Baptist Action is calling for the new government to set an official ‘poverty line’ and ensure all beneficiaries and low income earners receive enough to live above it.

The Auckland social service agency says that while the Alliance pledge of $20 a week extra in every beneficiary’s pocket would help, ‘it doesn’t address growing long-term poverty levels in New Zealand’.

But Gary Corbett, manager of Baptist Action’s City Mission, also has praise for the promise of a return to income-related rents for state housing tenants.

‘This will have a flow-on effect on the health of low income people, freeing up more money for things such as doctor’s bills,’ he says. Less over-crowding in accommodation would also improve children’s education through sleeping better and keeping healthy.

The high cost of accommodation in Auckland – around $100 a week more than the rest of the country – would be curbed by Labour’s plans to build more state houses and stop the sale of others, he believes.

‘It should help bring balance into the rental market.’

Mr Corbett says that other policy promises by government including ensuring full entitlements to beneficiaries would ease the pressure on people trying to make ends meet on a low income or benefit.

Baptist Action City Mission provides budgeting, advocacy and a foodbank service to around 480 families a year,

End

For further information contact Gary Corbett on 377 3183.

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>