Friday, December 16, 2011

Poverty committee and more on work-testing sole parents

I am heartened. Audrey Young writes about how Finance Minister Bill English views the role of the new poverty committee, a concession to the Maori Party:

Asked what measure the committee would adopt for poverty, Mr English said measuring poverty was not a big issue.

"We are not looking at the possibility of large-scale cash injections that are going to move whole groups of people over some measure. That's not the recipe because we don't have the cash to do that."

He believed the public would not tolerate handing more money to low-income families and beneficiaries - or at least not until everything else had been tried.


Good for him.

That's what voters expect from a National government. The opposite of what Labour and the Greens would do. His statement is also a firm rejection of the Maori Party policy of giving the IWTC to beneficiary parents.

Earlier this week I questioned why National wasn't moving people off the DPB and onto the Unemployment Benefit when their youngest child turns 8 - as is the case in Australia. Yesterday the UK's Department of Work and Pensions released a report into how their new regime is working - moving lone parents onto the Jobseeker Allowance when the youngest child turns 7 - and it is fairly positive. A should at least make a submission pointing out this anomaly with the two countries NZ tends to policy-shadow the most.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not many comments Lindsay....
Might be time to allow a discussion instead of only letting people that agree with you and your cronies only....

Hamish said...

I'm sure the page views are enough to let her know we are interested.

Anonymous said...

What is the point unless there is lively discussion Hamish?Like i say :Why dont you all go to Lindsays place for a good old natter and a cuppa?

Anonymous said...

Voters expect every red cent handed out to bludgers to stop. Every last cent/

that's what Ruth would do; that's what Rodney would do; that's absolutely what needs to be done.

Just stop paying the money to bludgers. Use it to pay of NZ's massive debts, then once they are done, cut taxes.

Pay not a cent more in benefits to bludgers