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Grant Robertson and Jacinda Ardern (Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Newsroom/Getty Images)
Grant Robertson and Jacinda Ardern (Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Newsroom/Getty Images)

OPINIONPoliticsNovember 10, 2020

Ardern tells us to be patient on benefit levels. But we’ve been patient long enough

Grant Robertson and Jacinda Ardern (Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Newsroom/Getty Images)
Grant Robertson and Jacinda Ardern (Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Newsroom/Getty Images)

The prime minister has been quick to rule out benefit increases before Christmas – but the welfare system is failing our communities, which she ignores at her peril, writes Child Poverty Action Group’s Janet McAllister.

More than 60 organisations – and counting – have signed an open letter to the government, urging it to increase income support to liveable levels to release families from dire poverty.

When asked yesterday about our open letter calling for benefits to be lifted before Christmas, Jacinda Ardern replied, “this is not going to be an issue that can be resolved in one week, or one month or indeed one term”. Her government have already had one term. What, exactly, are they waiting for?

Signatories to our letter include unions, social service NGOs, housing providers, food banks, churches and groups representing Māori, women, children and people with disabilities (full list here). To have so many organisations come out so publicly with a broad-based agreement on government responsibility is rare. The open letter follows calls from elsewhere to raise incomes: the Human Rights Commission is urging for a “welfare system that ensures a secure and dignified life for everyone” and children’s commissioner Andrew Becroft has been advocating for a long time for the government to significantly lift the incomes of the poorest families.

Fincap – representing financial advisers and budgeting services – has signed the letter. You can’t organise a budget for what you don’t have. Citizens Advice Bureau is there. You can’t advise on situations that the system has made impossible. Ngā Tangata Microfinance is there – I’m on their interest-free loans approval committee, and the stories we see are eye-opening. So many of us are one toothache, one defaulted loan repayment, one missed shift, one failed WOF away from a never-ending vicious spiral of decades of debt. The unions are there – PSA, Unite, First Union, the whole Council of Trade Unions. They’re worried in part about what happens when workers lose their jobs but in general, you know, they’ve also joined out of common decency. 

Calling for “enough” for “adequacy” for “not-poverty” is a very low bar. Preventing people from having enough – that’s unreasonable. Using children as economic shock absorbers – that’s unreasonable. Covid-response policies that stretch inequity even further – that’s unreasonable.

Child Poverty Action Group research this year has shown that core entitlements for those receiving benefits are mostly far below key poverty lines, and in some cases will be tipping people into severest poverty. We modelled a scenario that shows 70,000 additional children are at risk of poverty due to Covid-19 on current policy settings.

Child poverty, particularly severest income poverty, is linked to benefit levels as well as housing costs. For example, here’s a little something for my fellow data-loving nerds. The graph below shows severest poverty for children doubled overnight when benefits were slashed in the early 1990s, then increased even higher. Successive governments never regained that lost ground (blue background means a National-led government; pink background means Labour-led). Sure, there were very slow, incremental reductions during the Clark government years (and spot the income-related rents reintroduction – useful for many in severest poverty), but then a new government and the Global Financial Crisis came along, and things got worse again. In 2018, child poverty levels were higher than they were in 1991. The Ardern government may have shifted things a bit (it’s too early to say by how much) – but then along came Covid-19 (not shown in the graph, which only goes up to mid-2018).

Graph source: adapted from Perry, B. Household incomes in New Zealand: Trends in indicators of inequality and hardship 1982 to 2018 (2019), pg 28. (Dotted lines from 2007 are StatsNZ official poverty figures.)

What we need is the reverse of the 1991 doubling of child poverty: fast-acting and long-lasting. The housing quagmire is a hindrance, and was always going to take a while to sort out (even if the government hadn’t disappointingly ruled out various property taxes). But income support is a different matter: policy changes now would have an instant effect, offering immediate and long-term relief. 

We know cash transfers work. The government knows cash transfers work – MSD produced a research review for the Welfare Expert Advisory Group on this very matter. For courageous and caring parents and caregivers on inadequate incomes, who are being made to use up creativity and energy on paying the next bills, cash is vital. They are doing the hugely important job of raising children, and the government has made it near-impossible for many.

It’s a question of priorities: let’s prioritise the wellbeing of our children and our whānau. Our open letter – and the dismayed, disappointed and, in some cases, furious response to its dismissal – shows there’s political appetite for this, and our communities are very, very keen.

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International Twitter celebrity David Farrar (The Spinoff)
International Twitter celebrity David Farrar (The Spinoff)

PoliticsNovember 10, 2020

National pollster goes viral over ‘dream’ US cabinet featuring Republicans

International Twitter celebrity David Farrar (The Spinoff)
International Twitter celebrity David Farrar (The Spinoff)

David Farrar (not Farrier) is a pollster for the National Party. Today, he’s being tweeted by Patricia Arquette. Stewart Sowman-Lund talks to New Zealand’s newest celebrity.

Updated with tweets by Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Right-wing blogger, commentator and the head of Curia Market Research, David Farrar, has been flung from the safety of New Zealand Twitter overnight, going viral thanks to a post speculating on who US president elect Joe Biden might choose to be in his cabinet come January 20. 

The tweet, which as of writing has more than 2,700 “quote tweets” and nearly 8,000 replies, speculates that Biden may fill his cabinet with several “never Trumper” Republicans, including Mitt Romney – a former presidential nominee.

Farrar’s moment of online fame has seen his tweet spotted by everyone from American journalists and right-wing commentators through to a whole host of trolls and even Hollywood royalty in the form of Patricia Arquette (who simply responded “no” to Farrar’s suggested lineup).

It’s also been picked up by members of the actual US House of Representatives, with Ilhan Omar calling the list “insane” and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez asking her followers for their own “dream” list. Newsweek.com have compiled a list of the best “meme” selections for Biden’s cabinet.

Speaking to The Spinoff, Farrar laughed while discussing his new-found celebrity. Going viral over this tweet was “hilarious”, he said.

“Some of [the comments] have been great. I love the one that said ‘you forgot Thanos for secretary of defence’.”

Farrar has never understood why people would vote for Trump, but after reading some of the responses to his tweet he’s getting a bit more of an insight. 

“When you look at the culture wars in the US and you have all these angry people piling on abuse, I can now understand why someone says ‘well, they’re one side and I’m on the other side’.”

The tweet started to be picked up by overseas Twitter accounts almost straight away, says Farrar, even before it was getting retweeted. “What was weird was I still don’t know, because there were no retweets, how it got to them.” 

The target audience was New Zealanders – people who were interested in US politics and wanted to dissect the results. Despite this, the early response seemed to be from Americans. “There were almost no replies from people in New Zealand, which was really the target,” Farrar says. 

“When I went to bed last night it was at nearly a thousand [comments], now if you include the retweets it’s hit about 10,000. It’ll be really interesting to see what the life cycle is.”

Most of the response has so far been outrage, abuse, or humour. In among the onslaught of comments and retweets, it’s hard to find any other people who support Farrar’s picks. Regardless, he stands by them – even if it “wasn’t a serious analysis”.

Why Mitt Romney for secretary of state? “Trump interviewed him and didn’t pick him, [and] he’s the one guy who voted honourably to convict Trump. But also, Russia would hate it. If you remember the Romney versus Obama debates, Romney said Russia is our number one geopolitical foe,” says Farrar.

Geoffrey Berman, Farrar’s pick for attorney general, was pushed out by Trump following an investigation into his attorney Rudy Giuliani – the man now most famous for a compromising scene in Borat 2 and for hosting a press conference in a parking lot.

“If you want someone who is actually going to hold Trump accountable for his crimes, who better than the guy who was so honourable that he actually refused to resign or drop investigations as a Republican-appointed US attorney, appointed by Trump,” Farrar argues.

Paul Ryan is another one who has “really set them off” on Twitter. Farrar’s put the former speaker of the US House of Representatives into the trade slot. “Trump was anti-trade, Biden and Obama negotiated the TPP. Ryan is about the only Republican I can think of who has intensive principles in terms of the free market,” says Farrar.

Despite becoming an overnight Twitter sensation, Farrar hasn’t yet been asked to become a commentator for Fox News. “This is my dream team,” Farrar explains. “This is not me saying this is who Biden’s going to pick or this is the inside scoop. It was just saying, ‘hey, these are the people who I think would do a good job’.”

More than anything, it was meant to be anti-Trump, Farrar says. Even with the vast amounts of personal abuse now being directed at him, Farrar has been enjoying the humour that’s arisen from his tweet. 

“Lots of people have been outraged and abusive, but there have been some quite funny piss-takes of people doing their own ones, like Daisy Hudson from the Otago Daily Times who had Gossip Girl as the director of national intelligence. There may be a meme that carries on of people doing their own dream teams.

“Maybe the US Embassy is now filing a report to the State Department?”

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