Ae Marika! A column published in the Northland Age By Hone Harawira MP for Tai Tokerau MANA Leader

20 September 2011

To comment on this column please go to my website http://www.mana.net.nz I was talking to a whanau a few weeks back about some problems they were having with Work and Income (WINZ), and this kuia started talking to me about how sad she was for the young people of today because there didn't seem to be much hope for them.

She talked about how when she first got married things were tough, but her husband had a job at the Freezing Works, and that was enough to keep the family going. They didn't have a lot, but she was able to stay home and raise the kids and never felt any pressure to go out and get a job to help pay the bills.

She told me how she'd watched her son-in-law struggling to pay the bills when he had a job and how her girl had had to stay on the DPB because there just wasn't enough money in the house (yes - not right but you do what you have to, to get by), and that even when both of them were working for a little while, there just never seemed to be enough money to go around.

So her son-in-law had gone to Aussie to get a job and the family had gone over after him, but she said they missed home and had come back after about a year, even though she'd told them to stay there. He got a job back here but it hadn't lasted and although he hadn't wanted to go on the dole, he'd had to, and now they'd fallen back into the same rut they were in before they'd gone away, and she just didn't see things getting any better for them.

She said they were trying hard to be good parents but they always seemed to be struggling and the problems at WINZ were just making things harder.

They'd cut this guys dole for failing to turn up to a work seminar or something and didn't even tell him. They just cut it off. No phone call, no letter, no nothing. Just cut it off. Never mind that the guy has a young family to feed; never mind that the dole doesn't pay bugger all anyway; just cut it off.

So I talked to some of my staff about it because they're dealing with WINZ issues and CYF issues more and more these days, and apparently up north at least, WINZ is like GOD. WINZ can give you life, and WINZ can take it away, and when they take it away they don't even tell you about it.

And this young guy was at his wits end trying to get some money to pay for food and rent. Thankfully, a quiet chat from one of my staff got things sorted and he got his dole back.

But the whole incident made me think some more, and so here's a little suggestion to all my relations working at WINZ (and CYFS and Housing NZ for that matter).

People are people, and life sometimes treats them bad. Our job is to help them improve their situation. Never mind the paperwork, never mind the quotas. Help them. And when they get upset at you, think of this saying. It just might help ...

He aha te mea nui o tenei ao? He tangata, he tangata, he tangata. What is the greatest thing in the world? It is people, it is people, it is people,

Ends