Bruce Munro’s excellent piece in the ODT, looks in to the truth behind the Nats’ job numbers: “It does not take much digging in Statistics New Zealand’s latest Household Labour Force Survey to uncover a growing world of low-paid work, insufficient working hours, financial struggles and unfulfilled lives”.
Any increase in the minimum wage is better than nothing, but National’s increases have not kept pace with the real cost increases (notably housing) faced by low income earners. That is why we are seeing the rise of the working poor, and increases in homelessness and poverty.
The unaffordability of Auckland housing is now seriously impacting even moderately well paid professions. As these trends continue, how is Auckland going to cope without without workers?
Coverage of Auckland’s homeless goes international. The working poor are now the working homeless.
As the Nats celebrate “falling” benefit numbers it turns out that almost half who leave the benefit are not going in to work. So what happens to them?
The government has awarded itself a nice report card. Let’s take a closer look.
Trickle down economics is pronounced dead by the IMF. Housing, the working poor and the economy – the policy settings are wrong everywhere.
In times of trouble for the National Party, you can always rely on them to raise the rallying cry of “Personal responsibility!!!”
The Nats’ line on poverty is that beneficiaries need to get in to work. The rise of the working poor both in NZ and internationally, shows what nonsense that excuse is.
National is not interested in doing anything about poverty in NZ. They won’t even officially measure poverty, because they don’t want to know.
