“..On Monday night Campbell Live screened a segment comparing school lunches in two different parts of Auckland.
Many people, including, I believe, hardened journos, were saddened by what this revealed.
The current tragedy is that the changes being so enthusiastically promoted by Paula Bennett will only lead to even more children going without lunch – or dinner, or decent clothing – or even a home at all.
By using sanctions that cut people’s benefits by 50% or 100% for not following all sorts of new rules – the outcome will be that even more children will go without.
Many people on income support are in too vulnerable a position to speak up or protest -
- especially in the climate of fear generated by the Natasha Fuller case.
I believe that it is vital that those of us who care and who are in a position to take action do so.
These reforms in their totality are brutal and pointless -
- aimed simply at cutting beneficiary numbers as fast as possible -
- rather than taking any account (apart from the human costs) of what the taxpayer will have to pay downstream –
- see this recent calculation that current child poverty levels already cost us $10b a year…”
(cont..)
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