''But it is important to reiterate that to express one's frustration at a government agency in the manner you did is not an appropriate way to conduct yourself.''
Judge Davis noted that Kuha's benefit had increased by 41 per cent because he was now receiving his full entitlement.
Afterwards Mr Kuha said he was glad it was over and satisfied he had achieved his goals. Invalids, many of them in pain and worse off than himself, no longer had to traipse around town collecting documentation but could deal with Winz by email; and beneficiaries would no longer be denied food grants while waiting to see a budgeter, which meant fewer children would go hungry.
Mr Nicholson, who represented Kuha pro bono, said the conviction and discharge was the best outcome possible. Originally he wanted a discharge without conviction because his client had suffered enough, but the law made it clear that was possible only if the consequences of a conviction greatly outweighed the seriousness of the offence.
''It can never be said that breaking the law is acceptable, but he was completely overwhelmed on that day ... This is a man who is in poverty, is 72 per cent disabled and who, without justification, was treated egregiously. It was a scenario that needed to be exposed.''
As a result Kuha's own circumstances had improved markedly and he had been able to show the Minister that Winz staff were not applying the agency's own policies around food grant discretion. The agency had also ignored almost every one of the 21 bullet-points in its list of standards for dealing with clients, Mr Nicholson said.
When Kuha went to Winz on September 14 he had no food left and was so overdrawn that his next weekly payment of $244 on September 18 left him with just $18 in the bank. Because he could not get an emergency grant without seeing a budgeter, it was all the money he had until the next payment on September 25.
That meant he had not a cent to spend for four days and $2.50 a day for the next week.
''To say that is not poverty is an insult,'' Mr Nicholson said.