Hard News: Bill's Troubles
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Thank you Hilary, I'll be doing so this weekend.
By its nature respite care is a temporary measure, and it just happens that the person in question has elected to go into full-time care by next winter. While the availability of respite care is no longer the issue of the moment, thanks to Sacha and Hilary for providing clarity and direction, and the impetus to do something constructive about it. Your blood, as they say, is worth bottling.
It's encouraging to see disability treated as a universal human issue, rather than the fragmented approach of focusing on the problems of a particular group.
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you shouldn't be too surprised when people take advantage.
...and are utterly oblivious to how any reasonable person could possibly take exception. Seriously, I don't think folks like Hobbs and English really get how any could think there's anything tacky-fingered about their financial arrangements, which somehow makes it that much worse when whatever you think about their judgment and politics you can't put either of them down as being stupid. Reminds me of a wonderful line from Gone With The Wind: "You're like a thief who isn't sorry that he stole, but is very sorry indeed that he's going to jail." :)
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I think it is time someone stood up for Marian and Phillida since there seems to be a move to put them in the same boat as the current situation. I remember that tough time back then when they resigned while their situations were investigated and cleared. Both were people very staunch on acting with honesty and integrity. Attacking Marian for lack of integrity was the cruellest thing anyone could do. Neither MP did anything with malicious intent. There were messy unclear situations for which they took advice which turned out to be wrong. And how can I say it, as I admire them both immensely, that as ideas activists and people people they could both do with a little administrative support at times. Mistakes happened, which were soon rectified.
But there seems to be no personal or political responsibility taken for this current situation. That's the difference.
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Attacking Marian for lack of integrity was the cruellest thing anyone could do.
Um, plenty of people around here have already strung up English for outright fraud. I think Hobbs and Bunkle and English all deserved to be attacked for serious lack of judgment rather than malice or corruption, and while it might all be legal that doesn't mean they're right. They both did nicely out of a cosy status quo they just weren't inclined to be self-critical about, in my view.
Meanwhile, you accept a ministerial warrant you take the damn scrutiny (and criticism) for your conduct -- and how you use public money. You know, like civil servants, taxpayers and beneficiaries are expected to.
Still, its always nice to see senior politicians blaming the officials (who legally and ethically can't respond in kind) when they're caught with mucky snouts. Can't imagine a beneficiary getting a grain of sympathy if they argued for getting a debt wiped due to a bad steer from a case officer.
I also hope Hobbs and English weren't in the habit of rubber stamping every piece of official advice that crossed their Ministerial desks. Or does judgment and accountability stop at your hip pocket?
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Alliance, she stayed with them when the Greens split.
Duh me.
I think it is time someone stood up for Marian and Phillida since there seems to be a move to put them in the same boat as the current situation.
I think on a scale of dodgy, it wasn't quite Bill English dodgy, but it still rated.
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I think on a scale of dodgy, it wasn't quite Bill English dodgy, but it still rated.
So they were dodgy to a lesser degree, but they offered their resignations and had the resignations accepted. Which is entirely proper, especially when one is a Minister.
What do we get from English? Attempts to rehabilitate his image, obfuscation, and general spin that comes right from the top. What was it people said about the last government being "the most corrupt government in NZ history"? Doesn't sound like it to me. -
We are one of the least corrupt nations on earth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index
That is why we despise what Bill English has done. If he was a backbencher on the bones with his large family to look after and if his wife wasn't working then we would probably give him some slack.
He definitely lost me when he announced that he lives in the large family home on English Rd when he's not enjoying the expensive Wellington home owned by his family trust. It's a bit like sponsoring Bob Jones or somethng at that point in relation to how the average Kiwi lives. And from my point of view his behaviour has been corrupt. His obfuscations are not what we expect from our elected representatives - especially the finance minister. -
That is why we despise what Bill English has done.
Who "we", dear?
If he was a backbencher on the bones with his large family to look after and if his wife wasn't working then we would probably give him some slack.
Play me the world's smallest violin, darling!- I'd love to be on Struggle Street with a backbencher's base salary of $131K a year. Anyone who can't make ends meet on that doesn't deserve slack. They deserve some extreme budgeting advice, or to find a new career where the pay packet fits the desired lifestyle.
It's a bit like sponsoring Bob Jones or somethng at that point in relation to how the average Kiwi lives.
Lots of nice middle class people who use family trusts as a tax avoidance mechanism.
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Attacking Marian for lack of integrity was the cruellest thing anyone could do. Neither MP did anything with malicious intent. There were messy unclear situations for which they took advice which turned out to be wrong.
I do see the two cases a little differently. Bunkle's declared main residence was only just outside the Wellington boundary. If I recall correctly, Hobbs was in the position she was in in part because her marriage broke up. But neither of them employed arrangements anything like as exotic at English's.
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Bunkle's declared main residence was only just outside the Wellington boundary.
I don't think she's the only one, either. There are a few urbanised areas that sit nicely just outside the circle, in various electorates.
neither of them employed arrangements anything like as exotic at English's.
I don't think anyone has employed arrangements "as exotic as English's", if for no other reason that shifting one's entire family to Wellington doesn't seem to be terribly common. But yes, the point regarding the lengths to which English appears to have gone - I don't think anyone really buys the argument that he completely detached himself from the trust for reasons entirely unrelated to housing allowances - is well-made. It's a whole new level of "apparently dodgy".
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Bunkle's declared main residence was only just outside the Wellington boundary. If I recall correctly, Hobbs was in the position she was in in part because her marriage broke up. But neither of them employed arrangements anything like as exotic at English's.
And the point is? Yes, it sucks when your marriage breaks down but I think its fair comment to point out that there are plenty of people whose tax liabilities or benefit entitlements change when their personal circumstances do. They're expected (and reasonably so) to promptly inform the IRD or WINZ and accept the consequences if they receive money or credit they're not actually entitled to. I don't mean to sound mean-spirited but I'm not really inclined to give Hobbs a lot of slack. At least not more than politicians are willing to extend to the rest of us.
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Regarding reductions to respite care - as Hlary said, it appears to be due to the local District Health Board having run out of their ring-fenced budget.
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Thanks for the update, Joe. It's not that they have run out, just decided to spend it differently. I'm also hoping it's not another outbreak of the dreaded "restorative home help" model. Did you contact Anderton or another MP?
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From 16 March 09
The public are being kept in the dark about "significant service cuts" to health planned for Canterbury, says an outraged board member.Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) member Andrew Dickerson yesterday sent out a media release criticising the health system for sanctioning the debate of the draft annual plan in private...
http://www.stuff.co.nz/2264225/Critic-slams-secrecy-over-CDHB-cuts
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Thanks. I'm still not clear if they have moved funding from lower needs to higher needs people or cut the overall amount.
I thought District Annual Plans had to be publically consulted on for changes - unless they are somehow defining this as an insignificant difference from previous DAPs.
Note that none of Ryall's health targets are about support services, so the article is proably correct in suggesting the focus would be on elective ops and suchlike instead.
I can't see enough to split out non-disability budgets, like some separately funded older people's services. Despite disability support funding this year making up $208m of their $1213m income (about one in every six dollars), the DHB has no disability performance targets at all. Sadly that is far from unique.
And real people and their families pay the price.
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Thank you Sacha, I've written to the Minister, for whatever that may be worth. While the person concerned receives home help with housework and showering, none of that's been affected.
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In the recent line by line review by the Ministry of Health, budgets for all sorts of health services were cut drastically. Some cuts included funding for DHBs (which provide disability support for the over 65s, and mental health services).The DHBs were also given a narrow range of new targets to achieve. Unfortunately, timely and appropriate disability supports were not among them. So before long cuts to front line disability supports would happen as shrinking budgets were redirected.
So we are now seeing, in different ways, the results of these cuts around the country. I have heard about major reassessments, reduced services, cuts in services, cuts to staffing, reduced eligibility criteria.
So, Joe, it appears that you are seeing one result in your area. We need to keep hearing these stories so we can monitor and report what is happening throughout our very fragmented system - and protest.
Not helped, unfortunately, by having a Minister for Disability Services outside cabinet, and a government not that fussed about disability support.
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