Carol from WINZ is ready to see you
As the public service to find the courage to challenge the new Labour Government that they couldn’t manage to find while John Key was in power with strike after strike, we keep learning how damaging the public service is to the welfare of the poorest…
Government report details barriers for single mums returning to work
Kiwi solo mums say the benefit system is complex and they struggle to understand their income support entitlements.Those are among the key findings of a 22-page report, titled ‘Something’s got to change’ launched this morning by Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter at the headquarters of social services provider Solomon Group in Manurewa, south Auckland.
The report saw the ministry interview 40 mothers in south Auckland, Whangarei, and Gisborne to hear their experiences of being on a benefit, and with the social services they accessed during pregnancy and while raising young children.
…and when it isn’t hurting the poorest amongst us, it’s providing advice to support the Big Oil Industry…
Methanol exporter Methanex signs supply deal, securing future in Taranaki
Methanex, New Zealand’s largest gas user, has secured supplies until 2029, confounding warnings that a ban on offshore oil exploration would see it leave within a decade.In a statement the Vancouver-headquartered company said it signed agreements “to underpin over half of Methanex’s 2.4 million tonnes of annual production capacity in New Zealand for a period of 11 years through 2029”.
Prior to the Government announcing an end to new offshore oil and gas exploration permits in April, officials at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment warned that without a new gas discovery, the company would be operating at below full capacity from 2021 and could quit New Zealand by 2026.
…or cost $80 000 for reports on water that don’t come…
Water experts cost $80,000 – but where’s their report?
In the heat of the election campaign, under-fire Prime Minister Bill English put experts to work on how to solve the problem of taxing water for export.Revelations about foreign-owned companies bottling fresh water for sale and paying virtually nothing for pristine spring and aquifer water had put the Government under pressure and sparked protests.
English asked a group of independent technical experts for advice on who would charge for water and what they could charge. They were asked to report back in November – kicking the contentious issue into the long grass until after the election.
But now Stuff can reveal no report was ever written – despite the consultants being paid more than $500-a-day for their time.
So…
ACC love to turn down applications for the sick
HNZ throw people out onto the street for meth hysteria
…remind me who the public service serves?
The new Government still haven’t managed to get control over the levers of power and it leaves the question open, is the new Government running this country or are right wing Wellington bureaucrats still running NZ?
For the sake of all the beneficiaries they torture, could more public service staff go on strike?
Please?
well as a life long unionist, I admit I would not go out of my way to support the PSA unless it was a general strike, or something of utmost importance to all workers
they have made little effort as far as can be ascertained, to educate and get their members to treat the vulnerable that seek state assistance, with more respect and solidarity–“following orders” does not cut it when it is WINZ/MSD!
and they still ‘poach” members on sites, against various agreements within the movement, so while I know PSA members and organisers and officials, I have little time for their lack of class analysis or loyalty
the formation of the NZCTU too, remains the biggest blunder of the NZ Union Movement–number two was failing to take nationwide industrial action against the 1991 Employment Contracts Act…
but hey, it is not all bad–First and Unite kept on trucking through the National years and the teachers did well against Hekia Parata and Charter Schools, and the NZNO are now having a good campaign too
Becoming a union delegate is a career move for life-long or people intend to be life-long public servants.
The left takes the union road to power while the right take the business route: they end up in the same place.
I guess everyone is different, but I became a PSA delegate to help people, to represent them, and to make the workplace better – I didn’t become a delegate to build a career.
ever notice that there is no punishment for civil servants when they violate NZ law? that tells you who runs the damn country
Meanwhile 250,000 people are using 108 unfunded medicines every day at a substantial cost of several hundred to several 1000 every month while pharmac sits on its butt ignoring their own specialists committees approval for those same medicines that are funded in 45 other countries while our medicines funding went from 6.2% as at June 2008 of the health budget to about 3% as of June 30th 2018. Why is it there is never any mention of underfunded medicines ? If you want the gory details take a look at my facebook page UNDERFUNDING OF MEDCINES BY PHARMAC to see just how sick our medicines funding is and some of the stories from people who are currently suffering under this callous lot than run the Pharmac board.
Remember? When things become mystifying and when things become abstract? It’s all about the money. It’s about money. Dirty, dodgy, dark old money.
Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money.Money, baby.
When a country, such as ours, where about 52 K people make and/or manage the thing that earns our foreign money, foreign money what we spend on stuff and things, is under focus, where there’s an expectation to share that money around…. what becomes of our millionaires and billionaires who do nothing but reach into the trough and scoop out heap$ Bro?
How? Who? But why? You ask? If you don’t. You should dumbass. But do you get an answer? No…? ( See look of shock plus finger-fanning face ! )
Patronising is sooooooo exhausting.
If only 52 thousand people make the shit we sell to bring in the cash we must spend on the remaining 4.648,000? I mean …? We have a 1st world economy AND we have third world poverty ( Are you with me?) and we have only 4.7 million people and we export everything…. ( still there? ) then where the FUCK is our money? To pay for our much needed stuff and things?
We’re absolutely loaded! Our beautiful big country is filthy rich and NO ONE should ever have so much as a nightmare about living in a gutter in a very average little shitter little town like Auckland.
So? Who the fuck has that money? Where’s our money? I read here about the pathetic in’s and out’s of begging for dosh from wanker winz trainee sadists and yet we should be filthy, pretty well off. Does that make anyone else wonder? Am I the only one?
Nothing about this makes sense, broadly thinking.
Metaphor alert!
Is it like being the barking dog in the pound? You bark and bark and bark hoping someone will let you out but the person with the key is a politician in Wellington, fucking miles away. How are we, the Mutts, to know?
The chilling thing here is; they know the Mutt doesn’t know. Therefore, advantage. Which they exploit daily, if not hourly.
WINZ? No money. Health? No money. Justice? No money. Prisons? No money. Infrastructure? No money. Housing? No money.
Swift little Millionaires and billionaires? Fucking heaps of money. I mean…WTF?
And if you’ve just read the above gibberish? I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking….
“Aw fuck it! I’m having a cup of tea then I’m off to bed.” Do you know why you’re thinking that? It’s because you’re not hungry enough yet. You’re not a gut full of food away from malnutrition, then starvation, then death.
Not yet.
And now that I’ve re read my comment? I realise I’ve just wasted my fucking time. I can see your eyes glazing over. I can sense your brain turning off. This is entirely pointless. This whole Blog thing is, in itself, a void. The real world is a terrible thing. It’s a huge mechanism heading down a steep hill and no one can find the brakes. Perhaps there’re no brakes to find! Perhaps it’s best just to pat the dog and go for a nice walk?
I’ll bet many in that Wellington bureaucracy don’t even see themselves as neo-liberal right wingers. Or those in DHBs and local councils.
The Standard has an interesting post on it all https://thestandard.org.nz/a-right-left-problem/ with the usual contributions from some critical thinkers alongside others who’d rather engage in a pissing competition.
Just as useful is the introductory discussion at https://www.politicalcompass.org/ qnd where little ole NuZull sits:
https://www.politicalcompass.org/nz2017
In my experience both in and outside the NZ public service, new entrants seem to start out relatively centrist on both axis, and as they climb the ranks, end up in the right/authoritarian quarter.
Maybe we should have them all wear uniforms.
Then, of course we have the ‘imported’ public servant – usually brought in to consult, or head and lead, based on the wondrous achievements and stellar career in business. Their rise to the senior ranks is immediate – lately they seem to be falling like flies of course after one too many failures.
I wonder sometimes about what an insecure little Nation we are, and have become. In the 60s, 70s and early 80s our colonial masters apparently knew best for us all – with a Govenor General strutting round with a funny hat and waxed moustache, through the later 80s where competence was defined as being directly proportional to the amount of salary that someone would ask, through to where we are today – again colonised, but this time by economic theory/dogma that pervades every element of our sussoighty.
Was Maggie the Handbag’s “There is no such thing as society” her belief at the time or her ambition?
I’ve spent plenty of time around government departments in Wellington, without ever working for or contracting to them.
Observation is useful and informative. I’ve noticed large numbers of people doing “business / policy analysis”, project management etc which requires first hand experience and knowledge. That’s problem number one, it’s not evidence as people go from one government job to another. When they become redundant or can’t go higher they reappear, no wiser as highly paid contractors.
I would contend that if you asked “public servants” to tell you exactly how they personally served the public and how we benefit from that they would struggle to tell you. The point is that they are actually denizens of bureaucracy, and therefore a long way from real production. This reflects private sector bureaucracy.
Where does that leave us? In a quandary, the services offered to the public don’t require anything but effective efficient delivery. That would cut numbers, and save wasted tax expenditure. We would however collapse Wellington as an economy, and displaced public servants would experience being on the other side of welfare “delivery”.
Is this a possible scenario? I suspect that a severe recession and drop in tax revenue would force this. At minimum it would bring public servants to experience how the rest live.
you make some good points
without wanting to denigrate all public sector union members, it should be noted the PSA have long held to the artificial “political neutrality” standard, that the service itself is meant to–of course it does not–since SOEs and the State Sector Act and Reserve Bank Act basically treat various depts as arms of finance capital!
Implement a universal basic income at the equivalent of the dole and scrap WINZ. Problem done and dusted.
As a public servant, my experience is that most union members are centrist or left wing, and that the right wingers don’t believe in unions, so they don’t join them.
That’d be correct (even given the state of the PSA). But are you sure about posting under your handle (if it’s real)?
Depending on where you are, it could be career-limiting, or are you an expert in the art of rimming?
What’s wrong with rimming?
I suppose you don’t eat pussy either.
Your poor girlfriend.
Missionary position under the blankets only?
I’m sure my employer would never hold my union membership or delegate activities against me, nor my online activities.
Actually, apologies in advance @Craig. Just that the state of our ps after 3 decades of a neo-liberal agenda and 9 years of gNats has made it really fucked.
Hopefully your next performance appraisal will have all the boxes ticked as you’d hope they would be
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