Government refuses to half child poverty for less than 1% of GDP

It has billions for tax cuts we can’t afford, but not less than 1% of GDP to end child poverty…

Louise Upston rejects official advice $3b a year needed to fix child poverty

The coalition government disagrees with advice provided by officials that $3 billion a year is needed to reach the country’s child poverty reduction target.

Minister for Child Poverty Reduction Louise Upston said the government was taking a different approach to the previous Labour government.

She told RNZ the government was focused on growing the economy, improving health and education outcomes, and getting more households into work to bring down child poverty, rather than welfare payments and tax credit changes, which she says were pursued by the previous Labour government.

Under that previous administration, a long-term goal of mid-2028 was set to reduce the number of children experiencing material hardship from 13.3 percent to 6 percent.

That target was announced by then-Child Poverty Reduction Minister Jacinda Ardern in 2018, and a shorter term goal of 9 percent was set for June this year.

A ministerial briefing from Treasury, released to RNZ, shows officials in April this year did not believe the poverty targets were “realistically achievable”.

Documents showed year-on-year progress was not on track and meeting the targets “would require investment in the region of $3 billion per year”.

Officials presented Upston with two alternative targets for 2028 that they believed could be achieved.

However, Upston told RNZ the government “disagreed with the advice and this approach, as it would further entrench long-term welfare dependency and the number of children growing up in benefit-dependent homes”.

…let’s be very clear, poverty is a political decision!

National argue they won’t spend this money to half Child Poverty because they will grow the economy, yet NZ specialises in ensuring those who benefit from economic growth don’t pay much tax…

NZ’s lack of a capital gains tax means the richest here pay vastly less than elsewhere

New Zealand’s richest taxpayers are paying just a half to a third the tax rates paid by equivalently richest taxpayers in other developed countries, largely because we don’t have a capital gains tax and they do, fresh research shows.

…look at how degraded our social infrastructure to deal with poverty is…

Christchurch care and protection facility ‘chronically under-resourced’

• An Oranga Tamariki care and protection residence was “chronically under-resourced” and had a “poor” culture when it closed due to a series of allegations, an investigation found.
• A snap closure of the residence was announced following concerns ‘excessive force’ had been used against children.
• The findings include that the staff ratio on the floor was ‘inadequate and unsafe’.

…we have millions for David Seymour’s vanity projects but we don’t have money to alleviate poverty???

If only this Government treated the people with the same aroha and affection they show cigarettes, guns and far right economic policy.

If the Left want to properly fund our social and physical infrastructure, they must tax the rich.

There are 14 Billionaires in NZ, and 3118 ultra-high net worth individuals worth $50million each, let’s start with them, then move onto the Banks, then the Property Speculators, the Climate Change polluters and big industry!

We need more Drs, more nurses, more teachers, more Police, more State houses, more infrastructure NOT LESS!

We need to debate for a bigger capacity State using the example Covid just gave us.

We need more Scientists, Drs, nurses, teachers, Police, more State houses and more infrastructure alongside policy that directly subsidises the cost of living like removing gst off food, free dental, free public transport, free food in schools and we will fund that extra increase through targeted new taxes to rebuild the capacity of the State.

The obviousness of our need for a Ministry of Works that actually builds shit is painfully clear to everyone by now.

Take Police in NZ, we have a pathetic 203 police per 100 000 NZers!

Compare that with 212 in England, 264 in Australia, 318 in Scotland, 349 in Germany, 422 in France, hell even Fiji at 227 has more Police per 100 000 than we do!

We don’t have the capacity to create a functioning State that lives up to our expectations in a liberal progressive democracy because we won’t tax the rich to find that infrastructure!

Taxes aimed at speculators and the wealthy to fund services for the egalitarian country we want NZ to be.

Let’s have the courage to actually argue and win over our fellow citizens for solution based policy that actually builds the capacity to have the extra drs, nurses, firemen, police, and teachers.

Let’s champion policies that subsidise people’s cost of living by redistributing from the few to the many!

Bernard Hickey has argued, “We could have gotten $200 billion in extra tax revenues if only there had been a fair tax system which meant that capital gains were taxed at the same rate as every other type of income.”

In a liberal progressive democracy, it doesn’t matter what role you play in the complex super structure of our society and economy.

It doesn’t matter of you are a garbage collector, a dr, a nurse, a drain layer, teacher or tradie – if you all stopped doing your jobs the system can’t work.

Everyone deserves to share the collective harvest of civil society with public services and policies focused on the public good enshrined in the intrinsic civil liberties each individual has.

Wealthy individuals who become mega rich thanks to the landscape generated by those values are required to pay more back into the system they have benefited from beyond the bare necessity of ruthless accountancy practices.

These rich pricks have designed the system for themselves, ‘you can’t tax unrealised capital gains’ the Right scream, like bullshit we can’t!

If it means the mega rich have to sell a mansion or two to pay the tax bill, so fucking be it!

The obligation of the Government is to regulate Capitalism so that we the people benefit from the competitive dynamics of competition!

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