The government’s announcement about the potential introduction a Social Insurance scheme will entrench a 2-tier welfare system and further exacerbate the already existing high levels of poverty we have here in Aotearoa NZ.
“It’s so deeply problematic. Not only have this Labour government not fully implemented any of their own key WEAG recommendations, which are now the bare minimum given Covid – they’re now looking to create a 2-tier welfare system which is only good for those of us on high wages. The government should have shown this level of urgency in transforming the welfare system, starting with further lifts to benefits, individualizing income support and removing all sanctions, says Auckland Action Against Poverty Coordinator Brooke Pao Stanley.
We continue to leave people on work visas behind as they’re not included in the scheme, which means they’ll be open to further exploitation and precarious work and working conditions.
Increasing benefits to Liveable Incomes is good for all of us, as we should be prioritising communities that require the most support first. It also helps to provide competition for people on low wage work as it means businesses will need to raise their wages and provide the best working conditions for people. Transforming the welfare system – the existing social insurance scheme – benefits us all. I’m not sure why this Labour government is ok with making it so much harder for people to live in Aotearoa NZ, when they have the power to alleviate much of the constant stresses people and families are surviving with.
When coupled with Universal Services we can create a system that provides full and whole support to us all as a response to Covid as well as prepare for a just transition to Climate Justice. We can also eliminate poverty in Aotearoa NZ, which will also eliminate much of the harm and violence connected to it in our communities. Isn’t this what we want?
The answer as of today, is of course, no, it is not what “we” want. If beneficiary bashing wasn’t already enough proof, the enthusiasm of people to irrationally attack and exclude anyone or anything with the reason of covid should have emphasised who we are dealing with here.
What you’re asking for is a government, you know, an elected group or hiereditary family that appreciate the dynamics of a nation and include and manage all parts as a healthy whole. What we have now are management styles – Labour style, National style, Act style, Greens style, but no groups capable to rule as leaders. The Maori party are attached to something larger that isn’t a style, but I have no idea what kind of real standing they have within their people, or their effective interface with non-maori. Pakeha could hypothetically form a party similar to Maori Party, and interface effectively, but its seems like a stretch while we’re about to go into another year of swinging at each other under the usual rules. So it’s back to management systems that deal with small issues seperately, pushing anything off the books that fails to make a profit or fit the desired economic or philosophical norm. Great for finance and forcing everyone to be the same, really bad for nations. Where do the discarded bits go? Right where they’ve always been.
You can’t appeal to a management system to appreciate the whole, its parameters don’t go that far. Labour don’t have the power to do as you ask: their perspective rules out being able to comprehend the whole. They could push the levers whatever way, they have that power in theory, but it would still fail, hemmed in by whatever we want to call the overriding style of doing business, and the values and beliefs of the people firmly attached to that system – rich or poor. There are active ways out of this mess, but are people beat down by neo-liberal poverty up to it? Would their allies in comfortable-land give up everything they thought was real overnight? Would it be responsible to ask, even if the person asking had the power to ask? Probably not. The way to actively accelerate decline would be a hard sell. There is another way to advance, but jeez, that’s even more difficult and obscure. We just have to keep going, you doing your essential work, everyone else doing whatever the fuck, and wait for random chance and passing of time to assist. Maybe it will all collapse naturally. Sometimes it seems like the big wide world of stupid will always be there. The things that make the effort worthwhile aren’t contained in the stupid.