Island Life by David Slack

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Island Life: Good on ya, Paula

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  • Joe Wylie,

    Do's anyone remember the dob in a dodgy dole bludger campaign that ran on the TV around ten years ago?

    No I don't, as I was elsewhere. Can you provide a wee bit more info please?

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report

  • Sacha,

    In case no-one already linked to it, here's the feisty Campbell Live piece last night including long-serving beneficiary advocate and MP, Sue Bradford, who raises the Minister's "duty of care".

    And another piece of the jigsaw, from yesterday's Question Time:

    Hon Annette King

    What was the “lesson” that the Minister referred to on Close Up, on Television New Zealand last night, that the two solo mothers were to have learnt from speaking out on the cuts to the training incentive allowance; was the lesson that the Minister will clobber any pensioner or beneficiary who crosses her, or was the lesson that no private information is now private?

    Hon PAULA BENNETT

    I would say neither of those. They have just taken assumptions that are there. The media can be a pretty vicious thing when one gets into the middle of it, and I suppose those women are seeing that now in quite how it has been. I suppose there is a lesson about what it might actually be like to allow the Labour Party to use a person as a political football.

    So no one should be able to have their story repeated (without their involvement) by a political party the Minister dislikes? Surely it takes longer than 9 months to forget how little power most citizens have.

    And wouldn't revealing the "full picture" about whether a particular beneficiary could afford to "invest" their own funds to make up for an allowance being cut also require knowing their expenditure, not just their income? I say the Minster just hasn't gone far enough yet.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report

  • Sacha,

    But why out the other women for not living out of dumpsters?

    Because it works, apparently.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report

  • Sacha,

    Taxes

    Socialist!

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report

  • Steve Barnes,

    Socialist!

    Damn, outed.

    Peria • Since Dec 2006 • 5521 posts Report

  • Joe Wylie,

    Thanks steven. A brief Google turns up something called the Code of Social Responsibility, which seems to have been all the go at the time WINZ came into being. Will try to find out more.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report

  • Deborah,

    The "Code of Social Responsibililty" was a nasty initiative from Jenny Shipley. It was a survey, full of leading questions, about people being "required" to contribute to society, and people on benefits being "required" to make some return. I kept a copy of it for years and years, but it seems to have been lost in one of our (far too) many moves. My partner and I took great delight in answering the questions in exactly the wrong way. This should give you a flavour of what it was all about. And take a look at what the Wesley Wellington Mission said about it.

    Unfortunately for Jenny, she didn't get the answers she wanted, so it sank without a trace.

    Steven, I'm so sorry that you had that wretched experience.

    New Lynn • Since Nov 2006 • 1447 posts Report

  • Joe Wylie,

    Thanks a lot Deborah, most informative.
    Interesting that only ten years later such a thoroughly discredited initiative should be almost forgotten, while the same old agenda is attempted to be slimed through behind the 'kindler 'n gentler' facade of a 'battler mum' minister.

    Here she comes, here she comes,
    Here she comes again
    The same old painted lady
    From the brow of the superbrain

    And yeah, that sounds like a really horrible experience steven. Thanks for remembering.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report

  • Kyle Matthews,

    Why is every news outlet reporting that Goff topped the list of MPs' expenses? As far as I can tell, this is not true. Anyone got a link to the actual data?

    Here's the ministerial one.

    Here's MPs.

    Phil Goff is the most expensive MP because MP and Ministerial have been separated. I think that's because they're entirely different sections - parliamentary services and ministerial services. So the MP that cost us the most is McCullly - $350,000 in total. Almost all of that is ministerial expenses.

    Goff topped out at about $120 K, so the media reporting seems pretty weak to me. I don't believe that McCully cost us only $12,000 as an MP, he's just put all his expenses down as ministerial.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Kumara Republic,

    The CoSR came across as more nanny statist than anything the Clark Govt could ever try hard to come up with.

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report

  • 3410,

    Thanks for the info, Kyle.

    Why it should be surprising that the Leader of the Opposition has the greatest expenses of any non-Minister, I don't know*.

    Also, why every headline and associated photo was of Goff and not McCully.

    *rhetorically speaking

    Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 2618 posts Report

  • Tony Parker,

    I watched Douglas and Harawera defend their expenses on One last night and was disgusted at their arrogance and sense of entitlement when their political parties and half the country seems to be vilifying the two solo mums for getting the benefits they were entitled to.

    Napier • Since Nov 2008 • 232 posts Report

  • Steve Reeves,

    I find it especially disgusting that Douglas, with all the historical baggage he's carrying around, feels such a strong entitlement to have the taxpayer pay for his (and his wife's) travels to the UK on holiday.

    What the UK MPs found (and I hope ours will find the same) is that working within the rules and doing the right thing are not always the same. And it's not as though he's paid so little that he couldn't afford to pay for his own travel, is it? Also, did he charge the taxpayer just economy class for his holiday travel, or what?

    That the word "entitlement" should cross Douglas's lips as a reason for his spending shows such a tenuous grasp on ethics and history that it is almost unbelievable.

    Near Donny Park, Hamilton… • Since Apr 2007 • 94 posts Report

  • Rich Lock,

    The media can be a pretty vicious thing when one gets into the middle of it, and I suppose those women are seeing that now in quite how it has been.

    Um, is it me, or does this essentially translate as: 'I taught these women what it's like to be on the receiving end of a vicious media beat up'?

    back in the mother countr… • Since Feb 2007 • 2728 posts Report

  • Russell Brown,

    Did somebody say Code of Social and Family Responsibility?

    I wrote about it here at the time. The idea was to morally contract all parents via the law (and even stipulate that they must love their children), but the only proposed sanction was the withdrawal of benefits.

    The most notable part of the project was the survey, Towards a Code of Social and Family Responsibility, of which nearly 1.4 million copies were printed.

    The MSD analysis of the responses alternates between an undertone of head-desk and an undertone of-face-palm.

    These findings, therefore, have no statistical validity and cannot be generalised in any way to the New Zealand population.

    Readers who work in research positions may derive considerable amusement from it.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

  • sCOTTb,

    Margaret Thatcher was famous for her insistence that officials condense any report she had to read into two pages and dare I mention Ronald Regan's attention span.

    There is nothing more "smarmier" than a right of centre self-made man/woman who then enters parliament a la John Banks, Paula Bennett and ACT MPs. They seem to think that a) everyone can/should emulate their achievements and b) they have a superior world view and c) tend to (maybe unconsciously) disenfranchise those very same groups from whence they came, for not emulating them.

    Waitakeres • Since Jul 2009 • 1 posts Report

  • Danielle,

    Somebody dob me in.

    Steven, that is one of the most depressing things I've ever heard. I wonder what percentage of our population consists of disgusting busybody weasels?

    This whole week has left me rather despairing. It seems as though as a country we've lost the ability to even pay lip service to our much-vaunted egalitarianism.

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report

  • Russell Brown,

    Steven, that is one of the most depressing things I've ever heard. I wonder what percentage of our population consists of disgusting busybody weasels?

    I seem to recall dobbing-in being fairly common in the 90s.

    I had a bizarre situation where an acquaintance who played in a band and was on the dole was convinced for years that I had reported him (solely on the basis that I knew someone who worked in benefit payment control at WINZ). It got a bit difficult.

    I hadn't obviously, but I did find out who had. A couple of years ago, I discovered via a mutual friend that the guy still bore a strong grudge against me. It needed clearing up. So I finally asked the friend to tell him who had in fact dobbed him in.

    His mother.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

  • Joe Wylie,

    There is a good argument for not granting knighthoods with out requiring a medical check. The man has lost his marbles.

    Like "Sir" Robert Muldoon, Douglas, and "Sir" Geoffrey Palmer, effectively knighted themselves when it was in their power to do so.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report

  • Sacha,

    Not that it has ever been vaunted in talkbackland..

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report

  • Sacha,

    Egalitarianism, not self-knighting.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report

  • Kumara Republic,

    There is nothing more "smarmier" than a right of centre self-made man/woman who then enters parliament a la John Banks, Paula Bennett and ACT MPs. They seem to think that a) everyone can/should emulate their achievements and b) they have a superior world view and c) tend to (maybe unconsciously) disenfranchise those very same groups from whence they came, for not emulating them.

    As I previously mentioned, climbing the social ladder then taking the ladder with them. Hypocrisy to the power of 1E6.

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report

  • Kerry Weston,

    Not that it has ever been vaunted in talkbackland..

    Lawhs yesterday was diabolical over the hair extensions - one of her ex-neighbours called to declare that "she thought she was better than us" and Lawhs nearly wet himself with excitement that this guy might have some real dirt ... I was at someone else's house and had to leave the room at that point, for fear I'd biff the radio out a window.

    Do these people just overlook the fact that everybody is entitled to accomodation supplement, tax credits, plus the $60 in work payment if you work 20hrs (single) or 30 hrs (partnered)? And that DPBers are required to work 15 hours a week - that income, which abates the rate of benefit over $80pw gross earnings, plus the child support the govt keeps makes up a sizable portion of the base rate of benefit, which is the only thing DPBers get that is not available to anyone else on a low income. The ONLY cost to the taxpayer?

    Manawatu • Since Jan 2008 • 494 posts Report

  • giovanni tiso,

    As I previously mentioned, climbing the social ladder then taking the ladder with them.

    Hah! That's quite priceless.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Ian Dalziel,

    I'm Roger, Fly Me... I'm a taxpayer, Roger me!
    It seems the overly entitled Sir Roger "I'm Entitled" Douglas is the uber-beneficiary.
    I have never understood this particular perk in perpetuity (90% of all overseas travel expenses for life!!), and see no reason for it to continue.
    Is there no ceiling on their travel, no system of justification, just an open cheque book?
    Surely this perk is for ex-ministers, so maybe it should be rescinded if he is in office again, one assumes he is making a good salary and has the wit to provide for himself and his dependents, as the rest of us must ...
    "My Friend" Roger is gaming the system
    - true beneficiary behaviour apparently...
    - as above so below, eh?

    yrs
    Thoth
    let me hit you with
    my Hermes bag...

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report

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