POVERTY UPDATE
Coalition Plan - Change The Targets
- Greg Waite
That subheading "Change The Targets" nicely captures National's plan for everything. Promise during the election "10,000 new social houses", then cancel the lot. "Rebuild the economy", then cut so many jobs we have the largest contraction in the developed world in 2024. "Delivering more nurses and midwives", then no budget to employ them and they migrate. "Targeting better health outcomes", by privatising service delivery at higher cost to increase private profits and shareholder returns.
In June 2024 the Government reset targets for reducing the number of children experiencing material hardship to 11% by 2026/27, two percentage points above the Labour government's target of 9% by 2023/24 and an estimated 17,350 more children living in poverty. Social Development Minister Louise Upston claimed the new targets were "achievable and ambitious".
In November 2024 it introduced a new measure capturing "persistent poverty", defined as household income below 60% of the median in the current year and at least two of the three previous years. The current rate on this measure is 9.4% and its three-year target is 10%, so the new target is consistent with the likely increase in poverty from its policies. And this new measure measures just income poverty - excluding housing costs - is the largest contributor to poverty in New Zealand.
Different Worlds
The aim when the Act was introduced in 2018 was to halve child poverty in ten years, and there were significant reductions in eight of the nine poverty measures between 2018 and 2022 despite covid. Then, rising inflation increased poverty in 2023/24. Here we saw the much-touted private market efficiency at work, as companies took advantage of consumers to increase profits (see my article "All About Inflation" in this issue).
And behind these public changes to targets, the usual out-of-sight cuts employed by conservatives roll on. Falls in the real (after-inflation) minimum wage are publicly described as increases. Annual adjustments to main benefit rates are now based only on inflation, so benefits will fall behind wage increases.The many thresholds for eligibility and amounts of secondary payments will not be adjusted for rising costs under this Government, as they were not adjusted under past conservative Governments, reducing the real level of payments steadily over time. The aim of this Government is to increase support for the already rich, landlords and investors. The aim of the Child Poverty Reduction Act 2018 was to reduce the rate of children in poverty. These are different worlds.
Watchdog - 168 April 2025
Non-Members:It takes a lot
of work to compile and write the material presented on these pages - if
you value the information, please send a donation to the address below to
help us continue the work.
Foreign Control Watchdog, P O Box 2258, Christchurch, New Zealand/Aotearoa.
Email
