Posts by Rosemary McDonald
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Polity: Decrypting “social investment”, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
but they need to be pointing to all the times they have been this nation’s saving grace and not hiding their light under a bushel.
To borrow the metaphor du jour from National, it’s time for them to ‘capitalise’ on their past ‘social investments’ – and step up with solutions that address the causes and not the symptoms of the malaise – if not full blown illness – that grips our country.This is a call to arms, not alms….
They're not listening....
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@Rob Salmond
Oh, boy oh boy oh boy....
I just downloaded and read the first few pages of the Deloitte / NZIER report ...it reads like that wide-awake wet dream Uncle Bill "the Lizard" had back in 2010. The one I call the 'big hard lump of wasted human potential' manifesto.
He (Bill) skites how National hired 'hit-men'
to help inexperienced ministers from being out-manoeuvred by cunning chief executives defending their budgets.
They helped to cut $2 billion over four years for reallocation,
What gets him most excited is much bigger picture stuff, something called "the responsibility model".
As examples he cites work being done at Housing New Zealand and specifically at the Ministry of Social Development by the welfare working advisory group looking at the big driver of future costs: long-term invalids and sickness beneficiaries, a group he describes as "this big hard lump of long-term waste of human potential".
English says the MSD is not set up to deal with them.
Rather, it is set up to deal with "the easy stuff" - the unemployment and the domestic purposes benefits.
"They do the easy stuff and they do it very well, but they don't worry about these guys. If they were ACC customers, we would be spending a lot of money on trying to move them. They cost a bit less on sickness and invalids [benefits], not a hell of a lot less, but we do nothing and we are actually doing nothing to reduce this very large long-term liability."
He then gets down to the nitty gritty...
English says the process of examining the big cost-drivers is called the responsibility model because it throws the responsibility back.
"The traditional view of the public service is when things get tight, Treasury and the Minister of Finance are responsible. We are saying 'no it's you, you're the chief executive, you're responsible'."
Nothing, and I mean nothing that spews forth from the Beehive should come as a surprise to anyone.
It has all been said or writ...(as some here have been trying to point out for some time....they have always had a plan and it is now starting to come to fruition.)
So...what manifesto has Labour got Rob...what's the Plan?
The heads will start rolling soon...top brass bureaucrats will eventually balk at some of the proposed actions aimed at reducing those 'liabilities'....(I wonder who did leak that MSD housing report??)
If the Public Service fights back...is there a viable alternative to National?
Is Labour ready?
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Polity: Decrypting “social investment”, in reply to Marc C,
you will simply NOT deal with and address the social and economic and other problems this country has had for years, by trying yet more experimenting and stuff like we know.
Hmmm....I was speaking to a thin air breather from the Ministry Which Shall Remain Nameless the other day. (Well, the direct dial number was right there, in the happy clappy 'aren't- we -doing- oh- so -well -for -these- people' newsletter. ;-))
Anyways, I got a long and very sincere promise that 'we' are right now working on a program to address the problem of the 20% of disabled people whose needs are so high that regular services fail, (and families inevitably have to take up most or all of the slack.)
Breathless anticipatory pause... while I was supposed to collapse in gratitude that finally, finally a bureaucrat had seen the light and stuff will now get sorted.
Ingrate me, just had to pop bubble and ask, while you are all beavering away on this new Workstream, this new Strategy, new Action Plan...how do you think those disabled people are surviving from day to day? Now? In the Real World"
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Hard News: Crowded houses, in reply to Russell Brown,
like a policy fuckup of generational proportions.
Ditto, it seems, in Queenstown.
Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust 2016 renters' survey, in which 92 per cent of renters said housing affordability was a barrier to their long-term commitment to the area.
The full results were published yesterday.
Problems highlighted include crammed houses, bad insulation, cut-throat landlords and fierce competition for accommodation.
"We are living in a truck," one renter says. "We couldn't find anywhere to rent that would let you have pets and that we could afford. Winter is coming and I have 3-year-old twin boys."
Another says: "I am homeless at 65."
One employer says their staff are living in cars."Queenstown rental prices are out of control. I pay $610 a week for an uninsulated, single-glazed, wooden house which is FREEZING in winter."
...rent has increased by $160 a week in less than a year, adding: "We now pay $700 a week for a freezing cold house."
One business's human resource manager says: "I am nervous about offering employment to anyone who hasn't already secured accommodation in Queenstown."
Several people say they are moving from the resort.
"Can't afford it anymore," says a person who lived in the town for 15 years.
A 76-year-old says they've given up their home to the local council.
"I could not afford to buy another property in Queenstown."The less-than-rich at both ends of the age scale are being pushed out of town....
Hah! But according to the local real estate agents...the fact that,
Queenstown's seasonal population results in high rental demand and, with the creation of many new jobs over the past year, the rental shortage has reached a crisis.
...makes them
believe Queenstown has all the key factors for property investment.
Just wait until the rich pricks in both towns need some low wage worker to clean the shit off their toilets.....
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Hard News: Crowded houses, in reply to Marc C,
I tried playing that a few times,
http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/mnr/mnr-20160519-0715-more_views_on_the_akl_land_issues-00.ogg
?
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Hard News: Crowded houses, in reply to Marc C,
While the discussion goes on, it is my impression that nobody seems to have a sensible set of answers to address the housing situation.
Marc C...did you catch this on Natrad this am?
Around about 4.35 onwards....fella starts speaking about Wellington having to step up and deal to the speculators and the 'duopoly on building supplies'...then ....dead silence. The wee minion in the bowels of the Beehive who pushes the kill button for Natrad was at it again.
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Hard News: Crowded houses, in reply to Angela Hart,
may I say the thought of headless politicians is at times extremely appealing
I'll bring my knitting.
We can sit there, like a couple of old crones.....cackling away...
http://www.ferdyonfilms.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/tspimpernel011-e1354496778337.jpg
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Cracker: Breaking the Silence, in reply to Sacha,
It has long suited governments to pretend homogeneity
Yeah, yeah. I know I'm enabling. But such people are so sincere, so absolutely convinced they're doing the right thing.
Forgive them...
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Cracker: Breaking the Silence, in reply to Marc C,
The medical and social science had to make way for the actuarial approach,
Well, second time in a week I've heard that.
The first time was from a (paid by the government) disability advocate, quelling discussion about adverse effects on disabled people of government policy and legislation.
I was a tad confused at the time Marc C...thanks for untangling that. ;-)
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Stacey Kirk calls for a Ministerial Inquiry into the torture and murder of Moko Rangitoheriri.
It was not just the two people who beat, tortured and eventually killed three-year-old Moko Rangitoheriri who knew the little boy was at risk. There were others.
Tania Shailer and David Haerewa committed unimaginably sadistic violence against a toddler. Some of the others who failed him are good people.
They're all complicit in Moko's death.
The little girl who felt so responsible for the plight of her brother spoke up, despite one of their carers (now killer) Tania Shailer – a friend of the children's mother – telling her she'd kill her parents if she said anything.
This public culture of not intervening is beyond disgraceful, so here's the list of people and organisations that we know knew something – there are likely more:
The Maori Women's Refuge social worker: she followed up the seven-year-old's claim by ringing Shailer. Shailer lied and blamed Moko's sister. She said she feared for Moko's safety once he was back in the hands of his mother.
The refuge was aware Shailer herself had escaped from a violent relationship with Haerewa and had returned to that relationship after Haerewa was let out of prison.
The same social worker was there when Shailer went in to CYF to say the children were at risk of being exposed to domestic violence.
Shailer told CYF she wasn't coping with Moko, 11 days before his death. CYF denies being told Moko was being hurt.
Shailer told a friend Moko had fallen from a woodpile, when his situation was becoming dire. The friend was concerned, but never spoke up when Shailer declined her offer to drive them to the hospital.
At no point did anyone go to see Moko.
Frances Kerr updates her original piece, and includes the fact that Dr Ang Jury, CEO of Women's Refuge
...disputed details of what they were told.
"We had not heard any direct allegation from a child on our programme that an adult had physically hurt Moko or any other children. Had this in fact occurred I am sure the response would have been very different."
Now, this still stinks.
I emailed Frances Kerr the other night, confused as to why a manager of a regional Women's Refuge would say one thing, and the CEO of the National organisation would say that was untrue.
Frances's response was that they stood by their article.
She also strongly exhorted me to continue to support Women's Refuge, stating quite rightly that for years volunteers have saved many women and children from domestic violence.
Which I will, once the truth emerges.
This is what "sorry" looks like.
A respected national advocacy group, now corporatised by government funding, behaves just like an abuser...
Dismisses. Dissembles. Denies.