so many Government Departments are failing,
Miss William’s wilful misinterpretation of the point I’m making, that those who advocate for the poorest amongst us should be funded so that they can use public services is as embarrassing as her attempt to claim I was involved in a porn revenge attack against her.
Unbelievably unprofessional.
Rather than attacking me, perhaps the PSA needs to have a long hard chat with their coms staff, because this constant bullying campaign led by a small clique on Twitter from Wellington is becoming dull, boring and tedious.
Our social services are indeed part of the problem.
Where ever they fund failure, they are perpetuating it.
Yes Martyn we need a new government to reinstate our social agenda
This country needs a welfare state that looks after our people when they fall through the cracks not kicks them in the guts. I see once again Henry Bennett mental the Hamilton clinic for our mentally ill is being investigated why they are useless they are letting out people that they shouldn’t. These people are sick and need good ongoing social support instead they are released at large into our poorer communities and who is paying the price these poorer communities. So are paedophiles being released into poorer communities and no one cares until someone gets killed the state should be shouldered with the blame here but really they don’t give a stuff. Instead its all about investment making money of the sick I think our government is sick in the head doing shert like this.
Hey Martyn, when are bringing back The Fifth Estate?
Bloody good question JONO!!!!!
Could Kim.Com or another benefactor for freedom of speech such as the Morgan Foundation or Green Peace help us with a fund drive to set up a new studio for us all for a free media with TV/Radio election targeted programing now please?
Tolleys latest …Folly?? – Yes. I agree its a bad pun. 🙂
Anne “safe pair of hands do nothing” Tolleys answer to poverty is to load the poor up with more debt by offering them loans for essential items which use to be provided by MSD/WINZ, is now going to be privatised.
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/42-million-community-finance-boost-benefit-more-low-income-earners
Maybe the cunning plan for doing this is, it will impoverish them so much that they’ll just have to abandoned their home because they’ll not be able to afford to pay the rent! Then they’ll remove them from the benefit & Stat’s, which will improve the govt. unemployment data?!
The dismantling of the Social Contract with the NZ Government is and has been underway for sometime. First they dis-empowered the Social Welfare Act by stripping pretty much every entitlement from the Act and placing rediculous conditions in place as well as restricting a persons “Right” to support from the State to bare minimums. Less than an ordinary citizens ability to provide for themselves & family members.
This government has to go this time next year or sooner!
1000% Takere Love your logic and the pun “Tolley Folly” that bis brilliant.
Guess some signs are being made up to 0post on bumpers and Tolley’s own windows everywhere, as a sign of protest, that that may even catch on big time!!!
I don’t recommend you do that wink wink.
We call her Tolley no show ion the east coast for obvious reasons.
Right on Martyn – blame the public servants instead of the Government whose policies they’re enacting.
Your threat to take a chainsaw to government is extremely disturbing, not just because of the violence implicit in your threat, but because it demonstrates your lack of understanding that budgets are stretched to breaking point already.
You just buy completely into the right’s agenda for social services, which is to run them down and slowly privatise them . And while you’re at it, beat up on the thousands of New Zealand public servants who do a fantastic job every day in very trying circumstances.
If you and your readers are interested in reading some intelligent analysis of the interface between politics and social services, that doesn’t blame it all on the public servants, they might want to start with this excellent article by Ian Hyslop on the Reimagining Social Work website:
http://www.reimaginingsocialwork.nz/2016/10/the-political-context-of-cyf-reforms/
Kia ora Sarah, thank you for commenting.
So the 1000 beneficiaries who turned up outside WINZ didn’t happen hu? The stories of case managers who show contempt for the most vulnerable doesn’t exist hu? The former repo men who are now working for WINZ who take glee in turning down requests for welfare – that’s all a figment of my, and all those who face this – that doesn’t happen hu?
I’d suggest that instead of fighting for your privilege and putting all the blame on policy that you take a good long hard look at the people who are employed to implement this policy. They are part of the problem and it won’t be until NGOs have the funding to hold these vast departments to account that we will get any real change.
“it won’t be until NGOs have the funding to hold these vast departments to account that we will get any real change”
I don’t think NGOs are the solution. I’d say they are the problem. I agree with Sarah’s point that “budgets are stretched to breaking point already”.
Social services are now delivered by NGOs and government agencies such as CYFs and WINZ have been scaled back: both in their funding and what they cover. Blaming the workers in CYFs and WINZ is a right-wing strategy and we should avoid doing it.
If I was working at CYFs or WINZ I know I wouldn’t be able to deliver a decent service to the public. Let’s keep our critiques structural instead of individualising the problem. ‘Good workers’ won’t solve CYFs’ and WINZ’s brutal ideology.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/10/20/the-useful-altruists-how-ngos-serve-capitalism-and-imperialism/
And I completely disagree with you. NGOs like the ones I’ve mentioned should be there to help beneficiaries get the welfare they require. Tell me – why do you think the poor run thousand miles rather than deal with State Services? Why?
“why do you think the poor run thousand miles rather than deal with State Services”
Because they’re underfunded and their ideological approach is to not help poor people. It’s got little to do with shitty workers.
I’ve got a lot of respect for AAAP and the other NGOs you’ve mentioned, but they are not the answer since they are up against capital and a state apparatus that is determined to further the neoliberal project. We need a class based response that aims to replace neoliberalism with a post-capitalist system. NGOs can help this happen, but most NGOs are part of the neoliberal machine.
And those staff who are currently being accused of torturing children in CYFs care – great workers are they?
My concern is with the vulnerable people these social agencies are supposed to care about. Yes we need a change of Government and yes we need far better public policy but you also need to cull those staff who have taken glee in their power over fellow citizens.
“And those staff who are currently being accused of torturing children in CYFs care – great workers are they?”
No. Of course not.
But I doubt ‘good workers’ will provide much better care for these kids, so long as CYFs and social services are underfunded.
I’m convinced the social workers who do these things are the result of their working conditions, and the stressful situations that they work under (that in no way excuses the situation). By all means fire them and replace them, but the context will reproduce the same result unless we create structural change.
I think it would be wise to move away from this idea of bad workers vis-a-vis good workers. What next? Good teachers and bad teachers?
We can critique WINZ and CYFs with solid left-wing structural critiques – there’s no need for this neoliberal analysis that blames bad workers. I’d suggest you read the website Sarah sent you. The social workers on that site might clarify some policy issues for you, and they offer robust left-wing arguments.
Sarah;
“there are none so blind as those who will not see”
Your words imply this rational thinking just look around and you will see the destitution this evil Government are causing!!!
Open your eyes and see!
As in my 72yrs here I have never seen anything like this before in our once proud land I call home.
Its kind of weird how you thank me for commenting and then slag me off. Would you prefer no-one offers an alternative anaylsis to yours?
No-one’s denying that there are plenty of people who are unhappy with the service they’re getting from some public services. Radical change is needed, NGOs need more money, government departments need more money, and a change in agenda. But unless you identify and attack the real problem – which is Government ideology- none of that’s going to happen.
How passive aggressive of you Sarah. I’m not sure how disagreeing with you is slagging you off.
Why did those needing help run away Sarah? When Paula Bennett sent in her staff for the Kiwi’s living in cars, why do you think she had to lie about how willing the poor were to deal with her?
Why are the people who need help running away from Ministry Staff?
Telling me I’m ‘fighting for [my] privilege’ was pretty insulting Martyn. I’m not sure I’ve said or done anything to justify that accusation.
A big chunk of the the people volunteering at the last AAAP impact were in fact civil servants with PSA membership on their annual leave. The idea that slashing govt dept budgets will help the most vulnerable is silly when all the evidence from the past shows the opposite happens.
[…] Now, the PSA Coms unit might try and defend their members for being torturers, but I think most educated NZers would be horrified by this… […]
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