Time to get rid of married/single distinctions

By Susan St John  /  September 6, 2017  /  Most Recent Blogs, Setting The Agenda, Susan St John  /  20 Comments

Why do we have big differences between rates of NZ Super? Why does a single sharing pensioner get $ 60 a week more than if their relationship is defined to be in the nature of marriage?

Why does a superannuitant living alone get $90 a week more than a married person?

Black and white or 50 shades of grey?

By Susan St John  /  August 14, 2017  /  Most Recent Blogs, Setting The Agenda, Susan St John  /  35 Comments

In 1994 CPAG was formed in response to the truly appalling changes Ruth Richardson rammed through in the early 1990s that saw rates of child poverty soar along with rates of 3rd world child diseases. Do people really understand that a sole parent’s benefit was cut below the poverty line but if they tried to earn extra money, they lost most of it?

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone

By Susan St John  /  July 18, 2017  /  Most Recent Blogs, Setting The Agenda, Susan St John  /  22 Comments

The poor are ground down by a welfare state more befitting the 19th and 20th centuries than today.  But there is at last a bright spot. There were two breathtakingly bold policies buried in the depths of the Green’s paper Mending the Safety Net that have scarcely been discussed:

The Families Package 2017 budget

By Susan St John  /  July 7, 2017  /  Most Recent Blogs, Setting The Agenda, Susan St John  /  11 Comments

It is hard not to be angry. No needy child gets any benefit out of National’s grand plan until April next year.  Always jam tomorrow never jam today. Budgets should be about changes for the current year-not the year after. Shame on them.

Mean and petty and wrong

By Susan St John  /  June 13, 2017  /  Most Recent Blogs, Setting The Agenda, Susan St John  /  18 Comments

It is bad for the democratic process when government to fails to address such a clear injustice especially in this case when it poses little fiscal cost. But we don’t seem to know how to do sensible retirement policy any more.

What century are we living in?

By Susan St John  /  April 6, 2017  /  Most Recent Blogs, Setting The Agenda, Susan St John  /  37 Comments

I don’t know this woman personally. All I know is that this is a frightening case for its insights into the judicial system.. Shamed for all the world to see in the media, this so called “benefit fraudster has “appealed her sentence in the High Court. Her original sin and conviction was for living with someone that MSD has deemed to be her partner.

Labour/Green Economics – these fiscal rules aren’t the beginning of the end

By Susan St John  /  March 29, 2017  /  Most Recent Blogs, Setting The Agenda, Susan St John  /  11 Comments

The breakfast launch of the joint Labour/Greens fiscal rules policy last week was pleasantly surprising. They actually haven’t boxed themselves into a rigid set of rules. At the outset they downplayed the use of mechanical orthodox indicators like surpluses and net debt to judge success:

What would you do Prime Minister English?

By Susan St John  /  March 19, 2017  /  Most Recent Blogs, Setting The Agenda, Susan St John  /  42 Comments

Bill English claims to be keen on rewarding ‘hardworking’ New Zealanders.

Tax cuts in store but what is Joyce thinking?

By Susan St John  /  February 21, 2017  /  Most Recent Blogs, Setting The Agenda, Susan St John  /  9 Comments

We are beginning to see the colour of Steven Joyce’s eyes. Some insights into his views about who deserves tax cuts can be gleaned from this Herald piece: Economy Hub: About those tax cuts… Steven Joyce, the big interview

Visionless and exclusionary. A good future,​ just for people like Bill

By Susan St John  /  February 4, 2017  /  Most Recent Blogs, Setting The Agenda, Susan St John  /  33 Comments

To begin to realise Bill English’s dream the first step must be to restore the value of tax credits for low wage families and give all low income children the benefit of the full Working for Families package