Hone Harawira has had a go at the plans announced yesterday for the first stage of reform of the welfare system; the Herald reports:
Mana Party leader Hone Harawira has accused the Government of "beneficiary bashing'' for its sweeping changes to the welfare system.
Under the reforms, teenagers who have dropped out of school, work or training will be able to earn an extra $30 a week from the Government for going back to class or taking budgeting courses; and solo mums who find work before they are work-tested will be able to keep their benefit for longer.
Mr Harawira told Radio New Zealand's Morning Report this morning that the Government was trying to force people off the benefit when there were no jobs for them.
"I'm not saying there shouldn't be serious focus on training and skills, what I'm saying is stop just whacking people and actually lay down the training programmes; stop just hitting the unemployed and create jobs; stop hitting solo mums and create and environment where young mothers are keen to go to work and have the money to pay for their children to go to descent facilities.
"I just don't think it's going to work at all except to take money from beneficiaries and to put money back into the hands of government so that they can give it to their rich mates.
It was entirely predictable that a politician would trot out the "beneficiary bashing" line, and just as predictable that said politican would be Hone Harawira. After all, beneficiaries are part of the target market of the Mana Party.
But Harawira's grandstanding has been quickly dismissed by Social Development Minister Paula Bennett; read on:
Social Development Minister Paula Bennett said Harawira's comments were "a load of nonsense''.
"If anyone's beneficiary bashing I would say that it would be him if he thinks that all people are worth is a lifetime on benefit and perhaps that the government can manufacture some job to make people feel worthwhile, which is really quite belittling for people who are trying to do their best and need government support.
"This package is about upskilling those people, getting them the right training and I just love that it's got that incentive element to it so ... instead of being punitive and sanctioning, we're actually saying they can get up to $30 a week extra and I think that is really rewarding and what is needed.''
Ms Bennett said if people could legitimately not find work then the state would not cut cut their benefit.
Ms Bennett's prompt and dismissive response to Hone Harawira is both welcome and factual, unlike Harawira's rant. Significant reform of the welfare system was well signalled before the 2011 election, and as Tracy Watkins notes in this morning's Dom-Post "But unlike the SOE selloffs, the welfare reforms are likely to be more popular than not.".
We concur with Tracy Watkins. There has been little of the hysterical shrieking from the usual suspects this morning because rather than tinkering around the margins or reducing benefit rates, what the Key-led Government is promoting is a significant overhaul of the welfare system over several phases. Welfare dependance is a huge social ill, and most people seem to accept that substantive reform is required. As Tracy Watkins notes:
But if anyone still thinks National is still Labour-lite, they must have been in a cave for the past few months.
National's tiptoe through ideological minefields in its first term has been overtaken by a sense of urgency in its second.
Beneath the populist moves designed to shift young parents off the benefit and into work, and the undoubted attractions of putting an older person in charge of a young person's benefit so it is no longer spent on booze and tobacco, there are more fundamental changes in contracting out more services to the private sector.
The next round of public sector reforms, due to be announced by Prime Minister John Key next month, will probably mirror that approach, which will accompany massive and fundamental change.
It may have taken this Government's change programme a while but all of a sudden it is picking up the momentum of a rolling stone.
The National Party campaigned on change last year, and received enough support to be able to form a government, the only measure of electoral success under MMP. That the Key-led Government is now delivering on its promises is heartening. That the shrieking of the likes of Hone Harawira is being quickly dismissed is even moreso.