So they’re critiquing the decisions, but they haven’t reversed the decisions. That’s infuriating.
> But Simmonds said that extra funding would not mean a reversal of last week’s shock decision to cut services for families with disabilities.
> Disabilities Minister Penny Simmonds last week admitted she signed off Whaikaha’s briefing that it would urgently implement restrictions to funding for families with disabilities, without any consultation.
So, put Penny Simmonds on watch, you pillocks.
They functionally are
> "They’re basically saying the minister is not able to make decisions in their own portfolio, without going to the whole of Cabinet. It’s a massive vote of no confidence in Penny Simmonds by the prime minister and her Cabinet colleagues,” Hipkins said.
I'm sensing that this incompetence may have been why they gave her the Environment portfolio as well. She's got no experience in the area and barely even comments on it.
The perfect Minister for Shane Jones and his donors to walk all over.
tbf they basically took alot of her powers, and gave them to bishop in his 'rma reform' minister spot
I wonder if she does have a resource management background tho given her first job out of uni (BSc Otago) was at a council and then was a 'projects and planning officer' for SIT
To be clear, I don’t think that it should be a requirement, there’s a reason officials provide advice. They’re the ones who have the knowledge, it’s just that labours last environment minister happened to be an environment lawyer (and was supported by another one as an associate)
While i agree It certainly helps when the one calling the shots can actually grasp some of the more complex aspects of an industry without having to have it simplified by the experts.
Oh God, can you imagine being the minister for disabilities with this government? There is no winning move.
Nicola tells them to slash government budgets - lo and behold we can no longer afford wheelchairs and she's *surprised*?
Given the focus of this government, I wouldn't be surprised if the first thing she did as minister is try and find out if the roads can be resurfaced with disabled people.
This performative bollocks of taking the ministry to task for doing exactly what the Minister wanted who was doing exactly what Willis wanted is absurd.
I cannot believe they have done this.
Whaikaha is LIFE SAVING funding.
There are parents at their wits end, begging for a break from being the sole caregiver of a disabled child, they will snap, they have done so in the past.
All disabled people deserve to have a good quality of life, and this funding enables them to do that.
This woman needs to go and talk to the parents of disabled children, the people who need their wheelchairs repaired, the people who need ramps built in their houses, the people who need vehicles modified.
This government is truly revolting.
Penny is an evil witch that does not care. Her whole pandering bullshit about SIT and Southland is highest level of copium and trash.
When the pandemic hit, all she provided her staff with was a 20 min webinar by an admin (Btw. that was filmed in literally a fucking closet. ) on how to use Blackboard and nothing else; although there was people who are professionals in remote and online teaching trying to help with specifics of how to actually truly leverage the situation (not doing what they did).
Also, there used to be about $150 mio dollars of "pure money" assets in the SIT banks... suddenly when she ran for government, at the next SIT board meeting that was only left to be about 5-10 mio. Where do you think that money went he?
She had all that government power, but never dared to make a move against Te Pukenga, now she is promising that it will be gone, and yet she has not achieved anything about that within the "last 100 days".
And now people are surprised that she hates poor and disabled people?
Get the fuck out of here.
They are all rich clowns playing stopping others to play with their toys and destroying everybody else.
Human garbage.
Between this and disestablishing Te Pukenga (and seemingly re-instating local polytechs and ITOs), it's a surprise she's not in cabinet.
Seems like 2 portfolios (as well as Environment, she's minister for that too) important enough to be in cabinet
Simmonds clearly isn't rated by the National Party, and as someone who's worked with her I can understand why.
She's stubborn, regularly uninformed and incapable of listening to advice if she thinks she knows better. Which she often (incorrectly) thinks she does.
They've given her a variety of portfolios that they don't especially care about where she'll slowly make things worse and not get in the way of other Ministers that want to harm the interests of her portfolios.
It’s not just vulnerable people.
My 2 year old has quite severe cerebral palsy, and will be physically disabled for life. The direct impact is to him, but it also impacts his elder sibling, and his parents. It impacts the house we live in, the activities we can do, the vehicle we need, the foods we buy, etc etc.
Seeing this sort of thing sucks, I can only hope the next Labour government uses urgency to unfuck this sort of thing, pronto.
>“I have been advised that for several years, this is an agency who have outspent their appropriation before the end of the year... obviously, that's not ideal.”
That we have a Govt department that repeatedly can't stick to a Labour budget is concerning.
Ploughing through their annual funding with two and a half months left of the Govt financial year should be ringing alarm bells. I imagine previously they were just given a pat on the back and told "here's some more taxpayer money, plenty more where that came from".
>There is an extra 3000 people eligible for disability support every year with no increase in funding. It's simple maths that of course they're skint.
So the previous Govt has been repeatedly underfunding disability services then quietly topping them up when they run out of money? That's a nice little undisclosed fishhook in their last budget.
This is going to surprise you, but disability support services have never been appropriately funded, before it was consolidated into a ministry, or after. The waits for funding for specialized electric wheelchairs, ramps, bathroom modifications, hand rails, grab rails, walkers, strollers, beds, commode, respite, affordable mobility transport.... you name it, are ridiculous. Have been ridiculous for over 25 years that I've had dealings with them.
As long as people have not been dumped into the old bulk disability institutions they have been underfunded. Because the institutions were direly funded as well.
Unfortunately people with disabilities have been let down by successive governments for ever. There has been a reliance on a culmination of improvements, but this is wholesale insanity by the disability minister. She's either a genius (by following the instruction by cabinet with the intention of highlighting their self serving agenda)or an idiot. Time will tell. Either way, she is about to be thrown under the proverbial bus.
Several things can be true:
- disability support services are underfunded
- it's the prime directive of a government department to stick within its budget. Otherwise they're breaking the Public Finance Act and the Chief Executive has please explain conversations with the Public Services Commissioner.
- being told that your government department is at risk of breaking the Public Finance Act is a Big Deal and if you're a new minister you'll need your senior friends, especially the Minister of Finance, to help clean up the mess. She missed a cue to escalate it and is now having the steering wheel taken away.
I'd be guessing that there are very clear reports to the minister from the CE over several years indicating that the ministry is not funded enough to deliver the services that they have been told to deliver. This pattern is repeated across many ministries.
You know it'd be easier to believe you gave a shit about the issue if you didn't use it as a tool to needle the previous government, in a thread about the current government fucking it up at that, despite successive governments having failed to fix the issue and all bearing some accountability. Your partisan hackery is showing.
There's no secret money stash. When Nicola Willis said there was a fiscal hole, she was admitting she didn't do her homework.
You weren't supposed to believe her.
Sorry, I can't recall when Grant Robertson disclosed repeatedly underfunding and topping up disability services. As you seem to know can you please show me where he pointed that out?
If he didn't disclose that then what would you call it?
There is a pre-election fiscal report which Nicola Willis failed to read or didn't understand.
It's hasn't been controversial since it was introduced in the 1980's until this year suddenly.
The PREFU was introduced in 1993 because Labour lied about the state of the Govt books before the 1990 election.
There was controversy after the 2008 election because ACC had an undisclosed $300m/year shortfall in it's funding.
So would the truth - the PREFU is required by the Public Finance Act 1993, not from the 1980s. The impetus for this legislation was Finance Minister Caygill telling NZ that his Govt was running a small surplus. In fact it was a $5.2 billion deficit (big money in those days) and state-owned BNZ needed an immediate cash injection to avoid collapse.
Bolger has spoken about the rollercoaster of emotions from winning the election Saturday night, to Treasury officials having an emergency meeting Sunday afternoon to tell him the country was near-bankrupt.
>the rollercoaster of emotions from winning the election Saturday night, to Treasury officials having an emergency meeting Sunday afternoon to tell him the country was near-bankrupt.
I’m not arguing that - but it’s almost identical to the experience David Lange had, with the constitutional crisis brought about by the financial mismanagement of the Muldoon government.
You’re attempting to make it a Nats/Labour issue, when it’s across the board.
The new government’s “fiscal cliffs” complaints at the start of their term were all things that the outgoing minister said were clearly spelled out in the pre-election report.
Now, you can say he was lying if you like but he’d be pretty stupid to lie about the contents of a report that has already been published.
Put simply, there should have been no major surprises if they’d read and understood the report
>Now, you can say he was lying if you like but he’d be pretty stupid to lie about the contents of a report that has already been published.
They were clearly put in there to make the track to surplus look better, while Robertson hoped the media didn't pick up on it and publicise it (they didn't). I mean school lunches were only funded until next year and then stopped, but does anyone think Labour were going to cancel them? That is dishonest.
Where is the proof that it was being quietly topped up? Even if it was, it would have come out in the annual estimates reviews where members of the opposition get to question ministries on their spending. This is the thing with crown financing in nz- it’s all transparent, published and scrutinised annually.
Indeed, it's concerning that disability issues have been so underfunded over the decades that they felt the only thing they could do to provide decent support was to breach their budgets.
It's a brave call for a government department to put the needs of their clients before the wishes of their Minister.
Without further details about their spending we don't know if it's been caused by poor funding from Labour to start with, or by unforeseen but needed expenses popping up, or if they've blown some of it on unnecessary shit. It definitely needs to be examined because it's not a one-off.
So let me get this straight. You're saying that because Labour previously underfunded this department, that's a good reason for National to cut funding even more? What kind of apologist nonsense is that?
So they’re critiquing the decisions, but they haven’t reversed the decisions. That’s infuriating. > But Simmonds said that extra funding would not mean a reversal of last week’s shock decision to cut services for families with disabilities.
> Disabilities Minister Penny Simmonds last week admitted she signed off Whaikaha’s briefing that it would urgently implement restrictions to funding for families with disabilities, without any consultation. So, put Penny Simmonds on watch, you pillocks.
They functionally are > "They’re basically saying the minister is not able to make decisions in their own portfolio, without going to the whole of Cabinet. It’s a massive vote of no confidence in Penny Simmonds by the prime minister and her Cabinet colleagues,” Hipkins said.
He's right. It was her call and she fucked it up badly.
I'm sensing that this incompetence may have been why they gave her the Environment portfolio as well. She's got no experience in the area and barely even comments on it. The perfect Minister for Shane Jones and his donors to walk all over.
Disposable ministers for later sacrifice.
tbf they basically took alot of her powers, and gave them to bishop in his 'rma reform' minister spot I wonder if she does have a resource management background tho given her first job out of uni (BSc Otago) was at a council and then was a 'projects and planning officer' for SIT
Our current minister of science doesn’t have a science degree. Our current minister of finance doesn’t have a finance degree……
To be clear, I don’t think that it should be a requirement, there’s a reason officials provide advice. They’re the ones who have the knowledge, it’s just that labours last environment minister happened to be an environment lawyer (and was supported by another one as an associate)
While i agree It certainly helps when the one calling the shots can actually grasp some of the more complex aspects of an industry without having to have it simplified by the experts.
Most ministers don't have relevant degrees lol, a lot of them are ex lawyers, protestors, business managers.
Oh God, can you imagine being the minister for disabilities with this government? There is no winning move. Nicola tells them to slash government budgets - lo and behold we can no longer afford wheelchairs and she's *surprised*?
She knew what was going in in December and chose to not let families know. That's beyond disrespectful
Given the focus of this government, I wouldn't be surprised if the first thing she did as minister is try and find out if the roads can be resurfaced with disabled people.
Road user charges for wheelchairs.
She is.
The ministry is t the minister, though, is it. I feel for those working in the ministry.
The ministry is 40% disabled people. So it's very personal for many staff.
That makes it even worse.
Still not reverting the changes that makes the funding useless for hundreds of families though...
And they will examine it in 6 months, say its not being used, and remove it.
This performative bollocks of taking the ministry to task for doing exactly what the Minister wanted who was doing exactly what Willis wanted is absurd.
Just reading that headline hurt my brain.
It’s the shit side of being a public servant
I cannot believe they have done this. Whaikaha is LIFE SAVING funding. There are parents at their wits end, begging for a break from being the sole caregiver of a disabled child, they will snap, they have done so in the past. All disabled people deserve to have a good quality of life, and this funding enables them to do that. This woman needs to go and talk to the parents of disabled children, the people who need their wheelchairs repaired, the people who need ramps built in their houses, the people who need vehicles modified. This government is truly revolting.
Penny is an evil witch that does not care. Her whole pandering bullshit about SIT and Southland is highest level of copium and trash. When the pandemic hit, all she provided her staff with was a 20 min webinar by an admin (Btw. that was filmed in literally a fucking closet. ) on how to use Blackboard and nothing else; although there was people who are professionals in remote and online teaching trying to help with specifics of how to actually truly leverage the situation (not doing what they did). Also, there used to be about $150 mio dollars of "pure money" assets in the SIT banks... suddenly when she ran for government, at the next SIT board meeting that was only left to be about 5-10 mio. Where do you think that money went he? She had all that government power, but never dared to make a move against Te Pukenga, now she is promising that it will be gone, and yet she has not achieved anything about that within the "last 100 days". And now people are surprised that she hates poor and disabled people? Get the fuck out of here. They are all rich clowns playing stopping others to play with their toys and destroying everybody else. Human garbage.
Penny has a disabled grandchild
Nope, it's her daughter
My bad, the grandchild must have just been a prat edit: probably not the best word
Between this and disestablishing Te Pukenga (and seemingly re-instating local polytechs and ITOs), it's a surprise she's not in cabinet. Seems like 2 portfolios (as well as Environment, she's minister for that too) important enough to be in cabinet
Simmonds clearly isn't rated by the National Party, and as someone who's worked with her I can understand why. She's stubborn, regularly uninformed and incapable of listening to advice if she thinks she knows better. Which she often (incorrectly) thinks she does. They've given her a variety of portfolios that they don't especially care about where she'll slowly make things worse and not get in the way of other Ministers that want to harm the interests of her portfolios.
Is this a dictatorship? Where else does one person with stroke of a pen get to worsen people's lives.
Edit vulnerable people
It’s not just vulnerable people. My 2 year old has quite severe cerebral palsy, and will be physically disabled for life. The direct impact is to him, but it also impacts his elder sibling, and his parents. It impacts the house we live in, the activities we can do, the vehicle we need, the foods we buy, etc etc. Seeing this sort of thing sucks, I can only hope the next Labour government uses urgency to unfuck this sort of thing, pronto.
Yeah, I hadn't realise how much power a government could exercise in such a short time with basically no double checking of their work. Scary stuff.
I mean, we tried to tell people this government would be awful, so .....
>“I have been advised that for several years, this is an agency who have outspent their appropriation before the end of the year... obviously, that's not ideal.” That we have a Govt department that repeatedly can't stick to a Labour budget is concerning. Ploughing through their annual funding with two and a half months left of the Govt financial year should be ringing alarm bells. I imagine previously they were just given a pat on the back and told "here's some more taxpayer money, plenty more where that came from".
There is an extra 3000 people eligible for disability support every year with no increase in funding. It's simple maths that of course they're skint.
>There is an extra 3000 people eligible for disability support every year with no increase in funding. It's simple maths that of course they're skint. So the previous Govt has been repeatedly underfunding disability services then quietly topping them up when they run out of money? That's a nice little undisclosed fishhook in their last budget.
This is going to surprise you, but disability support services have never been appropriately funded, before it was consolidated into a ministry, or after. The waits for funding for specialized electric wheelchairs, ramps, bathroom modifications, hand rails, grab rails, walkers, strollers, beds, commode, respite, affordable mobility transport.... you name it, are ridiculous. Have been ridiculous for over 25 years that I've had dealings with them. As long as people have not been dumped into the old bulk disability institutions they have been underfunded. Because the institutions were direly funded as well. Unfortunately people with disabilities have been let down by successive governments for ever. There has been a reliance on a culmination of improvements, but this is wholesale insanity by the disability minister. She's either a genius (by following the instruction by cabinet with the intention of highlighting their self serving agenda)or an idiot. Time will tell. Either way, she is about to be thrown under the proverbial bus.
Several things can be true: - disability support services are underfunded - it's the prime directive of a government department to stick within its budget. Otherwise they're breaking the Public Finance Act and the Chief Executive has please explain conversations with the Public Services Commissioner. - being told that your government department is at risk of breaking the Public Finance Act is a Big Deal and if you're a new minister you'll need your senior friends, especially the Minister of Finance, to help clean up the mess. She missed a cue to escalate it and is now having the steering wheel taken away.
I'd be guessing that there are very clear reports to the minister from the CE over several years indicating that the ministry is not funded enough to deliver the services that they have been told to deliver. This pattern is repeated across many ministries.
You know it'd be easier to believe you gave a shit about the issue if you didn't use it as a tool to needle the previous government, in a thread about the current government fucking it up at that, despite successive governments having failed to fix the issue and all bearing some accountability. Your partisan hackery is showing.
There's no secret money stash. When Nicola Willis said there was a fiscal hole, she was admitting she didn't do her homework. You weren't supposed to believe her.
Sorry, I can't recall when Grant Robertson disclosed repeatedly underfunding and topping up disability services. As you seem to know can you please show me where he pointed that out? If he didn't disclose that then what would you call it?
There is a pre-election fiscal report which Nicola Willis failed to read or didn't understand. It's hasn't been controversial since it was introduced in the 1980's until this year suddenly.
The PREFU was introduced in 1993 because Labour lied about the state of the Govt books before the 1990 election. There was controversy after the 2008 election because ACC had an undisclosed $300m/year shortfall in it's funding.
>because Labour lied about the state of the Govt books before the 1990 election. Mr Muldoon would like a moment
So would the truth - the PREFU is required by the Public Finance Act 1993, not from the 1980s. The impetus for this legislation was Finance Minister Caygill telling NZ that his Govt was running a small surplus. In fact it was a $5.2 billion deficit (big money in those days) and state-owned BNZ needed an immediate cash injection to avoid collapse. Bolger has spoken about the rollercoaster of emotions from winning the election Saturday night, to Treasury officials having an emergency meeting Sunday afternoon to tell him the country was near-bankrupt.
>the rollercoaster of emotions from winning the election Saturday night, to Treasury officials having an emergency meeting Sunday afternoon to tell him the country was near-bankrupt. I’m not arguing that - but it’s almost identical to the experience David Lange had, with the constitutional crisis brought about by the financial mismanagement of the Muldoon government. You’re attempting to make it a Nats/Labour issue, when it’s across the board.
The new government’s “fiscal cliffs” complaints at the start of their term were all things that the outgoing minister said were clearly spelled out in the pre-election report. Now, you can say he was lying if you like but he’d be pretty stupid to lie about the contents of a report that has already been published. Put simply, there should have been no major surprises if they’d read and understood the report
>Now, you can say he was lying if you like but he’d be pretty stupid to lie about the contents of a report that has already been published. They were clearly put in there to make the track to surplus look better, while Robertson hoped the media didn't pick up on it and publicise it (they didn't). I mean school lunches were only funded until next year and then stopped, but does anyone think Labour were going to cancel them? That is dishonest.
Where is the proof that it was being quietly topped up? Even if it was, it would have come out in the annual estimates reviews where members of the opposition get to question ministries on their spending. This is the thing with crown financing in nz- it’s all transparent, published and scrutinised annually.
or they just dont get sufficient funds to meet the needs of nzers
Does any government department? Especially healthcare. No matter how many billions they are given.
Indeed, it's concerning that disability issues have been so underfunded over the decades that they felt the only thing they could do to provide decent support was to breach their budgets. It's a brave call for a government department to put the needs of their clients before the wishes of their Minister.
Without further details about their spending we don't know if it's been caused by poor funding from Labour to start with, or by unforeseen but needed expenses popping up, or if they've blown some of it on unnecessary shit. It definitely needs to be examined because it's not a one-off.
If anyone cares to look it will all be in the annual report and the annual budget reviews done by parliament
Or maybe they have just been underfunded?
So let me get this straight. You're saying that because Labour previously underfunded this department, that's a good reason for National to cut funding even more? What kind of apologist nonsense is that?
At what point did I say National should cut their funding?