Posts by Angela Hart
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Yes and no Tom. Certainly our present system favours those with the means and the morals which permit them to manipulate the public into voting for them. Those morals then allow further obfuscation and manipulation to put in place ideologies which would otherwise be unacceptable to most New Zealanders.
However, we have in our recent past also elected a party which then took actions which were contrary to what the citizenry expected of it (Rogernomics). Any party can do it.
Our present mechanisms of state fail to prevent any group which has the numbers from basically doing whatever it wants to do. We have no upper house. No senate. No effective head of state. No checks or balances. Our system ran on a sort of gentlemen's agreement. The gentlemen are gone, the agreement is gone and there is nothing to stop the thieves from ransacking the country. Which is happening under our noses. -
Up Front: Cui bono?, in reply to Hilary Stace,
you reach 65 and are then entitled to the respectable benefit regardless of what other wealth or assets you have,
or how impoverished you were before. For many disabled, if they achieve 65, they are better off than they have ever been in their lives. Is that reasonable?
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Thanks for the post Emma, this is such a big topic. We have been watching what has been happening in the UK with trepidation because NZ nearly always follows suit, mistakes and all.
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Up Front: Cui bono?, in reply to Danielle,
I don't know about deliberate loss of documents, but I do know that they get lost with monotonous regularity. I now take forms to the reception desk and require a receipt when I hand 'em over. Haven't had any losses since I started doing this. My daughter hasn't had to reprove her permanent disability for a few years now. One of the lucky ones by the sound of it.
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Up Front: Cui bono?, in reply to Danielle,
It's about punishment and humiliation Danielle. I know people who are on illegal casual term time only contracts who do not apply for a benefit even over the long Christmas break because the treatment is so damaging. It means scrimping during the paid weeks to have enough to live on over the unpaid ones, but that is not as soul destroying as being in the power of MSD.
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Polity: TPP, eh?, in reply to Alfie,
Does the committtee have no options? If I were a member I'd be considering walking out or resigning. Could the committee simply reject the new timeframe and refuse to put out a report until it had properly considered the submissions?
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Access: Disability as a wicked policy problem, in reply to Hilary Stace,
yes, I noticed the emphasis on NGOs. They are also a way of taking accountability away from Government.
I really don't understand what is wrong with employing your own people, other than ideology around small government. It allows proper training, accountability, professionalism, auditing, and is surely the simplest way to produce an effective, reliable and responsive service.However it does require bureaucrats to function in a non political manner. It may be difficult to do that now. Again, the MoH is a good example, its contractors the NASCs, for instance, are not checked or audited in any meaningful way other than financial. The quality of the tasks they perform is not usually reviewed. And the public can do nothing about it, they are monopolies and the only avenue of complaint about their services is to the NASCs themselves. The MoH declines responsibility for its contractors.
Any new outfit would need to have better quality control systems in place.
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Something like this but obviously with much more design and oversight input from disabled people needing the services
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/300878/new-plan-for-children-in-care-unveiled -
Hard News: Dirty Politics, in reply to Tom Johnson,
if the common person hides their tax contribution they are vilified and fined,
the 1% ruling class are evidently superior to the 90%serfs and not subject to the laws the rest of us must obey. Wake up those serfs who have voting rights! I was unreasonably heartened by scenes of Icelanders outside their parliament making clear their anger at this betrayal. And their protest got results.
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Access: Disability as a wicked policy problem, in reply to Hilary Stace,
Surely 23 years later we are overdue for another total review of the system to bring in one simple and fair person centred disability support system for all?
Yes