Waatea News Column: National MP Louise Upston right to blast Minister Sepuloni for welfare bigotry
National Party Welfare spokesperson Louise Upston attacked Welfare Minister Carmel Sepuloni on Newshub over the weekend for the two-tier welfare system Labour have adopted as a response to the pandemic.
Sadly, however, Louise Upston wasn’t offering anything more than pointing out the injustice of that two-tiered system rather than actually promising a break from the draconian welfare policies National have championed.
Labour have offered the two-tiered welfare system in the desperate hope that the recently unemployed won’t have to directly interact with WINZ staff whose toxic culture and obtuse nature have been honed beating down solo parents and the long term unemployed.
The last thing Labour needs months out from an election is a tsunami of the recently unemployed who are not numbed by WINZ cruelty and counterproductive policies flooding social media with horror stories of WINZ malice.
So by providing a direct means for the recently unemployed to have minimal interaction with callow WINZ staff, Labour have avoided having to do anything meaningful about the toxic culture inside WINZ.
This stopgap bigotry (which is a slap in the face to the long term unemployed and solo parents it discriminates against) isn’t sustainable however and at some stage Labour have to be serious about reforming welfare and the provision of services by WINZ or else the backlash from the electorate will become politically damaging to Jacinda’s brand.
If Carmel Sepuloni can’t reform WINZ, then get a Minister who can!
First published on Waatea News.
The two-tier benefit is sustainable in the form of an unemployment insurances system.
It is also consistent with a raft of other Labour-initiated income protection measures, from ACC to Kiwisaver..
You might not like it, but that is the policy direction of your chosen party, and it is the policy which best suits the present circumstances of New Zealand capitalism.
A two-tier benefits scheme is an admission that benefit rates can never go below what they already are, ever.
Ummm.. not sure about that:
Our Three Tier Welfare State, Newsroom
Ms Sepuloni, like ILG, is a Minister captured by her Dept. officials–neo liberal managerialists, tory toadies and A-grade underminers. They do not want Govt. Depts. to actually serve the people beyond salaries for themselves! WINZ/MSD staff can be personally rewarded for NOT providing the assistance vulnerable people seek. If Ms Sepuloni does not get that, she should move on to Horse Racing Minister or something.
The inequitable two tier benefit system, will likely not last much beyond the election, like other Covid assistance that has been ladled out in the billions to opportunistic employers large and small. The heat will be on Jacinda and Grant well and truly. And the alternative left need to have their policies and suggestion up and ready to go for public approval and support.
And the alternative left need to have their policies and suggestion up and ready to go for public approval and support.
Yes! For sure.
The medical insurance system in the US works really well .. for the profiteers, not the public.
National are also guilty of creating a two tiered system one for the rich and one for the poor. In fact nationals policies exacerbated poverty, huge scale immigration in many low paying jobs and their educational policies to backdoor immigrants into our country, putting pressure on our creaking infrastructure and then huge under funding and undermining of public services. So Upstons’ comments is a bit of the pot calling the kettle black. Under national we saw a huge growth of inequalities, and this is not good for our country.
> This stopgap bigotry (which is a slap in the face to the long term unemployed and solo parents it discriminates against)
… not to mention those trying to cope on sickness and invalids benefits, which have been set at the same level as the unemployment benefit, for years.
Yes. It is shockingly sad that this has not been repaired, not even attempted.
What about all the retirees (and frequently younger relatives on their behalf) who have to deal with WINZ? Having direct experience of the frustration of jumping through bureaucratic hoops on behalf of elderly parents, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry about this story. A separate department for retired people who have worked all their lives is long overdue in my opinion.
Part of Sepuloni’s smug thesis was that a two tiered system has been implemented before, in previous years. I think she mentioned the GFC, or serfdom middle ages, or some such gibberish. You know, that old chestnut of justification drawing on former failures.