Twyford gutlessly fears PSA, lets HNZ off hook for $120m meth hysteria

By
Martyn Bradbury
-
22
3

Unfucking believable…

Housing NZ to compensate 800 tenants over bogus meth testing
No board member or employee has been fired over the matter however, with Housing Minister Phil Twyford saying he was not interested in “ritual sacrifice.”

“It’s very clear that through the course of the last Government HNZ were told explicitly to behave like a private sector landlord, to forget their social mandate,” Twyford said.

“The people who I hold most accountable for this fiasco have already lost their jobs. They are no longer ministers.”

…just like when the fucking cops get caught breaking the law, the Government of the day simply legislates retrospectively and allows that illegality to now be the law.

Let’s remind ourselves that HNZ were told that AND KNEW they were misreading their own rules.

Let’s remind ourselves HNZ planned to hide from having to front on this.

Let’s remind ourselves that while it was the National Party who pushed this draconian crack down, Housing NZ were willing participants in this state sanctioned spite and did fuck all to stop it.

The only reason Twyford will shrug at blowing $120m on meth contamination and punish not one prick from Housing NZ is because he knows muddle Nu Zilind don’t give a fuck about state tenants and he fears pissing off the PSA!

The compensation is a joke, as AAAP point out...

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

“The amount being offered by Housing New Zealand to tenants wrongfully evicted for meth contamination ignores the costs and damage for the majority of the tenants who were not rehoused after being evicted. For many, the evictions meant losing all their belongings, connections to their community, and trauma”, says Ricardo Menendez March, Auckland Action Against Poverty Coordinator.

…this isn’t leadership, it’s the same political cowardice we always get once the Opposition move into the plush leather seats of power.

Spineless and cowardly.

So, 2400 tenants mercilessly thrown onto the street, $120m needlessly pissed against the wall, National use entire fiasco as cover for state housing privatisation while homelessness spikes, the mainstream media whip it up for ratings & not one fucking person is held accountable at Housing NZ because Labour are too gutless to annoy the PSA???

Welcome to fucking NZ.

 

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22 COMMENTS

  1. exactly more propaganda from on high, more cover ups, more spyng and lying, how does this government look any different than previous governments, as for the psa, defund them self serving fukkers, alot of us blame them for the miss governance of the welfare state, HNZ and IRS, thats a union that needs busted.

  2. +100 good post…and heads should roll over this…and those who made the profits out of the poorest of the poor should be held to account…prison and /or repayment

    ….and why isnt the Labour coalition holding the Nactional Party to account?

  4. HNZ CEO McKenzie was on RNZ today eating a huge humble pie that even Kathryn Ryan could not duck from serving him, nice to hear the arsehole that “would never appear on RNZ” having some admissions dragged out of him

    he was at great pains to distance himself from private landlords, for obvious reasons, who are also up for the high jump having penalised innocent tenants in this Meth Hysteria that enabled a whole mini test industry of ex coppers to exploit people and ultimately cause much disruption and grief–people had their kids taken off them and credit ratings wrecked and WINZ informed–condemned to destitution basically

    the pricks at the top should be sacked and barred via restraint of trade from ever working in the public sector again

    https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018663349/meth-5m-compensation-for-evicted-tenants

    • And one MP by the name of Judith Collins trying to spin it in question time, asking whether Twyford and this government would allow law breaking meth users live in Housing NZ homes, and consume illegal drugs there, and even get ‘compensation’ for having been evicted.

      ‘Morals’ and a ‘sense for justice’ Nat style, I suppose, bash them while they are down, put in the boot onto the skull of the fallen, how ‘wonderful’ that lot is that still enjoys forty plus percent poll support.

  7. Have to agree with you there M. The PSA are and have to be the shitiest union in the country. They sellout their members every week in employment disputes btw members & employers, taking the employers side every time.

    And even worse! In Council employment agreements, they still have casual, short term contracts that continuously get renewed as and when.

  8. Yes it was the last National Government which drove this appalling crack-down on the vulnerable who are easily attacked by the unintelligent, brainwashed right wing base rhetoric and villified as unemployed P addicts and criminals yet many of those evicted were not unemployed P addicts or even criminals using or manufacturing methamphetamine but were living in accommodation where it might have been used – I say might because of the now highlighted very flawed testing regime that the so-called certified testing companies used where the so-called contamination levels recorded have been totally and officially debunked.

    So, these evictions were carried out on unsubstantiated and now debunked “scientific” (scientific – yeah right) evidence which would not stand up in a court of law and talking about courts of law, HNZ pre-determined outcomes without giving the tenants a right to be heard yet if any of the employees of that putrid organisation was charged with a criminal offence they would demand that their rights be upheld and that the evidence be tested. I know this is a trite comment often trotted out but in the circumstances it fits here so well. My point is that it simply highlights HNZ’s attitude towards those living in dire circumstances through no fault of their own.

    Also, just remember that the companies that did the testing also carried out the clean-ups costing thousands of dollars and enriched themselves on nothing more than an out and out con.

    How can HNZ, which once sanctimoniously justified their callous and brutal evictions, – akin to a Nazi eradication of anyone other than their own kind – now turn around and espouse care and understanding towards the same people they have held and continue to hold in contempt? That they should compensate those they have bullied and brutalised goes without saying but its change of face is so hypocritical and cynical that it beggars belief.

    And to add insult to injury the current National party through Spewdith Collins mocks the Government by saying that what it is doing is inviting the evicted people back in to cook up again. So what she is saying is that all those tenants who lived in state housing which might have been contaminated with methamphetamine (emphasis on might) were actually manufacturing the stuff. This is so pathetic but in keeping with an opposition which created this problem, as well as so many others, which the current Government is trying to fix, yet all it can do is attack and deride and now trot out the phrase “its a shambles” – listen to how many times different National MPs use this phrase to attack the Government!!!

    But back to the issue. You can bet that HNZ will still make things very difficult for those people who were evicted but who did nothing wrong. Why – because it can. Just remember that even though the current Government has obviously directed HNZ to change its approach, its (HNZ’s) deep-seated arrogance and resentment of our vulnerable will fester until such time as it will bubble up to the surface again and it can ride rough-shod over those they should trying to house rather than trying to turn out onto the streets.

  9. Now all together …. “we don’t know how lucky we are”….
    And what a bonus to be living in a country that’s clean, green and 100% pure…oh no, wait, sirjokey said that was just a marketing strategy.
    Bugger.

  10. Jesus wept. Normal people soon learn they mean nothing when stacked up against money fetishists, sociopaths and narcissists drawn to positions of political power.
    “Ritual sacrifice”! What were those who were rendered homeless by bullshit and treason then? Were they not sacrificed for fucks sake?
    I keep writing, after I’m doomed to keep thinking, that Labour and National are one and the same.
    NZ/AO is a cluster fuck of a swindle, a grifters paradise, and those swindlers are rich and privileged and well imbedded in their comfortable fiefdoms.
    I’d even dare to offer up the idea that the whole global capitalist system is the flower on a systemic fungus comprised of narcissists, psychopaths and sociopaths feeding on the rest of us like primitive vampires. They have fangs, they drink blood, they burn down our planet and love the idea that they cause grievous harm to us. They enjoy the pain they cause us. How’s that for fucked? How much more fucked can that get?
    And why do we fawn over the wanky usa when drugs are done spoke of? When countries like Portugal have extraordinarily progressive drug policy that’s working … So ? WTF?
    We need you back peter dunne! Ba hahaahahaha ahahahahahahaahah aha aha

    On a lighter note. This, from barbaric Budapest.

    Roll a blunt. Spark it up. Lie right back. Enjoy.
    Parov Stelar.
    https://youtu.be/I5AOg8rTGHU

  11. This sucks. It is an absolute disgrace.

    Forget about accountability, these pretty boys are paid big bucks for perfecting the skill of wriggling and slithering away like woodlice when indolent incompetence is shown to impact on the lives of the people at the bottom – people who don’t matter because they’re poor, and poverty after all is a lifestyle choice, and did ex-PM Bill English not say that he would sooner piss in his tea and drink it rather than reform social welfare ?

    The compensation for Housing New Zealand’s victims is not good enough.

    But how very good it could have been if Twyford had made a more realistic and generous gesture to help these people – he had the opportunity to do so, and he blew it.

    How good it would be if some decent lawyer mounted a pro bono class action on behalf of all those who were gut-kicked.

    National screwed up again and again, but the Labour Govt has been given an opportunity here to make a statement about our values, and a chance to show that everybody matters – a PR’s dream opportunity in fact – but instead they are saying, “Suck it up Kiwis “.

    This is the sound of meanness and foolishness. But hey – that scruffy kid buying three slices of luncheon sausage for dinner might be able to buy four slices now. Well done Twyford.

  12. “Welcome to fucking NZ.”

    I overheard a homeless Maori man talk to two others on the bus yesterday. He said he had lived on the streets for over thirty hears, had been in and out of prison, and he had been told, he would not be given a place to live (e.g. Housing NZ home), for reasons not mentioned.

    He looked like a poor sort of a guy.

    Also did I hear him mention how he had met a young Frenchman the day before, who praised New Zealand as ‘such a beautiful place’. The homeless man on the bus ridiculed that man, who was apparently one of the many tourists, who may have given the Maori a few coins while begging in the streets of his own homeland.

    Hearing and seeing such stories makes me very, very angry at the situation in Aotearoa NZ Inc, and how things have been run here for many decades.

    We live in parallel universes now, some a slumstyle life, others the leasure life of middle class professionals and housing speculators.

    What a disgrace, really!

  13. What evidence do you have that this decision has been made because of Twyford’s fear of the PSA? Christ, you sound like Leighton Smith and Mike Hosking had a baby.

  14. We are still keeping the faith IN YOU, that Phil Twyford will keep his promises made here too.

    QUOTE YOUR WORDS HERE.

    “Twyford says rail has been on life support for too long.
    “The Labour-led government will restore balance to transport funding, boosting investment in rail infrastructure both for passengers and freight.
    “This will include significant investment in regional rail via the Regional Development Fund, as set out in the Labour-New Zealand First coalition agreement.”

    TO YOU PHIL A PERSONAL NOTE;
    Phil all Gisborne and HB VOTERS are waiting for you to come to speak with OUR communities again as you did in 2012 and re-open the rail to Napier from Gisborne, as we need you to horour your promises made to us in 22nd January 2013 on the Labour press release so honour your promises please for our rail also now.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11948096
    NZ Herald
    BUSINESS
    Report finds rail injects $1.5 billion a year into New Zealand’s economy
    27 Nov, 2017 5:00am
    4 minutes to read

    The largest contribution rail was making was the reduction of road use, KiwiRail chairman Trevor Janes said. Photo / File

    The Labour-led government is promising to invest in rail after releasing a report it says National sat on which shows $1.5 billion of hidden benefits from rail a year.
    The study by EY quantifies the savings from having fewer trucks and cars on roads, less damage to roads, not as much congestion and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
    Transport Minister Phil Twyford says the EY report was commissioned by NZTA and KiwiRail in 2016 and was sat on by the National government because it had an ideological bias against rail.
    The report says rail networks have long been thought of as monopolies with high up-front costs and significant barriers to entry.
    Many expect governments to be involved, but there is debate about how much.
    The experience of KiwiRail is a live embodiment of this debate, with several operating models over the past 30 years from full public ownership to full privatisation, the report says.
    The current model lies towards the “public ownership” end of the spectrum.
    KiwiRail is a state-owned enterprise which receives capital from central government and subsidies from regional council rates and from the National Land Transport Fund.
    The quantifying of the public benefit of rail will help support the rationale for continued intervention, or provide a basis for the retreat from financial support for rail, the report says.
    Twyford says rail has been on life support for too long.
    “The Labour-led government will restore balance to transport funding, boosting investment in rail infrastructure both for passengers and freight.
    “This will include significant investment in regional rail via the Regional Development Fund, as set out in the Labour-New Zealand First coalition agreement.”

    The establishment of a light rail network in Auckland will significantly increase the $1.3b a year of benefits that road users, including freight companies, experience from reduced congestion, Mr Twyford said.
    KiwiRail chairman Trevor Janes said the total amount far exceeded what the taxpayer was spending on rail.
    The benefits far exceed what the taxpayer is spending on rail, KiwiRail chairman Trevor Janes says.
    “These benefits do not show up on the balance sheet, but they are very real, and they make a huge contribution to New Zealand,” he said.
    “The areas where rail is delivering for New Zealand include cutting congestion, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving safety on our roads and lowering spending on road maintenance and upgrades,” Janes said.
    The largest contribution rail was making was the reduction of road use, he said.
    “Rail is taking cars off the road and it’s taking trucks off the road. That is saving the country $1.3 billion a year because it cuts congestion for all road users, including other freight movers,” Janes said.
    “Using rail cuts New Zealand’s carbon emissions by 488,000 tonnes a year. That is the equivalent of taking 87,000 cars off the road, saving millions of dollars,” he said.
    “Rail freight has 66 per cent fewer carbon emissions than heavy road freight which is useful for New Zealand reaching its ambitious climate change targets.”
    The study found that without rail there would be an additional 100,000 daily car trips on the road each year – the equivalent of 76 million light vehicle hours reduced through rail, and 57 million of those hours were on Auckland roads.
    KiwiRail’s asset base:
    • 4000 km track (of which 500km mothballed)
    • 1656 bridges
    • 18,000ha of land managed
    • 198 mainline locomotives
    • 4585 freight wagons
    • Two owned and one leased ferry
    • 4200 staff
    Each week, train control operations manage the movement of:
    • 900 freight trains
    • 44 inter-city passenger trains
    • 2200 suburban passenger services in Wellington
    • 2000 suburban passenger services in Auckland
    – additional reporting NZN

  16. If the fact that no one is to be sacked over this entire revolting mess and Judith Collins and her contemptible cruel comments don’t send the message that behaving like this toward our own people is unacceptable and should not be tolerated then we are no better than the evil regimes we fought against in the last two wars.

    Where is Jim Bolger’s 1990 pledge of a ” decent society ” and John Keys 2008 promise of a ” brighter future ” ???

    Gone to the top twenty percent.

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