Paula Bennett Archive

  • Holly Walker

    A nation divided? - by Holly Walker



    The Herald has launched a six part series highlighting inequality and poverty in New Zealand, showing why we need action on the root causes, not the consequences. read more
    February 7, 2012 1:37 pm - 38 Comments
  • Holly Walker

    Govt asking the wrong questions on child abuse - by Holly Walker



    The Green Paper for Vulnerable Children should be focused on how to address the root causes of child abuse and neglect – poverty and inequality. read more
    January 26, 2012 11:29 am - 60 Comments
  • frog

    John Key’s new Cabinet announced - by frog



    Prime Minister John Key announced his new Cabinet this morning. The line-up is pretty predictable, but some of the portfolio allocations and rankings are interesting: The big winners are Steven Joyce and Hekia Parata, moving up 10 and 13 places respectively in the Cabinet ranking. Parata replaces Anne Tolley as Minister of Education. Paula Bennett’s [...] read more
    December 12, 2011 1:02 pm - 10 Comments
  • Catherine Delahunty

    National’s war on the poor - by Catherine Delahunty



    This afternoon John Key and Paula Bennett announced the National Party’s long-heralded welfare reform package.  As I expected, it is a punitive war on the poor that will harass beneficiaries into low paid jobs, or in many cases off benefit and into no job at all because the jobs simply don’t exist.  Metiria says National is backing [...] read more
    November 1, 2011 5:34 pm - 75 Comments
  • Catherine Delahunty

    The Minister of Evasive Answers - by Catherine Delahunty



    Parliamentary questions are meant to be one of the ways in which the Government and its Ministers are kept accountable to Parliament, and through those of us who are privileged to serve as its Members, to the people of New Zealand. So I am pretty disappointed when I get replies like these to written Parliamentary [...] read more
    October 7, 2011 9:37 am - 4 Comments
  • Metiria Turei

    Childcare changes typical of Govt’s anti-child approach - by Metiria Turei



    Social Development Minister Paula Bennett has realised that if you’re going to work-test sole parents and force them into low-paid jobs when their children are six (or younger), someone’s going to have to look after the kids. read more
    October 3, 2011 4:39 pm - 6 Comments
  • Metiria Turei

    An afternoon at the $8.95 Welfare Forum - by Metiria Turei



    Yesterday, I went along to the $8.95 Welfare Forum organised by the Alternative Welfare Working Group.  I was pleased to see around 100 people turn out – twice the number I’ve been told were at the $895 Welfare Conference opened by Paula Bennett yesterday. Minister Bennett was, as I expected, a no-show at the $8.95 [...] read more
    June 21, 2011 2:20 pm - 15 Comments
  • Catherine Delahunty

    Paula Bennett: Celebrating social policy failure while refusing to answer questions on Christchurch - by Catherine Delahunty



    Yesterday, the Minister of Social Development and Employment issued this bizarre media release: Recently released figures show that Work and Income are helping more people in need says Social Development Minister Paula Bennett. “Special Needs Grants for hardship have increased by over 50 per cent since March 2008,” says Ms Bennett. “So yes, that does [...] read more
    April 8, 2011 12:02 pm - 7 Comments
  • Metiria Turei

    The Welfare Working Group and the back to the future work-for-dole fallacy - by Metiria Turei



    Here’s some more information to support my argument that the Welfare Working Group’s recommendations (PDF) are driven by far right ideology rather by evidence. At page 23 of its report, the Welfare Working Group recommends: …a credible work for welfare scheme be established, in order to test the willingness of a small group of recipients [...] read more
    March 18, 2011 8:54 am - 63 Comments
  • frog

    Paula Bennett on Welfare Working Group: Nothing is ruled out - by frog



    Metiria Turei questioned Paul Bennett today on whether she will rule out some of the most extreme and punitive recommendations of the Welfare Working Group. Bennett rules nothing out. We really do have a mean and uncaring Government that seems intent on further victimising those who are already victims of the Government’s own failed economic and social policies. read more
    March 15, 2011 5:43 pm - 15 Comments
  • Metiria Turei

    The Welfare Working Group and faith-based job creation - by Metiria Turei



    Buried at page 53 of the Welfare Working Group’s report is this extraordinary statement: “…the total number of jobs will expand to equal the number of people who are available and actively seeking work.” read more
    March 10, 2011 11:05 am - 134 Comments
  • frog

    Gordon Campbell debunks right wing welfare myths - by frog



    Gordon Campbell has a great piece in this month’s Werewolf debunking some of the myths about welfare trotted out by the beneficiary bashers. Here are a few of the highlights: read more
    February 16, 2011 9:02 am - 97 Comments
  • Catherine Delahunty

    Nats’ work-first welfare all stick and no carrot - by Catherine Delahunty



    Last week I got quite a response to my post on crime and access to welfare, so I thought I would write a little more about why many beneficiaries can’t get ahead financially without breaking the law, however hard they may try. I’ve had a look at what happens to a single sickness beneficiary aged [...] read more
    February 9, 2011 2:46 pm - 27 Comments
  • Catherine Delahunty

    Crime and access to welfare - by Catherine Delahunty



    Paula Bennett is horrified that people claim to have committed crimes because of poverty and difficulties accessing welfare. She claims welfare is accessible for those in need and is enough to live on. Newsflash Paula: There’s a huge black-market out there of people struggling to survive on low wages and benefits who do all kinds of things to supplement an inadequate income. read more
    February 4, 2011 12:55 pm - 57 Comments
  • Catherine Delahunty

    Happy Christmas Minister; what about child poverty? - by Catherine Delahunty



    It seems Paula Bennett has been reading my Christmas message. She asked me to sing some of it in the House yesterday. However I wasn’t in the House for the purpose of entertaining the Minister. I wanted to know if she was prepared to meet with the Alternative Welfare Working Group, whose report was launched yesterday. read more
    December 10, 2010 9:20 am - 23 Comments
  • Catherine Delahunty

    Welfare Working Group: Submit, submit, submit - by Catherine Delahunty



    It’s great to see the lively discussion continuing on my post last week about the future directions of welfare policy. There is a view being circulated by some that the Government’s Welfare Working Group’s Options Paper doesn’t deserve much attention; that it follows the Brash 2025 Taskforce formula of misrepresenting the issue as some massive [...] read more
    December 1, 2010 4:28 pm - 122 Comments
  • Kevin Hague

    More questions than answers over ACC cost shifting - by Kevin Hague



    A couple of months ago, following ACC Minister Nick Smith’s u-turn on counselling for ACC sexual abuse claimants, I called for an independent review of the wide-ranging cutbacks to ACC imposed by the Government. I have now asked some questions about people being moved from ACC to welfare benefits. What really disturbed me about the replies is the huge increase in the number of people being shifted from weekly compensation onto welfare benefits since March 2009. read more
    October 6, 2010 4:39 pm - 8 Comments
  • frog

    More jobseekers + no more jobs = lower wages - by frog



    New Zealand’s labour force grew by around 43,000 yesterday. That is the approximate number of single parents receiving domestic purposes benefit whose youngest child is aged six or over.  As of yesterday, they all became part of the labour force; not necessarily because they all want to obtain paid employment but because Work and Income [...] read more
    September 28, 2010 1:31 pm - 76 Comments
  • frog

    National’s Plan B: Strip-mine the poor - by frog



    A printed copy of an email from Paula Bennett turned up at my lilypad very early this morning. Or was it just a nightmare? National’s Plan B – having failed in their objective to strip-mine the land: Strip-mine the poor. Bad for forcing down wage rates; bad for low-income employment churn, especially given the Fire at Will extension; bad for productivity; so ultimately bad for business too. Just plain dumb! read more
    August 10, 2010 7:42 pm - 32 Comments
  • Metiria Turei

    Beneficiary-bashing Bill back in Parliament, and worse than ever - by Metiria Turei



    Paula Bennett’s draconian Social Assistance (Future Focus) Bill has been reported back to Parliament by the Social Services Select Committee.  Despite overwhelming opposition to the Bill by submitters, the National Party used its majority on the Select Committee to report it back largely unchanged. They even decided to recommend a harsher reduction of benefit regime for [...] read more
    July 31, 2010 5:11 pm - 85 Comments
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