Shades of I Daniel Blake
So MSD have been forcing investigation staff to get at least one prosecution a month, often for the non-crime of ‘relationship fraud’. They have quotas to recover at least $30,000 in debt per month!
Susan St John
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A Fair suck of the sauce bottle!
It is all very weird in a world where a rugby player can do a real crime with real victims and not even get a conviction because it would hurt his career. Women without means can have their lives ruined because they must be made examples of as warning to others, while the plight of their children can be totally ignored. Fairly disgraceful.
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Auckland shows government’ policy failures writ large
Auckland is a two speed city ‘Real Housewives of Auckland’ at one end and desperately poor families living in cars in the middle of winter at the other. The affluent of Auckland are immune to the price system- it just doesn’t matter what things cost. At the other end, lives are spent economising on miserable and insufficient disposable incomes where every last 10 cents and every price rise matters.
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NZIFF FILM REVIEW: Tale of two films
I have seen two films this festival set in totally different contexts but with disturbing parallels.
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Excuse me Minister
I listened in disbelief to Lisa Owen interviewing Bill English on The Nation. Perhaps they believe their own spin?
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“Kathryn’s Story” highlights the need for major welfare overhaul
In August 2015 I sat through a whole day of hearing in the High Court on this sad case. What a convoluted sets of arguments were expounded to justify the punitive approach taken by the Crown. That was the latest court event in a 15 year saga in which an unwell beneficiary is being pursued for the repayment of $20 a week.
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Some babies are more special than others
This week Labour’s bid to get an extension to Paid Parental Leave (PPL) is likely to be stopped in its tracks by a veto from Bill English. For all the wrong reasons.
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Get married stay married and you won’t be poor
The Family First report, Child Poverty: Don’t Mention Family Structure by Lindsay Mitchell extols the value of the institution of marriage. According to her, family structure is the elephant in the room when child poverty solutions are discussed.
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The rules for the old too good for children?
This is how Bill English generates surpluses to justify John Key’s election year bribes of tax cuts to the rich.
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Good Policy is rarely done on the run
After years of neglect John Key now thinks a selective land tax just might be called for to curb the tearaway housing bubble. The best that can be said is that he has opened a window of opportunity for debate.