Bashing Beneficiaries for being poor is a culture war revenge fantasy, not a practical social policy

33 Comments

1. So first we will take away your job and throw you out with the trash .Then after a week we will interview you ,call you a lazy bastard because you are not working and take away the benefit that you have not even recieved yet .
   Then we will mark your file with a stamp which says LAZY BASTARD ,Then we will foward your details to OT and instruct them to uplift your kids because you are living on the street and cant cloth or feed them .After that you will be coscripted into the army to be sent where ever AUKUS wants cannon fodder .

   1. Or we will send you to live at the refurbished Waikeria fun park and adventure playground, and once we fill that to overflowing, will then send the rest to much lower cost facilities in asia as a kind of exchange, in that we take asian students that we educate here and they accommodate our unruly bottomfeeders, under conditions far more terrible than would be allowed in NZ, a kind of bootcampkonzentrationslager.

      The reverse robinhood of taking from the poor and giving to the rich makes sense if you believe in trickle down, in which case the greatest economic boost could be obtained by reducing the top tier over 180K taxrate down to zero, and the resulting massive trickle down would turn NZ into an economic nirvana, a trussed up Luxon Willis wonderland, but anyone with a speck of commonsense and the most meager grip on reality would know, that it’s complete bullshit.

      Hocking our tomorrows to fund tax cuts for today is inflationary and unaffordable payday lending mentality. What if there’s another financial crash, another cyclone, another earthquake? What if the new bird flu becomes another 1918 flu pandemic? Will the govt then not be able to put in place a wage subsidy as Labour did, that kept the country going, because they’ve already raided the pantry for unaffordable tax cuts, and then find the pantry is bare.
      And NZFirst conspiracy supporters insisting that we don’t do any lockdowns or close the borders, because the next pandemic is some kind of fake news 5g infowars qanon media beat up giggery pokery?
      If you could bottle commonsense and sell it as snake oil, you could not extract a single drop from the current coalition. Please come back Jacinda, all is forgiven, your seat has been kept warm, and your friend Chloe is there to give you a hand.

      1. Jacinda could get her old gang back together. Chloe is the go. Then tempt Grant back into politics. Even Judas Winston, who is currently under the spell of the Evil Emperor and Deluded Sleazemore, I sense may still have some good in him. And if only a way can be found to turn Winston away from the dark side, his powers could be used to defeat the Evil Emporer, and rid us of this Koru club Sith Lord, who is busily slicing away at the public service and the treaty, with his light sabre.

         1. Ban Thomas twitter.com@BenThomasNZ Jan 21, 2023
            When Key resigned we did a GBLT emergency pod & I wrote a couple of quick takes for the Spinoff & Stuff.
            When Ardern resigned we did a GBLT emergency pod & when I checked my phone afterwards there were requests for comment from CNN, NYT, NPR, Singapore Radio, The Times, etc.

2. Sending them to a seminar isn’t exactly throwing them under the bus.

   1. If the seminar actually has useful content for finding a job it might be good. Unfortunately with Louise Upston involved it is probably more like visiting your parole officer. It’s hard to feel there’s a genuine commitment from someone who takes loads of cash from wealthy donors.

   2. Try it something then see what you think. I got made redundant once in 2008 & thought I would see how good the supposedly marvelous (according to the conservatives) state support system was. After most of the day, lots of waiting & various forms I gave up & have found my own work ever since I did not even claim any covid assistance as I had enough to survive without it even though it did substantially reduce my income for a while.
      You are missing the point that jobs are not available so training people for invisible jobs is simply a gravy train for the training provider. I hear on the news that the education dept is getting consultants to do the work of the dismissed employees so that exposes how stupid the system really is.

   3. Ennius Disagree. A woman emerging from an abusive marriage, or anybody having just experienced a significant bereavement in their lives, may be totally incapable of engaging fruitfully at a seminar two weeks later. A fired or redundant person may also require more expert assistance than the Ministry of Social Development is capable of providing at a seminar.

      One size does not fit all.

      This is very wrong, ruthless, and another unjustifiable waste of my tax payer dollars.

      1. If you read the article (and the article is correct) it’s information giving.

   4. it is throwing them under a bus.
      The seminars are a pathetic joke.
      I have been too one when Paula Bennett first set them up.
      As for winz work brokers they are as useless as a bulls tit.
      The Temp employment agencies do a better job than they do.

   5. Its only a start – many more punitive rules will be added over time. This government doesn’t give a crap for people – only the money … nothing else

      1. It cares about the people paying for benefits.

         1. Maybe, but this isn’t necessarily the best way to do things, and it could end up costing more in the long run.

         2. No jobs in Auckland and we are at high unemployment levels…a result of right wing governments, fact.

            1. 5 months in charge so this might wing government cannot be blamed .It takes time to shrink an economy and this current state of affairs can be laid at Labour’s feet. That is another reason for them to be voted out .

            2. It shrank under the previous National government and Labour only had 6 years to repair the damage left by 9 years of Nationals damage. Now this…

               https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/05/14/record-number-of-kiwis-leave-nz-stats-nz/

               Note the previous record was 2012, again under National. People are leaving in droves and we are left with the dregs of immigrants like yourself Trev.
               National always screws the country over.

            3. Bullshit Trevor this lays squarely at Nationals feet, fuck off with your excuses!

   6. A newly unemployed will appreciate the opportunity to get back on the wheel, and get a job. Long term unemployed, will struggle with this, as overtime people become demotivated. However, people need respectful jobs, whereby they can fulfill their material needs, for self esteem, mental & physical health and to be a role model for the young ones.

3. Keeping people down can render them fairly helpless and incapable of bettering themselves and ergo powerless. This solidifies the power of the “ haves”, is societally counterproductive, and brutal.

4. Good. Small state is the solution.
   Never in history has a big state worked.

   1. Oh yes. Ignoring the Nordic countries success I see. What a twat.

   2. yep – turn MSD and associated Minister into a website. A simple IRD check is all that’s needed. Let an AI run it.

5. I went to one of those seminars, WINZ staff forced jobseekers to stand up in the large group and tell them their name, circumstances and histories – breaching client confidentiality and the Privacy Act. MSD currently rack up seven complaints per day and this has been occurring for years, they are the New Zealanders in breach of the social contract. For them to punch down on the most vulnerable is not only hypocrisy but a breach of human rights.

6. Off topic.

   The ACT dream of gutting of public education has commenced. NZ will soon be mini-USA with religious reality denying maniacs everywhere, Science deniers, history denial rightwing propaganda centres for children.
   All mainlined into the formative minds of children.
   And all on the taxpayer dollar.

   This really is a catastrophe.

   1. Charter schoolz

   2. Yes Richard, this is a fucking disgrace tax payers money for private enterprises, thats all the evidence we need to show how corrupt this government is.

7. I live in the notorious job black spot of Buller on the West Coast and I’m unemployed.
   Job ads are mostly medical, council management, mining or mining support like heavy vehicle servicing and Talleys, all of which I’m unqualified for, not that I’d ever be complicit in the climate change genocide industry or active anti worker companies.

   Rather than sit on my 57 year arse, living the dream and spending all the farmers and wealth sponger class taxes they haven’t managed to avoid paying, I set up as a sole trader with IRD and did groundsman stuff where I could find it.
   Declaring everything, on the good weeks I earned gross over the $160 threshold I forfeited the 70c on the dollar and had my benefit reduced, and had to put aside 25% for the tax and acc bill (which I paid in full on the day I filled in the IR3) – I made it work.

   Now my back is fucked in two places and I’ve been in pain for months struggling on – degenerate, and at present moderate scoliosis in the thoracic and cervical spine, on top of the untreated wedged lower vertebrae and associated nerve damage I have from 8 years ago. No acc.

   Seriously, and I truly mean it, good fucking luck to the cunt who tries to make me compete for numb nut jobs with kids 3x younger for minimum wage, just to get the numbers down or fulfil a revenge fantasy.
   I have a sick note from the doctor that runs out on the 20th. I told her that I didn’t want to be signed off full time because I have to still do the work when I get it because the money is so shit, and of course someone will see me and dob me in, and that’s another new game I have no intention of playing.

   1. Edit: spondylosis not scoliosis, whatever the f that is.

8. Any wonder a record 1000 people a week are fucking off to other shit holes .
   Dont here the skin head gang leader blabing about that now do we .He was hysterical when 200 were leaving under the last government but is shocked to fuck and back now his magic wand is stuck up his arse and does fuck all .So much for turning things around in the first 100 days ,just like Key was going to have wages match AUS in his first term .

9. the breakdown of the fossil fueled industrial age – the Anthropocene. I’ll give you a technocracy for free – openstar – if you want to pick a winner – fusion would be one. dyes. vats, stills we’re good at it – hilux races on the biofuel or a plaidl nirvana – I’d accept a small fusion reactor next to auckland – lol

Comments are closed.