The government has announced an increase in the minimum wage, but tax consultant Terry Baucher says a shift in tax brackets might make us all better off. In response to our low wage economy the new government has committed to raising the minimum wage from $16.50 an hour progressively to $20.21 per hour by 2020. Aside … Read more
Less than half of New Zealanders with disabilities are in paid employment. New research from the Maxim Institute suggests employers are missing out by assuming there will be a cost to accommodating an employee with a disability. Imagine a person who’s a father, a teacher and a musician. He’s also blind. How do you think he’s … Read more
Morgan Godfery was born to a teenage mother and a gang father in Kawerau, New Zealand’s poorest town. He recounts the experience in this essay from the Journal of Urgent Writing, 2017. Time present and time past Are both perhaps present in time future And time future contained in time past. — T. S. Eliot, … Read more
Rebekah Graham continues her series on the results of her PhD research on food insecurity. Here she addresses the ridiculous and useless advice forced on poor New Zealand families. Read part one – No, poor New Zealand families can’t just ‘grow their own vegetables’ and part two – No, poor NZ families don’t just need … Read more
Parents in low income families are always being told that they’re making bad choices in the supermarket; many wealthy or comfortable families seem to believe they’d be better able to survive and thrive. But, as Rebekah Graham explains, her research with New Zealand families shows what’s really happening. To protect the privacy of research participants, … Read more
Prime Minister Bill English made an unexpected commitment last night to cut the number of kids living in poverty by 50,000 over the next three years, and another 50,000 in the three years following. What exactly does he mean by that, asks Max Rashbrooke – and could his plan ever even work? When Bill English … Read more
Last week ActionStation and the Morgan Foundation launched Liz and Sam’s story. Since then, the pick-a-path game based on the lives of New Zealand families living on low incomes has been played close to 16,000 times. Its co-creator Dr Jess Berentson-Shaw explains the two years of research underpinning the game. Read Dr Jess Berentson-Shaw’s previous … Read more
Parents in low income families are always being told that if they are having difficulty putting food on the table that they should just ‘put in a garden’. But, as Rebekah Graham and Kimberly Jackson explain, their research with New Zealand families shows that it’s not as simple as it sounds. To protect the privacy … Read more
The recent conversations about parenting while poor have been deeply upsetting to many of those who have lived that experience. Here Kiki Van Newtown, mum of two and musician, shares what it was like growing up on welfare, and the lessons she learnt from her mum about how to survive while poor. There’s a running … Read more
Today ActionStation and the Morgan Foundation launch Liz and Sam’s Story, a pick-a-path game based on the lives of New Zealand families living on low incomes. In the first of a two-part series, the Morgan Foundation’s Dr Jess Berentson-Shaw discusses the in-depth research behind the game. After spending two years writing a book about what … Read more
Whangarei writer Michael Botur describes how the shit jobs he’s had have provided valuable material for his new collection of short stories, Lowlife. It was hard moving to Northland in 2015 and finding income and inspiration in its very small economy. I laboured on the catamaran of a rich lawyer with obvious plastic surgery. He … Read more
It is well-known that poverty and inequality have soared under National. Well-known – and unsupported by the evidence. What matters is at the extremities, writes Max Rashbrooke Yesterday’s Household Incomes Report, the annual record of inequality in New Zealand, is a confronting read for those who think everything is getting worse. Take the figures for … Read more
The Auckland Council is going to decide soon whether begging should be banned. There’s a better approach, says Auckland City Missioner Chris Farrelly. A colleague of mine found a man waking up in Aotea Square a few winters ago. It was early in the morning and fog – it might as well have been fog … Read more
‘Beggars pretending to look homeless by bringing props to streets’ blared a recent One News report, citing as evidence a survey of the homeless population by Hamilton police. Just one problem: the survey doesn’t appear to exist. Branko Marcetic goes in search of the phantom police survey, and looks at what our readiness to accept … Read more
Think your rental situation is tough? Try living with a chronic medical condition in a dark, mould-infested dump – and with a child to care for. One anonymous renter tells her story. Renting a shit hole when you’re 15 is an adventure – especially when you’re paying shit hole prices of 60 bucks a week. … Read more
As summer drops away with the leaves a family in West Auckland prepares to endure another winter in substandard government housing, in a place that feels far from a home. Don Rowe visits and hears their story. “We drove past where our old house was the other day and they’ve built a new one. My … Read more
The government has formal yardsticks and ‘ambitious targets’ coming out its ears. But not on child poverty. “It sounds airy-fairy but it’s the advice we get.” That was the prime minister this morning on RNZ Morning Report, in response to questions from Guyon Espiner over the government refusal to set a target for reducing child … Read more
For all the hand-wringing over the economic damage done by the housing crisis, precious little attention is paid to its health effects – particularly on those living in poverty. Dr George Laking explains why house prices should come with a health warning. Warning: contains photos of doctors and gory things. We loved our scuzzy flat … Read more
There’s a block of houses in Hamilton that exists as some kind of sad metaphor. It sits in the middle of tidy suburban streets and it lines a small part of the new motorway, so that thousands of cars pass by it on their way to work and on their way home. It’s as close … Read more
This morning, John Key conceded some of his loudest and most persistent critics are right – about one thing at least. Tim Murphy was there to watch the Prime Minister change tack. John Key this morning conceded the government is not spending enough on the nation’s most vulnerable. In the midst of a political winter dominated by homelessness … Read more
In a deeply personal essay, youth worker Iain Stevens* tells of the small joys and savage pains of his work with some of our community’s most damaged families. I wondered what it was going to take to break my heart. I’ve been a youth advocate for just on four years. Moving all around West Auckland, … Read more