We have real problems on the Left if this gasp inducing post on The Standard is anything go by.
Their argument is ‘always look on the bright side of life’ and claim that there is no depression in NZ.
It’s so fucking ludicrous and shows how blind tribal Labour have become.
Greg Presland is a member of the Professional Managerial Class who now dominate Labour and sees woke virtue signals as the mission for Labour now, not the economic bread and butter issues that impact the poor.
Hilariously he brings up hate speech before mentioning economics, something he actually gets chastised for in the comments section of his own post.
I believe an ACT/National Government would be the most dangerous far right experiment this country will have seen since Roger Douglas, and because of that, we must get Labour back in power, but to refuse ,as Presland does, to see the pain outside his own privileged economic bubble shows how difficult it will be when people like him have so much influence in the Party.
Labour have failed to be transformative and have failed us on the issues that truly matter.
As TDBs own Professor Susan St John points out…
The Government’s media response to the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) Child Poverty Report 2022 proudly claims “Child poverty declines in spite of COVID” .
Sure, material hardship rates for many children improved between 2013-21, thanks to government measures, rising employment rates, improving wages. BUT the MSD report itself is at pains to say that these results do not reflect anything like the full extent of the pandemic period. Let’s not forget too, the huge efforts of the proliferating private charities and foodbanks, which while utterly necessary, remain a disturbing indicator of policy failure.
The government’s media release has a misplaced congratulatory tone.
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- Government policy means child poverty measures improve during COVID-19 in contrast to them rising sharply during the GFC.
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- There are 145,000 fewer children in hardship in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic than when hardship numbers peaked after the GFC in 2011.
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- There were 70,000 more jobless households with children during and immediately after the GFC then during COVID-19.
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- Rates of hardship for Māori rose to 36% after the GFC, and 47% for Pacific people. These have since dropped to 20% and 24% respectively. This means there are 40,000 fewer Māori children in poverty now than there were after the GFC.
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- Around the GFC (2007 to 2011) less than 40% of households with children said they had enough income to cover the basics. This is now 61%. That’s 150,000 more households who can meet their basic needs now.
There are no health warnings in the Government’s media release about how to interpret the data and the limitations of the figures. The data for the latest MSD report was collected during the period July 2020 and June 2021, with reference to the previous 12 months. A family interviewed early in the piece would be reporting income for the 2019/2020 year. So much of the data is prior to the full Covid pandemic, and does not capture anything at all of the severe impact the 2021 lockdown had on low-income families, or the recent devastating cost of living pressures. Remember too, thousands of worst-off children live in emergency accommodation such as motels and garages and are excluded from the survey on which the child poverty report is based because their families have no residential address.
The media release appears tone deaf to the intense pressures that private charities have been constantly reporting in 2022, the thousands of children in damp, cold housing with blighted life trajectories, the crippling rent rises and the entrenchment of the foodbank industry on scale unimaginable to most New Zealanders. The claims on the one hand that child poverty has declined, and the on-the ground reports from those coping with the covid and cost of living fallout on the other suggest the poverty indicators relied on in the Child Poverty Reduction Act are not fit for purpose in times of crisis.
The government would be advised to pay close attention to what the report actually says. Even though families on average appear to do better from 2013, the report shows 120,000 children were still in hardship in the 2021 survey. Of these, around 60,000 children were living in severe hardship (and remember those in motels or other make do accommodation like garages were not in the survey).
…as TDBs own John Minto points out…
- Why are the number of children living in grotty motels STILL INCREASING?
- Why is the number of children living in cars STILL INCREASING?
- Why are the number of children in tents STILL INCREASING?
- Why is Labour still ONLY FUNDING 1600 new IRRS places (for state house and social housing providers combined) each year for the more than 24,000 families on the state house waiting list?
- Why does Labour still think it’s OK to keep the proportion of state house at just 3.6% of total housing stock when it was 5.4% in 1990?
- Why has Labour not instigated an industrial-scale state house building programme such as the first Labour government did in the 1930s? (Labour then built 3,500 state houses each year – equivalent to 10,000 today on a population basis)
- Why is the government planning to sell 55 to 60% of crown land in Auckland to private property developers when we have a housing catastrophe for low-income New Zealanders?
…let’s also add the appalling decision to remove Children’s Commissioner oversight from Oranga Tamariki.
How about the million a day being spent to kettle beneficiaries into dangerous motels?
How about the 30% jump in demand from Food Banks?
Look, ACT and National ARE NOT the solution and this Blog will fight tooth and nail against those right wing arseholes, but to pretend as Presland does that Labour have done anything meaningful on the economic justice issues that matter as opposed to woke wank virtue signals is simply delusional and shows how out of touch Presland as a member of the Professional Managerial Class has become.
If Presland is the best defence the Left have, we are in bigger trouble than I feared.
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What Left? Ricardo, the National and ACT Parties called, they want their immigration policy back.
Ahhh Castro….still banging the immigration drum (it’s not you Winston is it?)
Well I guess you have kinda moved on from years of predicting a NZ civil war, or are you still ever hopeful?
Ahhhh @ im right. Still not. But keep trying! You’re like that little bedtime itch that can’t quite be scratched.
Your purpose is a mystery, your input is irrelevant, your opinions are forgettable and you’re otherwise witless. Thus meh. But keep trying… I need a giggle now and then.
The problem for us, is that there’s no left. And by that I mean no commonsense, no bravery, no colour, not Class, no style, no panache`, no humour, no verve, no honesty, no hope, no nothing. What might be considered Left is a bleached perineum hiding within the Natzo’s synthetic undies along with all the other skid-mark parties born of itchy arse hole scratchings.
Labour’s a blank canvass waiting for someone with creativity to come along to be edited into a saltless sausage. Labour’s job is similar to that of a dull fart in an elevator. Suddenly, everyone’s sniffing nervously looking around while the pressing engagements of the day are momentarily forgotten.
Our politics are neoliberal. Therefore, it doesn’t matter what feverish wet-dream im right and her/his ilk have about our political progressions, nothing will change, no matter who’s in political management of our AO/NZ. We’ll likely get natzo’s next time. They’re create a Hellscape for the low paid, unemployed and unlucky while selling our lands to the Chinese and/or those hyper riche orgy-party Pro’s, the yanks.
Our political management needs purging and sanitised. We, as the real and proper politicians of our AO/NZ, need to know what’s going on. Because we, generally, have no fucking idea, as can be seen by some of the comments and Posts here.
Nicely loquacious and poetic imagery in your writing.
Did you read the article?
the government planning to sell 55 to “60% of crown land in Auckland to private property developers”…
Yet you say,
“while selling our lands to the Chinese and/or those hyper riche orgy-party Pro’s, the yanks.”
What’s the diff?
I’d argue Labour are worse than National in that respect.
Ahhhh CB another post where many give up less than half way through your innane overly long ramblings.
We are all missing your links to Russel Brand, as it gives us a good insight to your masturbating habits, listen to a Brand podcast and link it to TDB whilst still sticky.
Sick sick man!!
Maaate. They’ve already got it back pretty much. Tinkering around the edges, and NOTHING Labour have done seriously addresses the problems of worker exploitation and slavery.
The PMC politicians take advice from their PMC neoliberal (or AT LEAST 3rd way) ‘officials’ who in turn hide behind the trite old excuses such as “I can’t go into it for privacy reasons”, OR who just outright lie.
AND it’ll be interesting to see the report to the Guv into abuse in state care when it arrives. Those affected understand how dire the situation is, why is it so hard for the so-called progressive, open and transparent political party?
PMC neoliberals and pollies under that spell or hegemony, they don’t have to take responsibility because they have fallen for a meme that has come up in countless? films – where the peeps all bow to the machine, that doesn’t really have a ghost in it either!
I’ve just been watching a bit on the internet that illustrates how algorithms are being used as decision makers and to establish parameters on decisions, like how high to make people jump. With that behind them, a licence to drive the machine properly takes all accounting for errors away from them. It’s the fault in the program don’t you know.
Unlearning Economics
YouTube · https://www.youtube.com › channel
I am an academic economist from the UK who has long been critical of the economics profession and how economics is used in public policy.
New words to watch carefully – ‘surge, dynamic’.
There’s no doubt @ Grey that the pollies and the administration are technophiles. It’s the easy option and provides them with additional power.
(There’s an Aljazz series – ‘All Hail …..” you might be referring to.)
I’m far from a luddite, having spent a few decades as s systems programmer, but I’m a firm believer in people driving technology rather than technology driving people.
The latter gives us shit such as the MIQ booking system, and just about every other failed gummint IT project, and often driven by PMC people that actually have a limited knowledge of both the technology itself AND potential pitfalls and unintended quincequinces.
Technophiles go for technology just because they can, including bells and whistles that are not needed, AND they constantly try to reinvent the wheel.
Unfortunately, Labour have shown themselves as committed to it, and I don’t think it’s to do with H1 finding good use for some of the more innovative stuff.
I’m wondering whether or not it’s time to start naming some of them.
Ahhhh The Standard…..the lefts ‘safe space’ where any posts critical of Labour, Ardern, the Greens is not allowed. If any post from the 4 or so main contributers are not as ‘upbeat or all rainbows and unicorns’…then the response posts from visitors fall into 3 categories:
1: It would be worse if National were Govt
2: National did it too!
3: National would have done this…and give some outlandish fantasy example.
Ohhhh and the blog owner Lynn Prentice, well his posts basically drip with contempt for everyone….seems like someone who is feeling sick on a merry go round and wants to get off but doesn’t know how it stop it.
Look, I understand the need and the reasons for a political blog to be left or right and the quality of the visitors posts and the owners and guest posts to reflect their side of the political isle, BUT there is a big difference between pointing out failures/can do better and discussing them on the blogs, but to have a blog that is sooo partisan that most of any visitors posts ‘debating’ the other side is just not published and that leaves the dozen or so posters to basically agree with each other. (Maybe a dozen is too much?)
that it bears no resemblance to the actual political mood of the average voter of the day and is ONLY ‘our side good – other side bad’ rhetoric is not only unhealthy (political wise) it’s well, it’s …..The Standard!
You’re Right. Just watch – pride comes before a fall.
This is ludicrous
“As for child poverty as I recently noted 66,500 children have been lifted out of poverty. My preference is that all children are lifted out of poverty. Greater speed is vital but the general direction is good.”
Good?? While some children closest to the line may have technically on ancient data been lifted a few dollars above the poverty line– there are 60,000 at least drawing on the same data are in SEVERE HARDSHIP. This will be much worse now
Time to call Labour on the spin
100% -The truth is they dont care because the very poor dont vote. It is all sound bites to ensure the PMC feel good about themselves.
I dont NZ improving at all under either of the 2/4 current regimes. Unless we have a radical shake up of our political representation, NZ will fall faster and faster into poverty.
I’m right i thought for one minute you were describing the New Zealand Herald !
Best part of that article is the picture. The apostles all gather around their JaJesus as the light shines down from heaven.
This ‘Standard’ columnist is still selling the con that unemployment is “low”.
Only 56% of the working age population were in regular employment last quarter (i.e. full time permanent).
The last number I saw for the number of homemakers, students and disabled came to around 9% total.
39% of the workforce either unemployed, or scraping by on irregular odd jobs!
And consider the poor quality of the jobs. The high wage manufacturing and mining jobs were deliberately destroyed. Nobody cares if you created garbage waitressing and tour guide jobs: they want their decent jobs back, at the same high rates of the early 1970s.
You’re on the money @ Kristoff. Definitions of (un)employment result in counting up those un/employed. The stats. Define (un)employment differently and different understandings emerge.
The total number of those in receipt of a benefit is 11.3%. The sliced and diced number of job seekers is the bs 5% number given to the public for them to consume.
Interest rates = 4%
Real inflation = 8%
Food inflation = 10%
NZ just borrowed 400 billion in Corona recovery and on the government’s own words it’ll take at least 10 years to pay back.
Theres no more cheap borrowing.
There’s no more easy investments
The idea that you can slam $500 into bitcoin or some other get rich quick scheme and make $200k in a few months is gone.
Retail is gone.
Property is gone
Market making is gonskies
It’s a wast of time taking a hundred dollars of savings every week and trying to get rich. It’s over.
Ladies and gentlemen there is no more virtue signals left. We are back to reality.
We are back to working 50, 60, 90 hour weeks.
I’d like to see woman or trans people do my job.
Does that include all the people who are too ill to work (temporarily or permanently) but dont qualify for benefit because their spouse technically earns enough to support them? Or those that stay home to work as family carers for aged and ailing relatives or disabled children? Or those working in the black market or in prison? Or those on sickness benefit or early retired on a military pension (if that is a thing?).
If so, that number is lower than I would expect.
Yep. And so easy to get in the ‘sickness benefit’ too.
take a gold star kristoff
+ 1 Kristoff. We’ve been gaslit about real levels of unemployment (and under-employment) by successive governments.
Yep
Kristoff, i wonder who destroyed these jobs, actually its the same right wingers lead by the mp for Epsom who wants to get elected to destroy what’s left .
I’m not going to vote anymore.
It doesn’t seem to matter who we vote for NZ as a whole is totally fucked.
As has been pointed out before its not politicians who really change anything, they are just puppets to the bureaucrats in the background who are screwing us, and because they’re all un-elected means we cant get rid of them.
Bureaucrats are only interested in helping the rich, they don’t want to loosen the purse strings to help everybody. Why they get to keep doing what they’re doing is beyond me. Public servants are meant to help everybody equally but it seems more they are public servants working for business.
Ironic, isn’t it? This Government makes a big song and dance about mis/disinformation, yet could be accused of spouting it.
The limitations of the figures re the data for the latest MSD report and how Labour presented that data seems very misleading to say the least.
Lies, damned lies, and statistics. Too right @ Chairman. Governments, think tanks and researchers who should know better have used statistics to bolster their ideological positions for eons. Yes, misleading to say the least. At its root is the operationalization of constructs, bit of a mouthful but in everyday terms, how stuff like ‘(un)employment’, ‘literacy’, ‘poverty’, almost anything you can think of, are defined, subsequently counted (with the assumption of what can be counted is in fact what counts), and presented as evidence. No wonder there’s a battle for truth.
the thing is and poliies and comms teams havn’t got this yet…people are wise to them…they are lierally a waste of space.
Thanks Bozo for tying up present ec/pol methods in a neat package – good for a takeaway to chew on at home.
I got called out on that blog as an act member by a commentor for saying that universal programs that everyone rich and poor get are the most electorally popular policies that left wing govts introduce.
Also because universal programs aren’t targeted and single people not just families get them they are preferable to my generation which are majority childless I’m a neoliberal.
Apparently…. Advocating for Keynesian economic policies…. Makes me …a supporter of Milton Friedman because….. Apparently targeted neoliberal spending is more left wing than old school universalism…
Boy the PMC are delusional in their ivory towers.
Yes the PMC have become delusional, and Labour are their political wing, it’s how you get a 700million dollar bike bridge cos cars bad -ok’d while thousands are in poverty and you still blow 50 million (on good clean PMC anti car Labour voting consultants) cancelling it and still the people are in poverty.
Far, far beyond a joke.
I’d like to see some enquiries in to where our money has gone with this government.
Also ignorant, they dont even know the history of the left or how out of wack their ideology is with the founding aims of the labour party. In their view anyone who was centre left or moderate left is now considered right wing.
Adam (a commenter over at The Standard) reminds rose tinted glasses Micky that the Labour Government, supported by the Green Party, has presided over the biggest transfer of wealth in the history of New Zealand.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018828257/the-cost-of-the-pandemic-the-financial-winners-and-losers
Was Adam soundly attacked and deplatformed??
Lol. Surprisingly not.
Last I looked, he was merely ignored.
One of the tribal over at The Standard has just accused Martyn of turning into another anti-Labour troll due to him putting up this post. How pathetic.