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Daily Blog Guerrilla Radio – REM – IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT (AND I FEEL FINE)
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TDB Top 5 International Stories: Friday 3rd February 2017
5: Resist or Resign: Facing Grassroots Pressure, Democratic Lawmakers Intensify Fight Against Trump
During a chaotic day on Capitol Hill, the Senate confirmed Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson by a vote of 56 to 43. Reuters reports it was the closest vote—by a wide margin—for a secretary of state nominee in at least a half-century. The Senate Judiciary Committee also approved the nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions to be attorney general in a straight party-line vote. Democratic lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee boycotted committee votes on two of Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks: Steven Mnuchin for treasury secretary and Tom Price for health and human services secretary. The committee rules require at least one Democrat present to vote. Republicans on the committee then suspended the rules and voted to send the two nominations to the Senate floor. Democrats on the Environment and Public Works Committee also boycotted a vote on Scott Pruitt to become head of the Environmental Protection Agency. For more, we speak with Ryan Grim, Washington bureau chief for The Huffington Post. His most recent piece is titled “After Trying Everything Else, Democrats Have Decided to Listen to Their Voters.”
Democracy Now
4: What the Left Can Learn from the Alt Right
I hate to say it, but Steve Bannon was right.
Trump’s right-hand man – the former head of the far-right Breitbart News, and the man who reportedly masterminded Trump’s travel ban – was actually right. Speaking to the New York Times last week, Bannon was criticised for telling the media to “keep its mouth shut” – a demand that caused a fair amount of outrage. However, it was the second part of his sentence that was actually more interesting: “They [the media] still do not understand why Donald Trump is the president of the United States.”
Vice News
3: Iran slams ‘provocative’ US warning over missile test
Iran has rejected a warning from US President Donald Trump’s administration over its latest missile test as unfounded.
Bahram Ghasemi, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, was quoted as saying on Thursday by state news agency IRNA that the claims were “baseless, repetitive and provocative”.
Aljazeera
2: Press Secretary Sean Spicer Falsely Accuses Iran of Attacking U.S. Navy Vessel, an Act of War
WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY Sean Spicer asserted at Thursday’s press briefing that Iran had attacked a U.S. naval vessel, as part of his argument defending the administration’s bellicose announcement that Iran is “on notice.”
National Security Adviser Michael Flynn on Wednesday said he was “officially putting Iran on notice” following the country’s ballistic missile test and an attack on a Saudi naval vessel by Houthi rebels in Yemen (the Houthis are tenuously aligned with Iran’s government but are distinct from it).
The White House press corps wanted to know what being put “on notice” entailed, and Spicer responded by claiming that Iran’s government took actions against a U.S. naval vessel, which would be an act of war. “I think General Flynn was really clear yesterday that Iran has violated the Joint Resolution, that Iran’s additional hostile actions that it took against our Navy vessel are ones that we are very clear are not going to sit by and take,” he said. “I think that we will have further updates for you on those additional actions.”
The Intercept
1: UC Berkeley cancels ‘alt-right’ speaker Milo Yiannopoulos as thousands protest
The University of California Berkeley has cancelled a speech by rightwing internet troll Milo Yiannopoulos after thousands of students gathered in protest and a group of black-clad anti-fascist activists shot fireworks at the speech venue.
The Martin Luther King Jr student union was heavily fortified behind several layers of police barricades when protesters began gathering outside at 5pm on Wednesday, three hours before the event was scheduled to start.
The gathering was boisterous but peaceful until about 6pm, when several dozen protesters wearing black face masks and carrying glittering flags arrived. The group quickly attacked the police barricades, then began shooting firecrackers at the building. Some used barricades to smash windows.
The Guardian
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The Daily Blog Open Mic – Friday 3rd February 2017
Announce protest actions, general chit chat or give your opinion on issues we haven’t covered for the day.
Moderation rules are more lenient for this section, but try and play nicely.
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DairyNZ backs down as Greenpeace launches new video
As DairyNZ backs down from a public fight over a controversial TV ad, Greenpeace has released a new video about industrial dairying and polluted rivers.
It’s called “Mildred and the Piss-Apocalypse,” and explains the science behind river pollution.
Here is a sneak preview:
The animation describes how cow urine travels down through the soil into the groundwater poisoning rivers and aquifers with nitrates.
Hot on the heels of their first hard hitting campaign, Greenpeace’s new video outlines the important link between irrigation schemes and river pollution.
“It’s a simple message,” says Gen Toop, Greenpeace campaigner, “more irrigation equals more cows. More cows mean more pollution.”
The original ad from Greenpeace showed kiwi kids splashing about in a clear stream, saying 60 per cent of New Zealand’s monitored rivers are now unfit to swim in.
DairyNZ tried to get the original TV ad banned by complaining to the Advertising Standards Authority but lost the case last month. They publicly vowed to appeal the decision but have now backed out of the process.
“We welcome the recent overtures from DairyNZ to work with them on this problem,” says Toop, “but we will continue to pressure them to clean up their act on behalf of all New Zealanders who want a better future.”
She says revelations that the dairy industry wants to extract water from the source of the world famous Pupū springs to increase cow numbers in Golden Bay, is a clear example of how far the expansionist dairying lobby is prepared to go.
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No Pride in Prisons March to Join Rising Tide of Discontent With Corrections
Prison abolitionist group No Pride in Prisons will hold a march to Mount Eden Corrections Facility on Saturday, February 11 from 12pm to 2pm.
No Pride in Prisons spokesperson Emilie Rākete says “This march is to call attention to the fact that the prison population has recently swollen to 10,000 people.”
“The Department of Corrections is ignoring the growing evidence that prisons don’t do what they say they do. The government plans to spend $1 billion on prison construction over the next few years to house even more prisoners.”
“A new prison facility is being built despite the fact that recidivism is high. It’s clear that prisons are not reducing crime.”
The march is occurring only days after it was confirmed that Corrections officers have been barred from participating in the Auckland Pride parade.
“No Pride in Prisons agrees with Auckland Pride that Corrections has made no progress on transgender rights,” Rākete said. “Transgender prisoners continue to suffer from some of the worst conditions of incarceration. Our advocates have worked with transgender prisoners who are at risk of developing bone disease because their hormone treatments are so inadequate”
“The recent Ombudsmen’s investigation found systemic human rights abuse in Corrections facilities. Recognising that transgender prisoners are harmed excessively is a positive step towards recognising the violence that all prisoners experience.”
Rākete says that the medical neglect of prisoners is a widespread problem in New Zealand prisons. “The Ombudsmen found that many prisoners cannot access healthcare that Corrections is required to give them by law. This is a form of state-sanctioned violence which we should no longer tolerate.”
No Pride in Prisons remains committed to the liberation of incarcerated people. “Ending the mistreatment of transgender prisoners is part of ending the mistreatment of all prisoners.”
The march begins at 12pm on Saturday, February 11th, at Aotea Square in Auckland.
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Greenpeace says it won’t let up on pressuring the dairy industry to stop expanding and polluting more rivers
Dairy NZ has abandoned an appeal against a Greenpeace TV ad linking industrial dairy farms with polluted wayerways.
The original ad from Greenpeace showed kiwi kids splashing about in a clear stream, saying 60 per cent of New Zealand’s monitored rivers are now unfit to swim in.
It lays part of the blame with industrial dairying which Greenpeace says is packing more cows into an already polluted countryside.
DairyNZ tried to get the TV ad banned by complaining to the Advertising Standards Authority.
It lost the case last month, then publicly vowed to fight the decision, by appealing to the ASA. Now DairyNZ has changed its mind and backed down.
“We’ve just heard they made a last minute decision to withdraw from the appeal process,” says Greenpeace campaigner Gen Toop.
The deadline for appealing the decision passed last week. Last night the ASA told Greenpeace they just received notification from Dairy NZ that they were not going to proceed.
“Despite their bluster about it, they have effectively conceded that the ad is factually correct, and that Dairy NZ has no grounds for appeal.”
“It’s time DairyNZ put its considerable resources into cleaning up its act and address water quality issues, rather than trying to shoot the messenger, we hope this recent decision signals their willingness to finally do that” says Toop.
“Most people already know the truth. Industrial Dairying is polluting our rivers. We have to do something about it, and now.”
We welcome the overtures from DairyNZ to work with them on this problem but we will continue to pressure them to clean up their act on behalf of all New Zealanders who want a better future.
First step, Toop says is to stop the number of dairy cows in the New Zealand countryside spiralling out of control.
“There are simply too many cows for our waterways to cope with. We want to work with farmers to find innovative ways to reduce stock numbers and save the rivers.”
Latest figures from Statistics NZ show the Dairy herd stands at six and a half million, it’s grown 1.3 million since 2002.
Greenpeace warns the drive towards massive irrigation schemes planned around the country will push the national dairy herd to record numbers.
Irrigation schemes are being seen as the new battlegrounds in the struggle for clean water.
“That’s why Greenpeace is calling on New Zealanders to join the the fight to stop these schemes and save our rivers,” says Toop.
“The Government is spending hundreds of millions of taxpayers money on irrigation. It’s pushing dairy expansion into marginal areas. The end result for our rivers, lakes and aquifers – less water, more pollution.”
Toop says plans to extract water for dairying from the source of the world-famous Pupu Springs in Golden Bay is a prime example of how desperate and extremist the irrigation lobby is getting.
“We want New Zealanders to join the campaign against the expansion of irrigation and industrial dairying. We are looking for people to support an ecological farming future because that is the only thing that will save our springs and rivers”.
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Israel’s anti-nuclear whistleblower more deserving of NZ citizenship
No self-respecting country sells its passports to rich people who don’t even live there, which is why it was so bad to grant NZ citizenship to the American multi-billionaire Peter Thiel.
Section 9 of the Citizenship Act 1977 does allow for citizenship to be granted in “exceptional circumstances” of a “humanitarian” nature, but this hardly applies to the super-rich Theil.
I am familiar with the Act’s “humanitarian” clause because, when an MP, I used it in trying to get NZ citizenship for Israel’s anti-nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu back in 2005.
Vanunu was keen to get New Zealand citizenship so that he could leave Israel, where he was still being persecuted despite being released from jail after serving an 18 year sentence (11 in solitary confinement) for exposing Israel’s nuclear weapons programme. Vanunu’s post-release conditions included no contact with foreigners and a prohibition on leaving the country.
On 22 March 2005 I sent a letter to the then Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff arguing that “it would be very appropriate for New Zealand as a nuclear-free country to grant Mr Vanunu citizenship and give him a New Zealand passport. This humanitarian act would be applauded around the world by those opposed to the Israeli bomb and nuclear proliferation, and who hold Mr Vanunu in high regard for his sacrifice to the anti-nuclear cause.”
Phil Goff replied to me that an “offer of New Zealand citizenship to Mr Vanunu is a somewhat empty political gesture when he is prevented from leaving Israel.” My opinion was that it would be both an important “political gesture” and a practical one. Once Vanunu had NZ citizenship he could renounce his Israeli citizenship, as he wanted to do, and there would be greater pressure on Israel to allow him to leave.
At the time, my efforts on Vanunu’s behalf received significant coverage internationally, on the BBC and in Israeli papers like Haaretz.
That was in 2005. Twelve years on Vanunu is still subject to restrictions on his movements and associations. One 27 January this year he tweeted that he is returning to the Supreme Court to petition for an end to all restrictions so that he can leave Israel.
There have been efforts in other countries, such as Sweden, Norway and Ireland, to obtain a new citizenship for Vanunu. In Norway he has the strongest case because he is now married to a Norwegian university professor, Kristin Joachimsen. But all the efforts on Vanunu’s behalf have so far failed. Western governments fear offending Israel.
Over the years Vanunu has won a pile of international peace and human rights awards, and in 2004 the students at the University of Glasgow elected him to a three-year terms as their Rector.
New Zealand would be honoured to have such a brave anti-nuclear campaigner as a citizen. It would be great if a new approach could be made to the New Zealand government on his behalf. Granting Vanunu citizenship would also enhance our international reputation, which has been tarnished by the provision of an NZ passport to Peter Thiel, just because of his wealth. Unlike Peter Thiel, Mordechai Vanunu would actually like to live here.
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It’s not a “perceived conflict of interest” – it’s corruption
Catastrophes bring out the best and worst in people.
The best are helping out selflessly in their communities while the worst are looking for chances to exploit “disaster capitalism”.
Some of the worst came into public view this week when the Press revealed that three staff employed by the now-defunct CERA (Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority) to facilitate investment in post-earthquake Christchurch set up their own company to profit from their public positions and knowledge gained through their roles as public servants.
They have been fingered for trying to sell a property for $2.6 million from which they would have claimed a ”finder’s fee” of up to $300,000.
The CERA staff involved were Murray Cleverly who managed the Greater Christchurch Investment strategy and two of his senior staff – Gerard Gallagher and Simon Nikoloff.
When asked about their behaviour Gallagher and Nikoloff said they were entitled to do private deals like this and that their employers had known about it from the outset.
Of course their employers knew – their boss himself was a partner in their dirty dealings.
Cleverly now chairs the Canterbury and South Canterbury DHBs while the other two have moved on to work for Otakaro – again in senior management positions.
With the matter made public all three have now been stood down from their public roles pending an investigation by the State Services Commission.
The SSC has now expanded its investigation after new revelations Cleverly used his position at the DHB to advance his private interests in a similar way.
Cleverly is a director of Silverfin Capital which last year bought the CDHB headquarters in Christchurch which is now leased back to the CDHB to use. Cleverly only declared what he called a “perceived conflict of interest” after the sale. He excused himself on the basis he personally had not negotiated the final deal.
For the Chair of a hospital board to get involved in the sale and leaseback of hospital property (the Chief Executive’s role) to a company in which he has a personal interest is not a “perceived conflict of interest”. It’s a scandal. It’s an outrage.
And if it’s not corruption then what could it possibly be?
What this situation shows most clearly is the complete lack of public service ethos in these individuals. It is a lack of ethical behaviour which now pervades the senior levels of our public services across the country – both in government and local body organisations.
It’s the inevitable outcome of bringing private sector values into public services through the likes of public-private partnerships, council-controlled organisations and state-owned enterprises.
We have developed a revolving door whereby private sector “experts” are appointed to senior public servant roles only to return to the private sector and use their inside knowledge to ripoff ratepayers and taxpayers.
For example when senior IRD officials are “negotiating” disputed taxes with corporations it’s not uncommon to find themselves opposite former senior employees of the IRD who use their inside knowledge of loopholes and potential loopholes to minimise the tax paid.
It will be an enormous struggle to rebuild a decent public service ethos within central and local government. It won’t happen without big changes in how our public services are managed and operated.
In this regard the Labour Party deserves credit for its policy to return Housing New Zealand to being a government department.
It is only that sort of structural change, alongside the removal of significant numbers of senior managers such as those with values revealed in this Christchurch scandal, that we can have any confidence our public servants are working for us rather than themselves.
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Trump 1984: We have always been at war with Australia and Oceania
Where does one begin with Trump’s latest insane attack against Australia?
Donald Trump blasts Malcolm Turnbull and President Obama’s refugee agreement: ‘It’s a dumb deal!’
Donald Trump has blasted a refugee agreement between Australia and the United States as a “dumb deal”.
The US President has pledged to study the deal, which he claimed would see America take “thousands of illegal immigrants” from Australia, despite repeated assurances from senior US officials he would honour the agreement.
“Do you believe it? The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!” he tweeted on Thursday afternoon.
Meanwhile, Australia’s prime minister said his country’s relationship with the United States remained “very strong” but refused to comment on a newspaper report on Thursday that an angry President Trump cut short their first telephone call as national leaders.
At the heart of the weekend conversation between Trump and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was a deal struck with the Obama administration that would allow mostly Muslim refugees rejected by Australia to be resettled in the United States.
Turnbull declined to comment on reports in the Washington Post that Trump had described the agreement as “the worst deal ever” and accused Turnbull of seeking to export the “next Boston bombers.”
The Boston Bombers refer to Tamerlan and Dhozkar Tsarnaev, US citizens born in Kyrgyzstan, who set off two bombs at the 2013 Boston marathon, killing three and injuring more than 260 people.
Turnbull also would not say whether Trump had abruptly ended the expected hour-long conversation after 25 minutes as the Australian attempted to steer the conversation to other topics.
“It’s better that these things – these conversations – are conducted candidly, frankly, privately,” Turnbull told reporters.
…Trump hung up on him after abusing him?
It’s just another eery similarity to 1984 and the use of constant conflict and ever changing enemies…
…what’s most disgusting about all of this is two political leaders arguing over human beings who they have thrown aside like garbage.
What will happen when Trump realises that NZ is nuclear free? I think Donald Trump is preparing to invade Australia because of their Muslim suicide Kangaroos.
I don’t know if we are all going to survive this orange nazi’s first 100 days.
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Dear NZers – when Key was in power you didn’t care about 5 Eyes and allowed him to get away with mass surveillance – how do you feel about Trump having that power now?
The madness that is Donald Trump builds every hour, just as his apologists get quieter and quieter.
His outburst at Australia and threat to invade Mexico today are just the latest in an extraordinary list of abuses of power and spiteful policy.
Can you believe it has only been 2 weeks?
Trump is clearly psychologically unbalanced and dangerous, so, do we want this orange nazi having total access to our mass surveillance?
The sleepy hobbits of muddle Nu Zilind didn’t want to believe their cherished John Key was lying to them. They allowed him to ram through under urgency new laws to green light mass surveillance and was proven at the Moment of Truth to have lied to us all about how much we were being spied on and how much of it all went to the NSA.
Now our anti-intellectual messiah has gone, are New Zealanders really that bewilderingly dense to allow Trump to have this level of power over our economic, cultural and political sovereignty?
The only Party promising to change this are the Greens, the Maori Party and MANA, the rest will continue to give Trump everything he wants. As Trump becomes more and more of a destabilising power though, Labour could be convinced to show some courage on this issue.
Seeing as the mainstream media however are avoiding the connection between Peter Theil, his residency and him owning the largest private mass surveillance company on the planet, such debate seems beyond us.
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BREAKING MEDIA ALERT – Meet the Indian students the government is deporting
The lawyer for the Indian students being deported by the government has told the students that their appeals have been rejected and that police are on their way.
Some are gathering at the Unite Union office tonight to prepare a response.
Media are welcome to come and talk to the students now.
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Bill English’s ghoulish Police State promise for NZ
It was like watching a casual fascist gleefully revelling in his own denial.
I don’t know what was more terrifying, Bill English’s delusion on welfare reforms or his Police State solution.
English kept trumpeting reduced welfare stats as if that was a great thing when we know that all these agencies have done is find reasons to disqualify beneficiaries from welfare, they have no idea where these people have gone, all they’ve done is successfully deny a benefit. That’s not a solution, that’s a recipe for disaster, but it was perhaps English’s solution that was most concerning, half a billion dollars to the bloody Police!
English’s Police State vision where we blow half a billion on more police, more prisons and expanded police powers is NOT the way you counter the impacts of poverty! Forget an extra 800 cops, we need 200 more teachers, we need 200 more nurses, we need 200 more counsellors, we need 200 more doctors – more police powers and more police resourcing is not how you change the ills of society, it’s how you compound them!
The Police in NZ have already admitted they are structurally racist, you want to give that organisation even more power?
Sadly for many authority worshipping NZers, this will sound like heaven. If Labour thought they had an easy run against English, his State of the Nation should shake then out of their complacency.
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Meet ‘Carol’ from WINZ – the horror of the neoliberal state and who will fight it?
Meet ‘Carol’ from WINZ
Once upon a time in New Zealand, the agencies of state welfare were constructed as an instrumental and direct means to ensure our egalitarian values.
Social welfare was seen as a way to redistribute back to the most vulnerable amongst us and these agencies were critical in carrying out that redistribution.
There was a pride involved in this public service, our compassion made us unique and it built the values from which we as New Zealanders have benefitted from.
That simply is no longer the case.
For the last 30+ years, the neoliberal experiment has turned our once egalitarian welfare state into a neoliberal welfare state. The branches of social welfare, the MoD, CYFS, Corrections, Parole Services, Housing NZ, WINZ and Mental health have all been warped and mutated into weapons to punish the poor for being vulnerable.
In a culture of me first and gimme, gimmies where success is private and failure is personal , we see the poor as victims of their own circumstance rather than as a result of the hegemonic structures of power.
I’ve been wanting to put a face to the Neoliberal Welfare State and ‘Carol’ from WINZ sums up the agony and frustration so many beneficiaries feel when dealing with WINZ, CYFs, Corrections, Parole, Mental health and Housing NZ. It could be ‘Carol’ from Ministry of Development, or ‘Carol’ from Corrections, or ‘Carol’ from CYFs, it’s interchangeable.
‘Carol’ is a symbol of the repressive face of bureaucracy that beneficiaries are forced to endure.
The poor, the vulnerable, the weak, the sick and the disabled do everything in their power not to be needing assistance from these Government agencies, because these Government agencies don’t help, they only punish.
We have a MoD who put homeless people into illegal housing.
We have a WINZ service who break people each day and force them to grovel on their belly to make ends meet. Who perform mass surveillance spying on beneficiaries to catch them out in ‘relationships’ despite WINZ not telling anyone what the actual relationship equation is and we have 60% of beneficiaries oweing WINZ money because WINZ claims they’ve defrauded the system by having a ‘relationship’.
We have a Corrections department that is more interested in hiding prisoner suicide stats than actually looking after their prisoners (more on that developing story next week), more interested in locking 10 000 NZers up for profit than rehabilitating them.
We have a Paroles Service that almost every NGO despises having to work with because it’s staffed by people who enjoy the power they have over prisoners lives and are concerned with only throwing them back into prison.
We have a CYFS that sexually molests, abuses and assaults the children they are supposed to look after while continuing to remove children from families.
We have a mental health system more interested in allowing people to die than help them.
We have a Housing NZ more focused on throwing people out of their homes based on flawed meth testing than providing shelter to the poorest amongst us.
For me, nothing sums up the horror of our neoliberal welfare state more than what happened last year with the Auckland Action Against Poverty beneficiary clinic they held for 3 days outside a South Auckland WINZ office. Over a 1000 people lined up to beg for help from activists to gain some type of assistance from WINZ.
Just comprehend that.
WINZ are so evil to these people that a 1000 of them lined up to gain assistance from AAAP. Some had walked since before dawn to arrive in time to get help. Many were in tears and emotionally distraught by the way WINZ had treated them.
What kind of an indictment is that?
So what are we going to do?
Here’s the simple, unvarnished truth. MoD, CYFS, WINZ, Corrections, Parole Services and Housing NZ only give a fuck when the media pick up on a story of their disgusting attitude and treatment of the poor. They only magically find a way to solve the problem when the news media focus on them. All they care about is avoiding embarrassment and negative media attention.
Your power, our power, is in shaming these bastards publicly.
So what are we at The Daily Blog offering?
To every beneficiary who has been abused by our system, we offer you Your Voice Election 2017
This is will be your opportunity to speak out against how the neoliberal welfare state has hurt you and continues to hurt you.
This is your chance to let the rest of New Zealand know as they enter the voting booths in 2017, that the punitive, spiteful and damaging social welfare policies of WINZ, Housing NZ, Corrections, Parole, Mental health, Ministry of Social Development and CYFs are crucifying the poorest and most vulnerable amongst us.
There are almost 300 000 beneficiaries in New Zealand, yet their voice and true political muscle are ignored and forgotten. The Daily Blog offers you a chance to take back some mana and have the empowerment of a platform that will amplify your truth.
Use the form provided to contact us anonymously with your story of how the policies of WINZ, Housing NZ, Corrections, Parole, Ministry of Social Development and CYFs have actually hurt, not helped you.
We will contact you via the contacts you provide to check and verify your story. We will review what you have written, and as long as it isn’t defamatory, we will anonymously publish it and give you a voice in this election so that you can criticise these agencies and highlight their abuses without them being able to retaliate negatively against you. We will consider your stories of abuse at the hands of Government agencies as whistleblower material and will never hand your details over to the Government.
It’s time the rest of voting New Zealand understood just how harsh the neoliberal welfare state is.
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Plea for a cross-party commitment to ending child poverty – Child Poverty Action Group
We have the figures: we know that 28% of children living in Aotearoa are experiencing the effects of some form of income poverty – they are living in families who have incomes that are less than 60% of the average median, after housing costs.
We know that eight percent, or 90,000 children are suffering from severe deprivation, because they go without more than nine essential basic items. They are missing out on a nutritious diet, shoes for school, warmth in winter, a doctor’s appointment when ill.
Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) says that it’s time we stopped quibbling over who’s to blame for this blight on our nation, and recognise the problem for what it is: one that has systemic roots, and one in dire need of fixing. One that New Zealand is fortunate enough to be able to fix.
Frank Hogan, CPAG spokesperson for housing and children’s rights says that, “Instead of pointing the finger at so-called poor parenting we have to consider what caused the poverty, and dig deep for a real, meaningful solution.
“People aren’t poor because they want to be. Many face the battle of cyclic poverty for which our system must be accountable to remedy.
“Many parents simply cannot keep up with the rising housing costs. Drug and alcohol dependency are just some of the devastating effects poverty can have, and parents aren’t immune.
“We need a cross-party agreement to end child poverty by addressing the causative issues behind what is being seen as neglect and abuse of children. We have a host of opportunities to bridge the need – within our social security system, our family tax credit system, within our public healthcare system, and within the education system. We should be regulating rents so that they are fair and making homes safe and able to be warmed efficiently.
“Furthermore, the Ministry of Social Development should expand its criteria for support for all vulnerable children including those who are suffering the effects of poverty.”
CPAG supports Children’s Commissioner Andrew Becroft’s call for a comprehensive plan and a target to reduce child poverty in New Zealand. As Judge Becroft pointed out, many children who suffer material hardship come from loving, stable, safe family environments: “But it is still a high risk environment.” Despite the efforts of their parents, children who suffer the effects of poverty are at risk of vulnerability and poor outcomes.
“But right now we are treading dangerous waters, wherein poverty is becoming normalised,” says Frank Hogan.
“We must not accept this level of need as the norm. It’s time that our Government and other parties implement a robust plan to affect the outcomes for ALL vulnerable children in a positive way.”
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