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This is interesting. I have a lot of love for Tariana Turia, and I personally think Paula Bennett was always going to be a little bit preoccupied wither her Social Development portfolio. Let’s hope this makes it a little bit easier for disability issues to get some ‘airtime’, eh?
The Disability Issues portfolio has been transferred from Paula Bennett to Tariana Turia, Prime Minister John Key has announced.
In addition, Pansy Wong will be appointed Associate Minister for Disability Issues. The changes take effect immediately.
“The change has come after a request from Paula Bennett for the transfer of the portfolio to another Minister so she can better concentrate on the Social Development and Employment portfolio,” says Mr Key.
“There are big challenges in this portfolio, especially given the increasing workload on the Ministry of Social Development from unemployment.
“The National-led Government is determined to do all it can to help people who have lost their jobs and assist them to find new employment.
“Tariana Turia immediately accepted the important Disability Issues portfolio when I approached her to see if she was interested.
“There are many synergies between this portfolio and her other portfolios, and I believe she will do an excellent job.”
Paula Bennett says this is not a decision she has made lightly.
“The impact of this recession on the lives of New Zealanders is becoming clearer, and I am determined to do all I can to help those who have lost their jobs find new employment.”
4 responses so far ↓
1 kay neich // Jul 9, 2009 at 3:49 pm
oh shit. someone who is far too family oriented and matronly-like for me. i decided, even more after my trip, that this family-family-family ideology sort of lark we have in nz is a very conservative ideology we’ve been saddled with - surprisingly, even labour didn’t make express provision, so that legislation could be resorted to, if, indeed, families and traditions just plainly got in the way of individuals just tryna live, and express themselves, AS INDIVIDUALS. it puts the woolies up me to have people thinking i need support according to what they see my ethnicity as… and i can’t go blabbing away in front of mum as to how much i …. well, jesus, i can’t explicitly go on as to how much i denounce her entire belief system right in front of her. she knows how i feel at heart, but i resent having to make it so clear when imparting to others how what they think would make me more comfortable, just drives me f”’ing nuts! hehehe!
um, i’d wonder if Rodney Hide could be wheeled in instead - relax, i’m being very facetious at this point. i have great faith that my personal circs are very much on course now, but the mentality that sloshes around from the so-called left to the so-called right and back in nz is something i find exceedingly banal… nz hasnt deviated nearly enough from thinking people all want 2.7 kids and a station wagon - they’ve just thrown some other cultural equivalents in. Turiana still reeks of that kind of status quo.
2 kay neich // Jul 10, 2009 at 1:28 pm
oops, sorry for spelling her name wrong… and of course families matter. i wouldn’t want to affect how important some people believe their faiths and traditions are. it’s just that some of “us” can live effectively, ethically and thoughtfully outside those parameters too.
3 Kay Neich // Jul 23, 2009 at 4:01 pm
A part of me is ashamed now for having what i’ve written out in public, but it is what it is. Mum does have her own understanding that i don’t mean any harm, but those reading these posts might cringe a bit. Am I really the only one in the world, though, who might sometimes fill in silly forms concerning what others think is an important part of my “identity” (gag), just coz i wanna be polite towards the others in the room? Do socal working bozos understand the complexity of that?! Note i don’t think it’s weakness with what i myself want, just consideration for others who still deserve to have their meanings left intact.
I gag in writing about anything to do with “Identity”tm because I think it’s only one chain of thought that was pretty amplified when flushed through the american schooling system (a branch of object relations theory, by my lay reckoning) that a person is somehow undeveloped if they don’t have a strong “Identity”tm. Hell, I completely accept that there’s so many things in anyone’s behaviour that maybe others put a circle around, and ascribe it to this or that. I kinda like the fluidity of buddhist thought myself whereby attaching oneself to some rigid sense of one’s own identity is just thought damned unhealthy.
I wonder about that when comments from anyone are that “they need to go back to the _____ way and to find out who they are” and stuff… isn’t that kind of a lazy way of not sussing out whatever other ways can be combined to go on with? I guess essentially that’s what does happen, but it seems maybe even a bit selfprophesizing to keep imparting that there’s something missing in a person’s life if they don’t _______ , according to ____________ . Poor kids. Wouldn’t some just fail in what they themselves prepare well for, just coz of the constant nagging at every step that they’re not considering what’s expected? And then it’s “I told you so”. and so old worn out notions get to live another day.
I think we should be able to see how this works in all forms. Just like Tariana, my mother, or any crip deemed a leader to take liberties with some screwy mandate(!), i know i can see the process in some forms, but not others. We’re all guilty.
Plese excuse the inane nervous laghter in the first post. My whole family laughs our way around a lot of this now - but it doesnt come thru in text as gently as i meant it.
cheers
k
4 Kay Neich // Jul 24, 2009 at 12:17 pm
hey guys,
I’m sorry how i didn’t stick to topic - I’m sure others can do a hell of a lot better. and, again, more power to the ones who really thrive on having their cultural needs catered for. i just see that as corresponding to an acceptance that i’m sure can be made even more broader…. i’ll try to shut up now, and make room…
thanks Red for this forum.
k
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