Posts Tagged ‘welfare’

Two Tier. Bull. Shit.

Written By: - Date published: 2:58 pm, May 25th, 2020 - 217 comments

I thought we were “in this together” or some such?

Housing Band Aids

Written By: - Date published: 9:54 am, May 26th, 2018 - 54 comments

What lies behind the homelessness crisis in Aotearoa New Zealand? Is it a housing crisis or are the homeless to blame? If the problem is a housing crisis, why is there an assumption that the homeless themselves need extra services to secure and maintain rental housing?

The Largesse

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, April 3rd, 2018 - 51 comments

April the first and second mark the days when those receiving entitlements receive a yearly increase in line with the CPI and the governments increase to Accommodation Supplement also comes into effect. So what does it all mean for those receiving entitlements?

The Greens’ new welfare policy

Written By: - Date published: 12:24 pm, July 16th, 2017 - 312 comments

“Green co-leader Metiria Turei described it as one of the most important Green policies in her 15 years in Parliament.”

Welfare is making Kiwis lazy and unemployable

Written By: - Date published: 8:26 am, April 2nd, 2017 - 166 comments

This old chestnut is getting another outing on Stuff today.

Spinning ‘social investment’

Written By: - Date published: 8:32 am, January 14th, 2017 - 54 comments

Bill English has co-opted the old term “social investment” to replace another old term “targeted welfare”. Simon Wilson (writing at The Spinoff) has bought into the spin and written a deeply confused piece about it.

Briefing Papers: And so this is Christmas…

Written By: - Date published: 6:10 am, December 23rd, 2016 - 107 comments

Alicia Sudden reflects on Christmas at The Briefing Papers: “Yet this brief annual window excludes the elephant in the room: that this poverty is a consequence of our welfare system failing to provide the support it was intended to.”

Generous welfare makes people more likely to want to work

Written By: - Date published: 7:36 am, April 2nd, 2015 - 49 comments

Evidence on levels of welfare and willingness to work suggests that yet another nasty right-wing myth is wrong. Reality and its well known liberal bias strikes again.

Three more years

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, September 21st, 2014 - 141 comments

This election result is not the end of the world for me – because I am very, very lucky.

Welfare is not a pissing contest

Written By: - Date published: 10:37 am, March 3rd, 2013 - 154 comments

Why must we turn welfare, an important safety net and part of the social fabric / contract of our country, into a stupid pissing match about a minister’s “reputation”?

Pushed off the safety net

Written By: - Date published: 8:19 am, January 21st, 2013 - 76 comments

News from Australia reports an increase in numbers turning to sex work following cuts to welfare benefits. Here in NZ as a similar cost-saving measure we have benefit purges underway – at a time of rising unemployment…

We are all beneficiaries

Written By: - Date published: 9:04 am, August 23rd, 2012 - 85 comments

Deborah Russell’s piece in the Dominion Post sets out some constructive thoughts on welfare.

The Pernicious Food Card

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 pm, August 16th, 2011 - 72 comments

Or how the food card will inevitably push beneficiaries  into all types of deeper strife.

The cartoon (since it doesn’t show up clearly and you might be wondering) is a lifebelt being thrown in the “Welfare” cell and a book titled “Learn to swim” being thrown in the second “Welfare Reform” cell.

Centre for Inaccurate Studies

Written By: - Date published: 9:35 am, April 2nd, 2009 - 35 comments

The CIS released a report [PDF link] today entitled Ending No. 8 Wire Welfare: Why New Zealand is Lagging Behind. Its author is Luke Malpass. Predictably, from the right-wing think tank, the paper is an ideologically driven argument for a more punitive welfare system. As is so often the case, it’s premised on the tired […]

Cartoon: Attacking the poor

Written By: - Date published: 10:45 am, August 12th, 2008 - 21 comments

The Child Poverty Action Group thinks that National’s welfare policy is likely to hurt vulnerable children.

Gordon Campbell on Nats’ welfare plan

Written By: - Date published: 10:36 am, August 12th, 2008 - 15 comments

Dog whistle politics to some, beneficiary bashing to others. But is there logic to National’s policy on benefits? Gordon Campbell asks: Will John Key’s policy announcement on welfare this afternoon do much to resolve the problems it claims to address? Hardly… It is as if National felt the need to beat up on beneficiaries somehow, and somewhere […]