Govt Fails Disabled Communities Again – Green Party
The Government’s move to limit the role of Whaikaha is a major setback for disabled people.
“The Government is reverting to a tried, tested and failed model while neglecting the voice of disabled communities,” says the Green Party Spokesperson for Disability Kahurangui Carter.
“Disabled people know best about the support they need and should be empowered to make the choices that are best for them. Weakening this Ministry does not empower our disabled people – it erodes their agency.
“Once again, the Government has failed to engage and include the views and expertise of disabled people in making major changes to a Ministry tasked with supporting them.
“To shrink Whaikaha to just policy and advocacy functions, the Government is weakening its capacity to deliver, making it less effective.
“The key purpose of the Ministry for Disabled People is being diluted. This risks diminishing support, and means the strong connection between delivery and policy by and for disabled people is broken.
“The Ministry is still in its infancy, and this review should be about improving it, not gutting it.
“Ultimately this Government is prepared to sacrifice advocacy, accessibility and justice for disabled people in order to curb spending so that they can help the wealthy to get richer.
“A funding squeeze to fund trickle-down tax cuts should not be used as a reason to reduce support. We must invest in the support services that are critical to the disabled community.
“The Greens would work with, and be led by, disabled communities in building a system that allows them to thrive,” says Kahurangi Carter.
And now National come for the disabled, (after already coming for Beneficiaries, Māori, Renters, Workers and the Environment).
The wholesale destruction of the Disability sector with this move is the most disgusting thing this Government has done to date.
As far as I am concerned, a decent society does everything in its power to make the life of the disabled as fruitful as possible.
There but for the grace of God go I.
I have enough difficulty getting around as an able bodied person, losing my sight, hearing or ability to walk would be unbearable!
To suffer from an illness or disability – these people are the true fucking heroes, going about their life with the disability or illness the roulette of genetics has given you.
WHY, I say WHY destroy these people’s hopes and aspirations by taking the service provision and placing it inside MSD!!!
MSD are without a doubt the most cruel bureaucracy in NZ, they have long standing brutal methods in place to make the process of service provision as hateful and awful as possible so people stop asking for help.
THAT WAS WHY we had a department set up just for the disabled so that they could bypass the cruelty of MSD, and why is this happening?
Because the needs of the disabled community require more funding.
National see any public spending now as wrong because they need to find the money for the borrowed tax cuts and the $2.9billion
We have taken from the disabled, from beneficiaries, from Māori, from worker, from renters and the environment while manufacturing a crisi in public health – we have done all of this to give the richest tax cuts.
What the fuck have we become New Zealand?
At some stage, Kiwis need to take a long had look at themselves for the far right climate denying racist beneficiary bashing Disabled abusing Government they elected!
Remember, NZ elected this Far Right, Climate Denying, Racist, Beneficiary Bashing, Disabled Abusing Government because a bitter post-Covid electorate hated Jacinda for having the temerity to save 20 000 lives during a once in a century pandemic.
We have allowed our petty bigotries, our wilful ignorance and our blind rage to be manipulated by the Hard Right to implement policy that benefits them, not us.
This is who we are now.
This is what we have mutated into.
Weep dear Kiwi. Weep.
So now these people will have two lots of hoops to jump through.Also there is two lots of management to deal with and the result will be a paralised system that will result in more people living in poverty of care .This is the plan just push these people into the corner and hope they just disapear like the plan to deal with homeless people .
Have to come after the power companies as well.
NZ has moved from economic growth based on productive primary industries (agricultural primarily) to a bloated totally unproductive one based on over-priced and under taxed property speculation. As a consequence productivity has dropped and when the bubble bursts for this ‘false economy’ the country will be in deep trouble. If you think it has been bad in recent times you haven’t seen anything yet.
Due to our dependency on property prices governments since Muldoon have avoided addressing the ‘elephant in the room’ by avoiding taxing property and financial transactions that has resulted in our nation having a regressive tax system that impacts disproportionately on lower income portions of the population. The possible solutions of CGT, FTT, Wealth taxes and the reduction or removal of GST, are all too damaging to the property bubble inflated by immigration. However, we will come to a tipping point where continued increases in immigration will not be enough and the economy will crash. The the right will have the audacity to blame the Left (despite the failure being mainly due to policies of the Right) and revert to failed neoliberal doctrines such as austerity and privatisation.
So it’s confirmed Upston is RETARDING
verb/rɪˈtɑːd/delay or hold back in terms of progress or development.
well said
MSD run a punitive shit show of an operation loaded to the gunwales with passive aggressive and plain aggressive case managers. People like “7 luxury pads” Luxon have no idea of the daily reality for people that have the misfortunate to have to interact with MSD/WINZ.
WINZ are world expert losers of previously supplied documents and information. They make little allowance for people that have run out of phone data–how many hours could you stand waiting on an 0800 that never gets answered? They have security guards giving people the evils at the door, there is little privacy in open plan offices, toilets are not allowed to be used in some branches! The message is that you are scum.
And now they are coming for the disabled…indeed what a society we have become. My partner has been a beneficiary advocate and still does a few cases, so is familiar with WINZ dirty tricks regarding not informing of full entitlements. With an advocate present case managers often manage do manage to inform.
Time to restart an Unemployed Workers Rights movement and stick it to this vandal CoC Govt.
“The Ministry is still in its infancy, and this review should be about improving it, not gutting it.”
That is exactly right.
All this government are good for is rolling back progressive policy developed by the previous government, gutting the public service so the option of privatisation actually might look a good option, and mouthing off with emotive and often race-baiting rhetoric which they never can back up – all hot air and no actual governing
I can understand your anger .These are the worst bunch of god botherers I have met .The two skin heads are the worst one wants to chuck all of his whanau out on the streets and the other one wants to line the pockets of himself and his fellow rich self centered pricks
Weaponising employment status (no job) is as disgusting as weaponising health status (no vaccine). This government supports Ukraine racists, israeli religious extremists and murdering psychopath thief Americans, so the idea they really care about New Zealanders is absurd.
Whats this stupid fuckery Muppet? One day it could be you or your loved ones.
People I have met with Disabilities:
Born Disabled.
Alcohol fetal syndrome.
Paraplegic- Caused by drunken driver.
Traumatic brain injury- Cause, child abuse by his stepfather.
Brain-damage by drowning – Cause, Mother left him in the bath while she went outside for a cigarette.
Brain damage- Cause, fell off a roof as a child unsupervised.
Brain damage- Bank manager, stroke aged 38.
1000/1 when its you or yours you will be asking “what support is available”
80% of marriages with a disabled child involved ends in divorce and since few people wants responsibly for another mans disabled child 67% of the mothers who usually gets custody ends up in a abusive relationship with society’s dregs which often ends up with the disabled child being abused physically and often sexually.
Since the intellectually disabled usually make NO witnesses it never goes to trial or is even charged despite clear physical evidence. No justice for parents of our sexually abused children because of disability. We are pros at the bush telegraph.
That’s the disabled community’s dirty little secret, we remain silent to prevent more of you coming out of the woodwork.
Point me to one headline that reads ‘Man charged with physically abusing and raping intellectually disabled teenager”
Want some more fuckery and discrimination Muppet? In NZ you have the right to have a trial judged by your peers, if you are intellectually disabled you are convicted on “The balance of probabilities” at a judge only trial.
Equality under the law, yeah right. We are literally 2nd class citizens in our own country.
Imagine this true life story, your child is now an adult with the cognition of a 5 year old and she cant cope with menstruation as she cant understand whats happening or why shes in pain and walks up to complete strangers trying to show them where shes bleeding, fucked up eh.
But wait there’s more fucked up stuff to come.The parents want her to have a hysterectomy since after all she cant cope, it will keep her safe and it will make her life easier, finally the surgeons agree after much back and forth only for the hospital Lawyers to step in and refuse the operation on the grounds ‘She has the right to have children” A pre school child in an adults body.
So riddle me this, as an Adult she can’t make informed consent with regards to intimate relationships and the consequences, therefore legally it is rape. Again because of her disability she cant testify against the accused before his peers but hey if a able bodied woman is passed out drunk, more that one man has been convicted due to no informed consent. Understand now how it works?
Want to know the fallout? if she became pregnant no doctor will perform an abortion or give the morning after pill because shes unable to consent
(get your head around that) and will be forced to carry it to term with absolutely no understanding of the changes she is going through or how to manage it, once born the likelihood of the child being disabled as well is astronomical, but don’t worry the government will be knocking at my door asking if I could raise them. Problem solved.
The reason respite care days are so important to us is because it allows us the chance to maintain our marriages, the consequences of not doing so are biblical to our children.
Being a parent of a disabled family member either by birth or accident is not something we asked for and is a lifetime commitment that only ends in either their death (Usually young) or ours. Imagine living the rest of your life worrying about who will look after them once you have gone.
Yes we often pay lower tax staying at home looking after them, even part time residential care costs the taxpayer $600- $800 per day, its far cheaper to make sure we are supported.
Be careful with your claim of “survival of the fittest” especially when they come for your child lying brain damaged in the hospital from an unforeseeable accident. You and your family are only one accident away from being one of us, to which we will welcome and support you.
This decision to redirect the over $2B of DSS funding from Whaikaha to MSD is questionable on many fronts,
First, the rationale which was used that Whaikaha was going to blow its budget this FY and change was needed immediately, which is a TINA response, is always questionable!! But data shows that the DSS appropriation was always topped up when it went over budget, and that this had gone on for at least the last 10 years, so this FY is not unique and this decision is an overreaction.
Second, The establishment of Whaikaha was called for by disabled people for at least the last 20 years and finally delivered in 2022, the complexities of establishing the ministry has never been fully understood, this could rank as one of the most complex projects in some time, Whaikaha staff should be congratulated for their dedication and hard work. During select committee earlier this year Maureen Pugh brought out under questioning from MSD that Whaikaha had no KPI’s and MSD were in the process of establishing them. Questions must be asked about MSD’s oversight, supervision and support of Whaikaha during establishment.
Third, this decision was made with little or no consultation with disabled people, according to the documents organisations who receive and deliver DSS contracts were consulted but no actual disabled people or our representative organisations who government is under obligation to consult with in this type of situation.
This is a very sad and sorry mess and ultimately it will be disabled people and families who will miss out again over the long term.
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