benefits
Categories under benefits
- welfare (366)
Jacinda Ardern’s child poverty speech
Written By: - Date published: 7:42 am, February 1st, 2018 - 74 comments
In a major speech yesterday on poverty, Prime Minister Ardern has laid out fully and forthrightly what is the problem and what need to be done.
Bill your pants may be on fire
Written By: - Date published: 1:48 pm, January 30th, 2018 - 118 comments
Bill English has criticised the Government for only offering an officer briefing on the day that legislation is due to be introduced into Parliament. But appears to have forgotten an offer made by Jacinda Ardern 48 days ago.
The Failed Estate: Us and Them
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, December 31st, 2017 - 20 comments
In Australia the Murdoch press has chosen the Christmas down period to try and whip up some anti beneficiary hysteria. Jim Parker from the blog Failed Estate calmly dissects the figures and concludes there is no reason for concern.
This. Almost.
Written By: - Date published: 10:05 am, December 23rd, 2017 - 26 comments
It’s not perfect. Maybe it’s a start.
#WeAreBeneficiaries fundraiser
Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, December 11th, 2017 - 5 comments
Artist activist group We are Beneficiaries are writing a report to share the stories they’ve been collecting from beneficiaires with the new Ministers to help make a case for change.
Another day, another piece of bullshit from someone in the MSM
Written By: - Date published: 6:44 am, December 8th, 2017 - 109 comments
Misleading the NZ public about a political party, its policy, and how government works actively harms democracy.
National’s benefit sanctions – the wolf is not your grandma
Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, December 2nd, 2017 - 78 comments
The tories seem to have found a new angle on the government’s removal of benefit sanctions that punish the children of beneficiaries who don’t name both parents. Now Louise Upston is saying National opposes the change because it’s not fair on children who will lose their right to a family connection. I think this is […]
Labour to seek consensus over child poverty
Written By: - Date published: 9:03 am, November 25th, 2017 - 111 comments
Jacinda Ardern intends to reach out to National to try and furnish a bi partisan approach to dealing with child poverty. It is a good idea, but I don’t like her chances.
Beneficiary for life: the joys of permanent disability in present day NZ
Written By: - Date published: 6:42 am, November 10th, 2017 - 111 comments
What happens to long term beneficiaries who can’t increase their income with paid work?
Bouquets for the new government
Written By: - Date published: 6:15 am, November 9th, 2017 - 64 comments
Mining, big data, social investment, paid parental leave, and pēpi in the House. The new government’s not mucking around remedying some of the previous government’s plunder and pillage policies.
The Missing Noun.
Written By: - Date published: 10:09 am, November 8th, 2017 - 88 comments
When they said they wanted to eradicate poverty, I didn’t suspect they simply meant to expunge the word.
Welfare reform 15 point plan
Written By: - Date published: 10:49 am, October 30th, 2017 - 108 comments
With the ongoing revelations, stories and court cases showing the terrible state of welfare services in NZ, Lawyer and journalist Catriona MacLennan has written a list of what needs to change.
Loans to feed kids are income and disqualify benefit, says MSD
Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, October 26th, 2017 - 86 comments
Lawyer and journalist Catriona MacLennan explains the details of a case before the High Court this week. Anyone who wants to understand how the Ministry of Social Development and WINZ are utterly failing as a government department needs to read this.
Books but no beds
Written By: - Date published: 6:11 pm, October 18th, 2017 - 19 comments
Most viewed story on the Guardian website today: “New Zealand library cracks case of missing books.” Turns out some of Auckland’s 23,000 homeless were hiding bookmarked books in odd places so they wouldn’t lose their place. The library will now keep their books safe. Good on them. Finding homes for homeless must be a high priority for Aotearoa’s next government.
A letter to my middle-class, well meaning, professional, liberal friends and family
Written By: - Date published: 10:24 am, October 18th, 2017 - 4 comments
A post about the responsibility to advocate for change in a visible way.
WINZ: where hope and dignity go to die
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, October 4th, 2017 - 66 comments
“It is not okay that nearly everyone I have advocated for at WINZ, has broken down in tears during appointments and have often been close to a panic attack. Most people I advocate for at WINZ unanimously tell me it is a humiliating and utterly defeating experience.” – political writer and community activist Chloe King.
Metiria Turei’s legacy
Written By: - Date published: 7:27 am, September 26th, 2017 - 127 comments
What she did wasn’t a mistake.
The failure of TOP’s Youth UBI policy
Written By: - Date published: 9:48 am, September 19th, 2017 - 97 comments
Safety nets should be for all people and the best way to ensure that is to design them for social need not as economic tools. Despite Gareth Morgan’s assertion that policy is everything, The Opportunities Party has managed to create a youth policy that is discriminatory.
Rally Against Poverty – join Metiria Turei and Marama Davidson
Written By: - Date published: 6:25 am, September 16th, 2017 - 20 comments
Saturday 16 Sept 2.30pm, Otara Town Centre, South Auckland. Let’s all come together to rally for our communities that have been at the forefront on the fight to end poverty.
Create WINZ as it should be
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, September 14th, 2017 - 13 comments
Auckland event on Sunday – if you have ideas about how to #FIXWINZ you are invited to come along.
Plant trees, love NZ: the Greens’ bold Climate Protection Plan
Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, September 11th, 2017 - 68 comments
The Greens have a comprehensive, detailed plan for NZ on what to do about climate change that works through transforming the economy, ending poverty, and protecting the environment.
Underpaying beneficiaries
Written By: - Date published: 10:26 am, September 10th, 2017 - 28 comments
Beneficiaries are not getting the support that they are entitled to. NZ is beset by rising poverty, its associated diseases, homelessness, and suicide. I wonder if these facts could possibly be related?
To REALLY help drug addicts
Written By: - Date published: 2:12 pm, September 7th, 2017 - 36 comments
This government will know that 50,000 people already want help with drug addiction but cannot get it. They have had 9 years to give a shit. This “bash the beneficiary drug addict” is a ridiculous response to a real, and growing, health problem.
Excitement mounting for Part 2 of Audrey Young’s analysis of Parties financial promises
Written By: - Date published: 5:03 pm, September 6th, 2017 - 20 comments
After the first in her series of articles inviting a bank economist to analyse and comment upon Labour’s spending promises, tomorrow she turns to the second in the series with a close analysis of National’s promises.
Speaking of mothers
Written By: - Date published: 1:28 pm, September 5th, 2017 - 31 comments
There’s a direct relationship between how badly we treat mothers and how much we exalt neoliberalism.
Outsourcing Compassion
Written By: - Date published: 3:41 pm, September 1st, 2017 - 58 comments
They starve and freeze and rot among themselves, but they beg, steal and rob among their betters.
Dear Winston.
Written By: - Date published: 11:28 am, August 30th, 2017 - 136 comments
How many of these did you receive over your 7 years of over-payments?
WINZ and Super Scandals
Written By: - Date published: 11:40 am, August 28th, 2017 - 138 comments
Here’s the scandal.
Giovanni Tiso: Speaking Power to the Truth – The Political Assassination of Metiria Turei
Written By: - Date published: 7:03 am, August 22nd, 2017 - 116 comments
Giovanni Tiso writes on New Zealand media and the swimming of sharks.
A “Culture of Entitlement”?
Written By: - Date published: 3:39 pm, August 17th, 2017 - 48 comments
With the current dialog about welfare, It is time to look at the people who are the real beneficiaries, of the welfare system.
Who use the educated and healthy workforce our system provides
The people who say “everyone should stand on their own two feet”, “you don’t work you don’t eat”, and “take personal responsibility”,
The business sector.
This is life on a benefit for ill and disabled people
Written By: - Date published: 7:13 am, August 16th, 2017 - 68 comments
A must read Guest Post for anyone thinking about poverty and welfare this election – a former social scientist turned welfare beneficiary speaks out on WINZ’s state-sponsored neglect of more than 84,000 long-term disabled New Zealanders.
- Book of the Week: How to honour te Tiriti
The newly published Te Tiriti o Waitangi Relationships: People, Politics and Law is the third of a Bridget Williams Books series which started with a 2004 volume on the Waitangi Tribunal, and was followed by a collection on Treaty settlements in 2012. Its intention is to present what “leading scholars ...2 days ago - Kinleith Mill’s troubles highlight industry’s ‘long slow burn’
Commodity manufacturers are at risk when their products can be made cheaper overseas The post Kinleith Mill’s troubles highlight industry’s ‘long slow burn’ appeared first on Newsroom. ...2 days ago
- NZ downgraded in global climate rankings
New Zealand has dropped seven places to 41st in the global Climate Change Performance Index, which ranks countries based on their emissions, deployment of renewable electricity, overall energy use and climate policy.The announcement of the latest update to the index, which has been running since 2005 and is considered an ...2 days ago
- Police research adds to evidence against gang patch ban
As Te Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti gathered at Wellington’s Waitangi Park on the waterfront on Tuesday morning, the MC welcomed “brothers of the patched world and sisters of the patched world”.He told the Māori members of the crowd that their whakapapa – carried through tā moko – survived on the ...2 days ago
- Young families are leaving many large US cities − here’s why that matters
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Biswa Das, Associate Professor of Community and Regional Planning and Extension Economist, Iowa State University Parents and educators rally at Boston City Hall demanding urgent action to improve the city’s public schools. Barry Chin/The Boston Globe via Getty Images Young families ...2 days ago - Australia’s $230 billion Future Fund encouraged to invest in housing, energy transition, infrastru...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government has rewritten the mandate of the Future Fund – the nation’s sovereign wealth fund – to urge it to direct investment into the “national priorities” of housing, the energy transition and infrastructure, ...2 days ago
- Third Reading Of Samoa Citizenship Bill In New Zealand Parliament Today
Explainer - New Zealand's Parliament will, on Wednesday, hear the third and final reading of a bill that will, if passed, restore a pathway for citizenship to a group of Samoans stripped of it decades ago. ...2 days ago - Christopher Luxon Says ‘No Need To Meet’ With Hīkoi At Parliament
The Prime Minister says organisers were "closely aligned" with Te Pāti Māori, but acknowledged it was "a significant day". ...2 days ago
- ‘685’s to the world:’ Restoring Citizenship Bill passes with unanimous support
Greens MP Teanau Tuiono says it's "a significant step for Pasifika justice here in Aotearoa and around the Pacific". ...2 days ago - What is methanol? How does it get into drinks and cause harm?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide cdrin/Shutterstock Two Australian teenagers are severely ill in hospital in Thailand after experiencing suspected methanol poisoning while they were travelling in Laos. The pair are reportedly among several foreign nationals to become ...2 days ago
- Politics with Michelle Grattan: Special Minister of State Don Farrell on getting ‘big money’ out...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The government says it will take “big money” out of election campaigns – or, more realistically, curb it – with its legislation imposing donation and spending caps and real-time disclosure. But crossbenchers and other ...2 days ago
- The hīkoi and Parliament: A photo essay
The House - Parliament protests run the gamut between solo vigils and a few thousand with amplified speeches. The hīkoi was an entirely new category. ...2 days ago
- Why NZ is protesting over colonial-era treaty bill – a global perspective
An overview for our international readers of Asia Pacific Report. BACKGROUNDER: By Sarah Shamim A fight for Māori indigenous rights drew more than 50,000 protesters to the New Zealand Parliament in the capital Wellington yesterday. A nine-day-long Hīkoi, or peaceful march — a Māori tradition — was undertaken in protest ...2 days ago
- The NT and ACT might have small populations but their economies are growing faster than the bigger s...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra sweettoiletpaper/Shutterstock The Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory have won bragging rights for having the fastest growing economies within Australia. Their growth was highlighted in annual data ...3 days ago
- NZ chips in $10m from existing funds to pay for climate losses
It will help pay for losses suffered by poorer countries because of climate change. ...3 days ago
- New law gives up to 3,480 Samoan elders back their right to NZ citizenship
The Citizenship (Western Samoa Restoration) Amendment Bill has passed its third and final reading. The bill’s author reflects on what it means for the Samoan community. It’s rare for MPs across the political spectrum to unite behind a piece of legislation. Rarer still is for an opposition MP’s bill to ...3 days ago - Gang patch ban: Senior Black Power member concerned about impact on families
"What people wear is not the issue," one Black Power member told RNZ. ...3 days ago
- Budget update will revise down company tax receipts but treasurer Chalmers welcomes economy’s ‘s...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Next month’s federal budget update is expected to revise down company tax receipts for the first time since 2020, amid continued low economic growth in the near term. In his Wednesday ministerial statement on ...3 days ago
- Schoolies means more drink spiking warnings. Why is the burden still on women to stay safe?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Ison, Senior Lecturer and Deputy Director, Reducing Gender-Based Violence Research Group, La Trobe University, La Trobe University Christian Bertrand/Shutterstock Schoolies season is here – and with it, warnings about staying safe while partying. For girls and women, this often means ...3 days ago
- Speaker’s handling of hīkoi ‘overkill’ – Te Paati Māori
Staff were locked from being able give water to protesters, and wifi access was blocked too, co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said. ...3 days ago
- Richard Chambers to be announced as new Police Commissioner
Richard Chambers is replacing outgoing commissioner Andrew Coster. ...3 days ago
- Richard Chambers announced as new Police Commissioner
Richard Chambers is replacing outgoing commissioner Andrew Coster. ...3 days ago
- Government designates Hezbollah as terrorist entity
The government has also slapped a similar designation on the Houthi movement. ...3 days ago
- Cost of road cones, temporary speed limits ‘eyewatering’ – Transport Minister
Simeon Brown had previously raised concerns over the cost of road cones and temporary speed limits, asking the ministry to look into it. ...3 days ago
- 10 years after the Lacrosse building cladding fire, the defects and disasters continue
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Trivess Moore, Associate Professor, School of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT University Metropolitan Fire Brigade, CC BY Ten years ago, a late-night cigarette started a fire that spread rapidly up 13 storeys on the Lacrosse apartment building in Melbourne. The ...3 days ago
- What is premenstrual dysphoric disorder? And how is it different to PMS?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eveline Mu, Research Fellow in Women’s Mental Health, Monash University Austin Guevara/Pexels Periods can feel like an unwanted guest for many women and gender diverse people who menstruate, bringing cramps, mood swings and exhaustion. But how do you know ...3 days ago
- Bill would ‘render the treaty worthless’ – world reacts to national Hīkoi
RNZ News International media coverage of Aotearoa New Zealand’s national Hīkoi to Parliament has largely focused on the historic size of the turnout in Wellington yesterday and the wider contention between Māori and the Crown. Some, including The New York Times, have also pointed out the recent swing right with ...3 days ago
- PPTA Urges Government To Act For Children In War Zones
Children are our future and have the right to access education wherever they live. We must do everything we can to uphold this fundamental human right. ...3 days ago
- ‘I’ll try any synonym under the sun’: Jacqueline Bublitz’s crimes against language
Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits of Aotearoa writers, and guests. This week: Jacqueline Bublitz, author of new crime novel Leave the Girls Behind. The book I wish I’d written I was so impressed by the big reveal in All the Colours ...3 days ago
- Financial forms of family violence affect 1 in 7 New Zealanders – but the law is lagging
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ayesha Scott, Adjunct Senior Lecturer, AUT Business School, Auckland University of Technology and Senior Lecturer in Finance & Financial Planning, Griffith University Economic harm – restricting access to, sabotaging or exploiting another person’s financial resources, and impeding their economic autonomy – is ...3 days ago
- Who is the new Police Commissioner, Richard Chambers?
He is known to have long-held ambitions for the top job and is considered a favourite of frontline police. ...3 days ago
- COP29 Ends In Promise To Send More Taxpayer Money Overseas
This decision proves how out-of-touch this tax more, spend more, ship more overseas Government is with New Zealand taxpayers. Fix your house first before you go fixing the neighbourhood. ...3 days ago
- Richard Chambers to be announced as new Police Commissioner, RNZ understands
RNZ understands Chambers will take over from Andrew Coster, who stepped down last week to head up the new Social Investment Agency. ...3 days ago
- New Zealand a very difficult place to be blind – advocate
Jonathan Mosen says New Zealand is the worst country in the Western world in which to be blind. ...3 days ago
- A beginner’s guide to yum cha
Let Jean Teng show you how to do yum cha right. All photos by Jin Fellet. Yum cha is ritualistic. Being absorbed into the cacophony of Sunday morning chaos at a Cantonese restaurant pretty much always feels the same, no matter which one it is. There’s the same families ...3 days ago
- Vietnam war vets’ financial support claims boosted by new ruling
Sir Wira Gardiner made a claim in 2021 to have his brain tumour treated as a defence service-related condition. ...3 days ago
- Taxpayer-funded Hīkoi Organiser Shows Parliament’s Budget A Political Slush Fund
Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said “Taxpayers’ money is not a political slush fund. MPs shouldn’t be able to hide how they’re wasting our money, and it’s long-past time their budgets were covered by the OIA.” ...3 days ago
- Public Comments By Auckland CCO Bosses Demonstrate Need For Duty Of Political Neutrality
"Dean Kimpton is the poster child of what an undemocratic CCO model has led to," says Jordan Williams, a Spokesman for the Ratepayers' Alliance. ...3 days ago
- Modern cars are surveillance devices on wheels with major privacy risks – new report
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katharine Kemp, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law & Justice; Lead, UNSW Public Interest Law & Tech Initiative, UNSW Sydney Varavin/Shutterstock New research reveals serious privacy flaws in the data practices of new internet connected cars in Australia. It’s yet another reason ...3 days ago
- The world reacts to te Hīkoi mō te tiriti
International media seem to agree the Treaty Principles Bill and national hīkoi put New Zealand at a pivotal moment in history. ...3 days ago
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