Editorial: A traffic light system could apply to others’ behaviours

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Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston. Photo / Mark Mitchell
EDITORIAL
There was a silly (and potentially dangerous) game on the internet called Lightning Reaction Reloaded – Shocking Game. It tested speed, skills, and knowledge and one to four players could participate with a joystick.
The aim was to answer questions the quickest and the last one got a slight electric shock through the stick. It had high, medium, and low settings and was not recommended for anyone on a pacemaker or with a faint heart.
Following the coalition Government’s move to place beneficiaries on a traffic light system, there’s probably a few on the benefit who would like to play against a few MPs, and their political leaders, with a Lightning Reaction Reloaded – Shocking Game of their own.
No doubt there would be a few MPs bouncing around like Australian breakdancer Raygun.
Looking at the traffic system via the Work and Income (He Hiranga Tangata) website, it appears straightforward.
Do what you are told, like a good beneficiary, and you stay in the green zone. Green is good. But go off track, by not attending hui or Jobseeker training, and you will move to orange. Continue to not meet your “obligations” without a good reason, it’s off to red.
No one wants to get into the red, especially not while you are on a benefit.
Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston said the benefits system is a safety net, not a dragnet, and it’s not a final destination but a support to help those in need at a certain time – just not a long time.
“In the past few years it has become a dragnet that has captured too many people who can work and allowed them to languish on Jobseeker Support for too long,” Upston said.
“Our Government will not tolerate people who accept the Jobseeker Support benefit but refuse to uphold their obligation to seek a job – it is not fair on hardworking Kiwis who pay their taxes that go towards those benefit payments.”
A strong and hardly unempathetic stance for those on benefits.
But unfortunately, it is the type of rhetoric hard-working New Zealanders like to hear from our politicians because if we have to work hard to make ends meet, so should they.
There are thousands of hard-working Kiwis who find themselves on benefits, through government cuts, corporate restructuring, and tough economic times.
We must be mindful because as the proverb says: “There but for the grace of God go I.”
Others’ misfortune could soon be your own.
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