Who makes the rules and why ?

Photo by Mark Duffel on Unsplash

Do you ever question the amount of “rules” we have in our society today and the way they come into being ? Naive me I assumed that rules were made with integrity and with some form of restraint in a democratic society. I believed and was trained to believe that rules were there for the good of all, to make the co habitation of societies easier and to provide a clear pathway of resolution if conflict arose.

But it is clearly a false assumption as the regulations and legislation made under haste by both Labour and National Governments demonstrate. Rules and legislation generated by the pressure from those with wealth and priviledge, the likes of lobbying companies run by former National MPs to discriminate unfairly between groups of people based on socio economic disparity. Such a great thing that National coalition intends on removing regulations which are inconvenient for employers but provide safety for parents and employees whilst at the same time passing fast track legislation for mining companies to do whatever they feel entitled to do. Such a great thing that commercial property legislation requires commercial tenants to pay the costs of a landlords’ business, ie insurance of the building, rates and fixed power and water costs as operating expenses in addition to rents. Such a great thing that speed limitations are put on rural Auckland roads inhabitated by the well to do. Such a great thing that luxury car dealers can have traffic lights so their customers can access their premises or a multi storey appartment construction on an accessway to the motorway can have their own traffic lights even though it disrupts major traffic flows. No anything the rich and entitled want - your wish is our command to get to and draft a purchase order, a regulation, a law…just grease my palm with a favour or a big bribe.

Here’s an example what money can get you if you hire Joon Yi, Tenancy Tribunal adjudicator and criminal lawyer as advertised on his website. It’s just the kind of help Anne Walsh needed and probably got to escape any charges related to the murder of Anne Brouwer and her subsequent continuous employment with District Health Boards.

“DISCHARGE WITHOUT CONVICTION

If you have committed an offence but you cannot afford to have a criminal conviction on your record, you need to apply for a discharge without conviction under section 106 of the Sentencing Act 2002.

Having a criminal convictions can be critical to your employment, visas, citizenship and your profession.

Joon has got clients off convictions for drugs, drink driving, careless driving causing injury, assaults, sexual offending and dishonesty charges. A discharge without conviction gives the clients a chance to keep their record clean.”

Well well well - that’s an openness of different cultures to evading justice that has previously been more hidden in Western Society. His associates at Pohutukawa Barristers are obviously OK with these kinds of values.

There is another way to live if the fundamental basis of a human society is respect for all. There is very little need for the spiders web of legislation if we do that, there would be very little need for a sprawling justice system or a mini society of public servants monitoring the day to day habits of beneficiaries.

However there is the little matter of generational abuses and disparity of public resources which has fuelled much of the poverty, trauma and survival mentality of those currently labelled as “bad”. “mad” or “sad”. Legal and illegal industries related to addiction - gambling, alcohol, cigarettes, pharmaceutical drugs and street drugs that assist people to get through the misery of day to day lives living with very little money, hope and robust support for change and in the most miserable of living conditions.

Currently it seems culturally we lack the interpersonal skills for addressing these issues. The consistent approach has been gaslighting, denial and stonewalling by the abusers, the institutions and organisations named in the Royal Commission into the Abuse in State and Faith Based care. It’s shocking to me that that is what is still happening if the Salvation Army and their hidden partner WINZ are anything to go by. There’s no adherence at all to the complaints policy publicised, the Government has contracted a dispute resolution company that was a Government owned company and still employs directors seriously involved in the public sector. The Police who were very interested in investigating a theft when it was thought to be a transitional housing tenant, seemingly have no interest in investigating the alleged theft by a Salvation Army/WINZ staff member. So folks it’s a great big stitch up = same with the Tenancy Tribunal. And it’s a stitch up because adult men and women in positions of authority are completely unable to accept the responsibility that goes with the power of their positions.

Emotionally immature adults do not have any access to their humanity and it is clear in the way people like Nicola Willis speaks about beneficiaries, that she loathes us and she needs to keep us economically disabled. It is a prejudice shared by others in her Government and seems to be a badge they wear with honour and pride. I am not sure they are aware of how childish such an attitude is in an adult. It is also short sighted as I am not sure these people really appreciate the vagaries of life. I believe that an older couple, the man who had accepted a CEO position recently, were involved in a serious car accident, his contract was not valid anymore, they had no income and couldn’t afford the mortgage they had and suddenly they are in transitional accommodation. Or the person who’s child commits suicide or is found using drugs, the North Shore scourge, who turns to alcohol or drugs to cope with the grief and whose life spins out of control, or the business partner who steals all the wealth to feed his gambling addiction.

The welfare system used to be a humane way for people to recover from these life events with support. National Superannuation was an acknowledgement of the vulnerability of older age, the contributions made to society over a lifetime and in a pre John Key world an ability to survive economically without having to push trolleys at Pak n Save or clean commercial offices. The welfare system in supporting single parents financially was upholding a value of bringing up children without the pressure of juggling multiple part time jobs, school commitments and the pressure of running a household on one’s own. Everything we know about secure attachment does not support childcare or other institutional care as being superior to the family system, even an abusive family system.

The welfare system used to provide a living wage for people with disabilities, to offer them a way to be able to maintain their homes, appliances and vehicles without constantly having to go and plead for more money. It offered a way for people to be cared for by those they felt most safe with. It offered a stress free way to recover from illness - not a way to continually restress people.

But to have compassion for people who live in these circumstances, seemingly is beyond the capacity of the likes of Nicola Willis. No the people who need financial help are the mega landlords, most of them unlikely to be New Zealand born and what’s more let’s borrow to give it to them. It’s a cognitive mental position which is completely irrational and openly nepotistic.

And the need to increasingly have more and more complex laws and rely on online evidence and online legislation which can be manipulated and controlled by those with an intention to “win” at all costs can really only be the strategy available to people with low social intelligence. Sadly that’s who we have handed the reins over to…

Photo by Alex wong on Unsplash