Auckland’s “Third World Rail” System

A TVNZ report has highlighted the shocking state of Auckland’s train system, which failed on the opening night of the rugby world cup, resulting in hundreds (thousands?) of fans missing the opening ceremony and match:

“Third World rail system

The scenes of rail chaos in Auckland on Friday night back up the findings of the  World Economic Forum – it’s ranked New Zealand’s train system as Third World.

The WEF report into rail infrastructure has seen New Zealand ranked number  47 out of 142 nations – behind Sri Lanka, Tunisia and Azerbaijan.

Veolia Transport, the company contracted by Auckland Transport to provide the city’s train services, has revealed they were only expecting 15,000 people to use their service on Friday, backing the Forum’s ranking.

The Council for Infrastructure Development says operations and funding need to be looked at.

Chief executive Stephen Selwood says $2 or $3 tolls on motorways are needed to support further investment in the public transport system…” more here

For all other blogs about Auckland transport click here

Auckland Expensive, Cost Of Living Explodes, Poverty Increasing.

Thinking of emigrating to New Zealand and looking for a better lifestyle? You may be better off staying put and not risk becoming caught in a poverty trap.

An article in today’s Stuff  highlights how outrageously expensive Auckland has become over the last two years,  due mostly to a strong NZ dollar. Living costs have risen by almost 60%, outstripping wages by 13%.

Executives salaries in the largest city in New Zealand are lagging behind their contemporaries in other countries:

Workers Struggling in City of Sails

“Executives in Zurich, Geneva and Sydney are the best paid in the world after taxes, according to a survey by Swiss bank UBS – but Auckland workers are not flourishing to the same extent.

Though the survey shows wage levels – taking into account exchange rate effects – have risen over 45 percent in Auckland over the past two years, its living costs have risen by 58 percent over the same period.

Two years ago, Auckland was the world’s 43rd most expensive city of 73 surveyed, on 49.6 points, now it was ranked 24th, at 73 points…” more here

UBS didn’t survey any other New Zealand city but we suspect that it’s a similar story in Wellington. Auckland is likely to be a barometer for any reasonably sized of employment in the country.

It’s not all down to the strong dollar though. Rising food, fuel and energy prices also have had a signficant part to play. And it’s not just the executives that are doing it tough and falling behind, at the other end of the scale low income families are in dire straights.

Published research from the University of Auckland shows that low income families can’t afford to buy basic nutritious food for their children. The Child Poverty Action Group has called for more support for families and say the effects of poor nutrition are being seen in New Zealand’s hospitals every day.

The highest cost for families is rent, then electricity, transport and education. It’s far more than not being able to budget properly, its about having money left after the basic essentials for life have been met to afford luxuries like healthy food. It is now cheaper to buy cola in New Zealand than it is to buy milk

Nutritious Food Too Costly For The Poorest Families

“Latest research from the University of Auckland supports recent claims that many low-income families are unable to afford even a basic nutritious diet for their children. A paper published in Nutrition and Dietetics in December 2010 found that low-income families may not be able to afford meals recommended by the national nutritional guidelines, especially if there are teenagers in the household whose meals cost a lot more.

In response to the findings Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) is calling on the Government to increase support for families so they are able to provide nutritious food to their children.

Professor Asher says, “In reality, rent is the highest cost faced by most families, closely followed by unavoidable expenses such as electricity, transport and school-related costs. This leaves little for a good diet, especially for older children who eat so much more.

Nutritious food for children is beyond the reach of many low-income families, especially those thousands of families ineligible for the full Working for Families package. This study clearly highlights that using food banks and purchasing cheap poor-quality food is not always a matter of choice. “

CPAG is calling on the Government to help all families better afford nutritious food by extending the In-Work Tax credit to all low-income families. The cost of basic food items have increased over the last year, exemplified by the rise in milk price – 9%. “We see the outcome of poor children’s nutrition in our hospitals every day. This problem can’t be solved just by budgeting, and will not go away through magical thinking.”

Spokesperson Professor Innes Asher i.asher@auckland.ac.nz 021492262″ (Voxy)

In 2010- 2000 more children were admitted to hospital with poverty-related illnesses than during 2007-08

“What seems to have slipped below the radar is the fact that a crisis is occurring in our hospital admissions.

That’s the fact that medical conditions which occur more frequently for children living in poverty have been increasing over recent years – particularly for Maori and Pasifika children.  Or that close to 250,000 children are living in homes reliant on the benefit for income…

…We’re talking about admissions for respiratory problems, infectious diseases, and other conditions with links to poor housing and economic hardship –all diseases of poverty which could have been prevented if children were taken to see a doctor earlier…“ Rahui Katene, MP for Te Tai Tonga

You may also find interesting:

Travel, food, and power prices push up CPI

“…Significant upward contributions in the year to the June 2011 quarter came from higher prices for transport (up 11.0 percent), food (up 7.0 percent), and housing and household utilities (up 4.4 percent). Petrol prices increased 20.1 percent, cigarette and tobacco prices were up 16.0 percent, and electricity prices rose 7.8 percent..” Statistics New Zealand 18 July 2011

No milk price inquiry but probes continue:

“The Commerce Commission has ruled out a milk price probe but is investigating claims that dairy giant Fonterra is misusing its market power.

However Prime Minister John Key said it was important that the Government continued with an investigation into prices, because many people struggled to afford milk…” Business Day 2 August 2011

Winter and disasters hit food prices:

“Families have been dealt a double blow today with the announcement that the cost of food has increased 7.5 per cent this year and petrol prices are rising.

Statistics out today show fruit and vegetables had the largest impact on food prices in June, rising 12.2 per cent.

The Green Party blamed the rise in GST last year for exacerbating the problem of food costs.

Child Poverty Action Group co-director Mike O’Brien says families can’t keep up with the rising costs and were increasingly utilising budgeting and food bank services… “Business Day 13 July 2011

Our other blogs:

“NZ: 100% Pure Rip-Off” (July 2010)

NZ’s Poverty Gap – Fat Cats Feast Whilst Queues Form For Bread And Jam (July 2010)

Immigrants Caught In Cold Poverty Trap (July 2010)

Pike River Mine Would’ve Been Illegal In Australia

Pike River Mine would’ve been illegal in Australia, or in most first world countries for that matter.

Ean Higgins, the old-school Australian journalist vilified in New Zealand for asking “difficult questions” at the Pike River disaster press conferences  and called a “tosspot” and “boorish” by Gerry Brownlee, was one of the journalists who managed yesterday to elicit a **confession from the NZ Prime Minister that conditions at the Pike River Coal Mine would have been illegal in Australia.

The repercussions of that bombshell are still being felt on both sides of the Tasman this morning. In today’s Australian Higgins writes

NEW Zealand Prime Minister John Key yesterday came under attack after admitting the country’s mine safety laws were deficient, with unions and the Labour opposition saying he should have recognised the fact earlier and already acted to correct it.

Mr Key also faced renewed criticisms of having been too close to the Pike River Coal company, defending it since the November explosion which killed 29 men including two Australians.

Since the Pike River disaster, Mr Key and his Energy Minister, Gerry Brownlee, had consistently defended New Zealand’s coalmine regulations as being at least as good as Australia’s.

But in an exclusive interview with The Australian published yesterday, Mr Key said the Pike River mine would have been illegal in Australia, and that after the imminent royal commission into the disaster, changes to mine safety regulations would be made.

Labour leader Phil Goff yesterday seized on Mr Key’s admission, describing it as an “unbelievable about-face”.

“If John Key has new evidence about serious safety issues in our mines, he should take action now to address those concerns,” Mr Goff said. “If he doesn’t, he should wait for the royal commission to make its recommendations.”

The union movement has noted that Mr Brownlee, in particular, went to some lengths to defend Pike River Coal’s safety record in the days after the explosion…read more here

It is astonishing that Key has made this admission, not least because it could prejudice evidence to the Royal Commission of Inquiry. Why the sudden about face, does he know his government will come under criticism during the inquiry and he is attempting to soften impact of that close to an election?

In May John Key rubbished claims by Helen Kelly, that his government was too close to the Pike River company after the disaster.

In her speech to the Labour congress in Wellington…Kelly said Pike River failed in its fundamental duty to provide a safe workplace and Key had then sat next to chief executive Peter Whittall at the memorial service for the 29 dead men.

“The real story of Pike River is that a group of shareholders from around the world including some very big multinational companies recognised the huge value of the coal in Pike River and decided to invest in mining. That’s fine. Whether they did this on the cheap and spent insufficient money on safety is a question on everyone’s lips and a matter for the inquiry.”

Key said her comments were “a bit distasteful”.

No one knew who was at fault yet and blame would be laid when the Royal Commission and Department of Labour reported back, he told Newstalk ZB…more here

Let us not forget the regulatory environment that allows companies to ‘operate on the cheap and spend insufficient money on safety’ existed on the present government’s watch. The Mines inspectorate may’ve been hacked away by the previous administation but the present one did nothing to improve the situation before approving surgical mining techniques at Pike River mine.

Serious shortage of mining inspectors and other safety concerns

In November last year we blogged that the company which owned the Pike River coal mine raised concerns about mine safety in New Zealand, according to documents obtained by One News.

A submission by the Pike River Coal company, as part of a review of New Zealand’s mine legislation, said there was a serious shortage of mining inspectors and raised other safety concerns.

According to TVNZ the report

“called for an increase in the coverage and the number of mine inspectors through realistic resourcing of the Department of Labour.

The submission says the number of qualified mine inspectors has dramatically dropped over the past decade.

(Kate) Wilkinson said New Zealand has two mine inspectors plus an expert.

Asked if that is enough, she said: “Well I have got no advice to suggest that it is inappropriate.”

But when asked to name the biggest safety concerns in the industry the Pike River Coal company said: “Levels of competence and experience of workers and contractors working underground is of concern. The inspectorate is seriously under-manned and under-resourced…”read the full news report here

A copy of the document’s executive summary may be found on the TVNZ site by clicking here, the text of which appears below,  a TV report about the Pike River submission may be watched here

Government Rejected Call to Bring Back Mine Inspectors

At the same time Radio NZ was reporting that the NZ government had rejected calls to re-instate a system of on-site  mine safety inspectors.

Their report said that the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union called for the system to be re-introduced after it was scrapped in the the early 1990s, saying it provided vital protection for mine workers.

An international mine safety adviser, David Feickert, said the system is still in place  in Australia and Britain, where they have a lower level of incidents.

Health and Safety Enforcement in NZ

Laat year this comment was left on Gordon Campbell’s blog on Scoop, the author indicated that NZ’s governmental Health and Safety  inspectorate needed to be improved:

“NZ’s distinctive ‘self regulating’ HSE regime results in one of the highest workplace death and accident rates in the developed world – not just in mining. There is virtually no official monitoring of technical or safety compliance in any of the ‘low frequency, high risk’ fields, let alone routine workplace inspections. These types of event are what produce the headline grabbing ‘disasters’, as opposed to the scandalous and little publicised ‘attrition’ seen daily in our workplaces.

DOL’s cultural commitment to laissez faire HSE and the sinking lid on its monitoring and enforcement resources mean that further ‘disasters’ are inevitable, and meanwhile the slow carnage will also continue. The silent assent of each Government and the union movement since 1992 doesn’t bode well for addressing this central issue.”

One thing’s for  sure – there are a lot of very frustrated miners, mining experts, technical crews and rescuers out there who feel very aggrieved about the way the Pike River mine incident was handled, who will forever be asking themselves what could have been done better.

It’s a disgrace that the government has take so long to admit that the legislation was at fault. But more than a change in the law is required – the mines inspectorate must be expanded and upskilled, mine monitoring must be improved, on site inspectors reintroduced and the competence and experience of people working in the mining industry must be on a par with other developed countries.

You may also be interested in

You’re not in Australia now (An article in “The Australian”)

AN Australian who quit work at New Zealand’s Pike River mine four months before it exploded says he could not continue to work in such shocking and unsafe conditions.

Seven months after the disaster that killed 29 men, including two Australians, miner Peter Sattler has spoken out about his concerns for safety at the South Island coalmine, revealing he repeatedly complained about what he saw as poor practices.

“I left there primarily because of my concerns at safety of the place,” he told Television New Zealand. The respected mining supervisor, who has 35 years experience, worked at Pike River for a year, describing the processes and regulations there as backward compared with Australia.

“It was like going back in time, really,” he said. “There were quite a few things I saw there that sort of shocked me.”

Mr Sattler complained to management but was told: “You’re not in Australia, you’re in New Zealand.” He left last July… more here

** Death mine would’ve been illegal here (An article in “The Australian)

NEW Zealand Prime Minister John Key has for the first time acknowledged serious deficiencies in his country’s mining safety regulations, saying the Pike River coalmine where 29 men died “would be illegal in Australia”.

Faced with mounting allegations that New Zealand coalmines lack equipment and procedures that are compulsory in Australia, Mr Key vowed yesterday that there would be changes to mining safety laws.

In an exclusive interview with The Australian, Mr Key said his government wasn’t in a position to “give a full response” on mining safety until the conclusion of the royal commission into the methane gas explosion that ripped through the Pike River mine in November, but he said “we do have to ask the question” about safety standards.

He said the Pike River mine, which was a single-entry uphill mine, “couldn’t have been constructed in Australia” because it would have been “illegal”.

“There will be changes in New Zealand,” he said.

Mr Key’s admissions mark a reversal of the staunch defence of New Zealand’s mining regulations that he and Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee mounted immediately after the disaster… more here

Other posts tagged Pike River Mine in date order, most recent first:

Key Passing The Buck On Pike River

Pike River Mine – Recovery Operation To Quit

Pike River Migrants Face Deportation From New Zealand, Happy Christmas?

NZ A “Few Bricks Short Of A Wall” – Pike River Mine Rescue

Pike River Miners “Shouldn’t Have Died” – Updated

Family Of Willy Joynson Wants Answers, Pike River Mine Explosion

Pike River Mine – What went wrong?

Pike River Mine Management Raised Concerns About NZ Coal Mining Legislation, Calls for On Site Mine Inspectors

Lawrie Drew Wanted Truth To Be Told From The Start

Pike River Mine – Technical Questions Answered

Miners Still Missing At Pike River Mine, Atarau

Pike River Coal Mine Explosion

Kiwifruit Dumped After Typhoid Scare, TB In Te Puke

Day’s after a televised broadcast of NZ Prime Minister John Key defending his country’s 100% Pure image on the BBC’s Hardtalk, the Bay of Plenty Times is running the story that tonnes of Kiwifruit have been pulled from the market after a Typhoid scare.

“Kiwifruit worth $800,000 – including some bound for overseas markets – has been destroyed after a worker at a Bay of Plenty orchard was found to have typhoid fever.

Zespri has destroyed 100,000 trays of fruit, including about 30,000 that were destined for foreign stores.

The fruit is about 0.1 per cent of Zespri’s annual export volume…” read the full report here on the BOP Time’s website

The report says the orchard cannot be named and it looks like an infected seasonal worker from overseas was infected with Typhoid bacteria.

As a precaution the fruit the worker may have come into contact with has been scrapped. An investigation is now underway into how the worker slipped through health checks and “infected other workers.”

The paper doesn’t go into any details about the numbers of secondary infected people or whether they presented any further risks to either the produce they handled, or to the wider community.

The orchard is thought to be east of Tauranga. Later reports stated that the picker was from Samoa and was one of thousands of Pacific Islanders brought to New Zealand under a Labour Department scheme to relieve chronic labour shortages in the horticulture industry.

How much of a problem is Typhoid in New Zealand?

In 2009 there were 35 Typhoid cases in New Zealand, up from 29 in the previous year.

In his 2008 State of the Nation Speech John Key said that 2007 had

“showed us its bitter fruits. The dramatic drive-by shooting of two-year-old Jhia Te Tua, caught in a battle between two gangs in Wanganui. The incidence of typhoid, a Third World disease, reaching a 20-year high. The horrific torture and eventual death of three-year-old Nia Glassie. The staggering discovery of a lost tribe of 6,000 children who are not enrolled at any school…

Typhoid fever is a disease that affects developing nations with poor sanitation facilities.

According to Wikipedia contributors

“The name of “typhoid” comes from the spike in occurrences following a typhoon in Asian countries. The resultant contaminated water and poor sanitary conditions following strong typhoons were the perfect breeding ground for the fever.

The impact of this disease fell sharply with the application of modern sanitation techniques…”

Typhoid carriers may be asyptomatic – meaning that they do not have symptoms of the disease but may be capable of infecting others.

The New Zealand Kiwifruit industry was recently hit by widespread outbreak of a bacterial disease called Pseudomonas syringae, pv actinidiae (PSA) which is thought to have affected over 200 orchards.

Kiwifruit growers have been spraying copper and Serenade Max (a  patented strain of the bacterium Bacillus subtilis) to protect their orchards against PSA that first struck east of Te Puke in November last year.

Tuberculosis

Also in the Bay of Plenty this week – a student at Te Puke High School was diagnosed with TB and is receiving antibiotic treatment.

Pupils and staff are also being offered screening for the disease.  According to a report in the  Daily Post there are around 12 cases of TB in the Bay of Plenty Lakes area every year.

Other Third World Diseases in New Zealand

NZ has 14 times the average OECD rate of rheumatic fever,  five to 10 times the rate of whooping cough and pneumonia compared with the United Kingdom and United States,  and four to six times the rate of child maltreatment compared with the best countries.

“Rheumatic fever rates within some pockets of New Zealand are now among the worst in the world, yet it hardly exists in other developed countries“
NZ Heart Foundation website

Household crowding is partly blamed for the country having one of the highest rates of acute rheumatic fever (ARF) among children and teenagers in the developed world.The infectious disease, which can cause chronic rheumatic heart disease through damaged heart valves, is responsible for more than 120 deaths a year.

NZ Poverty Not A Lifestyle Choice, Poor Families Can’t Even Afford Basics

In February we wrote about John Key’s comments when asked about poverty and food banks in New Zealand, i.e. that beneficiaries who resort to food banks do so out of their own “poor choices” rather than because they cannot afford food.

This may be of interest to you if you are considering emigrating to New Zealand because its a great place to raise kids and you think that you can manage on the lower salary you are being offered. Or you may be living in New Zealand now and struggling to make ends meet and resent being told that its your fault for making’ poor lifestyle choices’

John Key said

“But it is also true that anyone on a benefit actually has a lifestyle choice. If one budgets properly, one can pay one’s bills. “And that is true because the bulk of New Zealanders on a benefit do actually pay for food, their rent and other things. Now some make poor choices and they don’t have money left.”

But rising food prices mean that New Zealand is a country where it is now cheaper to buy cola than milk and where obesity has reached epidemic proportions. Read the blog here

Published research from the University of Auckland, which  shows that low income families in New Zealand can’t afford to buy basic nutritious food for their children, is now being used by the Child Poverty Action Group to call for more support for families in New Zealand. The results of poor nutrition is being seen in New Zealand’s hospitals every day.

It may surprise Mr Key to learn that The highest cost for families is rent, then electricity, transport and education. Its far more than not being able to budget properly, its about having money left after the basic essentials for life have been met to afford luxuries like healthy food.

From Voxy

Nutritious Food Too Costly For The Poorest Families

“Latest research from the University of Auckland supports recent claims that many low-income families are unable to afford even a basic nutritious diet for their children. A paper published in Nutrition and Dietetics in December 2010 found that low-income families may not be able to afford meals recommended by the national nutritional guidelines, especially if there are teenagers in the household whose meals cost a lot more.

In response to the findings Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) is calling on the Government to increase support for families so they are able to provide nutritious food to their children.

Professor Asher says, “In reality, rent is the highest cost faced by most families, closely followed by unavoidable expenses such as electricity, transport and school-related costs. This leaves little for a good diet, especially for older children who eat so much more.

Nutritious food for children is beyond the reach of many low-income families, especially those thousands of families ineligible for the full Working for Families package. This study clearly highlights that using food banks and purchasing cheap poor-quality food is not always a matter of choice. “

CPAG is calling on the Government to help all families better afford nutritious food by extending the In-Work Tax credit to all low-income families. The cost of basic food items have increased over the last year, exemplified by the rise in milk price – 9%. “We see the outcome of poor children’s nutrition in our hospitals every day. This problem can’t be solved just by budgeting, and will not go away through magical thinking.”

Spokesperson Professor Innes Asher i.asher@auckland.ac.nz 021492262″

Kiwi youth already suffer some of the worst health outcomes in the developed world. New Zealand’s young people have higher rates of mental illness, suicide, teen pregnancy and suffered more injuries than young people in other OECD countrie. (source)

“New Zealand’s children suffer not only a higher rate of hardship than other New Zealanders, but a greater share of New Zealand’s children face hardship than in many other countries. New Zealand’s older population faces a low rate of hardship relative to the other New Zealand age groups and relative to the same age groups in other countries. Having about one out of every five children facing hardship is a situation that must be improved.  The comparison to other countries shows that New Zealand is unusual in choosing to impose such a burden on the youngest segment of the population.” Source NZ Institute’s report NZ Ahead.

With regards to third world diseases NZ has 14 times the average OECD rate of rheumatic fever,  five to 10 times the rate of whooping cough and pneumonia compared with the United Kingdom and United States,  and four to six times the rate of child maltreatment compared with the best countries

Household crowding is partly blamed for New Zealand having one of the highest rates of acute rheumatic fever (ARF) among children and teenagers in the developed world.The infectious disease, which can cause chronic rheumatic heart disease through damaged heart valves, is responsible for more than 120 deaths a year.

This is what Rahui Katene, MP for Te Tai Tonga had to say about how poverty is affecting children in New Zealand. No’ lifestyle choices’ here, just hard living in grinding poverty.

In 2010; 2000 more children were admitted to hospital with poverty-related illnesses than during 2007-08

What seems to have slipped below the radar is the fact that a crisis is occurring in our hospital admissions.

That’s the fact that medical conditions which occur more frequently for children living in poverty have been increasing over recent years – particularly for Maori and Pasifika children.  Or that close to 250,000 children are living in homes reliant on the benefit for income.

My colleague, Te Ururoa Flavell, last night spelt out some of the consequences of families living in severe or significant hardship.  Families who go without fruit and vegetables; who put up with the cold to save on heating costs; who delay going to the doctor of the dentist, or live in cramped conditions, who tell their children that the opportunity to go on a school trip or play sport is a privilege which they can ill afford.

Is this a nation fit for our tamariki?  We need to heed the research which shows us there can be a different life for our babies, if we make it a priority.

Last year I spoke at the launching in Dunedin of the New Zealand Children’s Social Health Monitor Report 2010.  That report revealed the inevitable, that economic recessions have affected children’s health in other countries. And we saw research indicating the close correlation between recessions and high hospitalisations in New Zealand.

However, it also reported on the experience of Sweden in the 1990s where, despite large numbers of children living in low income families, there were no significant increases in childhood hospitalisations for poverty-related illnesses.

I noted that in 2010; 2000 more children were admitted to hospital with poverty-related illnesses than during 2007-08.

We’re talking about admissions for respiratory problems, infectious diseases, and other conditions with links to poor housing and economic hardship –all diseases of poverty which could have been prevented if children were taken to see a doctor earlier.

The Prime Minister said yesterday, when talking about these very children – the children who suffer the consequences of long term dependency – that “the Government is not prepared to leave those people behind”.  That was welcome news for the Maori Party.

But statements are at risk of becoming platitudes without a plan in place.  Slogans and placards are great for the camera, but where is the strategy to put the words into action?…

She went on to call for seven simple solutions to support children, whanau and families:

• We will set a deadline to eliminate child poverty by 2020;

• We will designate an official poverty line at 60 percent of the median household disposable income after housing costs and set net income for those on benefits at this measure to prevent poverty.

• We will increase minimum wage to at least $15 an hour.

• We will raise core benefit levels, including superannuation, veteran’s pensions.

• We will simplify Working for Families including extending the ‘in-work’ payment to all families.

• We will investigate the reintroduction of a Universal Child Benefit ;

• We will establish a ‘Neighbourhood Renewal’ Fund, which may include incentives to encourage living more collectively, eg community gardens, afterschool care, post-natal support for parents.

.

You may also find interesting:

1. Our other blogs:

“NZ: 100% Pure Rip-Off” (July 2010)

NZ’s Poverty Gap – Fat Cats Feast Whilst Queues Form For Bread And Jam (July 2010)

Immigrants Caught In Cold Poverty Trap (July 2010)

Ministerial Credit Card Rort (June 2010)

Family Gets $200,000 Bill For House Fire (July 2010)

2. And these external sites:

Wealth gap divides nation

“ACCUSATIONS THAT New Zealand is one of the worst performers in the developed world when it comes to the income gap between rich and poor have been validated by a Sunday Star-Times survey.

Conducted by Horizon Research, it shows the burgeoning gap between the haves and have-nots is frothing over into resentment, anger and disillusionment….”

Key: Poverty is your fault

“John Key says if you’re having trouble getting by on your income it’s due to your ‘lifestyle choices‘. Key has given himself at least $23,000 in tax cuts and had a $7,500 rise on our borrowed money. He has the worst economic record of any PM in 80 years: 86,000 more jobless Kiwis and falling incomes. And this bastard blames Kiwi families for their poverty…”

Families feel the pinch

Palmerston North families, many of them in paid work, are reaching out to food banks and budgeting advisers in growing numbers as new year bills and price rises tip them into crisis… Salvation Army community ministries manager Kevin Richards said there was no doubt more people were finding it harder to feed their families. In January, it faced a 25 per cent increase in customers compared to January a year ago, with 40 to 50 new clients each month. “Most are people who have never used us before. It’s a huge growth in demand, and it continues to grow.”

As well as about 180 people needing food parcels each month, the number of people looking for assistance with clothing, bedding and household goods had doubled to about 200 in six months.

Some were in work, but 99 per cent were beneficiaries.

Banks face downgrade

“The big banks look set to lose their prized Aa2 credit ratings after ratings agency Moody’s Investment Services said it was considering a downgrade of them.

The big four banks ANZ National, Bank of New Zealand, ASB Bank and Westpac all hold Aa2 rating for their long-term senior unsecured debt and deposits…”

Petrol prices highest since 2008

“Petrol prices are on the rise again, hitting their highest level for more than two years.

Overnight the price of a litre of 91 octane petrol rose 3c to $2.02 and 95 octane rose to $2.11…”

New Zealand: Unite takes on minimum wage

“In New Zealand, 100,000 workers live on the minimum wage of NZ$12.50 per hour, which is just 51% of the average wage.

Unite’s “campaign for a living wage” calls for the minimum wage to be immediately raised to $15 per hour. Then, it would be further increased in stages and set at two thirds of the average wage. The union is organising a petition drive, aiming for 300,000 signatures calling for a citizen’s initiated referendum by May 2010. If this is achieved, the government would be required to call a referendum on the demands within a year…”

Kiwis discuss Key’s comments online
“I know of two people on the sickness benefit due to recent circumstances completely out of their control. One receives $180 a week. She pays $150 a week rent, which includes power in a tiny granny flat. $10 a week is allowed for her cell phone because she has medical emergencies, so she is left with 20 a week for food. The other of those people also receives temporary assistance which takes her total up to $300 a week…in order to cover the mortgage payment. In her case, the mortgage, rates and house insurance is…you guessed it, $298 a week. She has $2 a week to cover her food, power, phone. Budget that, if you can.”

“WE are fortunate to be sort of middle income and I have to say that over the last 18 months despite tax breaks and pay increases we are about $80 – $100 a week WORSE off than we were with all the increases. We pare things down to the bone. Rarely have special treats or outings.I am a good experienced cook and we cook from scratch. I can’t imagine how a beneficiary would cope these days. Edit to add also a lot of beneficiaries are not on unemployment benefit.. they may be on sickness etc and have extra costs for medical care …”