National Party Welfare spokesperson Louise Upston attacked Welfare Minister Carmel Sepuloni on Newshub over the weekend for the two-tier welfare system Labour have adopted as a response to the pandemic.
Sadly, however, Louise Upston wasn’t offering anything more than pointing out the injustice of that two-tiered system rather than actually promising a break from the draconian welfare policies National have championed.
Labour have offered the two-tiered welfare system in the desperate hope that the recently unemployed won’t have to directly interact with WINZ staff whose toxic culture and obtuse nature have been honed beating down solo parents and the long term unemployed.
The last thing Labour needs months out from an election is a tsunami of the recently unemployed who are not numbed by WINZ cruelty and counterproductive policies flooding social media with horror stories of WINZ malice.
So by providing a direct means for the recently unemployed to have minimal interaction with callow WINZ staff, Labour have avoided having to do anything meaningful about the toxic culture inside WINZ.
This stopgap bigotry (which is a slap in the face to the long term unemployed and solo parents it discriminates against) isn’t sustainable however and at some stage Labour have to be serious about reforming welfare and the provision of services by WINZ or else the backlash from the electorate will become politically damaging to Jacinda’s brand.
If Carmel Sepuloni can’t reform WINZ, then get a Minister who can!
First published on Waatea News.
The two-tier benefit is sustainable in the form of an unemployment insurances system.
It is also consistent with a raft of other Labour-initiated income protection measures, from ACC to Kiwisaver..
You might not like it, but that is the policy direction of your chosen party, and it is the policy which best suits the present circumstances of New Zealand capitalism.
A two-tier benefits scheme is an admission that benefit rates can never go below what they already are, ever.
Ummm.. not sure about that:
Our Three Tier Welfare State, Newsroom
Ms Sepuloni, like ILG, is a Minister captured by her Dept. officials–neo liberal managerialists, tory toadies and A-grade underminers. They do not want Govt. Depts. to actually serve the people beyond salaries for themselves! WINZ/MSD staff can be personally rewarded for NOT providing the assistance vulnerable people seek. If Ms Sepuloni does not get that, she should move on to Horse Racing Minister or something.
The inequitable two tier benefit system, will likely not last much beyond the election, like other Covid assistance that has been ladled out in the billions to opportunistic employers large and small. The heat will be on Jacinda and Grant well and truly. And the alternative left need to have their policies and suggestion up and ready to go for public approval and support.
And the alternative left need to have their policies and suggestion up and ready to go for public approval and support.
Yes! For sure.
The medical insurance system in the US works really well .. for the profiteers, not the public.
National are also guilty of creating a two tiered system one for the rich and one for the poor. In fact nationals policies exacerbated poverty, huge scale immigration in many low paying jobs and their educational policies to backdoor immigrants into our country, putting pressure on our creaking infrastructure and then huge under funding and undermining of public services. So Upstons’ comments is a bit of the pot calling the kettle black. Under national we saw a huge growth of inequalities, and this is not good for our country.
Louise Upston can make all the accusations she likes. I’m more interested in her solutions. From what I heard it was ‘pathways’, ‘sanctions’ and ‘get a job’. Just what the working poor want to hear. National have made it very clear that they are on the side of the employer, not the employee. And Louise’s solution to temporary 2 tier system…’everyone should get the minimum’. Classy. Will National also do away with the Winter Heating allowance or any other stop gap policies that try to alleviate poverty? You bet. My hope is that left wing welfare policy will be more palatable to the electorate post election and that will translate into a more equitable system. Demands for change NOW since 2017 don’t take into account the right wing rump yelling NO at the time. That rump is now looking like last years roast. Cold, hard and inedible. The Key/English Govt is now becoming a distant memory as people realise the reality of life on a benefit. A mandate is required for welfare change. 2017 wasn’t it. Sept 2020 may well see that mandate (hopefully).
Upston has no right to blast anyone. In 9 years of power she was fuking useless. As the minister for Women, at a Women’s conference, I remember her sat on her arse whilst Key did all the talking. It summed up her career perfectly. In opposition she excels!
Yes bert she (uppyston) excel sitting on her arrrrse
” If Carmel Sepuloni can’t reform WINZ, then get a Minister who can ”
Yeah and climate change is all a hoax !
I find it insulting that welfare reform is the subject to be debated in a neoliberal reality tv forum with two people who are about as compassionate as an ACT party conference.
Its not the minister its the whole neoliberal third way Blairite Labour party who are more interested in just keeping the treasury benches occupied than DOING ANYTHING meaningful about WINZ or the deprivation in our society.
At least Corbyn and a large section of their party fought to take back what has been stolen , revamped as New neoliberal Labour delivered with a smile as not to upset the ruling class and free market interests.
Its like the mongrel mob moving into a white middle class respectable neighbourhood and setting up their headquarters and recruiting everyone in the street except these gangsters wear business suits.
So Labour is going to govern alone after the election ? i wager that there will be no euphoria the Sunday after celebrating the landslide election of a government that has promised real action for the many and not the few.
We will still be waiting in another three years for someone to # Do Something , Anything but don’t do nothing.
That should have read no real action for the many and bugger the few.
> This stopgap bigotry (which is a slap in the face to the long term unemployed and solo parents it discriminates against)
… not to mention those trying to cope on sickness and invalids benefits, which have been set at the same level as the unemployment benefit, for years.
Yes. It is shockingly sad that this has not been repaired, not even attempted.
The real unemployment figures are;
11.8% or 353,000 in receipt of a benefit as of 20 June, 2020.
This does not include those people receiving a subsidy. That number is approximately 600,000. That subsidy ends on the 1st September.
What about all the retirees (and frequently younger relatives on their behalf) who have to deal with WINZ? Having direct experience of the frustration of jumping through bureaucratic hoops on behalf of elderly parents, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry about this story. A separate department for retired people who have worked all their lives is long overdue in my opinion.
Part of Sepuloni’s smug thesis was that a two tiered system has been implemented before, in previous years. I think she mentioned the GFC, or serfdom middle ages, or some such gibberish. You know, that old chestnut of justification drawing on former failures.
Im in the Third tier – those who dont fit the criteria to get a bloody benefit. Im married to someone who works.
My wife lost her job in February due to workplace bullying by her employer (fuck you farmlands) so we went on the benefit, I was finally able to get the supported living payment (yes Im permanently disabled too) but the wife kept looking for work, found a job and then lockdown happened. When we went to level 3 she started work and I lost the benefit. If I had been put on a benefit in march Im not sure but its possible I would be part of the 2nd tier where it doesnt matter what my wife earns I would still get a benefit. So I wrote a letter about this to Carmel, her secretary passed on the letter for her to reply and nothing, zip zilch nothing back. Fucking sick of the govt now to the point Im not going to bother voting Im fucking done with politicians.
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