Agree with all this Nick. This is the same lot that said they will get rid of 12000 public service workers by Xmas and add to the beneficiaries . This appealing to those voters who have no empathy for those less well off than themselves is sickening. Added to their racist policy statements and the other dumb things like speed limits not being reduced this has certainly become a most dispiriting election and I must add I have voted in many.
I'm sickened by these latest announcements, unemployment is at a very low level, and some are just not able to work.
Looking at the sour, down turned mouth of Upston makes me picture her in a pointy hat, and carrying a broomstick. Stanford also has a similar sour look, most unpleasant. I wonder if their frowns will turn "upside down" if they find themselves in government?
Sorry about my facetious comments, but I am so tired of people who are completely without compassion or empathy.
Thank you Nick for your thoughtfulness and caring.
Fill your boots with Upston, she's a really nasty piece of work. Voted against Gay marriage, voted twice against the ban on the barbaric "Gay Conversion Therapy". To top it all off she told us how much she likes beauty pageants - when she was the Minister for Women!
I have never liked her,and that is before I knew those things about her. My beef with her is that she used her short time on a DPB to judge other women who didn't aspire to her level of "betterment".
thank you for coming to our defence. And for the lovely way that you write about serious things. many beneficiaries, at least those that can cope with life, realised during the last National govt that you can't go near Winz without seeing your GP first and pleading stress, depression and all the other ills associated with trying to survive at the lower end of a rigged economy. Hence Seymour referring to stressed people on benefits. Without that GP support to relieve you of the obligation to attend seminars and interviews, you got the full demeaning experience of interacting with winz staff whose job description was to protect the money from people, highlighting that society thought you should be ashamed of your position. I think things improved a bit under Labour and now Winz do many things over the phone. As a beneficiary, 15 months out from getting superannuation, I dont want to do unskilled, low wage jobs for someone who is making a profit and still be poor. i am pretending that my benefit is a Universal basic income that allows me to contribute to my community in ways that are important to me. I cant do that if i am bussed off to kiwifruit packhouses every day. unfortunately i dont live in a world that works the way i would like. I have been terribly disillusioned during my education and professional careers. When i worked in whanau support during the Nat govt, i remember going to see someone who hadnt left their house for weeks because they got a letter from winz which started by stating that their benefit would be cut due to non attendance at an interview. That person panicked, couldnt even read the whole letter and hid from the world. I remember taking someone to housing NZ and being informed that if they had a roof over their head, e.g. a car or a shed then they coudnt get on the waiting list for housing. The system is cruel to those who strugge to cope with life, the ones who need the most support. So fuck it. im going to work the way i like. (with the support of my GP) And i do feel the need to contribute, but i would feel that anyway. i just choose to do it outside of the mainstream structures and supported by my universal basic income.
Thanks for your comment. It is heartbreakingly real to hear of those situations, the ones people like good Christian lad Luxon just doesn't care about. I think your UBI is entirely appropriate given the circumstances.
Whangarei: we cycled past a man waiting at a bus stop. An hour later he was still there. The scheduled bus hadn't come. He told us he was on home detention. He had permission to go to an MSD appointment about his benefit. The non-arrival of the bus meant he would miss his MSD appointment, would need to make another, and apply again to home detention to let him out for the day. Does he deserve a "red light" from the Nats? Absolutely not. Would he get one? Most likely.
That's exactly it, for people who have a genuine reason to be on welfare and live rurally or in a small community this is a real hardship, that serves no value.
I wish we had Expressive Emoticons for Sub Stack pages. I'd like to change my "Heart" for a "Big sad Tear" in support of this comment which is more fitting for this sad situation.
I'm saddened and disgusted by this new round of bennie bashing taking us back to the ugly and cruel days of Ruth Richardson and Bert Walker, and the hypocrisy of Paula Bennett and her supporters.
UBI all day long! The best outcome will be to remove the stigma of being out of regular, full-time work, and to put an end to the illusion that we are taking money from hard-working folk to give to 'bludgers'.
Thanks again Nick for saying it how it is in a much more coherent way that I could at this point in time. I'm so damn angry & cannot believe there are people who did live through the horror days of Paula bloody benefit & Ruth Richardson willing to let that happen again because it 'no longer affects them'.
It's just sickening & I fear it will push a lot of people off the edge they may be teetering on after the last few years of Covid, flooding & crazy fkers trying to destroy the world we live in.
The elderly, infirm through sickness or disability, poor people ( I.e. many beneficiaries) would have been among the thousands of deaths that didn't happen due to the Covid response of the Labour Government. These citizens would have been totally put at risk had the anti-mandate, anti-vax, anti-lockdown minority had their way. Luxon is now appealing to the same unkind, disgruntled troublemakers with his bene-bashing. When will he and his followers wake up to the fact that acting for the common good is at the heart of good Government and Civilisation itself.
Spot on Nick! I also thought they will need a lot of 'government employees' to manage this 'welfare system'. National and ACT never seem to grasp the fact that 'welfare' is there to help people if they need it and the vast majority do not stay on it for long. But the crux is that it is there just in case. Who knows what may happen to you in the course of your life. I also take umbrage with work/job as the determinant of your life and what you stand for. National just keep on trotting out the same old stuff.
When I studied Social Administration basi and well proven basic truth. Means testing and efforts at tight surveillance on beneficiaries never saves money always causes needless social disruption and suffering. Real assistance and opportunity and breadline security increases work and productive lives. Two of the things done almost immediately on election six years back. Winter heating assistance saved lives and much suffering. Means testing is futile tax will take back from those who don’t need it. Second a readjusting of WINZ approach to a duty of care - and cause no harm. I know one elderly man - bipolar and anxiety disordered - he was taken off an approved lifetime sick-ness benefit by bright young workers for review to prove he couldn’t work a couple of times per year each year. Some times 3 weeks others six weeks with no income until benefit returned but no back pay. Other peoples trash has throw away scraps in bins to keep the less fortunate alive. Even travelling to a doctor is a challenge when you have zilch life support. People fail to comprehend that crude putting indescriminate pressure and punishments and hoping is not the way of dealing with real problems.
So, if the Nat/ACT alliance gets in, this will be the third cycle of tax cuts and beneficiary bashing in 30 years I think.
The question is, is this National crossing their fingers and hoping for "third time lucky" for this approach to work; or, are they taking one for the team and saying "just to prove the last two times weren't an accident, we're going to try it again to prove this approach doesn't work"?
The sad thing is, there are so many dysfunctional bathroom mirrors in this country, that they will probably get very close to becoming government with this approach.
yes. ive for a while in a very small rural town especially with high maori population and she too would go places in pjs. No airs and graces required there.
Yup, awful!!! Especially so when it's Word of Mouth from the Oppressor without a stitch of proof whatsoever to back up her sick claims..
Yup, & that's what we'll get if these deranged folks get anywhere near the reigns of power after the election.
Rome sure wasn't built in a day, but it collapsed in the blink of an Eye from the same type of Political Leadership & Fiscal Management that we have today right here in Gods Own...
Its started the greedy dont want to share. They are not worried about the lack staff to do all this benefit checking, because they will privatise benefits like they did prisons. Just like in the good ole USA that Luxknob loves so much
Agree with all this Nick. This is the same lot that said they will get rid of 12000 public service workers by Xmas and add to the beneficiaries . This appealing to those voters who have no empathy for those less well off than themselves is sickening. Added to their racist policy statements and the other dumb things like speed limits not being reduced this has certainly become a most dispiriting election and I must add I have voted in many.
I'm sickened by these latest announcements, unemployment is at a very low level, and some are just not able to work.
Looking at the sour, down turned mouth of Upston makes me picture her in a pointy hat, and carrying a broomstick. Stanford also has a similar sour look, most unpleasant. I wonder if their frowns will turn "upside down" if they find themselves in government?
Sorry about my facetious comments, but I am so tired of people who are completely without compassion or empathy.
Thank you Nick for your thoughtfulness and caring.
Fill your boots with Upston, she's a really nasty piece of work. Voted against Gay marriage, voted twice against the ban on the barbaric "Gay Conversion Therapy". To top it all off she told us how much she likes beauty pageants - when she was the Minister for Women!
I have never liked her,and that is before I knew those things about her. My beef with her is that she used her short time on a DPB to judge other women who didn't aspire to her level of "betterment".
thank you for coming to our defence. And for the lovely way that you write about serious things. many beneficiaries, at least those that can cope with life, realised during the last National govt that you can't go near Winz without seeing your GP first and pleading stress, depression and all the other ills associated with trying to survive at the lower end of a rigged economy. Hence Seymour referring to stressed people on benefits. Without that GP support to relieve you of the obligation to attend seminars and interviews, you got the full demeaning experience of interacting with winz staff whose job description was to protect the money from people, highlighting that society thought you should be ashamed of your position. I think things improved a bit under Labour and now Winz do many things over the phone. As a beneficiary, 15 months out from getting superannuation, I dont want to do unskilled, low wage jobs for someone who is making a profit and still be poor. i am pretending that my benefit is a Universal basic income that allows me to contribute to my community in ways that are important to me. I cant do that if i am bussed off to kiwifruit packhouses every day. unfortunately i dont live in a world that works the way i would like. I have been terribly disillusioned during my education and professional careers. When i worked in whanau support during the Nat govt, i remember going to see someone who hadnt left their house for weeks because they got a letter from winz which started by stating that their benefit would be cut due to non attendance at an interview. That person panicked, couldnt even read the whole letter and hid from the world. I remember taking someone to housing NZ and being informed that if they had a roof over their head, e.g. a car or a shed then they coudnt get on the waiting list for housing. The system is cruel to those who strugge to cope with life, the ones who need the most support. So fuck it. im going to work the way i like. (with the support of my GP) And i do feel the need to contribute, but i would feel that anyway. i just choose to do it outside of the mainstream structures and supported by my universal basic income.
Thanks for your comment. It is heartbreakingly real to hear of those situations, the ones people like good Christian lad Luxon just doesn't care about. I think your UBI is entirely appropriate given the circumstances.
Good on you. Once you are on super you will find WINZ staff are a bit more accepting.
Whangarei: we cycled past a man waiting at a bus stop. An hour later he was still there. The scheduled bus hadn't come. He told us he was on home detention. He had permission to go to an MSD appointment about his benefit. The non-arrival of the bus meant he would miss his MSD appointment, would need to make another, and apply again to home detention to let him out for the day. Does he deserve a "red light" from the Nats? Absolutely not. Would he get one? Most likely.
That's exactly it, for people who have a genuine reason to be on welfare and live rurally or in a small community this is a real hardship, that serves no value.
I wish we had Expressive Emoticons for Sub Stack pages. I'd like to change my "Heart" for a "Big sad Tear" in support of this comment which is more fitting for this sad situation.
I'm saddened and disgusted by this new round of bennie bashing taking us back to the ugly and cruel days of Ruth Richardson and Bert Walker, and the hypocrisy of Paula Bennett and her supporters.
UBI all day long! The best outcome will be to remove the stigma of being out of regular, full-time work, and to put an end to the illusion that we are taking money from hard-working folk to give to 'bludgers'.
Thanks again Nick for saying it how it is in a much more coherent way that I could at this point in time. I'm so damn angry & cannot believe there are people who did live through the horror days of Paula bloody benefit & Ruth Richardson willing to let that happen again because it 'no longer affects them'.
It's just sickening & I fear it will push a lot of people off the edge they may be teetering on after the last few years of Covid, flooding & crazy fkers trying to destroy the world we live in.
They really are quite evil.
The elderly, infirm through sickness or disability, poor people ( I.e. many beneficiaries) would have been among the thousands of deaths that didn't happen due to the Covid response of the Labour Government. These citizens would have been totally put at risk had the anti-mandate, anti-vax, anti-lockdown minority had their way. Luxon is now appealing to the same unkind, disgruntled troublemakers with his bene-bashing. When will he and his followers wake up to the fact that acting for the common good is at the heart of good Government and Civilisation itself.
He's in it for himself. To have the title, and power of being PM,and then getting the knighthood so he can be Sir arsehole!
Spot on Nick! I also thought they will need a lot of 'government employees' to manage this 'welfare system'. National and ACT never seem to grasp the fact that 'welfare' is there to help people if they need it and the vast majority do not stay on it for long. But the crux is that it is there just in case. Who knows what may happen to you in the course of your life. I also take umbrage with work/job as the determinant of your life and what you stand for. National just keep on trotting out the same old stuff.
When I studied Social Administration basi and well proven basic truth. Means testing and efforts at tight surveillance on beneficiaries never saves money always causes needless social disruption and suffering. Real assistance and opportunity and breadline security increases work and productive lives. Two of the things done almost immediately on election six years back. Winter heating assistance saved lives and much suffering. Means testing is futile tax will take back from those who don’t need it. Second a readjusting of WINZ approach to a duty of care - and cause no harm. I know one elderly man - bipolar and anxiety disordered - he was taken off an approved lifetime sick-ness benefit by bright young workers for review to prove he couldn’t work a couple of times per year each year. Some times 3 weeks others six weeks with no income until benefit returned but no back pay. Other peoples trash has throw away scraps in bins to keep the less fortunate alive. Even travelling to a doctor is a challenge when you have zilch life support. People fail to comprehend that crude putting indescriminate pressure and punishments and hoping is not the way of dealing with real problems.
So, if the Nat/ACT alliance gets in, this will be the third cycle of tax cuts and beneficiary bashing in 30 years I think.
The question is, is this National crossing their fingers and hoping for "third time lucky" for this approach to work; or, are they taking one for the team and saying "just to prove the last two times weren't an accident, we're going to try it again to prove this approach doesn't work"?
The sad thing is, there are so many dysfunctional bathroom mirrors in this country, that they will probably get very close to becoming government with this approach.
I agree entirely! Love the Romans...
Me too. What a line. "Have you tried to actively bullshit today?"
Lol there's an entire Nact party who could get that payment every week!
FFS! Pyjamas????? Awful!
yes. ive for a while in a very small rural town especially with high maori population and she too would go places in pjs. No airs and graces required there.
Yup, awful!!! Especially so when it's Word of Mouth from the Oppressor without a stitch of proof whatsoever to back up her sick claims..
Yup, & that's what we'll get if these deranged folks get anywhere near the reigns of power after the election.
Rome sure wasn't built in a day, but it collapsed in the blink of an Eye from the same type of Political Leadership & Fiscal Management that we have today right here in Gods Own...
No surprise ACT and National won't chase tax dodgers and other white collar criminals; they are their main voter base.
Its started the greedy dont want to share. They are not worried about the lack staff to do all this benefit checking, because they will privatise benefits like they did prisons. Just like in the good ole USA that Luxknob loves so much