Cabinet puts disabilities ministry on watch after families blindsided
Tuesday, 26 March 2024
Finance Minister Nicola Willis says Cabinet is taking charge of Whaikaha, requiring any future frontline changes to get top level approval.
Last week, Disabilities Minister Penny Simmonds and her ministry, Whaikaha, sparked a backlash from disabled families after announcing sudden funding cuts.
Simmonds says Cabinet has approved funding so the ministry can keep buying wheelchairs.
Cabinet has moved to take greater control over Whaikaha, the Ministry for Disabled People, after it blindsided families with sudden cuts to respite care and other services.
Disabilities Minister Penny Simmonds, a member of the National Party, last week admitted she signed off Whaikaha’s briefing that it would urgently implement restrictions to funding for families with disabilities, without any consultation.
But Finance Minister Nicola Willis told Stuff the cuts came as a “surprise” to her and her Cabinet colleagues. Simmonds is a minister outside of Cabinet, which is the Government’s most senior decision making forum.
Last week, Willis called in Whaikaha officials and Simmonds for a please explain about what had gone wrong at the ministry after it hit the headlines.
Then on Tuesday morning, Willis confirmed Cabinet had asked for more oversight of decisions being made by Simmonds and Whaikaha.
“We’ve also directed, as a Cabinet, that any further decisions that the ministry makes about changing its criteria, its funding, needs to be properly consulted, properly sequences. It needs to go to Cabinet before it’s enacted,” Willis said.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins called it “an extraordinary step” for Cabinet to intervene in this way.
“They’re basically saying the minister is not able to make decisions in their own portfolio, without going to the whole of Cabinet. It’s a massive vote of no confidence in Penny Simmonds by the prime minister and her Cabinet colleagues,” Hipkins said.
Hipkins said it appeared Prime Minister Christopher Luxon did not trust Simmonds, and therefore he said Luxon should “do something more” than asking Cabinet to keep an eye on the portfolio.
Willis also confirmed Cabinet had approved some additional funding, to tide over the ministry until the end of the financial year.
“We've also requested that the minister returns to Cabinet with the terms of reference for a review of how we are going to manage this area in the future,” Willis said.
“I have been advised that for several years, this is an agency who have outspent their appropriation before the end of the year… obviously, that's not ideal.”
But Simmonds said that extra funding would not mean a reversal of last week’s shock decision to cut services for families with disabilities.
“Even with the additional funding, there is still a real risk of them running out of funding,” she said.
This extra funding was needed for “equipment and modifications”, Simmonds said, essentially so the ministry could keep buying wheelchairs.
“Equipment like wheelchairs and modifications to home so we needed to ensure that they could continue.”
Simmonds denied Cabinet’s direction to have oversight of all Whaikaha changes was a vote of no confidence.
“There are some systems and processes that are missing in Whaikaha. We're intending to do a review to look at those… In the meantime, it's really important that we keep Cabinet abreast of anything that is changing,” she said.
Willis declined to say how much money Whaikaha received to tide it over, saying that figure was Budget sensitive. Her Budget was due out at the end of May.