This is a “high-income nation”:
No one should be worrying about how to afford essentials like healthy food, hot water or the internet

High income nations like ours can afford a decent life for all, where every whānau can thrive, not just survive. But here, for many, it’s not currently being realised. Too many young people live in households where they feel hopeless.

Inequalities arise in many ways – because of gender, of ethnicity, disability, of religion, of sexuality, of economic resources. These inequalities also “intersect”. Women, for instance, earn less than men both because they are directly discriminated against and because childbirth and caregiving are common forms of full-time labour pulling them away from paid employment. If they are caregiving alone, this means their children are being discriminated against, too.

Maori and Pacific also, earn less than Pakeha both because they are directly discriminated against and because the racist impact of British colonisation has been for generations, weakening their way of life here for a long time and causing intergenerational inequities in their health and education outcomes, and thereby their job expectations.

Then there’s the intersection: A nation that under-values the labour of both women and Maori/Pacific, not only weakens our economy, but leaves wahine Maori and Pacific women the least likely to gain the income and savings (wealth) essential for their tamariki to flourish. It leaves them and their children the most likely to need support.

Nga tamariki tangata shouldn’t be worrying how their mothers will afford to buy them the essentials: things like a safe and warm home, healthy food, electricity and the internet.

For decades, government has played a part in concentrating resources among those who are already doing well. There are policies that drive economic inequality, and there are policies that limit the life chances of those who need the most support. When government policy is the driver, none of these inequalities is inevitable or natural: they are all the result of bad political decisions.

So every election, we have the power to create a government full of better politicians who can make good, fair policy. Politicians aware and committed to the households that are struggling, and will introduce new income measures:

• A decent income for all: a Living Wage (with its annual adjustments) and significantly higher benefits for those who need them

• Implementing all recommendations of the Welfare Expert Advisory Group

• Giving value to currently unpaid work, such as bringing up children

• Skills training to ensure people can get good, high-paying jobs

• Limiting donations to political parties to prevent the wealthy gaining undue influence upon governments

• Extending the law to enable industry collective bargaining

• Take more from those who don’t need it, to pay for more welfare for those who do: Increasing income tax rates for the rich, and/or taxing wealth either annually and/or when assets are sold

This election, we encourage all New Zealanders to engage candidates with the following questions,
Then vote for those that answer YES!

1. Will you ensure a Living Wage for all?

2. Can you promise significant increases to social welfare, so that all whanau can afford the essentials for people to thrive, not just survive?

3. Do you promise to individualise benefits, so that people in relationships are not discriminated against by the welfare system?

4. Will you raise the accommodation supplement, so that no more than a quarter of anyone’s income is being spend on household expenses?

5. Will you raise child support payments?

6. Will you fund skills training to ensure young people can always get the jobs and careers they want?

7. Should we limit donations to political parties to prevent the wealthy gaining undue influence upon governments?

8. Do you support extending the law to enable industry collective bargaining?

9. Will you introduce tax policy that takes more from those who don’t need it, to pay for more welfare for those who do? Such as:

• • Increasing income tax rates for higher income brackets?

  • Tax wealth somehow? (either annually and/or when assets are sold?)