LINDSAY MITCHELL: Oh, the irony
- Administrator
- Dec 7, 2023
- 2 min read
Appointed by new Labour PM Jacinda Ardern in 2018, Cindy Kiro headed the Welfare Expert Advisory Group (WEAG) tasked with reviewing and recommending reforms to the welfare system. Kiro had been Children's Commissioner during Helen Clark's Labour government but returned to academia subsequently.
In 2019 the WEAG reported back with 42 recommendations including:
Recommendation 11: Remove some obligations and sanctions (for example, pre-benefit activities, warrants to arrest sanctions, social obligations, drug-testing sanctions, 52-week reapplication requirements, sanctions for not naming the other parent, the subsequent child work obligation, and the mandatory work ability assessment for people with health conditions or disabilities).
Most of these recommendations were adopted. For example single mothers no longer have to name the fathers of their children and if she has another baby while on a benefit there is no reset of her work obligations.
Yesterday, as Governor General, Dame Cindy Kiro delivered the Speech from the Throne on behalf of the new National - ACT - NZ First government. She said:
“Having 11 per cent, or one in nine New Zealanders of working age on a main benefit, means too many people are dependent on the effort of their fellow citizens instead of being self-supporting."
According to the NZ Herald, the Speech also, "... promised the reintroduction of benefit sanctions..."
With her 2019 recommendations Kiro was instrumental in creating the conditions for the number of beneficiaries to increase.
In March 2018, when she began her welfare investigation, there were 273,387 beneficiaries. Now there are 367,152. What sat at 9.3 percent of working-age New Zealanders has risen to 11.5 percent; most worryingly 168,276 children in benefit-dependent families grew to 216,648.
What a rich irony to hear the architect of such ill-advised reforms forced to describe their result, and advise their removal. One wonders if Ardern had considered this possibility when she appointed Cindy Kiro Governor General in 2021? It is doubtful. Foresight was never her strong point.
Dame Cindy Kiro will remain Governor General until 2026. But she has always been a friend and ally of left-wing governments. Perhaps she deserves kudos for professionally delivering a speech which must have personally rankled. At least she did it with dignity and grace. A lesson there-in for opposition MPs who have showed very little over the past two days.
Lindsay Mitchell blogs here
Well worth a read if you missed this article (another testament to Labour's woke ideology and the incompetence of their appointees):
LINDSAY MITCHELL: On the 50th anniversary of the DPB
The Domestic Purposes Benefit has been variously described as a “disaster” (David McLoughlin 1995), an “economic lifeline” (Jane Kelsey 1995) and “an unfortunate experiment” (Muriel Newman 2009).
Its effect on family formation can never be definitively ascertained. But the growth of the sole parent family dependent on welfare has correlated with more poverty, more child abuse and more domestic violence. Each of these was intended to be reduced by the introduction of the DPB.
https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/lindsay-mitchell-on-the-50th-anniversary-of-the-dpb
The best pay cheque she has ever had will be factor.
If she understood ethics and had morals, she would resign.
Lets start dusting off our Constitution and putting it to good use. Using Article 1 of the 1688 Bill Rights appears to be just the ticket.
"No dispensing power
That the pretended power of suspending of laws, or the execution of laws, by regal authority, without consent of Parliament, is illegal:
'Regal authority' is what the executive holds through the Governor General and what the cabinet and the public 'service' suck at the teat of.
I had it in mind for Mahuta's blatant sign up to the WHO Treaty but this sounds just as good.
If you want to see the full range of Imperial law that we have inherited for take a look at the Imperial Laws Application Act…
In response to Peter Williams bombshell today, The underhanded actions, before, after election and during coaltion negotiations cannot possibly be legal. How is it that these fractions think they can behave in this way and get away with it. Sorry but this is no longer the Adern totalitarian administration We have new governing parties. How can anyone sign the government up to anything when they are no longer the government? This bs has got to stop and I say Sack them all !! , and all the bloody bureaucrats writing policies for the wrong reasons. Labour changes legislations to suit themselves so change something and then sack these little underhanded s**ts and give them the bills to pay a…