Sorry, Sonny, but the Auditor-General won’t be apologising for her whanau ora criticism

Hmm .. the rest of the money must be back with the administrators. 

Uh, oh. That’s not like Lyn, Alf thought when he heard she had agreed to do some apologising.

He is sure she would apologise if she got something wrong, of course.

But she wouldn’t be saying sorry – surely – just because somebody had been offended by something she said.

In this case it sounded like the apology indeed was about to be delivered because somebody had taken offence.

The Lyn being talked about in this post is Lyn Provost, Auditor-General and someone with whom Alf has a nodding acquaintance.

The offended party is Sonny Tau, who apparently was affronted by comments she made when criticising the amount of Whanau Ora funding spent on administration.

IRD comes good with relief for struggling dad – but doesn’t this put a bigger burden on taxpayers?

It looks like a bloke in South Taranaki was somewhat premature in bringing his financial plight to public attention.

This bloke presumably hoped the glare of publicity would embarrass the Inland Revenue Department and prompt it to ease his financial burden.

As things turned out, the IRD has agreed to relax its demands on him to meet his parental responsibilities, which suggests he went public too soon, although he might argue it was the publicity that did the trick.

It also suggests taxpayers will be meeting the difference between the original obligation and the revised one.

The bloke had regaled sympathetic Fairfax reporters with the story behind his straitened circumstances (or some of what no doubt is a much more complex story of domestic arrangements that came unglued) earlier this week.

His fundamental claim was that nationwide changes to the child support system had left him struggling to feed the child still in his care.

Moaning Minto makes a mad demand to house poor people at public expense on posh properties

 

Let the loony lefties take over and this will become part of the country’s social housing stock.

The NZ Herald  has gone all soft and pappy today, telling readers if they want a state house or “social housing” with a view, forget it.

Beautiful views are banned in a draft new Government policy, the Herald bleats. Double garages and decks are out, too.

The tone is thoroughly disapproving.

But the draft policy makes a lot of sense to Alf. Anything contrary would be a daft policy.

If a property has a beautiful view, the buggers who live in it should pay for it. Not taxpayers.

It sounds like housing officials have the good sense to agree.

Chicken and bread for Christmas looks like a better bet than being among several kids being buried

Alf is a generous soul and is willing to give some advice – for free – to the Invercargill couple who say their six young kids will go without on Christmas Day.

The couple are Shelly Edwards and Leo Hewett, who say their six children aged 3-10 will get no presents and have a diet of chicken and bread on Christmas Day because the Salvation Army failed to help them in their time of need.

Alf’s heart bleeds.

But he does not intend throwing money at the hard-up couple, whose story is told here at Stuff.

Instead he is giving advice in response to Shelly’s dilemma:

“How can we tell the kids there’s nothing for Christmas?” Shelly asked from their south Invercargill state house yesterday.

Easy.

Sir Peter Jackson’s new aircraft just goes to show how welfare (well focused) can create a high-flyer

It is great to see how a beneficiary of state welfare has picked himself up by the bootstraps and …

Well, now he can buy himself a new $80 million jet.

News of this uplifting story reached Alf via the Dominion Post.

A version of it is told here at Stuff.

It involves none other than Sir Peter Jackson.

We can be sure WhaleOil will have taken note, because at Gotcha he has expressed himself somewhat critically on the matter (as you will find here).

Maori kids in Invercargill going hungry? That should be a load of old cods (or freshly caught ones)

A Southland Maori language total immersion school has been quick out of the starting blocks to dip its pupils’ snouts into the expanded KickStart breakfast in schools scheme.

They have made their move (see here) remarkably soon after The Boss today announced extra funding for the programme, run by Fonterra and Sanitarium.

The programme will be offered to all schools that need it, five days a week.

The important words there – Alf would have thought – were “all schools that need it”.

Does this make Paula the Minister of Sexual Violence – or should we find another title?

There’s the agricultural sector, and the tourism sector, and the energy sector …

And dozens of other sectors.

They tend to get their own Ministers, such as the Minister of Agriculture (later expanded to Minister of Primary Industries), Minister of Tourism, Minister of Energy and Resources.

And so on.

Except that Steven Joyce came along and became the Minister of Most Things, which wiped out one or two jobs.

A Tory with a bright idea about welfare – the more brats you spawn, the greater the curbs on benefits

Move over, Ms Bennett.

Alf is promoting someone else to take over the job of Social Development Minister.

Not himself (although he reckons he would make a fair fist of it).

No. He would like to ship in Britain’s Work and Pensions Secretary, Iain Duncan Smith.

This Duncan Smith feller has just announced (see here) that British parents will only be allowed to have two children before they face curbs on their benefits.

Woman who lied to Winz had better get used to making a buck in India – by begging, maybe

It’s not as demanding as being a barista…

Are we supposed to sympathise with a silly woman who lied to welfare officials to get more money?

More of my money and yours, by the way.

As a sob story, accordingly, what this bint did does not amount to much.

But the Herald on Sunday is dining out on it here.

A young mother facing a new life in India has spoken of her regret after telling Work and Income she had split from her husband so she could get a bigger benefit.

Now the family faces an uncertain future as her husband is ordered out of the country.

So – have we got this right? – she did the lying but he is being ordered out.

And she deserves our sympathy – why, exactly?

Or is the story merely intended to serve as a lesson against lying?

Applause, please, for Paula as she puts down the leftie plonkers with our position on poverty

Do we really have to weigh her before declaring her obese?

Hurrah for Paula.

She is giving the lefties a good swerve by challenging their preoccupation with measuring poverty.

Paula Bennett banged out a media statement on the subject yesterday.

She said (here) that addressing the causes of poverty instead of debating how it’s measured is the Government’s main focus.

“The Government is committed to taking action to combat poverty. This is in stark contrast to the Labour Party which just talks about how it should be measured,’’ Mrs Bennett says.

“Following recent debate on the issue, I have been misquoted in various media as saying there is no poverty line, or it’s been reported that I don’t acknowledge that a poverty line exists.

“What I’ve actually said is that there is no official measure of poverty in New Zealand, and that is correct. The actual work to address poverty – insulating homes, getting people into work, ensuring children have access to free health care – that is the priority for this Government’’ says Mrs Bennett.

“Of course there is poverty in New Zealand. This has been acknowledged by the Government but it’s not a priority to have another measure on it.”

Good one, Paula.

You don’t have to put a fattie on the scales to get his or her weight.

You can see he or she is fat.