What I'd do if I was in Parliament - 3
Welfare reform is one of the top items of my agenda if I was in power in parliament. New Zealand is too much of a Nanny State and people have become too reliant on the government for far too long.
Don't get me wrong, I believe it has its place. however, I do also believe it has been used and abused for far too long and changes need to be made.
Step 1 - Confine Benefit Timelines
Establish maximum lengths of time for unemployment benefit being paid out to an individual to a maximum of three years. Conditions will include minimum length of employment, the return of stand-downs if you terminate employment where duress has not been a factor. Also taken into account will be length of service, rate of pay and hours worked. Of course there is more detail to work out, but that is the nuts and bolts of it.
Step 2 - Reduce Nanny State Spending
Establish controls on how the welfare dollar is spent by the recipients of it. For example, anyone on a benefit would have the money deposited into a bank account opened by the government agency for them. The EFTPoS card will have some restrictions on it. Firstly, there will be no cash withdrawals permitted either by ATM or EFTPoS machine. No alcohol or smokes can be purchased with them. (To facilitate this, depending on what changes are made to the availability of alcohol stores and where it is sold, further changes may be made, removing alcohol from non-supermarket chain stores, especially from your corner dairy).
This may seem like quite a bit of control and extreme considering the current lifestyles we live...but I do not see that the state need to fund peoples drinking desires or even habits. If people want the occassional smoke, sweet...but don't expect earning tax payers to be paying for it. I guess, for myself being a big fella, wanting to promote health and well being, this would include fast foods like McDonalds, Pizza Hut, KFC and the others.
The card would also have benefits. It would double as a community services card providing all the regular benefits of that card, but would also gaurantee discounts and subsidies relating to healthy food, essentials like shoes for school, discounts on fuel and also discounts in other essential services like phone and basic internet. However again, this is all subject to step 1...work has to be found.
Step 3 - Worthwhile Tax Cuts
Drop things like working for families in its current form. Why give tax credits rather than a tax cut. Not to remove tax from benefits anyways but is this to give them some kind of inclusion into paying taxes...anyways...is it fair that general tax payers in New Zealand pay for what could be considered the habit of having kids? How is it that a married/couple can have 6 or more kids, earn over $120,000 a year and still get a substantial support from the government?
When we talk about tax cuts though they have to be worth it. The recent tax cuts announced in the budget are pathetic. Especially when you consider $12 a week buys barely anything outside of 4 litres of 'brand' milk, or 1 kg of cheese. At todays prices thats under 10 litres of petrol or between 5-7 rides on the local bus service. So something like this has to be worth while to make an impact on New Zealands lower income families.
Any tax cut though cannot be at the expense of other services and this will be examined carefully and will or should not include making our national debt any worse than it already is.
Step 4 - Get People into Meaningful Work
In 2000 when I was on the benefit I was offered three jobs...each of them when it worked out would pay me a little more than $12 more a week than I was getting on the benefit. One job, for $12 more a week for doing nothing was 60 hours, and most of them afternoon to late night hours including a weekend day. To me, it wasnt worth it. The long hours, low pay and no promise of advancement didn't seem to work out.
I'm not convinced that continually increasing the minimum wage is the answer, but making the work that is done more meaningful. You don't simply sell your services to the highest bidder...but what you do must be something that will make you better in the long term, as opposed to something you do to draw a wage and get off the benefit. This too I think is a part of the education sectors responsibility to train people. I also think too that it is not the responsibility to tax the living crap out of people for the money they earn. Sure, taxes need to be paid, but not, as in some cases, taxes on taxes on taxes.
There is a lot of work to be done. A lot of damage to be repaired and trust in government to be restored. I think its time to start that work.
Don't get me wrong, I believe it has its place. however, I do also believe it has been used and abused for far too long and changes need to be made.
Step 1 - Confine Benefit Timelines
Establish maximum lengths of time for unemployment benefit being paid out to an individual to a maximum of three years. Conditions will include minimum length of employment, the return of stand-downs if you terminate employment where duress has not been a factor. Also taken into account will be length of service, rate of pay and hours worked. Of course there is more detail to work out, but that is the nuts and bolts of it.
Step 2 - Reduce Nanny State Spending
Establish controls on how the welfare dollar is spent by the recipients of it. For example, anyone on a benefit would have the money deposited into a bank account opened by the government agency for them. The EFTPoS card will have some restrictions on it. Firstly, there will be no cash withdrawals permitted either by ATM or EFTPoS machine. No alcohol or smokes can be purchased with them. (To facilitate this, depending on what changes are made to the availability of alcohol stores and where it is sold, further changes may be made, removing alcohol from non-supermarket chain stores, especially from your corner dairy).
This may seem like quite a bit of control and extreme considering the current lifestyles we live...but I do not see that the state need to fund peoples drinking desires or even habits. If people want the occassional smoke, sweet...but don't expect earning tax payers to be paying for it. I guess, for myself being a big fella, wanting to promote health and well being, this would include fast foods like McDonalds, Pizza Hut, KFC and the others.
The card would also have benefits. It would double as a community services card providing all the regular benefits of that card, but would also gaurantee discounts and subsidies relating to healthy food, essentials like shoes for school, discounts on fuel and also discounts in other essential services like phone and basic internet. However again, this is all subject to step 1...work has to be found.
Step 3 - Worthwhile Tax Cuts
Drop things like working for families in its current form. Why give tax credits rather than a tax cut. Not to remove tax from benefits anyways but is this to give them some kind of inclusion into paying taxes...anyways...is it fair that general tax payers in New Zealand pay for what could be considered the habit of having kids? How is it that a married/couple can have 6 or more kids, earn over $120,000 a year and still get a substantial support from the government?
When we talk about tax cuts though they have to be worth it. The recent tax cuts announced in the budget are pathetic. Especially when you consider $12 a week buys barely anything outside of 4 litres of 'brand' milk, or 1 kg of cheese. At todays prices thats under 10 litres of petrol or between 5-7 rides on the local bus service. So something like this has to be worth while to make an impact on New Zealands lower income families.
Any tax cut though cannot be at the expense of other services and this will be examined carefully and will or should not include making our national debt any worse than it already is.
Step 4 - Get People into Meaningful Work
In 2000 when I was on the benefit I was offered three jobs...each of them when it worked out would pay me a little more than $12 more a week than I was getting on the benefit. One job, for $12 more a week for doing nothing was 60 hours, and most of them afternoon to late night hours including a weekend day. To me, it wasnt worth it. The long hours, low pay and no promise of advancement didn't seem to work out.
I'm not convinced that continually increasing the minimum wage is the answer, but making the work that is done more meaningful. You don't simply sell your services to the highest bidder...but what you do must be something that will make you better in the long term, as opposed to something you do to draw a wage and get off the benefit. This too I think is a part of the education sectors responsibility to train people. I also think too that it is not the responsibility to tax the living crap out of people for the money they earn. Sure, taxes need to be paid, but not, as in some cases, taxes on taxes on taxes.
There is a lot of work to be done. A lot of damage to be repaired and trust in government to be restored. I think its time to start that work.
posted by Wiremu Bayliss at
8:47 pm
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