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@taniwharugby said in NZ Politics:
So Labour want to keep the retirement age at 65...thats gonna cost us!
Anything to do with Superannuation has been a political football for donkeys years. The closest we have had to a holistic approach was Rowlings set up which Muldoon raided and spent. The Cullen fund has at least re-booted the govt savings aspect of things but for long term societal changes and planning you really need to also use other tools such as encouragement for continuing employment due to age; systems that encourage job sharing (so that young people can gain experience while the older population can continue working at reduced hours etc etc
There are all sorts of ideas around that have been, or are being, trialed in other countries with various lessons learned and it would be great for some kind of whole vision to be implemented rather than focusing just on changing ages to meet budgets -
@booboo said in NZ Politics:
@Mokey said in NZ Politics:
Oh dear. There is now a hashtag on twitter #IamMetiria
People want to claim they are objectionable criminals?
It seems to be more people sharing horrible WINZ experiences they have had. And I do feel sorry for people who are treated disrespectfully by asshole staff when they have done nothing wrong (there are some staff who should not be allowed near humans). The hashtag is incredibly unfortunate in what it implies, as you say, Boo.
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@taniwharugby said in NZ Politics:
So Labour want to keep the retirement age at 65...thats gonna cost us!
HIlarious, as the population hurtles towards a period where they'll be retired for almost as long as they work. Hope they're good little savers.
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@Mokey I cant imagine working for WINZ is a great job, for every genuine sad tale of hardship, there would be at least another person with their hand out asking for more, and then these cnuts are the abusive feckers.
About 3 years back I did a short term contract for the Local Council where we offering rate rebates (from Cnetral Govt) to rate payers that qualified, and the people and attitudes varied wildly.
The majority of these people were retired folk, but we many that weren't, think I have told this story before on here, but the worst one for me was a fella my age who had been in the sickness benefit of about $12k p/a to look after his ill wife, she was also collecting the same benefit, so the total income was $24k plus they did get a top up of WFF as they had 2 kids, so the household income wasn't a lot. This guy was of similar age to me, and his wife he had been looking after, had just died and he was telling me how lost he was and didn't know what he was going to do.
Broke my heart, I almost cried then, even now the emotions it stirs in me....anyway, he was entitled to the full rebate of about $680.
I had another elderly lady, just on her pension and some interest, she was only entitled to about $100 of $680, which she was over the moon about, so overjoyed at being given this much.
Then there was another lady, collecting her pension, her husbands old work pension, interest payments and returns off investments and was earning in excess of $80k per year, she went mental about not being entitled to any rebate.
But my long-winded point was, some people are truly greatful for anything, however little they get, I know there were many who were/are too proud to come in and ask for the rebate too, while others simply expect so much more.
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@Mokey said in NZ Politics:
@booboo said in NZ Politics:
@Mokey said in NZ Politics:
Oh dear. There is now a hashtag on twitter #IamMetiria
People want to claim they are objectionable criminals?
It seems to be more people sharing horrible WINZ experiences they have had. And I do feel sorry for people who are treated disrespectfully by asshole staff when they have done nothing wrong (there are some staff who should not be allowed near humans). The hashtag is incredibly unfortunate in what it implies, as you say, Boo.
I hope this doesn't turn into a way of demonising Winz staff, I'm sure Sue Bradford isn't the only person who has the same feelings she shared in that tweet after those two staff were killed downsouth .
I am pleased that the name Meteria is becoming synonymous with welfare cheat though and I don't think advertising the fact you are a Meteria is a great idea though.
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Yeah @jegga and @taniwharugby. I've had a couple of brushes with Winz in the past 20 years. Never had just one contact person, but two, a man and an older woman were absolutely wonderful. Helpful, straight up yet still compassionate, and efficient. Two younger women were absolute fucking bitches. One, I kid you not, on my first appointment, accused me of wanting to screw the system. That was a slap in the face (I've never had so much as a parking ticket) and a double blow considering it felt humiliating enough to go to Winz in the first place.
And yeah, having worked in a number of jobs dealing with the public, I know some people are awesome and grateful and polite, and others are complete fluffybunnies with a monster set of entitlement. So I don't envy the Winz people their task. However, I think perhaps their mindset needs to be innocent until proven guilty.
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@Mokey said in NZ Politics:
Oh dear. There is now a hashtag on twitter #IamMetiria
That's a pretty good example of how damaging the Greens political ideas are.
If you tell people they are oppressed and that the system is designed to keep them down then the only reasonable response is to start resenting the system and society.
If you tell people nothing is their fault, they they'll never take responsibility for their own lives.
They are awful things to tell people. My better half is from Papua New Guinea, a country with genuine problems. She feels utterly privileged to be in NZ with all of the opportunities it has afforded her. But when she was at Uni she had SJW lecturers tell her that she needs to think about the fact that she is a black woman and be mindful of what people will think when they enter her office. That's 1) racist as fuck, 2) incredibly demotivating and 3) completely detached from reality where the vast majority of people in NZ couldn't give a toss about the colour of your skin.
I like the way Jordan Peterson puts it - you can draw a line down the human heart and say one side is evil, and one side is good. To ensure you do not fall to the evil side, you need to acknowledge your own potential for evil and then do everything you can to ensure you are the best person you can be. If you make people believe they are oppressed, there is nothing they can do and it's not their fault, then it is likely they will fall to the evil side as their resentment grows.
Nobody is oppressed in NZ. We do not live under any kind of oppressive dictatorship. Individual rights and freedoms are upheld allowing people to make of life what they will. This shitty narrative that the Greens and Labour are pushing is not only divisive but has a real impact on people that want to better themselves. I really detest the message they are pushing, no matter how good their intentions may be. You can never achieve anything good by using bad measures.
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@No-Quarter In my old job I was lucky enough to be mentored by someone that had fled a war torn country to NZ, was parents, 2 kids, clothes on their back as they were not allowed to take money out of the country.
Both of them obviously learnt to speak English, granted both were already qualified professionals, but have both worked hard and made their way up in their organisations, not complaining or expecting anything, always seeing the good fortune of living here. One of their kids has since represented NZ in a sport as well.
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@No-Quarter said in NZ Politics:
@Mokey said in NZ Politics:
They are awful things to tell people. My better half is from Papua New Guinea, a country with genuine problems. She feels utterly privileged to be in NZ with all of the opportunities it has afforded her. But when she was at Uni she had SJW lecturers tell her that she needs to think about the fact that she is a black woman and be mindful of what people will think when they enter her office. That's 1) racist as fuck, 2) incredibly demotivating and 3) completely detached from reality where the vast majority of people in NZ couldn't give a toss about the colour of your skin.
OK, you've written this a few times now... so I'll attempt to reply.
My wife is from Mexico, emmigrated to New Zealand 6 years ago. And is brown.
Masters degree, really hard worker, excellent English (probably better than mine).
I actually can't believe she has stuck it out.
Have lost track of the jobs she has applied for and been turned down for, many of which she was obviously a great candidate. Shit she never even gets an interview.
Before a family member was kind enough to offer her an administration position the only work she could get was as a waitress (where they only hire immigrants, pay them bare minimum, and recently changed all employees from guaranteed 30 hour a week contracts to zero hour equivalents). This is not an isolated case, many of her friends are in the same position.
I've had her come home in tears quite a few times after suffering straight up racist comments to her in the restaurant from customers. Donald Trump seems to have given the average white man/ woman a view that it's OK to attack her for being Mexican.
Maybe it's a Christchurch thing? But I definitely see some form of racism in the way she is treated vs the average kiwi.
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@SammyC that sucks, and I am sorry to hear that. Does she have NZ citizenship? I wonder if that is influencing people's decision when looking at her CV? If you guys genuinely believe it is racist discrimination then that is illegal and it is worth calling out. The only way to beat racism is to call out specific examples and address them on a case by case basis.
In terms of racist comments, that's a very different experience to what my wife has had in Auckland. Though when she was living in a small town north of Wellington in her teenage years she got quite a few racist comments from people - in her experience particularly from Maori - so maybe a cultural thing depending where you live.
At the end of the day you can't force people to like you. You can't tell people what to think. If someone makes a racist comment, in her words the best thing to do is "think to yourself well that person is a pathetic loser, then get on with your life".
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@SammyC said in NZ Politics:
@No-Quarter said in NZ Politics:
@Mokey said in NZ Politics:
They are awful things to tell people. My better half is from Papua New Guinea, a country with genuine problems. She feels utterly privileged to be in NZ with all of the opportunities it has afforded her. But when she was at Uni she had SJW lecturers tell her that she needs to think about the fact that she is a black woman and be mindful of what people will think when they enter her office. That's 1) racist as fuck, 2) incredibly demotivating and 3) completely detached from reality where the vast majority of people in NZ couldn't give a toss about the colour of your skin.
OK, you've written this a few times now... so I'll attempt to reply.
My wife is from Mexico, emmigrated to New Zealand 6 years ago. And is brown.
Masters degree, really hard worker, excellent English (probably better than mine).
I actually can't believe she has stuck it out.
Have lost track of the jobs she has applied for and been turned down for, many of which she was obviously a great candidate. Shit she never even gets an interview.
Before a family member was kind enough to offer her an administration position the only work she could get was as a waitress (where they only hire immigrants, pay them bare minimum, and recently changed all employees from guaranteed 30 hour a week contracts to zero hour equivalents). This is not an isolated case, many of her friends are in the same position.
I've had her come home in tears quite a few times after suffering straight up racist comments to her in the restaurant from customers. Donald Trump seems to have given the average white man/ woman a view that it's OK to attack her for being Mexican.
Maybe it's a Christchurch thing? But I definitely see some form of racism in the way she is treated vs the average kiwi.
The racism at work thing is shocking and I hope she calls people out on that.
With regard to the work thing, unfortunately some people prefer to stick to what they know and just play it safe. Where does your wife have her degree from?
I moved to Norway with 2 degrees and relevant work experience and couldn't get a single interview. Fark, I couldn't even get an interview with a temp agency. I ended up washing dishes and working in the fridge of a supermarket for a year. Even then I never found a job relating to my qualifications and ended up teaching English and then qualifying as a translator.
When there are heaps of job vacancies then qualified foreigners can get in, but when there are plenty of qualified locals and limited positions the foreigner tends to get the raw deal. Unfortunately that's just the way it is.
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This came out recently and is pretty interesting reading. Don't expect to find reports on it in the general media.
https://pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/BETA-report-going-blind-to-see-more clearly.pdf
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@SammyC said in NZ Politics:
@No-Quarter said in NZ Politics:
@Mokey said in NZ Politics:
They are awful things to tell people. My better half is from Papua New Guinea, a country with genuine problems. She feels utterly privileged to be in NZ with all of the opportunities it has afforded her. But when she was at Uni she had SJW lecturers tell her that she needs to think about the fact that she is a black woman and be mindful of what people will think when they enter her office. That's 1) racist as fuck, 2) incredibly demotivating and 3) completely detached from reality where the vast majority of people in NZ couldn't give a toss about the colour of your skin.
OK, you've written this a few times now... so I'll attempt to reply.
My wife is from Mexico, emmigrated to New Zealand 6 years ago. And is brown.
Masters degree, really hard worker, excellent English (probably better than mine).
I actually can't believe she has stuck it out.
Have lost track of the jobs she has applied for and been turned down for, many of which she was obviously a great candidate. Shit she never even gets an interview.
Before a family member was kind enough to offer her an administration position the only work she could get was as a waitress (where they only hire immigrants, pay them bare minimum, and recently changed all employees from guaranteed 30 hour a week contracts to zero hour equivalents). This is not an isolated case, many of her friends are in the same position.
I've had her come home in tears quite a few times after suffering straight up racist comments to her in the restaurant from customers. Donald Trump seems to have given the average white man/ woman a view that it's OK to attack her for being Mexican.
Maybe it's a Christchurch thing? But I definitely see some form of racism in the way she is treated vs the average kiwi.
Hate hearing stories like these. My mate had a roofing firm in California and apart from a few kiwis his staff were all Mexican. When I asked him why he told me that nobody he's ever come across works harder than a Mexican.
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@Mokey said in NZ Politics:
Yeah @jegga and @taniwharugby. I've had a couple of brushes with Winz in the past 20 years. Never had just one contact person, but two, a man and an older woman were absolutely wonderful. Helpful, straight up yet still compassionate, and efficient. Two younger women were absolute fucking bitches. One, I kid you not, on my first appointment, accused me of wanting to screw the system. That was a slap in the face (I've never had so much as a parking ticket) and a double blow considering it felt humiliating enough to go to Winz in the first place.
And yeah, having worked in a number of jobs dealing with the public, I know some people are awesome and grateful and polite, and others are complete fluffybunnies with a monster set of entitlement. So I don't envy the Winz people their task. However, I think perhaps their mindset needs to be innocent until proven guilty.
Mate of mine worked at WINZ for six months in the mid-2000s. He had a client in who was getting frustrated with the obligations put on him by WINZ.
Eventually at the end of the meeting, the guy sighed angrily, got up and, as he walked out, said "I'll go out and find a fucking job then!"
My mate chuckled as he typed ''self-starter'' into the guy's file...
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Stuff keep running these sorts of articles and then they have to shut down the comments because they are overwhelmingly negative of the perspective stuff is trying to push. You'd think they'd get the point and either stop or realise that maybe they are out of touch with the prevailing attitudes in the country. But no, here's another article.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/94875046/solo-mothers-say-they-understand-reasons-for-benefit-fraud-after-turei-bombshell -
@jegga said in NZ Politics:
Stuff keep running these sorts of articles and then they have to shut down the comments because they are overwhelmingly negative of the perspective stuff is trying to push. You'd think they'd get the point and either stop or realise that maybe they are out of touch with the prevailing attitudes in the country. But no, here's another article.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/94875046/solo-mothers-say-they-understand-reasons-for-benefit-fraud-after-turei-bombshellMust resist obvious and rather unbecoming comment ...
NZ Politics