I’ve been musing a bit lately about accountability. How important it is. Labour’s new OpenLabourNZ policy process is about being accountable and open with New Zealanders.
When you become an MP you know you are accountable to your Party, your caucus colleagues and to your constituents. And of course, to yourself and your family.
Media are an important part of our democracy. We need them, we need them to be vigorous and to scrutinise, investigate, probe beneath the surface and critically analyse. We need them to be intelligent and wise, responsible and have high standards of quality, to be ethical. And we need them to hold elected representatives accountable.
Here’s the NZ journalist code of ethics, produced by their union the EPMU. It makes interesting reading.
Two questions I’ve been grappling with.
First, is the spotlight on MPs expenses all about accountability? Or is it something else? It certainly has taken people’s attention away from how public money is being spent and how significant cuts and changes are happening in health, education, social development.
This week, Contact Energy put its electricity prices up by nearly 10% in Dunedin. Gerry Brownlee sat on his hands. Despite his govt having pledged to do something about high electricity prices. Is anyone watching this?
On the Foreshore and Seabed, John Key and Ministers promised most NZers that they wont notice any changes, and yet tell Maoridom they are delivering them what they want. I’m not seeing much scrutiny here.
In social development Paula Bennett talked recently about the possibility of the welfare reform debate turning ugly. Thankfully John Armstrong in the NZ Herald picked this up and wrote about it. But it got lost in the maelstrom around MP spending.
Tony Ryall manages to continue to get away with calling cuts to frontline health services “changes”.
And then we have Judith Collins who has the Police Association onside after settling a wage claim arguing that cuts to policing in a number of regions is ok because those regions are overpoliced! Not sure Otago is going to feel safer after losing 22 police jobs.
There are many more issues. Rhetoric vs reality.
Delving into the issues is time consuming. It’s worthy but not always sexy. It requires resources, determination and investigative skills. And motivation. Not many news organisations have extensive resources, or skilled practitioners for this and there has been a growing trend for journalism to syndicate material and concentrate on day to day stories.
And second, who holds the media accountable? For their motivations and their methods? Is it the Broadcasting Standards Authority? The NZ Press Council?
Here’s a list of useful websites for anyone interested in seeing what’s available. Complaints can be laid, but they take a long time to be processed. The results of investigations are printed in newspapers (not usually the front page) and sometimes read on air.
Is it enough? Media coverage can be hugely unforgiving. Once it’s out there it creates an impression which is hard to shift, even if the reporting has been found wanting.
And what about the role of citizen journalism? Blogs have become sources of news and we are seeing more and more claims made by bloggers portrayed as “fact”. I think the rise of citizen journalism is fascinating but it carries dangers and distortions.
In the spirit of OpenLabourNZ what role does the media play in our democracy? Could it be different? Better, Stronger? Are they too powerful? Are they equipped? Or have we got it about right?
Yeah, and I get the sense of political bias in a lot of things I watch these days.
Oh Spud thats one of the most ironic things I’ve read in a very long time
Personally the rise of the citizen blogger is fantastic, ok sometimes the info is wrong but mostly if it makes the MPs uncomfortable then you know its got more then a little truth to it
and without it mere plebs (like me) wouldn’t know anything thats going on…credit card rorts, suppression orders etc etc
Its also a great way to keep MPs on their toes and let the know what we’re thinking
It is easy enough to speculate about why the high profile end of the media has ceased to function as a fourth estate and more as a branch of the PR/Advertising industry, but real research would need to be done to come up with plausible answers as to why. Howewever an example of how to modify this tendency might be taken from kiwibank and its small but significant effect on the banking industry. National Radio, for the moment anyway, retains a high level of respect because it retains professional standards. Perhaps we could also do with a TV channel that functions along similar lines. Just as kiwibank has offered a counterexample to the “necessity” of high bank fees and bad banking service, such a channel would offer a counterexample to the “necessity” of mindless baying, partisan reporting and sensationalism.
Chris – It’s fine to keep the MPs on their toes, but let’s not forget to keep the MINISTERS on their toes. You know, the people who actually are able to do stuff to the country??????
@Spud
Its swings and roundabouts, when Labour was in power (and I love typing those words) the media was bias towards them, just the way it is
And besides John Key is such an intelligent, successful, charasmatic, down to earth kind of guy, the type of guy people warm to and aspire to emulate so its no suprise the media are (at the moment) good to him
The media is on a downhill slide. It took too long to embrace the internet and is now losing more advertising revenue than it can handle.
My solution is charter funding from the government for print media to ensure substance in what’s reported on. Otherwise we’re heading for more articles about sex, gossip and celebrity.
I’m not suggesting full funding (like RNZ). I’m suggesting partial funding with an agreement from media to provide a certain percentage of articles about important issues that are often ignored or poorly reported on because they don’t sell papers or are in the too hard basket.
If it’s set up in the right way, a Government won’t be able to use it as a carrot or stick to control the media.
Olwyn said:
Funny enough this sounds like the rationale for the original setting up of public broadcasting. Looks like good things never change but that every new generation of citizens needs to realise it for itself.
Clare: the spotlight going on how Labour MPs abused our trust & misused our money is very much about accountability however, breaking their own code of ethics & chasing CC around the halls of parliament was completely inappropriate.
In terms of NACT policy – the spotlight hasn’t gone off this at all. And to imply that they are any more about mere rhetoric than Labour….well, let’s judge them at the end of a 9 year tenure eh.
Re electricity – prices going up by 10% for the 18mths NACT has been in power is a heck of a lot better than the average 7% increase we saw for the 9 years Labour was in power. But of COURSE NACT should be able to solve in 18 months what Labour failed to solve in 9 years.
F & S – you have got to be kidding. Labour doesn’t stand one iota of a chance in gaining traction on this issue so best to save your energy for issues where you actually do stand a chance.
Social welfare….the reality is this needs to be overhauled and this will mean that PC language will go out the window. This will no doubt be extremely popular for the voters. I for one am looking forward to it. I am looking forward to NACT putting an end to this hand out mentality that Labour is solely responsible for, and starting to focus on changing to a hand UP approach.
If Labour is really serious about moving into a place of more transparency and more accountability well then, best start by showing that the Labour party of 2011 is far removed from that of 2008.
At this stage all I hear and all I read is the same old tired PC rhetoric that lacks any real substance and most certainly has no concept of real life in NZ. Labour just does not get it. Labour seems to have no idea how NZ’ers live or how the bulk of us think. Labour is quick to spout the right kind of rhetoric yet the policies show that as a party, you are clueless.
Time to focus on the second half of the role – prove to NZ that as a party, you are a credible alternative government as this current focus on attacking everything that NACT do despite Labour having so spectacularly failed NZ for 9 whole years, is getting tiring and boring.
In addition to the above, let me remind Labour that it is these things that NZ’ers have a hard time forgetting:
*Letting people like the Harris family rort the system for 25 years (see http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/3184336/Couple-on-benefits-since-1984)
*Letting the rich rort the tax system for the entire 9 years you were in government
*Keeping middle New Zealand’s taxes at a crippling high
*Let waiting times for surgeries get out of control
*Allowing the cost of living esp food prices to go up by 18% and power to go up by 70%
*Allowing houses to become 6 times the average wage
*Only increasing the minimum wage to a miserly $12.50 by 2008
*Allowing child abuse to go from being the 6th worse in the OECD to 3rd worst
*Allowing the need for foodbanks to double’
* Allowing the health of our children to become one of the worst in the OECD – yes it got worse under Labour despite their claims. Check out the OECD report.
You may claim that WFF & primary health care solved all these problems but they barely touched the tip of the ice berg.
Further it took you 5 YEARS before you even attempted to do ANYTHING. Not good enough.
The list goes on and on & I have mentioned this stuff many many many times. Funny how NO ONE from the Labour Party every comments on the specifics.
That to me shows a LACK of accountability and a lack of transparency.
NACT may not be any better but they sure as heck can’t do any worse than the 5ht Labour government.
@Chris – How is this for a novel concept? A NEUTRAL MEDIA!
Integrity, it shouldn’t matter if so and so has charisma.
My two cents
I sense the media were snuffling through those credit cards for their own excitement as much as public good. For example, we have about 121 MPs, how many were putting personal things on their credit cards and not paying back until the spotlight turned on them?
I am not excusing the misuse (unlike John Key, who excused Brownlee and English entirely, and didnt want heatley to go at all). I think the S & F was a HUGE story for NZ but it got pushed aside.
$50,000 it cost us to find out about this… as part of their job and given the mileage they got for it, Media ought to have paid for this stuff, not us. ANY of us could have asked for this through OIA, any one of us who did so would have been asked to cover costs
As for our puritanism over the blue movies. It’s not actually illegal, so in essence it’s the amount of money misspent that is important, not want Jones spent it on.. we’re fine, it seems with it being spent on food, luxury items and wine but not perfectly legal adult movies.
“they sure as heck can’t do any worse than the 5ht Labour government.”
Actually it IS possible for them to do worse, time will tell if they do.
“It certainly has taken people’s attention away from how public money is being spent”
Excuse me but it is quite obviously the opposite. We are now very clear where our money is or at least was going, on Bikes, Golf Clubs, porno films and Chinese meals.
So yes it is about accountability, you can’t just sweep it under the rug because it’s inconvenient to your party, which is what seems to be suggested here.
The other issues are completely irrelevant.
Clare says: “When you become an MP you know you are accountable to your Party, your caucus colleagues and to your constituents. And of course, to yourself and your family.”
So, now we know where the order in which our elected officials pay their allegiance to.
Spud – A neutral media? Why not go the all the way and have state controlled media, that would balance things out wouldn’t it. Works well for Hugo Chavez and Bob Mugabe, so why not here?
Our mainstream media serve as spin-doctors for the National Party. The National party’s chums own the mainstream media. National wants the media just as they are,dumb and compliant.
“Our mainstream media serve as spin-doctors for the National Party. The National party’s chums own the mainstream media. National wants the media just as they are,dumb and compliant.”
Whoa! Conspiracy!
Neutral media? Sure if they were robots! Bias is a natural human condition!!!
marsman @ 12.59pm – what garbage!
I suppose the usual rule has been that we get a chance every 3 years to tell MPs what we think of them. The newspaper gets told by falling circulation. The TV gets caught with falling ratings. Radio ditto. Long may National Radio continue.
It may have been deliberate to cloud the S&F issue by Key’s decision to release the documents just when he did, knowing that the media would do what they did.
@Simon – No, no, no, state controlled isn’t neutral
Media should be free and without bias
@Rebecca – I agree with you that everything in life is subjective, I just think that the media could hold this in check a bit.
National Radio is great, Ianmac
Rebecca Talking of garbage. Your line fed from Head Office must be good fun but largely nonsense.
NZers are good/bad and somewhere in between. To pick out individual stories to somehow prove failure of a Government is a bit pointless. For example Capill was a nasty fellow so you would say the Christian Church has failed. Or The plumber failed to fix the tap so the industry to your argument has failed. What rubbish.
Perhaps a soapbox elsewhere might help your cause?
Clare while you may have only just noticed Contact’s price increases, I think Brownlee got in a week or so ago – see http://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/dunedin+power+users+should+shop+around
Agreed!!!!!!!
@morrisminor
http://www.clarecurran.org.nz/speeches2.php?speech_id=78
Argh! M oderation
My agreed was for Ianmac’s comment 
Re chums. e.g Do the media-maggots chase Te Heuheu when she runs away from them? The people of New Zealand have a right to know whether she is simply handing cash to National’s chums.
And e.g. Helen Clark’s speeding limousine beat-up. She needed to be on time to greet the Prime Minister of Australia. And the excuses by the media when John Key was in a speeding limousine……he wanted to have a shower!
All Clare has done there is prove morrisminor is right.
David said:
Whoa! Conspiracy!
Can’t be a conspiracy if its clearly obvious. Conspiracies are supposed to be hush hush working subtly in the background, yeah?
Well let’s handle your scripted talking points Rebecca:
*Letting people like the Harris family rort the system for 25 years (see http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/3184336/Couple-on-benefits-since-1984)
[Hmmmmm wasn't National in power in 1984? And from 1990-1996? So both National and Labour deserve some responsibility for this but you are only blaming one side? Why would that be?]
*Letting the rich rort the tax system for the entire 9 years you were in government
[Yes, NACT has improved things by giving the rich all the benefits of rorting without actually having to make the effort or family trusts etc now. Very efficient.]
*Keeping middle New Zealand’s taxes at a crippling high
[I was in 'middle class' during this time and I personally didn't notice being "crippled" The value Government got from each tax payers' dollar could have been improved though]
*Let waiting times for surgeries get out of control
[Wow, did you just complain that taxes were too high and are now complaining that not enough tax money was allocated to surgeries? What are the physics of financial reality where you live? lol]
*Allowing the cost of living esp food prices to go up by 18% and power to go up by 70%
[Oooooh who set up the power reforms responsible for this Rebecca? Didn't I hear the name "Bradford" being mentioned on Red Alert recently? As for 18% increase in food prices - uh that sounds like the rate of inflation over several years, inflation that Labour did fine at reigning in thank you]
*Allowing houses to become 6 times the average wage
[Well this was admittedly bad form. There is no way the stupidity of the behaviour around the housing bubble should have been allowed to continue. Labour could have incrementally bit by bit taken the heat out of this market in several different ways]
*Only increasing the minimum wage to a miserly $12.50 by 2008
[Rebecca supports a more rapid increase in the level of the minimum wage! Have you already signed the $15 petition?
]
*Allowing child abuse to go from being the 6th worse in the OECD to 3rd worst
[Yes because we know that Govt policy caused this. By the way, what about NACT allowing ACC to pull funding from victims of sexual abuse/assault?]
*Allowing the need for foodbanks to double’
[Not quite sure if you are making a case for NACT to provide more Govt services to the poor Rebecca? Or for lifting the minimum wage? Or both]
* Allowing the health of our children to become one of the worst in the OECD – yes it got worse under Labour despite their claims. Check out the OECD report.
[Which metric(s) are you looking at particularly?]
@David and Morrisminor What’s your point?
What about this shocker today in the weak-end herald?
http://tumeke.blogspot.com/2010/06/how-awful-can-herald-get.html
Loota well said @ 1:53.
I thought of contesting what Rebecca had written, but then thought why should Mr Rebecca control an excellent post by Clare on the Media? His/her posts are really Scotch Mist as you have shown.
I have an image of Mr Key casually tossing a bone and watching the frenzied media pack tearing it to pieces. Then Mr Key turns aside to other matters which slip quietly away from the pack who are vying for the most salacious morsels on the bare bones. Huh? says the dumb dog? What happened?
The media could have reported on the welfare reforms, but they didn’t. They could have discussed the limit of 5 years on welfare, but they didn’t. They could have discussed the avaibility of the jobs that were avabile but they didn’t. What about reporting that Paula bennett not staying to listen? What about the journailsts asking where are the children going to go if it shift work? What about they saying back to Paula Bennett when she states she did it that jobs where you can take your child along with you and put them to bed there at your place of work like she did was rare.
The didn’t report on any of this. It was lazy reporting. Nothing on the welfare fourm that was held at Vic uni was reported at all. Only half the story is ever reported and I’m tired of it.
Regardless of how you feel or view points, I think that these things should be in the media and reported to the public.
I also was going to hammer her points, like I normally do, but I had to go out and just couldn’t be bothered and the same as you didn’t want the thread going down that direction.
Agreed
“What about reporting that Paula bennett not staying to listen?” He he he – I would’ve liked to have seen THAT chase 
(not condoning the other chase).
I think Labour should make some noise over welfare!
rrrrRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAARRRrrrrr!!!!!
Ianmac – I’ve been wishing lately that someone would do a NZ version of John Stewart’s ‘The Daily Show’.
” Is the spotlight on MPs expenses all about accountability?” Yes. Yes. Yes. This is OUR money. Some of you do not seem to understand this. Whereas, some of us work 50, 60 or more hours a week to pay for you and the benefits and the super and the social programs and etc, etc, etc.
I am amazed that you have the cheek to make comments on power prices, the health system, the mess we now have with the foreshore and seabed, social welfare and so on. Have you no shame?.
What is even more amazing is finding out that journos have a code of ethics.
I think if it was reported that the way Paula Bennett released the information and that the more they are deemed to recieve the less they have to live on and explained why, it could have taken on a whole new story and angle but they didn’t even ask the question. They didn’t look into the issues. Its lazy reporting in my opinion. They don’t ask the questions, they don’t question the answers and it becomes a mess.
You have something there Loota. There is nothing like satire to rattle some dags. It would almost fit on Prime though Maori TV sometimes has little skits to make a point. Think of the mannerisms of some MPs. Ummm. Smile and wave? A Georgina non-answer? Paula Bennet bashing beneficiaries? Anne Tolley not knowing why Nat Stds? The cartoonists do make telling points. Though Tom Scott has been criticised for drawing Mr K ey’s nose too big. Caricature.
Bloggers hold the media accountable.
That’s who.
Yes, satire, does anyone know why Facelift was cancelled?
We pay taxes too johnbt. I paid taxes for since for 11 years (not including the part times jobs at school that were taxed) and now I’m trying to put myself through Uni. Yes I’m a solo parent to children 3 and under. Its my money too. I worked and paid taxs, I’m still paying taxs, I’ve got a student loan, My ex pays child support so that off sets the benefit, it goes to the govt. If you want people off the benefit faster, why not campain for the TIA to be reinstated. Then I could afford full time childcare and complete it my degree in 3 years (2 more years after this year) Surely the govt helping with childcare will be less expensive than having to go part time and staying on the benefit longer? It made no sense. Not only that but the degree I’m doing, they are going to have to recruite from overseas soon as they isn’t enough trained professionals doing what I’m training in.
If their father had custody, which he wants, he would be the hero. I would be the villan. Since I have day to day responsibility nothing happens to him but I’m still the villian? whats fair in that. I have come to realise that nothing I do will ever be enough for people like you. If I’m up untill 1-3am studying that isn’t good enough. I’ve I don’t thats not good enough either. If I was on the student allowance that is okay but due to not being allowed the Student allowance due to being on the DPB that isn’t good enough. Have a student loan too like everyone else. Can’t win and am tired of trying to justify myself to people like you who don’t know who I am, or have never ever met me or my children.
The media should be reporting properly on issues that effect NZers, the welfare reform will effect everyone in NZ, tax payers and the people on them, and people should learn to question what they say, and look into what is going on in the world too. Only then they can arrive at an informed desision. How can anyone form this kind of desision if these things don’t happen?
Clare I can’t say if it’s getting worse because i’m in denial about becoming a curmudgeon, but I notice more and more the extent to which political reporting has become commentary over reporting – i.e. they are talking about the game rather than the action (if that makes sense).
Take Mr Armstrong’s opinion piece this morning – the public were apparently transfixed by Chris Carter/ministerial expenses. Were we? what choice did we have? Did Mr Armstrong talk to any public, or is our transfixion imagined from within the parliamentary complex?
Ironically enough, he was making the point that he felt National’s progress on Foreshore and Seabed got lost in the expenses thing. Yes it’s an opinion piece, but when the media starts accusing *itself* of crowding out stories surely it’s time for a bit of self-reflection!
When I read down the hundreds of comments on the expenses stuff on Stuff (evidence, presumably, of the level of public interest) a very significant number seemed to me to be imploring the media to do something more important.
So there is public *interest* (which is why Stuff’s “most viewed” list currently has “meet the sexiest woman alive” at #1 and “what is Megan Fox wearing” at #2), but there is also public *importance* – and we rely on the journalistic *profession* to make that call for us.
The problem is also exemplified by the panels of experts that follow the long form interviews these days. “right, you heard what Mr English had to say Dr Johanssen/Mike WIlliams/Therese Arseneau, now what will people think about that?” I’m tired of reading about how we are supposedly reacting, or what I’m supposed to think – of course there is a role for commentators but we need some plain unadulterated facts-of-the-matter reporting so my friends and I can think and react for ourselves.
The 7000 pages of receipts got a huge amount of coverage and did expose some foolish and lamentable behaviour – but the perspective is entirely out of whack, in the same week a whole lot more important (and expensive) things happened – $209,000 for Dr Smith’s lawyers, and $4.8 million for PEDA’s, um, we don’t even know what, but it would sure buy a lot of mineral water and pistachios and skin flicks.
What really makes me tetchy is that the media (who are rightly concerned about cuts to newsrooms) can take the fine-tooth comb desperately searching for anything titillating in 7000 pages of receipts, but don’t seem to expend the same energy on, for example, what far shorter documents like the Green Party’s “green new deal” statement says, or the content of a controversial Bill before the House, or – worst of all – the detail of what was in anybody’s Election manifesto last time around.
People accuse the Key govt of being populist, but the 4th Estate is massively aiding and abetting that shift, and no wonder that leads to less-principled govts running the country by focus group – when the most important question becomes “how will this ‘play’”?
Enough complaining you asked about accountability.
1. Their accountability is to the public. Hence the need for strong public broadcasting (like RNZ) to maintain standards. How can a purely market-led media outlet perform the fundamental 4th estate check and balance to democracy? Shareholders worry about declining advertising and readership, not the truthiness of the reporting – and the easy response is populism, not quality improvement.
2. we need to complain when things ain’t right. I’m glad Mr Speaker saw fit to punish the channels for that new low we saw the other night. The relationship between news-makers and news-breakers is supposed to be symbiotic.
3. keep blogging – circumvent the media by using the new direct channels that technology provides to tell your own story and to correct the MSM.
4. More blacklists. Deny interviews to the chronic misrepresenters. Hey it was good enough for Rob Muldoon… I appreciate that may be difficult when Mr Gower is chasing honourable members down the stairs but that just shows how much they need you.
In opposition especially I’m sure you feel like you need them to get your message out – I’m not convinced, cos they stopped giving out Labour’s message in about 2006, and the events of the last week or so suggests they ain’t done kicking just yet.
“Whereas, some of us work 50, 60 or more hours a week to pay for you and the benefits and the super and the social programs and etc, etc, etc.”
johnbt
No you dont work those hours for me, no matter what you tell yourself. I work similar hours and am not doing it for you or for anyone else. Unlike you I accept I live in a community and that community requires some stuff from me and I from it as part of the human circle of life. I am SICK of some folks here self righteously pre supposing that the only people who work hard are those who voted National last time and anyone who voted differently is being propped up by those people.
I was going to challenge Rebecca, in more simple terms but suggesting her first post didnt actually belong ion this thread, but another altogether. Interestingly many have focused on her post, for and against, and avoided the media accountability issue.
Guyon Espiner nearly wet his pants he was so excited about trawling through the expenses… for the rest of the week he seemed missing in action while he trawled… meanwhile important issues passed us by.
How many Cabinet Ministers were shown to have misspent, and why hasnt the media reported the exact figures, we could see if most Cab Mins are the evil theives some think them to be, or is it the exception?
I am not an apologist for those too stupid to understand simple rules. Key campaigned on transparency and honesty and accountability, so his Ministers are the most recent offenders… he hid behind the AG and in English’s case just said it’s in the rules so it’s ok”. That’s the current standard Rebecca et al, and all your walks down nightmare lane dont change that.
Key said “change” he didnt say “we’ll do no worse than the other lot”
Gooner, I think that is wishful thinking, there is a demographic who look online, but most of NZ (I think) doesnt go online for their news and edification (politics-wise).
One would also have to either stumble upon or be looking for articles on this issue. I do agree that many people just accept what they see on the news and don’t bother with anything more.
@A Mother – You are an asset to this country and I think it’s appalling that people like you are treated so shabbily
I hope your ex doesn’t get custody,
, he sounds like a creep 
Clare. You must be thrilled by the eloquence from Mother, Josh, and Tracey. They are what this site is all about and I hope what the Labour Party is all about. (Makes Johnbt and kin look very flimsy!)
Josh’s last section on accountability has much to think about. Though denying responses to requests for interviews seems to work against Left-leaners, but for Key who is able to pick and choose and duck interviews rather than be shown up by hard questions.
A very fruitful discussion anyway.
There is one thing I have noticed about the comments from A Mother and that is that it is all about A Mother. “I get the DPB but it is not fair that I can’t get a Student Allowance as well”. “I’m still paying taxs (sic)” …. on a benefit. “I would be the villan (sic) if their father had custody”.
Get over it. Stuff happens and you need to stop blaming others. I and my four siblings were raised by my Mum with no DPB. I still don’t know how she managed to work as well. When I was studying for a degree I had a full time job and a part time one as well. And a pregnant girlfriend.
I have no problem paying taxes for those things that a decent society requires but enough is enough. I just happen to know of too many people that are rorting the system to believe that the system is fair.
@Ianmac rushing out the door. Agree though. Will respond fully later.
@John – A Mother is just trying to show people that DPB mothers don’t deserve to be stigmatised. Of course she talks about herself in relation to this, she can hardly go knocking on the door of every beneficiary in the country to ask them for their opinions now can she!
A Mother isn’t blaming anyone, she is trying to get ahead, hence the studying, while raising two tiny children! Good on her and I hope she continues contributing to this blog!