She's a bit of a heifer - But I think I love Paula Bennett

[SPman]

When a full third of our tax dollars goes out on benefits I say we have the right to "bene bash".
Not on the dole by chance are you?

Have been when the work evaporated...like 1991...when 50% of the tradesmen on the North Shore were on the dole..guys who hadn't been out of work for 20 yrs or more...so they could actually eat!
And where, pray tell, are all these jobs going to miraculously appear from, in the midst of a recession? John Keys cycleway? Gerry Brownlees gravel pit in a conservation area?

It seems that nothing really changes for the people who gain the most from this system.

And it never will, regardless of who's in charge, but, hey, never let facts get in the way of perceived realities - let's just tar everyone with the same brush dipped in the foulest crap we can find! The people who gain most are those who need a tide over when hard times hit until they can get back to normal life - which is the majority on various benefits. The abusers are people who will abuse anything offered or put in front of them - it's a mindset! When I was at my lowest, I was just "temporarily broke". They are "poor" and it's a mindset that seems to permeate through every aspect of their life - they have a loser/victim mentality and demand everything given to them...because they are poor disadvantaged souls.........yeah right - changing rules just means they will find a way around them, while those that can't work the system and genuinely need tiding over are the ones that get affected the most! People like that have always been and always will be around, and it takes more than brain dead, morally and intellectually bankrupt, previously tried and failed policies to get around the problem. If there is a solution to the problem, which there probably isn't!
Still, if it makes people feel good, to assert their perceived moral superiority over those at the bottom of the pile, then the current mob in power are certainly not averse to whipping it up! It just says a lot about those doing the stirring and those baying and frothing at their behest!

[pete376403]

Bennett herself having been a beneficiary, took all the incentive payments available so she could get qualifications and get a job. Now she is in charge of welfare, the educational incentives are among the cuts she has introduced. I guess it takes a special sort of cynic to be Minister of Social Welfare in a National government.

[Mudfart]

national party lovers, or muppets. Firstly there are only so many jobs out there. There will always be an unemployment line for as we saw in the "recession", the situations vacant in the papers shrunk- a lot. You can never have everyone employed unless you run a fascist totalitarialist? govt aka Adolf Hitler, and press everyone into the armed services.
Not a bad idea if you ask me! However you run the risk of being called a fascist.
The national party claims they promote small business startups- I notice I haven't seen fuck all of this since the election, so no new job positions are being created.
Secondly, there is about to be a huge boom in you losing your fulltime job, in favour of your boss deciding, "why do I pay this monkey to give him all his holidays, sick days, penal rates, when I can employ several monkeys, part time and take all those expensive perks away from them, and make all those smelly monkeys part timers?".
Put your money where your mouth is, go apply for a job in the new mines. Monkey boy.

[Mudfart]

lol i hope bennett has paid off her student loan, oh wait we paid it!
She owes me sex.

[Ixion]

Firstly there are only so many jobs out there. There will always be an unemployment line for as we saw in the "recession", the situations vacant in the papers shrunk- a lot. You can never have everyone employed unless you run a fascist totalitarialist? govt aka Adolf Hitler, and press everyone into the armed services.

Well, this country got damn close in the '50s. At one point there were I think 26 people unemloyed, and the Prime Minister Keith Holyoake knew the name of every one of them. Seriously.

A job for every person who wants one. *Then* you can crack down on the bludgers. Requires making full employment the priority instead of corporate profits. And going for a high wage economy not a low wage one. Won't happen. Too many vested interests in keeping unemployment high and wages low.

[Quasievil]

YAY to the National Government, a Government with Actual BALLS who is willing to approach the unsustainable issue

[davereid]

You can never have everyone employed unless you run a fascist totalitarialist? govt aka Adolf Hitler, and press everyone into the armed services.

Thats not really correct. From a pure economics point of view, we choose our level of unemployment.

The tools are the minimum wage, and border tariffs.

They are used to protect the incomes of our unskilled workers, who otherwise, would earn the world rate for their jobs.

Tariffs work by (effectively) taxing consumers who buy the product, to maintain the incomes of the workers in the industry that the tariff applies to.

So, you could tariff T-shirts at say $50. So while you can now buy a chinese T shirt for $10, it would if tariffed cost you $60. This would make it economic for a NZ manufacturer to make T-shirts, even though his raw labour cost is $12.50/hr + ACC, safe working conditions etc etc, when his chinese competitor pays $.50 with no minimum standards.

This breaches many free trade agreements, so has been dropped.

At a minimum wage of $12.50, the NZ tee shirt manufacturer is out of business. But on average (economists claim) that the tax you payn tp provide the dole as an alternative, is less than the cost of buying the T shirts at the tariffed rate.

You could fix it overnight, by dumping the minimum adult wage. Then, full employment, albeit at $5 an hour would result.

Is that the NZ we want ?

IMHO we need to find a compromise.

Their has to be a system to ensure that unskilled kiwis gain skills, or even if they don't, they don't end up on the world rate for unskilled workers.

But that system cant become a resting ground for the lazy or unmotivated, as it (at least in my experience) has become.

No easy solution here.

If it were up to me, Id have only one benefit, which expected work if you were capable. It would have no cash component, being an EFTPOS type card which managed expenditure, and didn't allow excessive grog/smokes/pokies.

And its rate would depend on how long you were in the workforce, and how long you ad been on welfare. So the long term employed, knocked over by a recession, would fare better than those who left school, expecting the DPB.

[pete376403]

You will recall that a previous national govt tried more or less this exact same thing when Shipley was minister of social welfare. Didn't do a damn thing then either.
Incidentally my daughter is on the DPB after being dumped by her loser partner. She lost track of the number of part time jobs she has applied for. About the only places hiring are brothels - I'd rather she didn't have to resort to that.

[mrchips]

Expectations of part-time work for single parents on the domestic purposes benefit when their child reaches six

Unfortunately it's just an incentive for those less motivated to have #2 before junior hits the big 6.

I'd like to see how the govt creates all this 'part-time work'

[Robert Taylor]

Bennett herself having been a beneficiary, took all the incentive payments available so she could get qualifications and get a job. Now she is in charge of welfare, the educational incentives are among the cuts she has introduced. I guess it takes a special sort of cynic to be Minister of Social Welfare in a National government.

Well, far better to have a National Government that is doing at least something to face the problem, albeit in a minor way. Rather than living the lie that Labour administrations are best at. ''Keep dishing out the benefits and theyll vote for us''

[pete376403]

Well, far better to have a National Government that is doing at least something to face the problem, albeit in a minor way. Rather than living the lie that Labour administrations are best at. ''Keep dishing out the benefits and theyll vote for us''

very good, how many part time workers do you plan on taking on?

[oldrider]

Incidentally my daughter is on the DPB after being dumped by her loser partner. She lost track of the number of part time jobs she has applied for. About the only places hiring are brothels - I'd rather she didn't have to resort to that.

That is exactly what the DPB was introduced for, at least it is working for her, it was bloody tough before DPB was here but they still managed, how I don't know!

Nobody minds paying tax to help the real needy but to make a career choice of the DPB is criminal abuse of the system! IMHO

Free simply means "someone else" is paying!

[Robert Taylor]

very good, how many part time workers do you plan on taking on?

We rescued a British national recently as his country is now an economic basket case due in part to 12 years of a spendthrift Labour administration. Hopefully Botchup Brown will be comprehensively annihilated in a Tory landslide in early May. We advertised the job description nationally and recieved no takers, and its a well paid position. Unlike many immigrants who were cynically selected on their political preferences our resident Pom will likely be far more predisposed to favouring the current Government.
Within the next 5 to 6 months we intend to take on a long term trainee.

[oldrider]

Mr Tank

Have you ever had the misfortune to have to apply for an unemployment benefit? (I'm guessing not, but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). If you believe that it is easy, or that the amount of money paid out enables one to live a life of comfortable indulgence, then you are plainly speaking out of your arse. I have been there and can tell you they're not handing out cash to anyone who walks in off the street.

These reforms will do SFA to get more people into work, they'll just add extra process and bureaucracy. And where this fucking useless government thinks the part-time work is that these bad bennies will be doing, I have no idea. Maybe the cycleway?

They will all be joining the public service as "inspectors" employed to police that the benifits are being administered correctly, it will be that big a job! IMHO

[pete376403]

That is exactly what the DPB was introduced for, at least it is working for her, it was bloody tough before DPB was here but they still managed, how I don't know!

Nobody minds paying tax to help the real needy but to make a career choice of the DPB is criminal abuse of the system! IMHO

Free simply means "someone else" is paying!

Quite right but few bennie-bashers are able to make the distinction. To them, anyone drawing any form of assistance is a welfare cheat, stealing money from the taxpayers. And the DPB does not pay particularly well, I think I subsidise my grandkids as much as the government does.