The new Government are failing to stop the war on beneficiaries and the poor

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We all know Jacinda is busy juggling motherhood and the country, but the poor are being failed. 

The new Government are utterly failing to stop the war on beneficiaries and the poor, at best there is a ‘humanitarian ceasefire’ while the Ministries scramble to make their spite as policy look more palatable to Jacinda.

47,115 beneficiaries were referred to jobs that required drug testing in the year to June and 170 of those failed the tests and the 170 fail figure includes people who did not turn up to be tested. The Drug testing of beneficiaries was always a dog whistle for National’s rump vote – it is demeaning punitive bullshit and the Government are continuing with it because they are too frightened to upset the middle who are still welded to beneficiaries being lazy bludgers.

5700 are in the clutches of the Department for Making Vulnerable children and hundreds are still being caged in motels.

At least the embarrassing and demeaning forced contraception speeches to beneficiary mothers and their daughters have ended because the Ministry knew that would piss off a feminist Prime Minister.

The Housing NZ Boss wasn’t going to bother fronting to the media over the hundreds of State Tenants thrown onto the street and the $100m wasted on a meth hysteria that never existed. His casual refusal to be held accountable shows the level of contempt HNZ has towards the poor and this Government have barely held anyone accountable for it.

The Salvation Army points out that Government is doing very little to end homelessness, Auckland city Mission warns of a hunger crisis as they send out more food parcels than ever before and Drs are seeing maggot-infected scalps of children in the poorest parts of NZ.

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I know it took 9 years of grotesque underfunding by National for us to get to this place, but the poor don’t have a Union who can advocate for them and demand more pay, they don’t have a platform to hold up their issues and they already have one of the most invisible voices in NZ.

The new Government must acknowledge they simply aren’t doing enough and part of the problem is the toxic culture of the very public services who are supposed to be helping.

You can’t put more money into public services who have internal cultures of spite.

If the Government are looking for more money once they’ve purged the public services of sadists, an inheritance tax is an easy source of extra revenue as well as a taxed legal market for cannabis.

Hurry up and provide for the poor, because it will be beneficiaries who did and didn’t vote last election who will give Jacinda her best chance of winning 2020.

24 COMMENTS

  1. Yes they are certainly failing the poor here so far and no discussion about their lack of real care for the bottom 90% either, so it appears the ‘right wing side of labour’ are in charge untuil jacinda kicks them out.

  2. Nope, if the poor beneficiaries are even too apathetic or even lazy to protest, then they deserve no better, do they?

    If you cannot bother fighting, then you will not get anywhere, and will not be heard and given any space or time.

    That is the sad state of affairs. And do not come with the ‘victim’ story and other excuses, the French Revolution would never have happened, if the poor at that time in France had the same apathetic attitude so many have in modern day NZ Inc.

    I know of many rather snuggling up with family and friends at Hotel Mum to share the home with her, or with their friends, than stand their ground and confront WINZ in any form to get their rights to affordable accommodation and food and so. There are advocates, and well organised action was possible over all those years, even under the nasty Nats.

    Yet few ever bother, AAAP and others never got more than a few dozen ‘motivated’ to join in on action.

    • You mistake fear for apathy.

      MSD have more power to inflict destruction upon innocent people than any other agency and absolutely no accountabiliy. Oh but you are welcome to complain and their mates will support them

    • Marc this is an incredibly damming post.

      The Poor and there are plenty of them are to busy trying to just get by. I think change requires the left to stand up and fight and ask others to join us. The middle class – you know you and me!

      • The truely poor never show up on this site, they need money for survival, a cell phone or computer with internet access is not a survival issue. They are largely invisible, unless they sit on the foot path with a cup.

  3. Marc if you had ever been a beneficiary you would have an entirely different attitude, even rise your voice in protest inside a winz camp and you will have 3 SS guards around you and the police on their way, beneficiary advocacy groups used to organize the protests, but many years without funding have denuded there ranks. the really poor now fear to rise a protest as its them who suffer the consequences and penalties.
    Not the high and mighty leftist populists, whos holier than thou attitude has made them the just as much the enemy as the right, the poor want food and housing, that should be a human right in New Zealand, instead the poor have had there human rights stripped.
    You have no rights is the establishment mantra, you hear from the police, you hear it from the case worker, you hear it from the politician.
    So maybe instead of fronting up and waving yer placard in protest at overseas dumb-asses expelling their poison against more defenseless Isis survivors, you could front up to parliament and start your shit there in support of the really fuckin needy that live next door.

    • I have been a BENEFICIARY, I have had major issues with WINZ, I fought them after relentless attacks and denials of support by them, and with the help of some valued representatives got them sorted and back down in the end. It was not a complete victory, as they have their ways of giving in while ‘saving face’, but they backed down.

      The difference is: Do people roll over, and resign, or run away, of FIGHT. Most Kiwis I met are NOT fighters, they are mostly runners and apologists and what else there is.

      If you cannot do it on your own, go for damned sake go to AAAP or others for help! But most do not even do that, rather choose other ways of trying to survive.

    • AND, I stood outside WINZ offices on my own on a number of occasions, holding placards, protesting and sending messages, NO beneficiary had the guts or time to bother joining me, that taught me something about all the hopeless lamenters.

      • ok i apologize, i know what you are saying i was a community advocate for a while, fought a 6 month ban and won, though still had to wait the full 26 weeks for a refund, ive seen the fear and confusion first hand from the passers bye seeing protests, been arrested for riotous behavior lol.
        You are right most wont fight for their rights in a system rigged against them, while administers break NZ law and suffer no consequences, alot dont live in a city where theres some help available.
        I took you first comment as a beni bash and riled up a tad, now i see a comrade jaded bye the constant battle against a rigged, manufactured system of intolerance and repression designed to destroy wage and work conditions of the original mandatory union system.
        Anyone here remember Rob Muldon and the Business round Table?

        • I admit fighting WINZ and MSD is NO easy task, but well prepared and with some support, it is definitely possible. Sadly our times are such where every person tends to think she or he must go it alone, and thus divided, any fight becomes a David versus Goliath challenge, that some cannot even bother engaging in.

          People must realise that they need to organise and act collectively to fight for better conditions and their rights.

  4. +100 …very good post….I would like to see big taxes on overseas ownership of NZ houses and land

  5. [” I know it took 9 years of grotesque underfunding by National for us to get to this place, but the poor don’t have a Union who can advocate for them and demand more pay, they don’t have a platform to hold up their issues and they already have one of the most invisible voices in NZ.

    The new Government must acknowledge they simply aren’t doing enough and part of the problem is the toxic culture of the very public services who are supposed to be helping ” ]

    ——————————-

    Truth is there needs to be a purge. There are many ways to conduct a purge, and many ways to relieve one of their position in the most respectful , legal and benevolent fashion.

    As simple perusal of a managers methodology and the the policy’s end results is enough if it doesn’t conform to what is required by a new govt.
    Simply hand down the directives in a very succinct way … and providing a choice if one is so inclined to be non compliant.

    Only a govt can enact laws and procedures to change the plight of the vulnerable, no other body has that power.

  6. Martyn: “We all know Jacinda is busy juggling motherhood and the country, but the poor are being failed”

    Well maybe it might hrlp Martyn if you and Chris Trootter spent more time on this issue rather than protecting the rights of neo-fascists to spew their toxic ideology. Let the far right sort its own shit. We should be focused on those who really need our help. Because as sure as night follows day, the Right won’t do it. It may escape you Martyn but accordung to the book of spooks, the Bible, Jesus Christ did not spend much time protecting the right of the privileged to make speeches to justify thrur privilege. The late JC was focused 100% on the poor and dispossessed. Take a leaf out of that book Martyn. (Not the bits exhorting followers to stone gays to death. That’s fake news-testament)

  7. I work in the Wellington CBD and every morning and evening I walk past dozens of homeless people huddled in shop doorways in sleeping bags or blankets. After work I catch a bus home to Newtown – just outside Wellington CBD – and as I walk home from the bus stop there are more homeless people huddled in shop doorways. I give out change if I have some but I still feel like an arshole when I get back to my warm flat when it’s absolutely freezing outside.
    The unsung heroes in this story are the people who work in the shops. Their interactions with the homeless (from what I’ve observed) demonstrate huge amounts of tolerance and empathy. The provide food, warm drinks and a sympathetic face to many of these lonely and discarded people.
    The example of this that stood out for me was a man sleeping on the pavement – it was 7 am and he was outside a Colombus Cafe and next to him the staff of the cafe had placed a hot drink and some food.
    Not much – in terms of addressing the structural issues at play – but a genuine gesture of humanity. I’ve seen similar interactions along Courtney Place where the homeless turn many of the store fronts into personal nesting boxes but I don’t sense that there is animosity from people working in the shops.
    Maybe WINZ need to spend time learning about being human from the shop workers in Wellington.

    • Peter – your comment illustrates 100% why this middle class wankfest on free speech for neo-fascists is a pointless exercise. Those are the people we should be focused on. Povrrty and powerlessness have not gone away. For Mr Bradbury and Mr Trotter (who I have great respect for) to wank on about side-issues while real social ills afflict us shows a level of privilege on the side of the left that is yet to be addressed. I’ll start caring about free speech for the Right when the Right start carrying about the homeless.

    • I respect those that hand out to these people (and I have done it myself) but in a way that is part of the problem. Many people feel they have then done their do good by doing this.

      We have to have real change not those sorts of charitable handouts.

      Make sure they sit at the table not just gather up the crumbs from the table.

  8. I don’t think that Jacinda being a mother in a job should be used as a patronizing or disparaging stick to excuse a failure in government policy. Otherwise I completely agree with your writing here.

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