Kia ora Koutou,
When I first began work and started paying tax it was called social security. We knew, because we were told, that our taxes would not only help this country grow but that we could feel secure. We would be looked after ‘from the cradle to the grave’ as Winston Churchill said in 1938, and which was quoted here as though God, if you believed in such a being, had spoken.
Adults were saying it, politicians quoting it, I was young, I thought they were telling the truth – so I believed it. What a wonderful thing it would be to be cared for until I died. How lucky I was to live here.
If I got sick I would be looked after, if I needed work, I could get a job, if I needed a house to rent it would be available, if I wanted to buy a house standing on that, in those days real, quarter-acre section, then I’d be able to do it. I believed in the grave part of the deal too, that when I got old I would be looked after. This was a New World, part of which would be paid for by my taxes.
The one sure thing according to Benjamin Franklin, one of the founders of USA, was ‘death and taxes’ and sometimes I think he should have said was ‘health worries, death and taxes.
Here in Aotearoa it was thought Maori would die out so no government planning or provision was made for their treaty partner. Attitudes were set in stone and, like in the USA and Britain, still are – Bureaucracies eg Police, Health, Welfare, ACC and others, still show ‘unconscious bias’ as use it as an excuse and that old slogan ‘from the cradle to the grave’ has been changed to ‘you will be looked after as long as you meet the criteria’.
No–one knows exactly what this means which is useful to those dispensing help. They can make it up as they go along.
There are so many stories of needs not met but the monolith called bureaucracy is immune to such tales – they don’t meet the criteria. Some criteria for assistance are published on websites but the seeker always discovers there are others to be found when needed by the person behind the desk.
I welcome and applaud the changes to the Health System introduced by Andrew Little, Minister of Health, last week. It will be a rocky ride. There is nothing like the anger of a comfortably ensconced civil servant (oh the irony of that term) who sees a threat to her/his position.
It has been clear for years that our health system does not deliver to a large number of our population. It is clear that successive governments have done little to improve the situation. It is clear they knew the population of older New Zealanders was rising and very clear that no preparation was made for that. Perhaps they thought, ‘she’ll be right’ although of course that thought would have been couched in more bureaucratic-speak. Heaven forbid that anyone outside their exalted circles would understand what their words mean. Why would they? They have been composed by some public–speak expert who prides him or herself on producing sentences that sound good but mean nothing.
I have been lucky. When I needed an operation I only had a few weeks wait for two and the other was an emergency so had to be dealt with, ready or not. But, also like everyone else, I’ve had indifferent or careless treatment by health professionals more than I’ve had caring and intelligent treatment. The medical professions and those who work in that area treat all old people as though we’re all the same, as though we’re all mentally and physically enfeebled. They, of course, are never going to grow old. I hope when they do, they have to deal with someone exactly like their younger selves.
The problem for Andrew Little is not that the proposed changes are not possible, not that they’re a long-awaited improvement which will help solve a whole heap of things, the problem for the Health Minister is whether the bureaucrats will work to put into place these changes or whether they’ll stall because change is the one thing they fear. Change is a challenge to power and they will not want to lose a crumb of that power. Their niche is nice and cosy, why would they want to change it? Come face to face with the real world?
But as Sam Cooke sang, ‘Change is gonna come’, so it will. Its the pace of it that I wonder about. Who will die or live in severe discomfort or pain, while they wait for a colonoscopy or ultra sound or operation? Who will be put off going to the medical centre because everyone there is Pakeha. Who will live in comfort while their neighbours live in a van and their kids get rheumatic fever? Who will take an overdose because they are sick of waiting for someone to help?
I was what would now be called a child when I started paying tax. Those were the days when there was no such thing as a teenager. You stopped school, went to work, paid taxes, you became an adult. Some young people ‘played up’ but that was expected and a good ‘clip round the ears’ for a boy and ‘sent ‘up north and forced adoption’ for the girl, if she got pregnant. Apparently, she managed it all by herself, it was all her fault, as far as society and the churches were concerned. It was right therefore that she and her baby should pay the price. One of the best things among the many that we feminists shouted about in the 70s was for the provision of welfare payments for a single mother and child, not a great income but it meant that if that girl or woman wanted to, she could keep her baby.
I’m still paying tax and some of my cohort are too. We’re getting old, so old in fact, that when I tried to join an online music site, they would not accept my birthdate… We think you have made a mistake – please enter your birthdate again. So I did and they sniffed and vanished. They did not want to play for me.
However, old or not, I no longer believe in the promise of ‘from the cradle to the grave’ and I was probably stupid ever to have done so. I should have realised that, whether we pay taxes or not, some of us are lucky and the rest of us suffer because we don’t meet the criteria.
So – kia kaha Andrew Little, thanks for all your hard work – I wish you all the luck in the world – you’re going to need it.
Renée
