Category: Social Issues
Housing is set to feature strongly in the forthcoming election campaign as a result of widespread concerns about home affordability and the so-called declining rate of home ownership. The problem is that both of these issues have become so highly politicised that it is difficult to differentiate fact from fiction. So, for the record, let’s set down some facts.
There is a significant problem with the data on home-ownership. There are too many gaps in the questions asked in the 2013 Census for us to be certain about any recent trends in home-ownership rates.
With net migration predicted to exceed 40,000 this year, immigration is shaping up to be a key election issue. The turnaround in migration numbers is not being caused by a blow-out in the number of non-New Zealanders entering the country, but rather by fewer Kiwis departing for Australia and more coming home.
The 2013 Census figures show that overseas-born New Zealand residents now represent 23.6 per cent of the country’s total population, compared with 21.8 per cent in the 2006 Census and 18.7 per cent in the 2001 Census.
Reforming the country's failing welfare system has been a priority for John Key’s Government. It was clear there was a serious problem with welfare when, during the boom years of 2004-07, 15 percent of employers found it difficult to fill basic jobs in labouring, production and transport, despite 10 percent of the working age population being on a benefit.
There are many forces that influence policy development in New Zealand, and prime amongst them is public opinion. If anyone had any doubt about that, the recent decision by the government to withdraw all legal highs from sale, can be directly attributed to the strong action of citizens.
There is a real problem with welfare when a country that has more than 11 percent of its working age population dependent on benefits, has to import unskilled labour. Statistics show net migration to New Zealand is at a 10 year high. Canterbury was the second most popular destination, with a net gain of 5,100 migrants - many of whom were labourers going to Christchurch for the rebuild.
Since the National government took office late 2008, welfare reform has formed a large legislative programme much of which has now been completed. It is perhaps too soon to expect benefit numbers to start reducing, complicated by the global financial crisis driving up unemployment in 2009-10.
If Labour and the Greens - and all of the other advocacy groups that are rallying behind the child poverty cause - really cared about those children who are living in poverty, their primary target would be families on welfare, rather than working families, since all of the evidence points to children living in single parent families that are reliant on welfare in the long term, as being at the greater risk of deprivation and poor outcomes.
Something about the way the Left is presenting the ‘child poverty’ problem doesn't stack up. When interviewed, Green co-Leader Metiria Turei repeatedly stresses that 2 in 5 of officially poor children come from working homes. But for Turei and other anti-poverty advocates to continually highlight this group when attempting to influence voters implies there is something less laudable about being benefit-dependent. Not a sentiment normally associated with the Left.
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