Island Life: Good on ya, Paula
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we can all have a big 'stimulus' party
Sorry man, no can do. I don't do that shit any more.
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Sorry man, no can do. I don't do that shit any more.
'Stimulus', 'party' or 'big'?
Enquiring minds and all...
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I'm trying to recall if the beneficiary-bashing was as prevalent or as vehement in the early 1990s.
David, you obviously weren't on the DPB then. There has always been beneficiary bashing, particularly of DPB recipients.Some of us remember Bert Walker, the ungenerous and sexist Minister of Social Welfare in the Muldoon government. Made denigration of single mothers into an sport.
Anybody who has been on a benefit knows that the whole system is set up to make you feel guilty and unworthy as a human being. There is a hierarchy of benefits with the DPB at the bottom. In the early 1990s I went on the widow's benefit. To apply for it you even went to a different floor, to separate you from those DPB and dole bludgers, because you were slightly worthy. But by the time of Christine Rankin's reign all beneficiaries were treated the same. You hardly set foot in the place without being whisked off to a side room and being interrogated for benefit fraud. The public loved it.
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There is a hierarchy of benefits with the DPB at the bottom.
What, worse than the in-valid one? How hard could it really have been to change that name over the last decade.
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the whole system is set up to make you feel guilty and unworthy as a human being
Quite. Seems the only folk who feel they deserve an ongoing sense of entitlement are long-in-the-tooth politicians.
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Sacha - I think the DPB might even rate lower than the In-Valid one if you take into account the judgmental moral undertone of our benefit system. It was OK to get a widow's benefit with little children, as I did, because you were pitiable. But mothers applying for the DPB have transgressed some moral code. People who are disabled or sick are in-valid humans but they are not immoral.
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What did Dame Jenny Shapely do to deserve a knight hood?
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Maybe because she started the Needs Assessment and Service Coordination system that brought it an eligibility-based ring fenced system of disability supports, based on a market of providers who competed for contracts, whereas before it had been needs,community and rights-based?
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She was the first female Prime Minister. Knighthoods are thrown about for much less.
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I wonder if the wave punks from around the Newtown shops will be outside the swearing ceremony in the old saint paul, to snigger, spit and maybe vomit.
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Good on those who didn't convert their gong to an outdated imperialist knighthood or damehood eg Sam Neill, Joy Cowley, Ranginui Walker.
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REFUSED NEW TITLE:
* Sir Ivor Lloyd Richardson, judge
* Dame Silvia Rose Cartwright, former Governor-General
Leonard Ramsey Castle, potter
Witi Ihimaera-Smiler, novelist
Sam Neill, actor
Vincent O'Sullivan, writer and poet
Ranginui Walker, academic, writer
Joy Cowley, writer
Patricia Grace, novelist
Sister Patricia Mary Hook, community worker
Penelope Ann Jamieson, former bishop of Dunedin
Sister Pauline Margaret O'Regan, educationist
Margaret Wilson, former Speaker of Parliament* Titles previously awarded
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I think pretty much every NZ Prime Minister gets at least a knighthood; there's no reason to say that Palmer or Muldoon knighted themselves, it's just what happens to ex-PMs.
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Yes, a sirtainty in this daminion.
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a sirtainty
Brilliant.
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So honours titles are "consistent with the egalitarian character of New Zealand society and enlivens and enriches it." NZ Honours
Please don't get me wrong - I'm all for "say[ing] thanks and well done to those who have served and those who have achieved." -
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All ANZ honours are still 'within the gift of the Monarch.' Until ANZ opts to drop the monarchy, there's no way I'd accept an honour, but I like the fact that there were those who chose not to accept an archaic
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The ever-aspirational John Key says the honours are "a real celebration of success".
Isn't the line supposed to be that they recognise service to the community?
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I suppose royal honours have always had a dual focus on service and achievement so that governments of both right and left could reward what they see as success.
Somewhat ridiculous when professional athletes and businesspeople get recognised for merely doing their jobs, rather than for contributing above and beyond that to their industry, profession or code. Recognise the volunteers, administrators, connectors and coaches by all means.
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Isn't the line supposed to be that they recognise service to the community?
I always thought it was that they are recognized for enhancing the power for the leadership of the British empire. Or that they have been granted an honorary aristocratic status.
The good thing about the reinstatement is that we get the list of 'refused title' recipients, that for some reason, doesn't contain any businessmen.
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Isn't the line supposed to be that they recognise service to the community?
No. That's the Queen's Service Order.
The New Zealand Order of Merit (the one which comes with the Knighthoods at its upper levels) is:
"for those persons who in any field of endeavour, have rendered meritorious service to the Crown and nation or who have become distinguished by their eminence, talents, contributions or other merits."
Or, in short, the awards are a real celebration of success =)
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I think you're overlooking the word "or" Graeme - it's achievement or service. As I say, two different ways of defining success.
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it's achievement or service. As I say, two different ways of defining success.
Or two different personality traits.
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Sacha, do you know a definition of failure?
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I think you're overlooking the word "or" Graeme - it's achievement or service.
Sure, but not community service. Service to the Crown or Nation. Community Service is the QSO/QSM.
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