Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Beat-ups and over-reactions

Firstly, Labour and the Greens are bleating about public service staff cuts under National but the biggest cut was under way under the last administration. A five percent reduction from the Ministry of Social Development was detailed in the Briefing to the Incoming Minister

Implementing the Value for Money initiatives
Implementing the savings initiatives will be challenging, and it will involve, among other things, reducing the number of staff we employ by upwards of 5 per cent over the next four years. We will need to dedicate significant resources, leadership and capability to ensure projects are successfully completed and the gains are fully realised


Secondly the letter from WINZ (under Labour the use of the term 'WINZ' was banished but Annette King seems happy to use it) does not instruct a beneficiary to go to a loan shark. It is a reiteration of what a client told their case manager they could do to improve their situation.

Paula Bennett's reaction to this letter in parliament yesterday was ... interesting. She visibly winced, acquiesced and then told the opposition that she did not expect to be agreeing with them so soon into her term as Minister. She should simply have said she would look into the matter.

Poor old MSD. What they have to put up with. And if all the political posturing isn't enough have a look here. This guy has really got it in for them. Really.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

There's been plenty of times I've been cash-strapped and have reverted to selling toys, cellphones, clothes, etc. I don't see what the fuss is about, but I suppose the taxpayer is expected to pay for all those playstations, cellphones and cruddy toys as well. Paula Bennett needs to toughen up during question time, the opposition were laughing, she should make her answers more concise, and refrain from agrreeing with Labour so much.