PM says the nation is fragile and its finances are in a mess, which justifies 'tough decisions' to cut the benefits of 'free riders'. Really? The grown-ups of global finance think the exact opposite
Does this brief from The Guardian yesterday sound boringly similar? -
Economy | Rishi Sunak has been warned against a fresh austerity drive after official figures confirmed Britain’s economy is in recession. With the government scrambling to restore economic credibility, Jeremy Hunt is considering a controversial squeeze on public spending to finance pre-election tax cuts.
Luxon says we're fragile, lazy, wet, whinny, and inward looking, yet goes on to say this is the greatest country in the world, not because of it's mountains and beaches and but because of its (fragile, lazy, whinny, and inward looking) people?
Hearing that gives my brain the same sensation as drinking a smoothie too quickly...
Sanctions enforcing people into jobs has some really nasty consequences at times. The employers that take on many of these beneficiaries can be extremely cruel as they know the person cannot just resign because they will not be able to go straight back on the benefit
I worked in a job supporting people who had gone from a benefit to work One person was placed in work over summer on a contract to do 30 hours a week as he had a small child in his care what actually happened was he was expected to turn up at 8 am and work until all the work was done, even if it was until midnight and then started 8 o’clock again the next morning he was left in a dreadful position because he needed to look after his child, but told he was not allowed to leave until the work was done even though it exceeded his contract hours fortunately for him he was able to go and find another job with a treat at him decently
This was not the only predatory employer that I came across when supporting these people
Another case was a man who did outside work 12 hours. Day six days a week. He sat down and fell asleep on one whose breaks, his supervisor took a photograph of him and got him suspended, rather than wake him up and check that he wasn’t dehydrated or suffering from heatstroke.
The Man contacted me for help after he had not heard from the company for five days and had run out of money because they had not paid him
I helped him understand how unreasonably he had been treated and offered to go with him as a support person he took his sister
The result was that they paid him for the days of his suspension, and reinstated him fully in his job
Without support people around him, he would have lost his job for just being tired
The minister doesn’t care it doesn’t fit with her ideological view of the world. They take no interest in the statistics put before them.
The current announcements are a dog whistle to their supporters. They are not interested in realistic results because they are not using real facts to come to these decisions.
As was pointed out in a recent Chris Trotter (from memory) column, a recent poll indicated ~3/4 of National Party members "don't know *anyone* on a benefit"... Given the fragility [sic] of statistical justification, I'm actually not completely against weighing policies against 'principles' (i.e. I'm no centrist!). However, if one finds themselves basing austere principles on how good the 'vibes' are in a room full people just like you, it might be worth asking oneself whether that basically amounts to sadism?
Please open this one up to anyone who might listen, Bernard! If the non-facts supposedly underpinning irrational policy decisions are accepted, it’s presumably because they are repeated often and loudly. Let’s start doing some counter-insisting, on facts, stats and lines of reasoning that are sound and pertinent, and would form the basis for humane and effective policy, starting with the compact and cogent bunch you’ve given us here!
It’s clear we’re in for 3 years and no doubt more of punitive nastiness while those well off are benefited. Shameful. Truth and data will be cast aside while things are cherry picked through. Where’s our alternative? Labour needs time to rebuild but now one of their most competent, Grant Robertson, is off to Otago Uni. Fair enough. We’ve got this because Labour screwed up. It’s going to be a tough few years. ☹️
Great piece of real analysis backed with genuine and reasoned data, Bernard. I can't help but think that Christopher Luxon is not the sharpest knife in the draw, and that he's surrounded by similarly blunt instruments. Honestly, if people are not suffering anguish now, or are on the cusp of tipping into a mental health event, then a lot of National's non-policies are sure to be the catalyst.
I'd love to see this piece opened up too, but I know it's not going to make a jot of difference to the decisions the government is making, nor to their supporters. Keep up the good work. This is the sort of conversation we won't find in the mainstream media.
Please open this to the public. Also, often the support of bash the Jobseeker and not those on Super has elements of racism that is embraced by many of the older conservative voters.
Open it up Bernard! I find this use of the aggregate number of 70k a little misleading, sure is it higher than 2018, but as a % of NZ population over time it is not that much more.
Does this brief from The Guardian yesterday sound boringly similar? -
Economy | Rishi Sunak has been warned against a fresh austerity drive after official figures confirmed Britain’s economy is in recession. With the government scrambling to restore economic credibility, Jeremy Hunt is considering a controversial squeeze on public spending to finance pre-election tax cuts.
Why does this Government continue to ignore the Grown Ups...? (rhetorical question)
Luxon says we're fragile, lazy, wet, whinny, and inward looking, yet goes on to say this is the greatest country in the world, not because of it's mountains and beaches and but because of its (fragile, lazy, whinny, and inward looking) people?
Hearing that gives my brain the same sensation as drinking a smoothie too quickly...
* The Greatest Country in the world [in spite of] the fragile, lazy, wet, whinny, inward looking people... 🙄 🤬
Everything he says makes my blood boil.
"Evidence" based policy, you love to see it. National being rational as always 🙄
Would be great to open this up for public consumption.
Sanctions enforcing people into jobs has some really nasty consequences at times. The employers that take on many of these beneficiaries can be extremely cruel as they know the person cannot just resign because they will not be able to go straight back on the benefit
I worked in a job supporting people who had gone from a benefit to work One person was placed in work over summer on a contract to do 30 hours a week as he had a small child in his care what actually happened was he was expected to turn up at 8 am and work until all the work was done, even if it was until midnight and then started 8 o’clock again the next morning he was left in a dreadful position because he needed to look after his child, but told he was not allowed to leave until the work was done even though it exceeded his contract hours fortunately for him he was able to go and find another job with a treat at him decently
This was not the only predatory employer that I came across when supporting these people
Another case was a man who did outside work 12 hours. Day six days a week. He sat down and fell asleep on one whose breaks, his supervisor took a photograph of him and got him suspended, rather than wake him up and check that he wasn’t dehydrated or suffering from heatstroke.
The Man contacted me for help after he had not heard from the company for five days and had run out of money because they had not paid him
I helped him understand how unreasonably he had been treated and offered to go with him as a support person he took his sister
The result was that they paid him for the days of his suspension, and reinstated him fully in his job
Without support people around him, he would have lost his job for just being tired
Send it to the Minister. One each day, for as long as possible.
The minister doesn’t care it doesn’t fit with her ideological view of the world. They take no interest in the statistics put before them.
The current announcements are a dog whistle to their supporters. They are not interested in realistic results because they are not using real facts to come to these decisions.
I fear the the only "policy" that this government is basing their decisions on is: just how mean can we be?
Standard playground bully tactics
Open up please
Excellent as always. Thanks Bernard - this analysis is too important to leave behind a paywall. Please open up.
As was pointed out in a recent Chris Trotter (from memory) column, a recent poll indicated ~3/4 of National Party members "don't know *anyone* on a benefit"... Given the fragility [sic] of statistical justification, I'm actually not completely against weighing policies against 'principles' (i.e. I'm no centrist!). However, if one finds themselves basing austere principles on how good the 'vibes' are in a room full people just like you, it might be worth asking oneself whether that basically amounts to sadism?
They never think of the NZ Super or Working For Families as a benefit. That's why they don't know anyone on a benefit.
Please open this one up to anyone who might listen, Bernard! If the non-facts supposedly underpinning irrational policy decisions are accepted, it’s presumably because they are repeated often and loudly. Let’s start doing some counter-insisting, on facts, stats and lines of reasoning that are sound and pertinent, and would form the basis for humane and effective policy, starting with the compact and cogent bunch you’ve given us here!
It’s clear we’re in for 3 years and no doubt more of punitive nastiness while those well off are benefited. Shameful. Truth and data will be cast aside while things are cherry picked through. Where’s our alternative? Labour needs time to rebuild but now one of their most competent, Grant Robertson, is off to Otago Uni. Fair enough. We’ve got this because Labour screwed up. It’s going to be a tough few years. ☹️
Great piece of real analysis backed with genuine and reasoned data, Bernard. I can't help but think that Christopher Luxon is not the sharpest knife in the draw, and that he's surrounded by similarly blunt instruments. Honestly, if people are not suffering anguish now, or are on the cusp of tipping into a mental health event, then a lot of National's non-policies are sure to be the catalyst.
I'd love to see this piece opened up too, but I know it's not going to make a jot of difference to the decisions the government is making, nor to their supporters. Keep up the good work. This is the sort of conversation we won't find in the mainstream media.
Thanks. I’ve opened it up now.
Bad decisions by a dishonest government based on poor research. It’s worth getting this one out there for everyone to read.
Thanks Mark. Have done now
Please open this to the public. Also, often the support of bash the Jobseeker and not those on Super has elements of racism that is embraced by many of the older conservative voters.
Open it up Bernard! I find this use of the aggregate number of 70k a little misleading, sure is it higher than 2018, but as a % of NZ population over time it is not that much more.