For people with disabilities and elderly folk unable to drive because of balance and co-ordination problems, the Total Mobility scheme is a lifesaver, providing subsidised door-to-door taxi and wheelchair-enabled shuttle services which allow them to carry on with their lives as normally as possible.
It’s all about mobility. Without easy access to it, many with infirmities and disabilities who are not financially comfortable will no longer be able to travel to school or activities, no longer able to make their contributions to our country in the workforce. They will be stuck at home, isolated and lonely, totally dependent on family, friends and neighbours to bring them what they need and take them out when they can.
The government’s announcement this week that it is chopping the Total Mobility scheme subsidy from 75% to 65%, therefore, seemed straight out of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
Pacing about the dimly lit counting-house were Transport Minister Chris Bishop and Disability Minister Louise Upston doing their best Scrooge-like impressions and cutting budgets, while a downtrodden clerk sitting on a high stool in the corner was scratching away with a quill pen, getting it all down.
The Total Mobility scheme for those unable to use public transport has about 120,000 registered users across New Zealand. That has risen significantly in recent years, from about 108,000 in 2022. The number of trips taken under the programme has ballooned by about 70% in the past seven years, from 1.8 million to 3 million.
Those eligible have been receiving the 75% subsidy on their taxi fare up to a maximum amount per trip, determined by regional councils. In Otago, the scheme is available in Dunedin, Queenstown, Oamaru, Wānaka and Balclutha, with a $50 maximum fare eligible for the subsidy.
"This is yet another fiscal cliff left to us that we are having to correct and fix," Mr Bishop said, adding that the scheme needed to be stabilised and made financially sustainable for all funding partners.
Ms Upston foreshadowed more changes to the scheme, saying a discussion document is on the way to "ensure fairer, consistent and more sustainable access to services for people with the greatest need".
The announcement was met with predictable concern. Labour’s disability issues spokeswoman, Priyanca Radhakrishnan, said the government was continuing to make life harder and more expensive for New Zealanders with disabilities, a betrayal from promising to ease their cost of living.
Transport which was affordable was not just a "nice to have" for those with disabilities but crucial to ensure they could take part in everyday life. That was why the subsidy was increased in 2022, she said.
We fully understand the need for prudence and that this is not a time for any profligacy. However, the government has had no trouble finding vast sums of money for other transport projects, particularly the tens of billions of dollars for roads.
The Total Mobility scheme is not just a question of being nice to some of society’s most disadvantaged people. It is essential for preserving their independence and sense of dignity. The 75% subsidy should remain.
Everything has a cost
Next time you ask ChatGPT, Gemini or any other artificial-intelligence platform how to make gravy or how you should be feeling about something, remember the huge and growing damage massive AI data centres are causing to the environment.
A report from Digiconomist, which exposes the unintended consequences of digital trends, found the AI boom to date has emitted as much carbon dioxide as New York City has this year. AI data centres’ use of water is more than the world’s demand for bottled water and could reach 765 billion litres a year.
While the big technology companies are raking it in, the rest of the world has to somehow work out how to settle the bill.
