New Zealand’s Child Poverty Conundrum
The numbers cannot be encouraged to keep growing. That will only ramp-up inter-generational dependency and further deplete potential productivity.
Lindsay Mitchell
Laugh Out Loud Hypocrisy
Those responsible for the recklessness, many of whom are now opposition spokespeople, haven’t a leg to stand on when it comes to forming a logical and credible objection.
It Is Time for Some Perspective
Lindsay Mitchell lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com A lack of perspective can make something quite large or important seem small or irrelevant. Against a backdrop of high-profile, negative statistics it is easy to overlook the positive. For instance, the fact that 64 per cent of Maori are employed is rarely reported. For
What Agency Can Be Trusted to Protect Children?
lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour blind,
Does Culture Matter More Than Care?
lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same? Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children in care now than as at
Babies and Benefits – No Good News
lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com Ten years ago, I wrote the following in a Listener column: Every year around one in five new-born babies will be reliant on their caregivers benefit by Christmas. This pattern has persisted from at least 1993. For Maori the number jumps to over one in three. Add
Science? You Be the Judge
Lindsay Mitchell Lindsay Mitchell has been researching and commenting on welfare since 2001. Many of her articles have been published in mainstream media and she has appeared on radio, tv and before select committees discussing issues relating to welfare. Lindsay is also an artist who works under commission and exhibits
Two Timid Welfare Targets From the Govt
lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com The National Government has announced just two targets for the Ministry of Social Development. They are: – to reduce the number of people receiving Jobseeker Support by 50,000 to 140,000 by June 2029, and – (alongside HUD) to reduce the number of households in emergency housing by
Cuts Will Only Scratch the Surface
lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com While Thursday morning’s news heralded 134 job losses at the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Social Development has just announced their own plan to achieve the 6.5% savings requested by the new government: We will begin by offering people in some parts of our
What Media Bias Looks Like
lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com When news media took a pummeling last week at both TVNZ and TV3, a number of critics said part of the reason ratings are poor is the public don’t trust them. The public believes that the media is biased. The print media is similarly suspect. An
Is Real Change on the Cards?
lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com Sometimes the gems are buried. My ears pricked up when the following statement was reported on a news programme playing in the background: “MSD staff assessing anyone applying for emergency housing will increase their scrutiny of whether they have unreasonably contributed to their immediate emergency housing need
There Are 3 Kinds of Lies
lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com Question: Do you understand how the child poverty statistics are derived? Clearly some people do not. Last week the latest child poverty statistics were all over the media. But there are a number of misunderstandings that need addressing. Like this one from NewstalkZB’s John MacDonald who
National Needs to Go Further
lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com In today’s State of the Nation speech Christopher Luxon talked repeatedly about getting young people off welfare. It seems that National has devised a traffic light system which will use increasing levels of sanctions – welfare deductions – when beneficiaries fail to meet their obligations. He uses the
What Labour Hid From Us
When National became government in 2008, Finance Minister Bill English’s determination to understand the extent of benefit-dependency led them to commission Taylor Fry to produce annual actuarial reports. These were duly published at the MSD website every year but ceased when the government changed in 2017. Now however, an
This Terrible Trend Needs to Be Turned
When did you last read a headline in MSM about more children being raised on welfare? Yet latest Ministry of Social Development benefit statistics (1) show at the end of 2023 the number reached a new high of 222,500. I predicted this would happen when Jacinda Ardern became Prime
He’s Nobody’s Child He’s Just Like a Flower Growing Wild
On the face of it I have some sympathy for Mr Singh who claims to have worked hard in prison to turn his life around and has passed drug tests since leaving there in September. But, due to violent neighbours, he has rejected a lodge where Work and Income placed