Earlier this year, a Unicef report on child poverty showed that New Zealand had the fourth highest child poverty rate out of 26 developed countries — measured by family incomes falling below 50% of the median wage. Only Italy, Mexico and the United States had child poverty rates at higher levels.

The New Zealand Herald reports that under a continued Labour government, if all other international comparisons remained the same, then New Zealand would improve to fifth lowest child poverty rate — lower than all OECD nations except the Scandinavian countries. Under National's policies, New Zealand would come in around the middle of the OECD table.

National's tax package would cancel this final instalment of the Working for Families package.

National welfare spokeswoman Judith Collins says that National's tax policy is "clearly aimed at working people" and confirmed that most welfare benefits will not be adjusted, apart from the usual increases to compensate for inflation. She says that National's policy would give beneficiaries an incentive to go back to work. The party would cut the tax rate on earnings between $180 and $240 per week from 21% to 15% in the dollar, and on earnings between $240 and $730 per week from 33% to 19%.

Source — New Zealand Herald 24 August 2005 "Tax plans still leave children in poverty" by Simon Collins; New Zealand Herald Garth George column 25 August 2005; Donna Wynd New Zealand Herald election year blog 25 August 2005.

VOICES: ON TAX CUTS

" In the last fortnight I have watched spellbound as huge sums of money are given in tax breaks while miserly amounts are provided to reduce the poverty that so many children have been brought up in and continue to be brought up in. This election the amounts being touted by politicians are large and seem to come from nowhere. " I'm angry children have fallen behind with many now living in poverty. The problems resulting from violence towards children are huge. Children must be able to carry our society forward but they are being disabled from the beginning. There are all sorts of investment. You can invest in infrastructure, in the sharemarket, in buildings, in a myriad of things and I don't resent that. But, coupled with that, there needs to be investment in children." — Dr Ian Hassall, former Children's Commissioner and long-time child-health campaigner "A beneficiary getting a part-time job will pay 19% tax instead of 33%. That gives them a whole new incentive, and they don't have to turn up and apply for it..." — Judith Collins, National welfare spokeswoman " The thing about tax cuts is that the extra money's in your hand the day you get paid and you don't have to go cap in hand to the government to get it as you do under Labour's suddenly-enhanced Working for Families package. " But that's the socialists' way. They are absolutely convinced that they know better than we do how to distribute our wealth and will go to any lengths to ensure that as many of us as possible are beholden to the state for largesse... " — Garth George, NZ Herald political columnist

" Labour has made a belated but brave attack on child poverty with their Working for Families package. Pity we couldn't have a timeline though. Gone by lunchtime perhaps?" — Every Child Counts campaign " Steve Maharey is working up a righteous lather about how mean-spirited the Nats are being by having decided not to give the $10 per week increase in Family Support that is due to come in under Working for Families (WFF) in 2007. This from a Minister who carved $91 million out of assistance to our poorest families with changes to the Special Benefit, reduced core benefits to families with children as part of WFF, and not only refused to ditch the discriminatory Child Tax Credit, but extended it under WFF. Nothing about this behaviour suggests Mr Maharey is interested in the well-being of our lowest-income families ..." — Donna Wynd, CPAG Child Poverty report writer, and NZ Herald election coverage "blogger" " We don't need to be bribed into working more — there aren't any more working hours available in our days as it is. Meanwhile, my son takes his electric guitar to his primary school because the operations budget of his lowish decile primary school doesn't stretch to equipment for a school band. Charities are selling local aged care hospitals because they can't keep staff and provide safe appropriate care on the government's short change. Medicines stay uncollected at our local pharmacy because the household bills don't stretch that far this week. I can think of a thousand better causes than my bank account for the surplus." — Laila Harre, Trade Unionist and former MP, and NZ Herald election coverage "blogger"

EVERY CHILD COUNTS CAMPAIGN

Every Child Counts, a coalition backed by agencies such as Bernardo's and Plunket, has just published the answers given by the political parties to 32 questions on children's issues. But the Green Party is the only one promising to end child poverty by a specific date — in its case, by 2010.

Labour will not set a target date, saying that setting targets "of this sort" can be "a counter-productive exercise". Labour however says it is committed to constantly measuring progress in reducing child poverty and reporting on it annually through the Social Report.

National also says it will not set a target date to end child poverty. It says that it has taken 30 years of welfare dependency to become ingrained and "...it will take some time to remove it and replace with a culture of self-esteem, personal responsibility and worth."

Both Labour and National have endorsed the Family Start programme which provides long-term intensive support to at-risk families in 16 locations. National started the scheme in 1999 and Labour has promised to extend it to at least 14 more sites. But Davies says a 2003 evaluation found the scheme had "mixed results". She urged the parties to look at Britain's Sure Start programme, which works with local councils to establish children's centres in every community by 2010 providing childcare, pre-birth education, parental support and other services. Davies: "We need to be pulling together some of the bits and pieces we have in different silos of government departments and make them much more integrated. We still have too much of a national focus. What we should be looking for is to have much more regionally and locally driven programmes with research and real-time evaluation attached to them."

— "Election 2005: The place of children in party politics" compiled by the Every Child Counts campaign can be downloaded from here.

Source — New Zealand Herald 29 August 2005 "Top parties fail child poverty test" by Simon Collins.

HARD TO SWALLOW

Donna Wynd points out that in New Zealand there was almost no call for foodbanks prior to the 1990s. Wynd: "Lack of income is the key cause of foodbank use, and incomes for foodbank users have fallen in real terms since the 1991 benefit cuts. While most foodbank users are beneficiaries, increasing numbers are low-paid workers. Two decades ago we were a much poorer country as measured by economic statistics, but we could feed our children without resort to foodbanks. If this is the trend in economic good times, what of the future when the next recession strikes?"

Shirley Maihi, Principal of Finlayson Park School in Auckland says that school breakfasts in some schools are absolutely essential. Along with other schools serving low-income communities, Finlayson Park provides breakfast for pupils on a daily basis even though it is not currently funded to do so. Maihi says this is because both the need and the rewards are so great: "We call it brain food, and it makes a huge difference to our students. Children simply cannot learn effectively if they are hungry. We've seen too many promising students fall behind, right from the very beginning of their school days, trying to learn through a hungry haze."

— "Hard to Swallow: Foodbank Use in New Zealand," 2005, by Donna Wynd for the Child Poverty Action Group can be downloaded (68pg PDF, 933Kb) from here.

Sources — CPAG press release 15 August 2005 " Kids caught in rising foodbank tide"; The Christchurch Press 16 August 2005 "Call for schools to offer breakfast"; The Dominion Post 16 August 2005 "Poverty group calls for free school breakfasts".

LABOUR'S PLEDGE ON YOUTH TRANSITIONS

The Labour Party says that an estimated 92% of 15-to-19 year olds are engaged in some form of employment, education, or training, but warns that we must keep intensifying our efforts for the 8% who are still in danger of slipping through the cracks. During the last two terms in government, Labour has:

Labour's pledges for its next term in government include:

Source — Labour Party Press Release 29 August 2005 "Youth Transitions - Labour's Vision."

GREEN'S WELFARE AND EMPLOYMENT POLICIES

Bradford says it's time to stop blaming beneficiaries for their situation and work towards a benefit system that is both simpler and fairer. But she says that as important as simplification is, the government shouldn't attempt to achieve simplicity by cutting corners at beneficiaries' expense. She is referring to Labour's intention to scrap the Special Benefit as part of the implementation of the Working for Families package. The Greens are calling for the Special Benefit to be retained "…until general benefit levels are enough to live on or something better is put in its place."

Source — Media release from the Green Party by Sue Bradford, 30 August 2005, "Greens' Work & Income policies give everyone a fair go".

POLICE SHORTAGE A SKILLS SHORTAGE

New Zealand has, on average, one frontline police for every 554 people, a significantly greater ratio than in Australia, the United States or the United Kingdom. And the Herald says that in Counties Manukau, which has one of the country's highest crime rates, there is just one sworn officer for 675 people — and in some the neighbourhoods the figure is over 1,000 people per police officer.

Minister of Police George Hawkins says the biggest problem facing police is the severe labour shortage caused by low unemployment. Attempts to attract school leavers to police training has resulted in serious retention problems and the police have traditionally not looked towards school leavers as recruits because they lack maturity and life experience. Hawkins believes the problem is not just about numbers. "You can have more people if you want to lower standards."

The police recruited 73 British "bobbies" in 2003 and they are planning to bring in 80 to 100 more officers — primarily from Britain, Canada and Australia — to go through police college in April 2006. Police general manager Wayne Annan says there is huge interest by foreign police officers to come and work in New Zealand but it's not the preferred recruiting option and he expects strong public reaction to the police decision to recruit from overseas. Annan: "I think it's a feature of the labour market, really. It's hard for any employer to recruit at the moment."

Source — New Zealand Herald, 29 August 2005, "Manifestos miss police recruiting dilemma" by Helen Tunnah; New Zealand Herald, 29 August 2005, "Unrealistic to double police, say parties" by Helen Tunnah; New Zealand Herald, 23 August 2005, "Police search abroad for staff" by Louisa Cleave.

SKILLS SHORTAGE IS BUSINESS' BIGGEST ELECTION ISSUE

Source — TVNZ/RadioNZ/ASB Business, 25 August 2005, "Skills shortage key issue of business".

NATS CALL FOR SHAKE-UP OF EMPLOYMENT LAW

English says that during its tenure in government Labour has kept the lid on money for skills training while it was "blowing out hundreds of millions on dodgy low-value tertiary courses". National is yet to release the fine details of its own tertiary education and workplace training policy but English says it would see more money spent on trades and skills training, and as on apprenticeships. However, English criticises the government's slant towards Modern Apprenticeships: "Labour put a big emphasis on the apprenticeship brand for political purposes and have pretty much ignored the wider issue of raising skills across the board".

Source — The New Zealand Herald, 29 August 2005, "Nats pledge to tackle skills shortage" by Adam Bennett.

PARTY POLICIES TO ADDRESS SKILLS SHORTAGE

Labour is offering 5,000 more Modern Apprenticeship places and providing opportunities for secondary school students to work towards apprenticeships.

National would liberalise employment law and raise the funding cap for industry training.

The Progressives would do "skills shortage stocktakes" to identify areas of most urgent need then offer scholarships in those areas, and they would double the current number of people in apprenticeships and industry training by 2007.

NZ First would ensure all young people are either in work or training, introduce a "community wage" to top up pay for apprentices, review Industry Training Organisations, and extend Modern Apprenticeships to older workers.

United Future would significantly increase the number of Modern Apprenticeships.

The Greens would provide more apprenticeships and encourage women, Maori and Pacific Islanders to train in industries in which they are currently underrepresented.

Act would lower taxes to lift relative wages.

The Maori Party would provide more opportunities for training with cadetships.

UNIONS LAUNCH LEARNING REPS

CTU Secretary Carol Beaumont says the initiative is actually the start of a major culture change involving workers, companies and state enterprises. Beaumont: "We see the Learning Reps project as a fundamental part of a careful building of a learning culture at work with spin-offs affecting the whole structure of work and workplace relationships. No-one any longer can afford to have the view that work is what happens when you've finished education. This is particularly so when we know that 80% of the workforce of 2015 is already in the workforce so if we want to upskill the workforce we need to have a solid focus on learning at work..."

The project is inspired by similar successful measures in the United Kingdom run by the UK Trades Union Congress. Learning Reps are trained to undertake the role, and there will be a workplace agreement which sets out how the Rep will undertake their duties and what part the employer will play in helping them out. Beaumont: "Being required to meet an enterprise's current training needs might ensure compliance from workers but it isn't going to trigger a passion for learning. The Learning Reps programme can tap into workers aspirations and use the motivation of opportunity, personal growth and sometimes second chance, to build the culture change we need ..."

— The CTU Learning Reps website can be found here.

Source — brochure from NZ Council of Trade Unions; speech from Carol Beaumont, Secretary_ NZCTU 15 August 2005 "The Launch of the Learning Representatives Project"