govt beneficiary bashing already

[Lilith7]

Interesting use of language by Upston at the press conference this afternoon.  While Luxon was pretending to be caring about beneficiaries in dire need, she was using expressions like "the *threat* of sanctions" and "the new *regime*".  If she wasn't being the bad cop she could have said "the *prospect* of sanctions" and "the new *approach"*.  Obviously aiming to appeal to the cruellest of the coalition's donors.

And sadly, there's no shortage of Nat supporters eager for a metaphorical witch burning & who seem to lack any understanding of life on a benefit. 

I'd like to see all MPs who advocate things like this obliged to exist on the lowest benefit over winter, every year they're in parliament.

If they go ahead with this - & there's no reason to doubt that they will - then they're knowingly causing hardship to those least able to defend themselves, & who are mostly unable to fight back. 
And this from a  party with an allegedly christian leader...

This sheds some light on the reality of the situation.
https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/...ticle_link

"Fairer Future campaigner Max Harris joined AM on Monday morning to give his view on Luxon's speech. 
Harris told AM when Luxon said "My team has your back", the people he works with didn't believe him.  
"I was pretty concerned by some of what I heard and I talked to some of the people in our team who are on income support, they felt like this was a speech that didn't value them, that wanted them to be something that they weren't," he said.  

"They were pretty frustrated as well and said, if Christopher Luxon wants people to get into work, he needs to create a much more supportive environment at WINZ and MSD that actually helps people get into jobs rather than piling people with paperwork and leaving people with lots of delays. 

"I think we should be really careful about the language that we're using. So I talked to one person, who's an amazing woman who has a disability, and she said, 'I heard that speech, it felt like, there were arrows being sent into me, it felt like I wasn't being valued for who I am'." 

Harris believes the Government has taken a step back to the 1990s and described parts of Luxon's speech as "beneficiary bashing". 
"I thought we were past this as a society. I don't think we do have a problem, I think we've had extreme hardship in the last few years," he told AM co-host Lloyd Burr.  
"I think we've had an increase in population growth. We've had a pandemic with people approaching sickness in new ways, some people with long COVID and I think it would be understandable that you'd see an uptick in the number of people on benefits."