There is apparently no Poverty in New Zealand because it looks nothing like Victorian Poverty with all the diseases of that era attached. Or so says a Mr John Denton of Napier in the DomPost of Sep 13.
The root cause of most poverty in any country is the lack of work that pays for the necessities of life like shelter, clothing, warmth, food and education out of poverty.
New Zealand lacks paying work for all people whatever their levels of education and skills because governments past and present want relationships with other nations that produce goods we want more cheaply than might be produced in this country whether they are grown, manufactured or engineered goods. Many people had low paying work for many years in these industries and the consequence of having such industries was most New Zealanders did not resort to Work and Income for money to live.
For reasons that make no sense to me a proportion of our population seem to think that poverty is the fault of the poor and that there is always work for those who want to work.
Work and Income do not throw Government Money away at the poor and in fact I understand that it is extremely difficult to make a case for financial support in the first place and then darned hard to hang on to that money in the long run too. In some cases families live with other families to make ends meet too and often in appalling houses that should not be allowed to be rented to a herd of cattle.
The numbers of poor people have begun to 'fluctuate' because this is the lead up to an election and so one party wants it to look good that they have been 'throwing money' at the poor and with no statistics to prove their activities were successful and noting that people did find work and get off the dole available. The other parties using the available published information to prove that the poor continue to grow and available work continues to reduce and have made this lack of statistical information the basis of their concerns and determination to do more than simply apparently throw money at the problem.
Many people without paid employment work for charities and not for profits to keep some of their skills valid and to be in an environment that is constructive and developmental for the people for whom the charity has been set up and to be part of a different community to the one they would normally be working or looking for work in.
The Doctors of today are reporting the return of poverty driven diseases of malnutrition, gum diseases and other awful diseases that were thought to have been removed through vaccinations.
I guess if it is Mr Denton's opinion that poverty is inevitable in a modern state, then nothing will change his mind. But this opinion should not be the case.
There is a need for more housing throughout New Zealand and for old stock to be replaced with modern and more appropriate buildings and with many City Councils choosing to dispose of their housing stocks because they do not see it as their 'core' business, the government of the day is going to have to 'step up to the mark' and darned quickly in the housing arena and this housing needs to be affordable. People who enter these new homes need to be shown how to live in these houses and know how to keep them clean and healthy, how to wash and clean not only their new home but their families, their clothing and how to manage their surroundings grounds and if possible to use these lands to grow food too. Yes a big ask but why not? If schools grow foods for their pupils then parents need to know how to feed their children on the land they live on.
There is a need to follow through on those young and older adults who failed at school. Government needs to offer people of all areas development that will lead to real steady work, from learning to read to being able to use computer successfully and perhaps becoming physically fit and able to hold down a regular job because of associated support networks not just family.
Many poor people do not have the finances to dress their children in school uniforms and many schools help out in this area but many children do not have many sets of clothes and if the young people I saw walking out of their high school are an example then their winter shoes are just going to make the summer sandals before they disintegrate. Many parents no longer sew or have the knowledge and necessary skills to fix anything in the clothing line from buttons to seams! This explains the long queues in second hand good shops that sell clothing.
There are now a couple of generations of adults who do not know how to turn over soil to make a garden and to grow food for their families for the spring, summer and autumn.
And so the arguments continue.
Solving any major problem in any country takes a cross-parties approach and an agreed process that is checked and delineated. It has to be driven by successful activities that work for individuals and their families from housing, health through to education. All of this costs money but the long term results should speak for themselves and results and the need for Governments intervention less in the long term.
Even new migrants should benefit from such a constructive and referenced system of community and individual development and be able to enter our multicultural communities successfully instead of being ghettoised by the lack of useable skills.