Fairfax should be ashamed

I blogged yesterday on how Fairfax had a story on Lynlie Beazley.  It trumpeted her as the “face of poverty” in New Zealand. It ran a story entirely sympathetic to her claiming she had to survive on just $22 a week for food, and portraying this as all the fault of the Government.

My original blog was critical of Fairfax for not providing any information on her claimed income and expenses so it could be scrutinised. But this is the least of their failings.

It then transpires that Beazley had 32 convictions including aggravated robbery. This changes entirely the picture the original article was portraying which was 100% sympathetic to her.

But it gets even worse than that for Fairfax. They failed to spend even 60 seconds searching her name with the Tenancy Tribunal. If they had they would have found:

• 3 Oct 2016 – tenancy terminated for non-payment of rent
• 22 Feb 2017 – tenancy terminated for non-payment of rent and cleaning costs of over $1,000

Now both tenancies were with Vision West Community Trust. It exists to end homelessness, and so would only be evicting someone if no other resort.

Now note how generous the Government is. Despite her trashing her house with Vision West Community Trust, she was put into a Housing NZ home. She gets a huge subsidy from the taxpayer so her rent is only 25% of her benefit or $59 a week. Yes only $59 a week yet she claims this is so high she can’t afford more than $22 a week on food.

Decisions have consequences. If you trash your home, you get evicted, If you commit aggravated robbery you find it hard to get a job.  Despite all this we’re providing a house for her to live in for just $59 a week.