Social policy analyst for the Salvation Army – Alan Johnson
On the Phone Northland Council member and former Labour Party MP – Dover Samuels
And on Skype from Wellington – Just Speak Chairperson Julia Whaipooti
Most NZers seem to think WINZ works just like our delusional Prime Minister so glibly believes it to work, like this…
…the reality is far more cruel. Checkpoint highlighted one of the more obnoxious WINZ policy of lending desperate people money to stay in Motels and then chasing those beneficiaries for the cost of the Motel.
How are desperate people supposed to pay Motel fees?
Since 1991, we have 20 000 fewer state houses, and lo and behold we have 20 000 people in desperate housing need.
This is neoliberalism at its most brutal.
While Key prepares to borrow $3billion for tax cuts, we have 10 000 in prison, 300 000 kids in poverty, 80 000 a day turning up at school hungry and 20 000 homeless and in desperate housing situations.
For Key to glibly tell the homeless to go to WINZ so that they can be charged Motel rates is sick. It’s sick because the Prime Ministers wilful ignorance can be smeared across the media and accepted by the comfortable middle who have no intention of giving away their speculative property portfolios.
The terrible thing about WINZ is that it get’s far worse than chasing the homeless and desperate for Motel costs.
The horror stories of the gleeful malevolence that so many front line WINZ staff seem to display towards beneficiaries cements my impression that these people are so burnt out and hateful of those they are supposed to care about that the entire department is simply too corrupt to keep. The terrible sadism some of these staff have exhibited were in terrible highlight by AAAP when they held their beneficiary clinic last month. That almost 1000 desperate people turned up begging for help to deal with a department who is purposely making welfare complex and difficult to gain shows what a failure WINZ has become.
60% of those on sole parent welfare or job seeker benefits owe WINZ money from overpayments and penalties incurred by WINZs voodoo math relationship criteria. There are no clear guidelines as to what actually construes a relationship as far as WINZ is concerned and if they suspect beneficiaries of being in a relationship WINZ cries fraud. Beneficiaries become locked into a cycle of poverty debt they can never break out from under.
There is a team in WINZ who trawl social media feeds to see if beneficiaries are in relationships – that’s not a bloody functioning democratic welfare state, that’s the fucking Stasi!
One staff member ‘down south’ is a former Repo agent. That’s right, the frontline staff at WINZ are repo agents, that’s not the characteristics you want for this job!
WINZ dehumanises those it is supposed to help and those working for it. We need to politically burn this cancer to the ground and replace it with a Universal Basic Income. Beneficiaries could then avoid the humiliation and stress and we stop paying for sadists to enjoy cutting the poor off welfare.
We have a broken welfare system that is doing more harm than good to the very people it’s supposed to care for. The PM claiming WINZ can help the homeless exemplifies the mix of delusion, neoliberal mythology and wilful ignorance that drives all National Party social policy.
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The Panama Papers continue to simmer and National’s greatest fear is that the public will link tax-dodging to the current government. (Up-coming political polls will be interesting to see.) But that is not all that National’s hierarchy has to worry about.
Closer to home, National is facing “Third Termitis” and an increasingly cynical view of the government and it’s leading figures – even from within.
Some recent ‘digs’ at Dear Leader John Key by right-wing commentators – ostensibly friendly to National – are either miscalculations, or a subtle hint that respect for Key’s leadership style is waning.
Case in Point #1 – David Farrar
On 2 May, National Party pollster and apparatchik, David Farrar made a guest appearance on Jim Mora’s afternoon Panel (hosted that afternoon by Jesse Mulligan), on Radio NZ. Along with lawyer Mai Chen, they discussed the issues of the day;
“…foreign Trusts and how much the Prime Minister was involved in our tax laws.”
The issue of what Key’s lawyer – Ken Whitney – said to then-Revenue Minister, Todd McClay arose amongst the Panelists, and host.
Ken Whitney, the executive director of tax-trust specialist, Antipodes Trust Group, wrote to McClay on December 3, 2014, over concerns Inland Revenue were reviewing the sector;
“We are concerned that there appears to be a sudden change of view by the IRD in respect of their previous support for the industry. I have spoken to the Prime Minister about this and he advised that the Government has no plans to change the status of the foreign trust regime.
The PM asked me to contact you to arrange a meeting at your convenience with a small group of industry leaders who are keen to engage to explain how the regime works and the benefits to NZ of an industry which has been painstakingly built up over the last 25 years or so.”
Key refuted that he had “advised that the Government has no plans to change the status of the foreign trust regime“;
“One of the members of the tax, that group, the foreign trusts, asked me about it. I said I haven’t got a clue what you’re talking about, I don’t think that’s right that there are changes, but go and take it up with the minister.
Subsequently there’s miles of paperwork that shows all the stuff he did, I had no other involvement other than that – it happens every day to me, people come up to me all the time and say ‘what about x or what about y?’ and I say take it up with the relevant minister.”
Bear in mind when this conversation took place: December 2014.
Key is clear in his recollection of the conversations he had with his then-lawyer, Ken Whitney, and then-Revenue Minister, Todd McClay;
Mr Key was insistent he made clear to McClay the connection between himself and Mr Whitney, when he alerted his minister to the approach from his lawyer about the trust rules regime.
“I’ve seen his comments, what he basically said was he couldn’t absolutely recall but it was two years ago but I absolutely told him – 100 percent. It’s a few years with an oral conversation that lasted a few seconds but I definitely told him.”
Which is intriguing, as Key has a somewhat dubious reputation for having a shockingly bad memory of events that are uncomfortable for him to recall and discuss. Especially when journalists are present.
A particularly extraordinary example of Key’s inability to retain recollection of events took place in November 2014, when Key “forgot” a txt-conversation he had had with right-wing blogger, Cameron Slater;
“He sent me a text one time, but I can’t remember when that was.”
In fact, the txt-conversation with Slater took place only eighteen hours previously. Which resulted in headlines like this one;
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When the issue of John Key’s memory and reputation for lapses arose, Farrar made this revelation;
@10.06
“Oh I’m not sure I quite accept the assertion there. I found in my experience the Prime Minister has a remarkable good memory on things. There was – I had a conversation with him the other day on something, where he referred to ‘Oh I think there was something in January, um, 2007’, and he was right. It took me half an hour to look it up, but he remembered this thing, from what was it, nine years ago. So I think actually he generally has a very good memory, just not a perfect one.”
Farrar’s willingness to share this aspect of John Key’s mental state is reassuring. It means our esteemed Dear Leader is not suffering on-set Alzheimers Disease or any similar brain-debilitating condition, when he insists he cannot re-call an inconvenient event.
It just means Key is lying.
Thank you, David Farrar, for clearing that up.
Case in Point #2 – Matthew Hooton
The next person to offer a singularly unflattering insight into Key’s personality was right-wing commentator and a member of the neo-liberal cadré, Matthew Hooton.
Hooton has a regular 11am appearance on Radio NZ’s Nine to Noon show, where he offers his views from a right-wing, free-market perspective. He speaks frankly on a variety of issues-of-the-day and can be as highly critical of National; it’s policies; and leadership, as he is on the Left.
Hooton’s own investigation into Murray McCully’s corrupt Saudi farm-in-the-desert deal should be required-reading for all New Zealanders, regardless of their political persuasions. As political scientist, Bryce Edwards wrote in May last year;
Perhaps the strongest views are from Matthew Hooton, who has two columns in the National Business Review (which have just had their paywalls removed). The first column, Gulf games fail to deliver, gives the background to the fallout between the New Zealand Government and Saudi Arabia, with Hooton largely blaming John Key. According to Hooton’s story, the Saudi businessman was led to believe that the incoming National Government of 2008 would resume live sheep exports.
Once in power, however, Hooton says that Key changed his mind on hearing that TVNZ would broadcast “a programme critical of live sheep exporting. In a panic, and fearing further criticism from the Green Party’s Sue Kedgley, Mr Carter was ordered by Mr Key’s media staff to go on TV and rule out any resumption of the trade, ever. This was later confirmed to the Saudis as New Zealand’s new position and negotiations ceased. Furious, Mr Al-Khalaf used his influence with the Saudi royal family to ensure the FTA was put on ice”.
Hooton’s second must-read column, Flying sheep endanger McCully, turns the focus to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, suggesting that his subsequent handling of the mess could lead to his sacking. Hooton suggests the whole deal is “implausible” in terms of the bizarre farming arrangements and partnership that the Government has established.
He doubts that the promised innovative “agrihub” will actually eventuate and “If not, people might start comparing Mr McCully’s dealings with Mr Al-Khalaf with those with Mr Roberts 15 years ago. For which Mrs Shipley sacked him”. Hooton says “Key’s nervous ‘yup,’ when asked if he had confidence in his foreign minister, betrayed concern over where the story may head”.
On 9 May, filling his regular slot on Nine to Noon’s political panel, Hooton voiced his views on the Panama Papers and how – in his view – our Esteemed Dear Leader was handling the growing scandal.
As Hooton discussed cleaning up the trust sector in New Zealand,
“That is despite his government’s obvious negligence in not legislating for greater transparency around the trust industry years ago, when reputable trust lawyers themselves were lobbying for it.”
– one particular remark caught my attention,
@ 2.19
“… From talking to the people in the industry, is that some of the people I’ve been talking to, who’ve been using other consultants up till now I should say, they’ve been trying to lobby John Key on this issue since when he was Leader of the Opposition. And they’ve been wanting him to make the industry more transparent. And Robin Oliver [former head of IRD] was on Morning Report this morning and talked about this. And the people that I’m talking to anyway, they tell me that John Key’s consistently said to them, ‘Oh yeah, absolutely, totally agree, we must sort that out, yep, yep, the government will do that’.
But absolutely nothing has happened. And I don’t think that’s necessarily – there’s nothing corrupt about that. It’s how John Key rolls. It’s a refrain I hear from people in the business community, the education sector, the health sector, you name it, John Key always just sez to people what he thinks they want to hear, and there doesn’t seems to be any follow up.”
“John Key always just sez to people what he thinks they want to hear…” – a very brief, off-the-cuff remark – but one which goes some way to perhaps explaining Key’s popularity with the public. Even those who might stand to be disadvantaged by his policies.
An example of occurred in 2008, during the PSA Conference, when Key made a firm committment resiling National from any future asset sales;
“There’s no agenda to sell assets. There will be no asset sales in the first term – in fact there may never be asset sales in the year’s ahead.”
His speech can be viewed here.
In the same video clip, Key also resiled from weakening Union power;
“Yes, I support Unions, and I support New Zealanders’ rights to join unions. And no, we’re not proposing to change the Employment Relations Act in a way that weakens unions…”
Seven years later, amendments to the Employment Relations Act were pushed through Parliament. The amendments weakened Union power;
National has highlighted employment law changes as one of its key priorities in the first 100 days in Government. Proposed changes will affect collective agreements, the 90-day trial period, strike action and rest and meal break provisions.
[…]
The changes will give employers more power during the bargaining process.
As Hooton pointed out, “John Key always just sez to people what he thinks they want to hear…” – and Key was speaking to the 2008 PSA Conference. Union delegates were told precisely what they wanted to hear.
Coupled with Farrar’s comments about Key’s “very good memory” (and by a process of elimination, therefore a liar) – and we have two right-wingers close to our esteemed Dear Leader who have shared their personal observations with “how John Key rolls“.
However, the public may not be as gullible to Key’s duplicitous charms as many would think.
In October 2009, Key’s popularity rating (3News/Reid Research Poll) was at a staggering height of 55.8%.
By July 2015, his popularity rating had fallen to 38.3%.
Whether consciously or sub-consciously, perhaps the public are coming to the same realisation that Farrar and Hooton are at; our Prime Minister is a con-artist.
And a damned good one.
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References
Radio NZ: The Panel with Jim Mora – 2 May 2016
NZ Herald: The Antipodes email – John Key, his lawyer and foreign trusts
Radio NZ: PM’s private lawyer lobbied government on foreign trusts
Radio NZ: I told McClay about lawyer, says Key
Fairfax media: How is John Key going to spin this one?
TV3 News: John Key ‘genuinely couldn’t recall’ text messages
Radio NZ: The Panel with Mai Chen and David Farrar – Part 1 (alt. link) (audio)
NZ Herald: Political roundup – The bizarre ‘bribery’ and flying sheep scandal
Radio NZ: Key ends week deeply satisfied
Radio NZ: Nine to Noon – Political commentators Mike Williams & Matthew Hooton
Radio NZ: Nine to Noon – Political commentators Mike Williams & Matthew Hooton (alt. link) (audio)
TV3 News: Labour: Key promised no job cuts, asset sales in 2008 speech
TV3 News: Highlights from Key’s 2008 ‘no job cuts’ speech (video)
MoBIE: Amendments to the Employment Relations Act 2000 (March 2015)
Radio NZ: National’s proposed labour laws
The Paepae: John Key is getting a reputation as a liar
Previous related blogposts
The slow dismantling of a Prime Minister continues
The Mendacities of Mr Key # 16: The sale of Kiwibank eight years in the planning?
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Announce protest actions, general chit chat or give your opinion on issues we haven’t covered for the day.
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Mitch Harris – Producer Radiolive
Catherine Delahunty: Green Party MP
Andrew Judd – Mayor New Plymouth
Tracy Martin NZ First MP
Prof Paul Spoonley Massey University
Our 100% pure brand is a sad sick joke.
Dairy intensification pollutes rivers, we generate huge amounts of global warming emissions and we allow deep sea oil drilling.
But it gets worse.
We now know that there has been grotesque over fishing over the last 60 years...
The Green Party is calling for more government observers on commercial fishing vessels and at ports following the release of an international study showing major under-reporting of commercial fish catches in New Zealand waters.
“The Government can’t claim that our fisheries management is sustainable when it clearly has no idea how many fish are being taken,” said Green Party primary industries spokesperson Eugenie Sage.
A new report by the University of British Columbia, with research from the University of Auckland, shows more than twice the number of marine fish have been caught in New Zealand waters between 1950 and 2010 than Government and industry statistics suggest.
The study says fish are being caught and then dumped at sea because they’re under or over-sized, have low market value, or simply because the fishing vessel doesn’t have enough space in the hold. It says there has been “deliberate, widespread and systematic under-reporting of commercial catch”.
…the response by the Government has been to attack the science behind this report, which is of itself sadly not unusual. More and more scientists in NZ are complaining that they are being threatened and gagged if their science goes against the right wing mythology of the National Government.
We are decimating our fish stocks, destroying our water quality, polluting our rivers and are shutting down the scientists pointing this out to us.
JAMALA wins the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) for Ukraine with her controversial song “1944”.
Why controversial?
Because the rules of the ESC expressly forbid entries of a political nature, and “1944” is clearly a politically motivated attack on the Russian Federation.
How so?
Because the song takes for its subject-matter the forcible deportation of the Crimean Tartars by the Soviet Dictator, Joseph Stalin, in – you guessed it – 1944.
What’s wrong with that?
Well, it’s less than three years since the Russian Federation annexed the Crimean Peninsula in response to the fascist takeover of the Ukrainian Government in February 2014. Since then civil war has raged in Eastern Ukraine, with the Ukrainian Government accusing the Russians of providing direct military assistance to its breakaway provinces. Relations between the two countries are at an all-time low. So, possibly not the best time for a song about Soviet Russia’s actions in the Crimea.
Why did they let it through, then?
Good question! The Russians are saying it’s because the European Union is determined to cast the Russian Federation and its President, Vladimir Putin, as Europe’s most dangerous enemies. They point to the fact that not only did the organisers of the ESC bend the rules to ensure that “1944” became a contender, but that the official jury also deliberately ignored the popular vote, which put the Russian entry at No. 1, so that they could install Ukraine as the winner.
But, it’s just a glorified talent quest – does any of this really matter?
Yes, it does. Just as the sudden appearance of anti-German newspaper articles and popular novels in the early years of the 20th Century helped to prepare the British people for war with Germany in 1914; seemingly unimportant gestures – like voting Ukraine the winner of the ESC with an anti-Russian song – may indicate that the European Union is preparing its members for war with the Russian Federation in the not too distant future.
Yes, but you still can’t get around the fact that what the Soviet Government did to the Crimean Tartars was very wrong.
That’s true. But it’s also true that, following Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, nearly 10,000 Tartar men joined the Tartar Legion and fought alongside the Waffen SS right up until the Red Army retook the Crimea in 1944. These SS military formations and their auxiliaries were responsible for some of the worst atrocities of World War II. Why didn’t Jamala sing a song about the victims of the Nazis and their Crimean allies? I would also like to know why the historically sensitive ESC Jury showed so little interest in who the Ukrainians were fighting for in the year 1944. (Here’s a hint – it wasn’t for the Allies!) Why is the deportation of the Crimean Tartars deemed worthy of a song, but the fate of the Ukrainian Jews at the hands of their Ukrainian Nationalist neighbours regarded as something best left in the past?
Not so much the Eurovision Song Contest, as the European Song Conquest!
Anyone who infers that those from lower socio economic groups can’t achieve incredible things and lead interesting rich lives doesn’t have a “286” mindset.
While we are in the midst of fighting for the rights of tenants, and pushing back against the sell off of State Homes here in Tauranga this thing called life beckons us to take a breath. Sometimes that breath is taken as someone exhales their last.
This morning I drove past number 286 Fraser Street… a simple home amongst state homes in Merivale. I paid it no mind really. I’m just aware that I drive this route every day to work, and I know more or less what part of Merivale its in.
Number 286 blends in with the other homes – basic, unassuming, non-descript. Unlike one of it’s former tenants.
She was vivacious, sharp, determined and force to be reckoned with when she had a vision to be actioned. This morning I heard about the passing of Joy Owens, an outstanding public servant, inspirational grandmother of Mahe Drysdale (he dedicated his Olympic gold medal for single sculls in 2012 to her), and former wife of the late Sir Bob Owens. She is also grandmother to Rose Keddell who earned her defender position in the New Zealand Black Sticks.
Mrs Owens eagle eye for profitable business ventures and investments which enriched our communities earned her her own reputation independant of that of Sir Bob. When it came the the growth and development of Tauranga Moana, she showed enthusiasm in promoting the arts, culture, and had a soft spot for social causes – her humble beginnings at 286 Fraser Street never straying far from her mind. She was an effective Mayoress (1968 – 1977) and was honoured with a Queens Service order in 2006.
This woman was astounding. She simply cared… and it showed. Mrs Owens from number 286 will be fondly remembered by many of us for kindly reasons too many to list. It touched me that she has said that of all the projects she has been involved in, bringing the Merivale Action Centre to fruition was one of her proudest. I go there often. Our parents have meetings here, our tamariki use it as a base for our holiday programmes. We, under the banner of the State Housing Action Network (S.H.A.N) meet in this building and discuss how we can Save Our State Homes.
Now I wonder what Mrs Owens would’ve made of our meetings. I wonder what actions she would have us do. She clearly loved Merivale as much as we do. I wonder what she would have made of the governments intention to sell off state housing in the community she held so dear. Mostly, I wonder how she would’ve stuck it to them, AND what she would say to those making a play to buy them.
Today I hat tip Mrs Joy Owens, for aspiring and inspiring, and for keeping Merivale in her heart.
We will continue pushing back against the sell off of state homes for all those who live in (or want to live in) houses just like number 286 – because we all deserve the chance to achieve beyond the expectations of others AND hail straight from the streets of Merivale.
Vanessa Kururangi is a State House Tenant Advocate
It’s hard to believe isn’t it… CareNZ continues to take public funds to provide under-resourced programmes for Prisoners and continues to get rid of qualified, experienced Counsellors at the cost of thousands of taxpayers dollars. All the while saying they find it hard to attract Counsellors to explain the reason why they are constantly under-staffed.
Perhaps their Chairperson can explain why even more Counsellors may have been sent on their way for speaking up against shoddy practices of the leadership in CareNZ.
And how are they getting away with spending Public funds for lawyers to cover up their dubious employment practices, when it is against the Public Finance Act to spend taxpayers money on anything than what it was given to them for.
Perhaps the Member of Parliament responsible for Corrections and the Auditor General need to undertake a forensic audit of CareNZ funds along with a full accounting of how many dollars allocated for Counselling services for Prisoners got spent on Employment Consultants and Lawyers. If indeed they are found to have spent Public funds for purposes other than what it was given to them for then they must be made accountable under the law and face the consequences of breaking it, just like anyone else certainly would be.
Arthur Taylor is a prisoner rights advocate and is TDBs blogger inside prison.
The Prime Minister must stop talking about tax cuts while his government’s policies have led to New Zealanders sleeping in cars and garages, the Public Service Association says.
John Key has shoved the blame onto Work and Income, saying he’d be “amazed” if staffers there would leave people sleeping in their cars.
He admitted there was not enough emergency housing in South Auckland, but then went on to promise a $3 billion tax cut in next year’s budget.
PSA National Secretary Glenn Barclay says Mr Key needs to take a look at his government’s priorities.
“Our members in South Auckland are as horrified as anyone about the situation there.
“But this situation is due to the deliberate choices made by Mr Key and his ministers.
“They have carved up Housing New Zealand’s work and placed responsibility for assessments on the Ministry of Social Development.
“They have moved more and more services online, making it more difficult to talk to a real person and get the compassion and understanding our members want to offer them.
“Our members want to help, but this government’s policies are getting in the way.”
Glenn Barclay says Mr Key and his ministers have lost touch with what’s going on in our most deprived communities.
“Mr Key is promising tax cuts while people live in their cars.
“He needs to get real – and help our members help vulnerable Kiwis.”
