ALP knows how to redress wrongs. NZ dithers

Written By: - Date published: 7:15 am, August 2nd, 2024 - 5 comments
Categories: australian politics, Christopher Luxon, erica stanford, International, Politics - Tags: , , , ,

God Bless the ALP (Australian Labour Party), Bill Shorten and all the Labour MP’s across the ditch for tackling the real issues facing people with disabilities in Australia. It takes courage, fortitude, a good heart to seek redress to wrongs done to the weakest amongst us. They are taking those steps.

Across the ditch they have had an open and long Royal Commission into Disability. To call it a landmark, is no understatement. The response has been measured, across the board and comprehensive. It has included an apology, a financial response, legislative responses, and real accountability of service providers and the state services. It has responses at both the Federal and the State level. And this is only stage one.

Compare that to crocodile tears, apologies, and an emotion (desire) to do better, that we got here over the abuse in state/church care report. Words, half baked emotions and some mumbles about the future. Yes, some cash is being thrown around, yes government agencies and Churches are trying to do better. But fundamental change is going to elude us. Because our ratbag collection of a government is too ideological to fix, what needs to be fixed.

We had a former minister of finance poo pooing even the idea of any inquiry. We have had MP’s actively dismiss disabled people who have asked for disability royal commission. We are well past the point of something needing to be done. The reality is disabled here in NZ are in as bad a state of affairs as our brothers and sisters across the ditch. Abuse in care is the tip of a very ugly iceberg. A culture of seeing disabled as an afterthought and/or commodity is all too common.

So would a real Christian PM please stand up, because we don’t have one. Jesus talked about the poor, the downtrodden and the problems of greed. He never spoke about the needs of the money lenders, (stock traders, and property speculators), like our PM does almost every other day. Why does our PM never speak of the quality of life of disabled in our community? When across the ditch they not only speak about it, they are doing the hard yards to actively improve the quality of people with disabilities lives, and for disabled to embrace full membership of society.

Adam

5 comments on “ALP knows how to redress wrongs. NZ dithers ”

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  1. gsays 1
    2 August 2024 at 12:06 pm

    Great observations about what our PM cares about.

    His language, therefore what he holds dear, is littered with dollars, expenditure, financial, economic, profit, fiscal etc etc. Always through a balance sheet lens

    Very rare is it about patients, those with needs, people, whanau, families, communities.

  2. Ad 2
    2 August 2024 at 12:58 pm

    After preaching to the Parliamentary gallery when the Abuse in Care report was tabled, pretty much tumbleweed

    They had years to prepare the response.

    Totally fair comment re Christianity in government.

    Well done Labor Australia for facing up.

  3. weka 3
    2 August 2024 at 1:13 pm

    nice one Adam. The last paragraph is spot on.

  4. SPC 4
    2 August 2024 at 3:48 pm

    There is criticism of the response.

    Greens senator Jordon Steele-John — who fought to establish the commission after entering parliament as the first openly-disabled federal politician — said the initial response was "an insult to the disability community".

    "We had hoped that through sharing our stories … that our government would listen and take action. They've failed to do so," he told the ABC.

    And more

    Marayke Jonkers, president of People with Disability Australia, said the response did not fully address the majority of the recommendations.

    "Today us and our members are devastated, disappointed and completely caught off guard," she told reporters in Brisbane.

    El Gibbs, Disability Advocacy Network Australia's Director, Policy and Advocacy, said while there were "some good things" in the initial response, overall she was "just not seeing the scale of response that we needed".

    "Governments have had [more than] nine months to respond and we needed to see far more detail and commitment to stopping this terrible scourge of harm against disabled people," she told the ABC.

    Children and Young People with Disability Australia CEO Skye Kakoschke-Moore said the lack of a firm commitment on inclusive education was "a failure of leadership" and a "betrayal" of young people with disability.

    "We owe it to the next generation of students with disability to act swiftly and decisively in phasing out segregated education," she said in a statement.

    "States and territories must step up, but they need support from the federal level to make inclusive education a reality."

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-31/government-responds-to-disability-royal-commission/104141938

    I'll wait for Juice Media to satirise this.

    Till then, with One Voice

    • adam 4.1
      2 August 2024 at 11:16 pm

      There is a response though. One which, whilst not perfect is actually trying to work through the issues. The federal system does create some issues. And as they have said it's only stage one. Friends who are disability activists across the ditch, are being critical, but are also bloody thankful the coalition are not in power. Expect stage two, too move forward more, and expect our Brothers and Sisters with disabilities across the ditch to keep being critical, and working for a better solution.

      That said, the government of ours has had some time to respond to the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry. Before it was tabled. And we got bugger all.