Bill English has criticised the Government for only offering an officer briefing on the day that legislation is due to be introduced into Parliament. But appears to have forgotten an offer made by Jacinda Ardern 48 days ago.
In Australia the Murdoch press has chosen the Christmas down period to try and whip up some anti beneficiary hysteria. Jim Parker from the blog Failed Estate calmly dissects the figures and concludes there is no reason for concern.
It’s not perfect. Maybe it’s a start.
Artist activist group We are Beneficiaries are writing a report to share the stories they’ve been collecting from beneficiaires with the new Ministers to help make a case for change.
Misleading the NZ public about a political party, its policy, and how government works actively harms democracy.
The tories seem to have found a new angle on the government’s removal of benefit sanctions that punish the children of beneficiaries who […]
Jacinda Ardern intends to reach out to National to try and furnish a bi partisan approach to dealing with child poverty. It is a good idea, but I don’t like her chances.
What happens to long term beneficiaries who can’t increase their income with paid work?
Mining, big data, social investment, paid parental leave, and pēpi in the House. The new government’s not mucking around remedying some of the previous government’s plunder and pillage policies.
When they said they wanted to eradicate poverty, I didn’t suspect they simply meant to expunge the word.
With the ongoing revelations, stories and court cases showing the terrible state of welfare services in NZ, Lawyer and journalist Catriona MacLennan has written a list of what needs to change.
Lawyer and journalist Catriona MacLennan explains the details of a case before the High Court this week. Anyone who wants to understand how the Ministry of Social Development and WINZ are utterly failing as a government department needs to read this.
Most viewed story on the Guardian website today: “New Zealand library cracks case of missing books.” Turns out some of Auckland’s 23,000 homeless were hiding bookmarked books in odd places so they wouldn’t lose their place. The library will now keep their books safe. Good on them. Finding homes for homeless must be a high priority for Aotearoa’s next government.
A post about the responsibility to advocate for change in a visible way.
“It is not okay that nearly everyone I have advocated for at WINZ, has broken down in tears during appointments and have often been close to a panic attack. Most people I advocate for at WINZ unanimously tell me it is a humiliating and utterly defeating experience.” – political writer and community activist Chloe King.
What she did wasn’t a mistake.
Safety nets should be for all people and the best way to ensure that is to design them for social need not as economic tools. Despite Gareth Morgan’s assertion that policy is everything, The Opportunities Party has managed to create a youth policy that is discriminatory.
Saturday 16 Sept 2.30pm, Otara Town Centre, South Auckland. Let’s all come together to rally for our communities that have been at the forefront on the fight to end poverty.
Auckland event on Sunday – if you have ideas about how to #FIXWINZ you are invited to come along.
The Greens have a comprehensive, detailed plan for NZ on what to do about climate change that works through transforming the economy, ending poverty, and protecting the environment.
Beneficiaries are not getting the support that they are entitled to. NZ is beset by rising poverty, its associated diseases, homelessness, and suicide. I wonder if these facts could possibly be related?
This government will know that 50,000 people already want help with drug addiction but cannot get it. They have had 9 years to give a shit. This “bash the beneficiary drug addict” is a ridiculous response to a real, and growing, health problem.
After the first in her series of articles inviting a bank economist to analyse and comment upon Labour’s spending promises, tomorrow she turns to the second in the series with a close analysis of National’s promises.
There’s a direct relationship between how badly we treat mothers and how much we exalt neoliberalism.
They starve and freeze and rot among themselves, but they beg, steal and rob among their betters.
How many of these did you receive over your 7 years of over-payments?
Here’s the scandal.
Giovanni Tiso writes on New Zealand media and the swimming of sharks.
With the current dialog about welfare, It is time to look at the people who are the real beneficiaries, of the welfare system.
Who use the educated and healthy workforce our system provides
The people who say “everyone should stand on their own two feet”, “you don’t work you don’t eat”, and “take personal responsibility”,
The business sector.
A must read Guest Post for anyone thinking about poverty and welfare this election – a former social scientist turned welfare beneficiary speaks out on WINZ’s state-sponsored neglect of more than 84,000 long-term disabled New Zealanders.
A list of Labour’s announced policies to date and an easy way to compare them to other parties’ policies.
Punitive welfare settles into a new low.
In the interests of keeping it simple, an obvious fact or two and a basic proposition.
“We will not forget the thousands of you who came to us with your stories of hardship”
“Here’s a new idea for the Tories: Why not ask a simple question every time you propose a course of action: Is this morally just?”
It’s time to hear what poor people have to say about being poor.
