Labour Deserts the ‘Poorer Poor’

Dr Pita Sharples and Tariana Turia, Co-leaders of the Maori Party

Thursday 19 July 2007

The Maori Party has today responded to a new report from the Ministry of Social Development which helps to describe the state of unacceptable material hardship experienced by New Zealanders.

“This report sets out the state of economic and material hardship that this nation faces” said Dr Sharples, Finance Spokesperson for the Maori Party. “It concludes that inequality is greater in 2004 than it was in 1984, highlighting the lack of any improvements in the bottom four income deciles for the last two decades”.

“It also confirms the profound impact of rocketing housing prices” said Dr Sharples. “The report describes the fact that while in 1998, only 16% of households in the bottom income quintile spent more than 30% of their income on housing, by 2004 this figure had risen to 35%”.

“One of the most disturbing findings for me” said Tariana Turia, “is that both poverty rates and poverty depth are “substantially higher for children than for the population as a whole”.

“Towards this end, the Maori Party shares the concerns of the Child Poverty Action Group who have identified that part of the problem of material disadvantage is a consequence of the “less generous, and more conditional, government support for families” said Mrs Turia.

“The report notes that half of poor children currently come from households where at least one adult is in full-time work” said Mrs Turia. “This is the new working poor, whom we would expect to see some improvements in living standards from the Working for Families package”.

“However, the continuing existence of poverty amongst children living in sole parent households, children living in workless households, and children in households with three or more children is particularly acute, and must concern us all” said Mrs Turia.

“The Government has to stop singing its own praises about their Working for Families package” said Mrs Turia. “The latest report from MSD describes a state of unacceptable material hardship experienced by New Zealanders. The Minister might crow about the low unemployment statistics but until the Government stops penalising the poorest of the poor by preventing them from accessing the full range of benefits of the Working for Families package, families will continue to suffer”.

“We do not support the creation of a heavily stratified society where the material wellbeing of more and more New Zealanders is placed under threat” said Mrs Turia.

“What we have seen with foodbanks oversubscribed; power companies treatment of the lowly waged; and now the launching of New Zealand’s first modern-day Charity Hospital is that yet again, the goodwill of the people is being called on to rescue the crisis generated by a mean-spirited Government” said Mrs Turia.

“What is happening to our society when some people are making huge profits and yet more and more people are depending on charity to survive?” asked Mrs Turia.

“This report demonstrates the folly of a Government which has pandered to Middle New Zealand to such an extent that our communities have become polarized by income disparity”.

“These heightened levels of disparity have had a profoundly negative impact on Maori and Pasifika families, and describe a society in a crisis level of stress”.

“If this continues, and gaps continually widen, what are we preparing for the future, and who will we hold responsible?”

Background

- The report, Household Incomes in New Zealand: trends in indicators of inequality and hardship 1982 to 2004, reports income distribution as being much more dispersed in 2004 than in 1984.

- New Zealand does not have an official poverty measure. The report describes poverty as an “exclusion from the minimum acceptable way of life in one’s own society because of inadequate resources”.

- The Canterbury Charity Hospital has been formed to provide free, elective day surgery and medical outpatients clinics for those who would otherwise not have access to them.

ENDS

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