"I am sick to death of the financial defense. We have a government ... well within its surplus. And we have families living hand-to-mouth, or on the streets.

We have people who are constantly afraid of spending money to support themselves, who don’t take work they’d love to do because it would make them worse off financially, who don’t enter into relationships that would make them happy and fulfilled."

#nzpolitics #welfare #writehanded

http://writehanded.org/blog/2019/05/16/the-weag-report-what-was-the-point/

"No matter where you stand on welfare, we’re supposed to live in a democracy. We’re supposed to live in a place where our personal lives don’t become a political socket wrench to the knees. There is no defense for this.
...
That is a gross abuse of power and we must not stand for it."

#nzpolitics #secretpolice #privacy #writehanded

http://writehanded.org/blog/2019/05/16/the-weag-report-what-was-the-point/

"WINZ’s goal should be to support people to live their best life, not to focus militantly on getting people off the benefit. For many of us, that will probably never be possible. For many of us, some form of support will always be needed. For many of us, the heavy shove towards working – no matter whether the work is suitable and healthy – will only push us in the other direction."

#nzpolitics #welfare #writehanded

http://writehanded.org/blog/2019/05/16/the-weag-report-what-was-the-point/