This is about where to draw the line and when to move forward.
As we all know, on 18 March, Whaikaha issued a statement imposing purchasing guidelines on those accessing equipment management services and to guide those on Individualised Funding packages on where they can spend their support funding and where they can’t. This announcement and the backlash it prompted led Whaikaha to come clean on the state of their funding – they only had enough left in the kitty to continue support funding continue for a matter of days.
While Whaikaha’s communication approach came under significant fire, and the guidelines continue to draw criticism, the funding issue was deemed to be a surprise to both Minister Simmonds and Minister of Finance Willis.
Should it have been?
Whaikaha was set up with insufficient funding to do their job. Underfunding has been an issue in our sector for years, if not decades. A new minister, outside cabinet, definitely didn’t help.
So, if we continue the age-old Kiwi tradition of looking for someone to blame, who should it be?
Is Cabinet sufficiently confident that Whaikaha is up for leading the disability sector out of this mess? Did Cabinet take the early warnings about Whaikaha’s funding seriously enough? Did Minister Simmonds sound the alarm bell early and loudly enough with Cabinet? Is Minister Simmonds confident in her Whaikaha CEO Paula Tesoriero to continue to lead the fledgling Ministry? Is Paula confident in her team to give her the right advice in the future?
It’s difficult to apply blame for this fiasco with any single person when so many have played a part.
Then there’s MSD, who hold Whaikaha’s funding and provide a range of supports to the fledgling Ministry. Where were they when this broke loose? Was Debbie Power (MSD CEO) aware of the precarious state of Whaikaha’s funding? And if not, why not? And when did she pick up the phone to support her CEO colleague?
No – there are many people who led us here, and should share accountability.
The sector may be called upon to consider these two questions before very much longer:
- Are we happy to see Whaikaha fold and be subsumed into MSD after fighting so long and hard for our own Ministry?
- Are we comfortable for Paula Tesoriero, a CEO with a long track record of championing disability issues to take the blame on her own?
My issue is neither of these two scenarios would fix the root cause. The sector needs its own Ministry, appropriately funded and set up to do the job it was established to do.
There’s another great kiwi tradition of a fair go, and until Whaikaha is set up to succeed with proper funding, I don’t believe it’s right to tear it or its people down.
Peter Reynolds
Chief Executive Officer
NZDSN