TL;DR: The Government has shocked Aotearoa’s disabled communities by abruptly stopping spending on what it deems as non-essential items for the last three months of the fiscal year. Ministers are scrambling to cut spending to fill a multi-billion dollar hole in the coalition’s tax-cutting plans before the Budget on May 30.
“It's come as an absolute shock…just to have a shower and just to have a sleep is all that we really want and that is meaningful to us we now can no longer do, it's not acceptable and it's not okay.” Sam Whitworth, the mother of disabled children, after being told she can’t be funded for a respite care night off in a motel any more.
Meanwhile, the Police Association has warned the Government that a hiring freeze on ‘back-office’ staff was already causing backlogs and delays as front-line staff were pulled off the street to do back-office work. The Government’s argument that it was only cutting back-office costs, while also adding 500 frontline officers, was like “robbing Peter to pay Paul,” said Police Association President Chris Cahill.
“Even if you get them, if it means that actually they’re just filling gaps because front-line staff are doing backroom jobs, then you’re not really getting those people on the front line.” Chris Cahill
Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy this morning:
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