This Government despises the disabled
I find it difficult enough to go about the world as an able bodied person, I have no idea how much more difficult confronting the day is with a disability.
Let me be clear, this is not pity for the disabled, this is deep admiration.
I believe a civil society provides for those with disability so that they have the agency to do and be all they can.
I believe welfare should provide the disabled with dignity and appropriate housing alongside public transport options that support their independence.
What we have got under this malicious, spiteful, hard right, racist, climate denying, beneficiary bashing, disabled abusing Government however is political cruelty to fund their tax loop holes for the rich…
Disabled now have to commit crime, be insane or in crisis to access residential care
Arbitrary funding freeze by Upston means no new places in residential care for disabled people, effectively denying placements for all but the most acutely unwell, criminal or homeless
‘You have to commit a crime or be insane to get in now’
Upston says she’s ‘ripping the scab’ off funding mess
Whaikaha, the Ministry of Disabled People, has quietly told parents and carers of severely disabled people living with them that there will be no more places in residential care in the current financial year. The abrupt funding halt means the only hope disabled people currently living with carers have of being considered for residential care is to commit a crime or be so mentally or physically unwell they have been hospitalised and can no longer be cared for at home, or are facing completely-out-on-the-street homelessness.
Carers and advocates are shocked at the completely arbitrary and mean approach being taken by Social Development Minister Louise Upston as she rips services out of Whaikaha and drumps them in MSD. The block on net extra places in residential care was never formally spelled out by the minister in a release, but is clear in a fact sheet buried in the Whaikaha website.
…they make changes that mean the disabled gave to commit a crime or become criminally insane before the State will help and they bury this change deep inside the website so not one can see it.
This is the treachery and spite of a Government that despises the disabled and sees them as a cost that should be borne by the family.
Remember, we are doing this to afford a $2.9billion tax loop hole for the richest Landlords.
This is what we have come under this Government, this is the spite in the heart of every National, NZF and ACT voter.
Of all the National governments this i have to say is the worst of the worst towards the disabled community, as a Parent of a disabled person I have never felt so hated and betrayed by my own Government.
Oh that seems wise. Completely leaving the affect on carers aside, any moron can see that this will just spread the load to hospitals more.
Any abled people can become disabled today or tomorrow by accident or illness, so don’t be too smug some of you. I looked after a family member with a bad stroke while still a teen and have never forgotten what is involved in the daily struggle of care and dealing with the practicalities.
This Govt. has also defunded Respite Care which enables carers to take a break. Thanks all you Natzo voters for returning us to what seems a re-run of 1984–91. Cruelty imposed by the state on purpose of malicious intent.
I believe they are spiteful. It’s ridiculous but it seems to be true. Luxury’s Christianity doesn’t include care for people less wealthy than himself.
Those people who have benefitted from his tax cuts need to look at themselves, very seriously. They are abnormal.
Even the most primitive groups of people recognise the necessity and advantage to the whole group, if the most vulnerable are cared for. They have a well-developed sense of empathy and are in touch with reality.
People like Luxury Luxon and his pathetic govt. consider themselves the height of civilisation, yet stumble at the first hurdle which is looking after the people. So, apparently not civilised at all. Just a facade.
Having to listen to his weasel-words this next week in relation to Kiingi Tuuheitia will be too much. I will have to mute the TV. The hypocrisy will be over-whelming.
Instead of meeting business leaders, MPs should spend 24 hours with a disabled person.
We’ll all be waiting with baited breath for the equally nasty, cruel, punishments they will dole out to the wealthy like themselves. Sauce for the goose and all that.
Let’s be very clear about what’s going on here, this is all about flattening the ballooning rise in cost of Disability support costs , this government was briefed late last year about the cost of Individualised Funding if left unrestrained.
This whole exercise sounds somewhat familiar. Last year at a Disability industry conference Bill English himself said, there’s no more money coming over the hill, and this year at the same conference an Australian academic stated that a very similar conversation was happening in Australia over the NDIS ( their version of EGL) thst if restrictions weren’t placed on entry into the system that by 2050 expenditure on the NDIS would represent 6% of of total GDP for Australia, that’s a figure that starts with a T!
Back to NZ, we had a Minister who received a very similar scary briefing back in November 2023 from officials about cost blow outs and how unaffordable Individual Funding was, the difference between Australia and New Zealand is in Australia there was an open process to determine the future of the NDIS where everyone got to contribute here in NZ there was a closed Review where a select group of interested parties got to discuss a report that they very well may benefit from enormously?
I would add that over in Australia the disabled community are up in arms over what the government has done,
Here in NZ what has been done is arguably much worse and more detrimental to disabled people families and whanau,
One additional point to raise is that the Minister who received the information at that point is no longer the Minister,
Or perhaps Lord Luxon sees it this …
https://youtu.be/c5MgI7zpHKs?si=2tD4JH9FqFqAl4-Q