Income Equality Aotearoa New Zealand Inc.  Closing the Gap

Social Link Tauranga

Immediate ReleaseMedia Release/News Story 21 July 2017

250 ATTEND TAURANGA EQUALITY MEETING

Over 250 people braved stormy weather last night in Tauranga to attend a community meeting about income inequality in New Zealand, with organisers saying the strong turnout and stories of severe poverty in the Bay of Plenty showed both serious concern and a commitment to action.

The meeting, organised by the income equality group Closing the Gap and SociaLink Tauranga Moana was attended by a number of local councillors, business leaders, representatives of around a dozen social agencies, and Green MP David Clendon.

The high cost of housing was a major theme of discussion, with one of the four key-note speakers, former Reserve Bank governor and ACT party leader, Dr. Don Brash, calling unaffordable housing "the core of much of the problem of poverty in this city and indeed in this country". Dr. Brash said a survey of 406 cities in nine countries showed Tauranga was 8th least affordable in terms of housing. While down-playing income inequality in New Zealand he saw wealth inequality as a serious problem.

Another speaker, Jan Tinetti, the principal of Tauranga's Merivale School, and Labour candidate for Tauranga, put a human face on the statistics, telling the audience that this time last year"I had 15 of my children living in tents, cars and garages, and that's out of a roll of 150 children, so that's 10 percent of my roll who were living in those conditions." She said that didn't include children living in crowded or emergency housing, adding that the situation has "probably got worse in the last couple of months to what it was this time last year."

Ms. Tinetti told the meeting that according to the Child Poverty Monitor, there were 295,000 New Zealand children living in households with low incomes, and 8 percent, or 90,000 children, living in severe poverty. She said in her Decile 1 school, about 96 percent of the roll came from that 8 percent. "They are living in severe poverty and that is happening here in this city on a daily basis."

Graham Bidois Cameron co-chair of the Western Bay of Plenty PHO and a board member of Ngāti Ranginui Iwi Incorporated Society, focused his remarks on the need to "shore up the identities of our communities". "We have lost the capacity to give our young people in our communities meaning," he said, and while we all need affordable housing, and money for food and education, these alone were not the answer to what he called "a breakdown in our care and love for one another".

"One of the tragedies of modern day Aotearoa New Zealand is that we have lost that sense of who we are as communities, and I include my own Māori whānau in that. We've lost the sense of how we belong and how we fit."

The final speaker was Peter Malcolm who at the last minute stood in for Max Rashbrooke who was stranded in Wellington through the bad weather. Mr Malcolm, a spokesperson for Closing the Gap said governments had done very little in recent years to reduce income inequality.

"If you want to do something about it, it's pretty obvious. One, you've got to control the incomes at the top and I believe the answer is a much more steeply progressive tax system," he said. "Secondly, a wealth tax." For those at the bottom of the income ladder, wages needed to rise to a living wage level and benefits needed to be increased. "We are really a punitive society," he said. "We believe that if we make it really tough for people at the bottom, that will encourage them to do better. The research says, No, that doesn't work. If you encourage people and do the right thing by people, that's what makes them perform better.And the housing crisis needs to be seriously tackled.“

Meeting organisers also unveiled four videos,with a fifth to come, looking at inequality and homelessness in Tauranga. Another of the videos wasa letter from a single mother read on screen by actor Robyn Malcolm. One of the videos on homelessness was produced by three student from Otumoetai College. Another Otumoetai College Student Levi Williams featured with a song about Inequality which he had written and recorded.

Those at the meeting were asked whether they believed increasing income inequality over the last 30 years had led to more social problems in New Zealand, and in Tauranga, with 155 of the 181who responded answering 'Yes', ie a percentage of nearly 87%,

Mr. Malcolm said after the meeting that the survey results, along with the strong turnout and lively question and answer session showed a hunger for action on inequality, and a hope that some of the positive policy announcements by the Greens, Labour and The Opportunities Parties meant politicians were taking the issue seriously.

"It's meetings like this and actions of people who care that are finally being reflected in policies that are focused on supporting our fellow citizens rather than punishing them," he said.

Photos of the event are available from Social Link phone 5796664 or 022 4619104

More information is available on the Social Link website and the Closing the Gap website and there will be followup to all those who attended the event.

For further information, contact either:

Peter Malcolm phone 07 5524809 mobile 0223086982

Liz Davies mobile 022 461 9104