Friday, March 21, 2014

Greens and the religion of non-judgmentalism

According to Green MP Jan Logie:

"... the government has continued to characterise people requiring income support as work shy, drug taking, criminals who don’t care for their children, and have been happy to misrepresent the financial situation of people who have publically challenged their decisions."
I disagree. Frequently Ministers say things like...

Chester Borrows:
 The overwhelming majority of people receiving welfare assistance do the right thing and follow the rules. Unfortunately, a tiny few see our welfare system as a target.

Paula Bennett:

  I know that most beneficiary parents are acting in the best interest of their children...

Yet, barring the anecdotal evidence, it is statistically true that not all beneficiaries want to work (a small telephone survey conducted in 2005 by MSD  showed that 61 percent of DPB recipients were "very" or "fairly" interested in looking for work, 36 percent freely admitted they were not interested.)

The incidence of drug and alcohol abuse is higher amongst beneficiaries (Ministry of Health research)

And beneficiaries cycle in and out of prison at a much higher rate than non-beneficiaries.

But the Greens do not believe in freedom of speech when it contravenes their religion of non-judgmentalism. Nobody can talk about real problems and possible solutions  lest it offends some other group or individual.

1 comment:

kjx said...
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