Auckland is a two speed city ‘Real Housewives of Auckland’ at one end and desperately poor families living in cars in the middle of winter at the other. The affluent of Auckland are immune to the price system- it just doesn’t matter what things cost. At the other end, lives are spent economising on miserable and insufficient disposable incomes where every last 10 cents and every price rise matters.
I have seen two films this festival set in totally different contexts but with disturbing parallels.
I listened in disbelief to Lisa Owen interviewing Bill English on The Nation. Perhaps they believe their own spin?
In August 2015 I sat through a whole day of hearing in the High Court on this sad case. What a convoluted sets of arguments were expounded to justify the punitive approach taken by the Crown. That was the latest court event in a 15 year saga in which an unwell beneficiary is being pursued for the repayment of $20 a week.
This week Labour’s bid to get an extension to Paid Parental Leave (PPL) is likely to be stopped in its tracks by a veto from Bill English. For all the wrong reasons.
The Family First report, Child Poverty: Don’t Mention Family Structure by Lindsay Mitchell extols the value of the institution of marriage. According to her, family structure is the elephant in the room when child poverty solutions are discussed.
This is how Bill English generates surpluses to justify John Key’s election year bribes of tax cuts to the rich.
After years of neglect John Key now thinks a selective land tax just might be called for to curb the tearaway housing bubble. The best that can be said is that he has opened a window of opportunity for debate.
A basic income for all as a solution to poverty traps and income insecurity is a futuristic idea about a Utopia. I hope we get there one day too but let’s be real about it. Children are dying and lives are being stunted right now.
I am becoming more worried as time goes by that we are heading for a demographic pensions disaster.