The new poverty stats are out…
Child Poverty Monitor 2021 highlights persistent inequities in rates of child poverty
Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) welcomes the release of the Child Poverty Monitor today, which shows that prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, poverty reduction targets were largely on track for Pākehā children, however significant inequities remained for tamariki Māori, Pacific and disabled children.
Data collected prior to March 2020 shows that material hardship rates – defined as regularly going without six or more items deemed as ‘essential’ – were 1.7 times higher among tamariki Māori (19.5%), and over double the rate among Pacific children (26.7%), compared to the national average (11.3%).
…and they are way worse beyond the identity politics lens!
The knee jerk position by many on the identity politics left is to cry out about Maori regarding any issue. That means the debate quickly deteriorates into arguing whether or not the issue is racist, which has everyone retreat to their defensive corner decrying everyone else in the debate as racist.
Game starts again with no actual resolution.
We do it with poverty, justice, housing and we are doing it with vaccine hesitancy.
The problem with that is it misses the huge chunk of poor white people who also have poverty, justice and housing problems, many in numerical numbers larger than Maori.
By painting every issue about Maori it allows the rest of us off the hook while providing a stick to bash Maori with!
Last month there were 159, 810 Maori unvaccinated, 42, 183 Pasifika unvaccinated and a staggering 317, 544 Pakeha who are unvaccinated!
By constantly screaming vaccine hesitancy is a Maori and Pasifica problem, we let 317, 544 Pakeha off the hook!
Look at the raw poverty data and we see far more white children living in poverty than Maori and Pacifica…
…Yes, proportionately these stats hit Maori hardest, but by allowing that to decide the entire focus of the debate we ignore the far larger numerical problem of those issues impacting poor White families and that allows an escape to scrutinize what’s really happening.
By constantly blaming Maori we can’t see that this is a failure of neoliberalism that cascades across race.
It’s not an identity issue, it’s a class issue!
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Those numbers are ugly but who can be surprised when housing costs are so huge? And worsening!
Nothing I see from Labour, (apart from hot air), or National give me any confidence this problem is a real issue to them.
“There you go bringing class into it again”
I suppose you are going to say that class differences do not exist? Much like the previous British PM Ms Thatcher claiming that society did not exist. If so your perspective is not new rather demonstrates your own political affiliations.
Sorry Bob. It was just a Monty Python reference. The next line reply is “Thats what its ALL about” which is my position. A position I keep quiet about around Maori activists and Intersectionalists. (“Splitters”)
I can’t see what has been achieved by identity politics that wouldn’t have been achieved without it
The purpose of identity politics is to divide and conquer the masses to the benefit of the ruling class – it has succeeded!
People like Davidson who obdurately seem to perceive everything thru’ an “all Pakeha are bad colonialists” lens, and the “ white privilege” preachers, are fostering divisive racist societies which demonise poor white people, and play directly into the hands of the divide and rule elites.
In a general sense poor people vote for Labour/Greens irrespective and rich people vote for National/Act. The middle class is where elections are lost. The Labour mandarins know this hence why you won’t see anything outside of scraps and virtue signaling on pover(d)y.
Really poor people don’t vote at all. The working poor might vote either way.
Most people vote with their gut. Policy is irrelevant. Marketing is everything
100% Martyn. You’ve neatly demolished the race argument in a few sentences. Most impressive!
And yes, it is indeed a class issue, but maybe not quite the one you mean. It’s one of the other meanings of class:
NOUN
a set or category of things having some property or attribute in common and differentiated from others by kind, type, or quality.
So let’s ask the experts what are the common attributes of this class. They say:
” These include low workforce participation by working age beneficiaries, low educational achievement, poor transitions from school to paid work and personal employability issues. ”
https://www.nzinitiative.org.nz/reports-and-media/reports/education-article-here#:~:text=There%20are%20also%20personal%20reasons%20that%20are%20associated,institutional%20arrangements%20for%20alleviating%20poverty%20in%20New%20Zealand%3A
Yeah Andrew let’s lock ’em up and throw away the key. That’ll fix them.
Just stopping the enabling of antisocial behavior via open ended welfare entitlement would be a good start.
Yes Martyn, the attractions of simplistic explanations for complex problems, the inevitable failure to solve a problem when your not even confronting its actual cause?
For example, it’s well known that the biggest factors, regardless of race, in criminality in men (and suicide, substance abuse etc. in women) is the lack of a proper father figure in childhood and that the biggest indicator of poverty is single parenthood.
What can, or should, a government do about that?
Blaming it all on “neoliberalism” (by which I presume you mean economic liberalism) is just as mad as claiming race as primary contributor.
And you wonder why the Maori Party are looking to National for support
They won’t find any there!
As one of the few that seem to comment on Poverty Action posts in the “Raw News Feed” section, a repeat of my view on the second researchers progress assessment of implementation of the WEAG recommendations…
Little point in further describing the problems, WEAG (Welfare Experts Advisory Group) successfully pointed most of those out and some easy remedies such as abatement thresholds. There has been a war on the poor since the advent of the NZ neo liberal state in 1984. The current Govt. has just switched to slightly smaller calibre ammunition. Ministers like Sepuloni are well captured by WINZ/MSD officials and managerialism.
More reviews and investigations will not move the monetarists from their cruel obsession with punishing working class people–often displaced by macroeconomic decisions well beyond their control–like Roger Douglas swinging a wrecking ball through the provinces and mass manufacturing shutdowns.
What is needed is community organisation and direct action in support of a political campaign. The 70 NGOs who wrote the “letter to Jacinda” last xmas need to become a formal bloc along with unions and Iwi groupings and push hard for a working class programme–including tracking ministers and protesting, occupying empty properties, and forming neighbourhood action committees.
A programme leading to the 2023/26 Elections to put some fear into the neo liberal arseholes responsible for the sadistic punishment of vulnerable people–including the sick and variously abled!–could include the following…
–Immediate implementation of all WEAG recommendations WHILE a transition to the following takes place…
• WINZ/MSD to be retired, all future welfare payments to be via IRD. Top MSD managers to be forbidden from working in the public sector for x years.
• Basic income of several hundreds per week paid to all citizens via IRD, higher income people to refund their payments as appropriate by taxation
• A new special needs agency be set up to cater for people with health or family needs in addition to the Basic Income
• Free Wifi nationwide to fix the digital divide
• Fare Free public transport nationwide
• Free Doctor AND Dental for all low income people
No current party is going to deliver that lot, but never say never in politics as Climate Disaster starts to bite and younger voters start to rise.
paid to all citizens
Just to those whose income is below a set amount.
Returning it – doesn’t happen. As with the filthy rich corporations given millions in Covid payments and then making even more and never paying back. Also, just more admin/ paperwork.
No, has to be universal as a citizenright for all regardless of income. It doesn’t matter that they don’t need it as they will pay more into system than they receive. It basically gets folded into their taxation. eg $1 million income plus $24000 ubi minus 33% tax for example leaves them $666.666.66 plus the $24000, so $700,000 left. Meanwhile his tax theoretically covers 12.5 other Citizens UBI, though as Gov still needs tax revenue for health, education etc let’s say 6 ubi’s with other 150, 000 going to Gov’s general revenue. It serves them a reminder that they’re part of the society too.
Cost savings with virtual elimination of no longer necessary case managers achieved by universalism. However in interest of case manager jobs, Winz could pivot them to all becoming work brokers, re-establishing itself as Labour/Training Offices focussed on helping people who want to find work (centralising job offers once more & bypassing the parasite employment agency silos) & help people gain skills/upskill with a new ethos promoting lifelong learning, community volunteer support, ACE/WEA, part time and flexible work.
And remove all gst from food!!
As in other “civilised” countries.
At least from NZ-grown food.
Right down the line – from growing, harvest, production, etc etc
Very good analysis Tiger and not only that you put forward suggestions unlike the wankfest blame game of I’m Wrong. It so misses the Whale Oil site to spew its vile.
I read your comment on the Poverty Action post. The fact is that you were the only one says volumes of how much people care . I wonder if the government was National and not Labour if more would have been said as left wing commentators must be ashamed of these results.
It is a deep seated problem linked to poor expensive housing poor health poor education oppetunitis and poor wages and racism.
Instead of basic income for all I would recommend living wage as the least to be paid to anyone who is working so that the difference between the minimum wage and the living wage would be paid by the state.
I think that many will agree that education is the key for improving one’s ability to find better paid job. So the government should invest on teachers, schools, school lunches and reform the standards so that they will help children to achieve better quality results. State subsidies should be conditioned so that parents will be obliged to send children to schools.
And there is the big problem with single parent families. Fathers should be obliged by law to at least pay for their children.
And yes, it is not a race problem, so the money paid to iwi tribal elites should be used to improve education.
Victoria university plans to invest 45 mil. to rebild marae in its premises. Would not it be better to invest it for elementary education improvement?
I absolutely disagree about the endless idea that education is going to fix things. Education barely makes a blind bit of difference to being a carpenter, plumber and all other trades. Let alone all the boring repetitive things like cleaning, warehousing, supermaarket checkouts etc. Pay people properly for these jobs, not everyone has the brains to remain at school to get a better education but we need to value these jobs just as we value the jobs that are better paid. After all can hospitals do with out cleaners……
Yes those stats show failure. I am glad you pointed out that a significant number of pakeha children live in poverty.
Unfortunately Greens,Marama will bleet on about Maori, colonization etc and miss the point.
Whatever the cause is we need to find a solution. Now
I read your comment on the Poverty Action post. The fact is that you were the only one says volumes of how much people care . I wonder if the government was National and not Labour if more would have been said as left wing commentators must be ashamed of these results.
It is a deep seated problem linked to poor expensive housing poor health poor education oppetunitis and poor wages and racism.
Yep, I have been waiting all year for someone to finally start talking this way. NZs problems are all about wealth inequality and framing everything about ‘poor Maori’ is really divisive. The government and the media have wanted to play the race card because it fits in with their elitist co governance plans. But the truth is about 25%? of NZ is poor and they need real help right now.
Helen Clarke presided over house price inflation and letting landlords get away with everything, John Key had 9 years of giving tax cuts to the rich and running services and infrastructure into the ground. Now 4 years of Arderns’ ideology and her inability to see the downstream effects and generalised inaction, and NZ is a polarised nation teetering on the edge of a 3rd world plunge. And we dont have a single politician that really understands the shit we are in and who is capable of offering an insightful and pragmatic centrist solution. There are a few possibilities across the political parties but I dont think a single one of them is willing to give up their ideology to create a stronger and better NZ.
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