By Emily Writes
A mum of a disabled child rang me in tears. “Have you seen the latest? Have you seen what they are doing to us now?” she sobbed.
I knew. I’d just learnt of a leaked document published on the Parents of Visually Impaired NZ (PVINZ) website, stating the Government planned to severely restrict and reduce access to residential services for disabled people.
As I tried to support her, emails rolled in from parents of disabled tamariki.
I began to think about how I would explain what the restriction in residential services meant, when I realised she was referring to the plan to review Enabling Good Lives (EGL) budgets more often than the already exhausting annual basis, to reduce spending.
Anyone with a disabled or medically fragile child will tell you that getting the support needed to keep your child alive and safe, let alone thriving, is a challenge. But never, in 11 years of disability sector advocacy, have I ever seen the level of brutality and cruelty the coalition Government displays toward disabled, medically fragile and neurodivergent tamariki.
In just six months, the Government has severely restricted parents and carers of disabled tamariki from accessing any respite - a decision made with no notice and announced through Facebook.
They have shut frontline services like Tākai, a parenting resource hub, which had for three decades supported parents. They couldn’t survive even a year under this government. Every resource they published is now no longer accessible. Friendship House, which has offered counselling for two decades, had its Oranga Tamariki counselling contract discontinued with four hours’ notice.
The Government reduced services for wheelchair users in March. In July, with immediate effect, restrictions were placed on purchasing rules for disabled people's equipment and support services. Families can no longer access funding or subsidies for disability support programmes for their children, like Riding for the Disabled or swimming lessons, during school hours.
According to CCS Disability Action, households with disabled children were 1.5 times more likely to earn under $40,000 a year, compared to households with non-disabled children. 63% of carers of disabled children say they do not have enough money or only just enough money.
When I say that families cannot keep up with all of these attacks - it’s not hyperbole.
Bernard Hickey talked about this in his newsletter, The Kākā. He said: “I have begun to realise the constant barrage of outrages is not a bug within the current Government. It’s a feature. It is designed to distract, overwhelm and defeat those wanting to try or at least examine other policies, especially ones backed by actual evidence and that haven’t been tried before and failed before.”
The community desperately needs others to stand with us and speak up for us. We are in crisis. We are exhausted. We need your help.
Speaking out and standing up against this government’s cruelty may literally save lives.
Emily Writes is a mum of two, a columnist, an activist, a volunteer, a writer and a friend. She is the best-selling author of Rants in the Dark: From One Tired Mama to Another which was turned into a stage play that toured Aotearoa. She's the editor of the anthology Is It Bedtime Yet? and her latest book Needs Adult Supervision: Lessons in Growing Up is the long-awaited follow up to Rants in the Dark.
She is currently making a living from her online newsletter (Emily Writes Weekly) subscriber base. She is also the director of Awhi Ngā Mātua – a charity supporting parents of disabled and medically fragile kids and host of the podcast The Courage Club.
This is an opinion piece and the views expressed in it do not necessarily reflect the views of the PSA.