Report of President, Janet Robin, to the Unite Waitemata AGM, 8 November 2013
Kia Ora Koutou,
In 2013 the
attacks on welfare continued.
The Social
Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill, was passed in
April and came into effect in July.
Previous benefits were collapsed into three: Job Seeker Support, Sole
Parent Support and Supported Living Payment. Most people are expected to look
for work including the sick and most sole parents. The only exceptions are
those on the Supported Living Payment, and some sole parents but they can be
asked for a work plan.
The welfare
changes are scary, and a media survey indicated that beneficiaries are now
perceived to be the group suffering the most prejudice.
Sanctions are
being widely used, throwing many beneficiaries into desperation and destitution,
and WINZ is increasingly using private contractors to administer job- seeking
activities.
Many beneficiaries are forced to do these
activities, which can include to doing slave labour for private companies. This can include grandparents, those who
already have jobs, the mentally ill, and mothers with babies.
Job seeking
requirements and the threat of punitive
sanctions are creating enormous anxiety for many beneficiaries.
WINZ case officers
are acting with increasing disrespect and apparent arbitrary cruelty. It is commonplace to refuse food grants even
when the beneficiary is hungry, and entitled to one.
In November 2012 I
wrote a submission opposing the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work
Focus) Amendment Bill.
At the Unite National
AGM in November 2012, we presented a remit that Unite ask the CTU to call a National
Stop Work meeting against the welfare reforms.
An amended remit was passed asking the CTU to call a National Day of
Action against the welfare reforms. Our remit opposing the Trans Pacific
Partnership Agreement was passed.
In December 2012 we
held a protest to "Stop Paula's War on the Poor" outside the Mt
Albert Baptist Church, where Paula Bennett was speaking at the invitation of
National M.P. Melissa Lee.
In February 2013
an invited speaker gave us a talk about the way Dr Bratt, the Principal Medical
Adviser of WINZ , is training designated
doctors and regional health and disability advisors, how to deny benefits to people.
In late 2012 and
early 2013 our Vice President Ivan Sharma gathered support for a Day of Action against
the sale of State Housing, which was held in April 2013.
He created a facebook event page; our members handed out leaflets,
and I issued a press statement. Ivan and Bob attended Tamaki Housing Action
Group meetings to co-ordinate plans for the day.
We held a mock auction of the office of
National Party MP Melissa Lee. We were supported by a number of groups and
individuals including AAAP. Afterwards we protested outside some state houses
in Haverstock Rd, which had already been sold. We acted in solidarity with the
Tamaki Housing Action Group who held a protest in Glen Innes against developers
on the same day. Our protest was filmed
by Maori Television and appeared on Te Kaea that night.
On May Day, 1st
May, we attended a picket outside MacDonalds Queen St, which was organised by
Unite. On the same day National introduced Youth Rates
for starting- out 16 -17 year olds, trainees from
16-19 years, and adult 18 -19 year old workers who had been on a benefit in the
previous 6 months.
In June Unite
Waitemata and Auckland Action Against Poverty protested in the evening outside
a public meeting held by Paula Bennett at her office entitled " Safer
Communities.'
In July, the new
benefit categories came into effect.
We attended a
protest in support of beggars' rights, outside Smith and Caughey's
in Queen St. This protest had been called because Smith and Caughey's, and some Council members and
organisations including Mike Lee, and
the Heart of Auckland, were calling for restrictions on beggar's rights to beg.
Hone Harawira was
trying to introduce a Feed the Kids Bill into Parliament about this time. National later replaced this with one providing
milk and
weet-bix breakfasts
in low- decile schools.
In August we held
an evening protest outside Paula Bennett's office where she held another public
meeting. We created a facebook event,
leafletted, and I promoted it on our blog: waitemataunite.blogspot.co.nz.
I wrote an updated
flyer "Why You Should Join Unite" which we printed and distributed
. I also put it onto our blog.
Dave Bedggood was
interviewed on Radio Waatea about the protest and the welfare changes.
I wrote a press
statement against the proposed new Child Protection Laws.
In September I
helped out at the Impact-on the spot advocacy- organised by the Auckland Action
Against Poverty at New Lynn WINZ. Some
of our members attended.
In October I wrote
a leaflet entitled "How to get WINZ help for Sickness and
Disability". Keith and others have
been distributing it. I put it onto our
blog as well as some information about the Health and Disability Panel, who
advised on the welfare reforms. I've
included information about the Bio Psycho Social "work is good for you "
("arbeit macht frei ") approach, which has been imported from the UK
to New Zealand.
Our blog: waitemataunite.blogspot.co.nz has had 31,634
page views since it started. Our Facebook group Waitemata Unite has 172
members, our Unite Waitemata organiser
page has 540 Friends , and our Unite
Waitemata Community Page has 90 members.
We are doing more
advocacy and peer support with some success.
Sometimes this leads to people coming to our meetings or joining
up. People are contacting me through our
facebook pages and using our unitewaitemata@gmail.com address.
In October Ivan
and I met with the President of Unite, Gerard Heihir, to see if we we can work
together to promote beneficiary rights, and recruit and organise beneficiaries. One possibility was puting our details on the Unite website.
Most of our
members received membership cards this year, for the first time.
