A Hāwera food bank says the demand for food parcels is the highest it has been in the 45 years since the service was set up.
A Hāwera food bank says the demand for food parcels is the highest it has been in the 45 years since the service was set up.

The BulletinNovember 21, 2023

Foodbanks consider limiting support and increasing opening hours as demand surges

A Hāwera food bank says the demand for food parcels is the highest it has been in the 45 years since the service was set up.
A Hāwera food bank says the demand for food parcels is the highest it has been in the 45 years since the service was set up.

Data released in May suggest 485,000 New Zealanders needed food support every month. Foodbanks are reporting record demand and a struggle to keep up, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.

Foodbanks limiting number of parcels

As Christmas bells begin to ring and advertisements for sales blare, Virginia Fallon writes, “If foodbanks are the canary in the coal mine of a nation’s wellbeing, then New Zealand’s bird is starving.” Fallon’s excellent feature for the Sunday Star Times this week finds food banks nationwide reporting huge demand for food parcels. Nelson Community Foodbank has reported a 23% increase in the past financial year. Manager Neville Hadfield says that the service has little option but to limit its support. “We now operate on one parcel per family per month,” he said. In Hāwera, Foodbank chairwoman Hazel Robinson says the demand for food parcels is the highest she’s seen in the 45 years since setting up the service. In Lower Hutt, the foodbank is considering increasing its opening hours.

Export prices push up domestic food prices

May survey by the New Zealand Food Network (NZFN) found that more than 480,000 people in New Zealand need food support every month. As economist Susan St John tells Fallon, “They’ve become a necessary evil; we shouldn’t have them, and we didn’t used to have them.” The Spinoff’s Charlotte Muru-Lanning reported on similar sentiment from community groups and advocates in the lead up to Christmas in 2021. As Fallon reports, Brooke Pao Stanley, who heads Auckland Action Against Poverty, also says foodbanks aren’t the answer. Stanley says, “It’s ironic that Aotearoa is such a big food provider exporting so much of our kai but so many people here go hungry because they don’t have the money.” Stuff’s Susan Edmunds has recently embarked on a quest to find “something that’s cheaper in New Zealand”. She failed. Food and Grocery Council chief executive Raewyn Bleakley says, “As our exports, particularly dairy products and meat, fetch higher prices, so the pressure goes on what New Zealanders have to pay for them.”

Inflation may be easing but cost of living still high

While food prices fell slightly in October, prices were 6.3% higher than a year earlier. Inflation is easing, but Stats NZ also produces household living-costs price indexes, which capture costs like home loan interest payments not covered in the consumer price index, the way we measure inflation. Auckland City Missioner Helen Robinson said in May that a whole range of people were going to the city mission for support. “People would pay the mortgage or rent, make sure their kids got to school, to the doctor and that there was enough for transport to work”, but “there’s simply not enough so people are coming to us for food.”

‘A perverse and sad money-go-round’

In another excellent feature for the Sunday Star Times, Eugene Bingham dug into the issue of the number of beneficiaries in New Zealand also paying down debt to the government. New guidelines quietly introduced in July are attempting to prevent pushing people further into hardship. As Bingham reports, about 560,000 low-income earners, mostly beneficiaries, owe about $3.5b of combined debt to the Ministry of Social Development, the Ministry of Justice and Inland Revenue. Heather Lange, manager of Family Finance Services Trust in Upper Hutt, says, “We see very few beneficiaries who aren’t paying money back to MSD.” Bingham describes it as “a perverse and sad money-go-round.” “Clients will come in and they can’t afford food and now the car’s broken down or they’re behind in their power or whatever the crisis is and we’ll say, ‘Go to [MSD]’, and we know that what is going to happen is their debt will just grow and grow,” says Lange.

Bingham and his colleague Todd Niall, a dedicated veteran of local government reporting in Auckland, left Stuff last week — Niall has retired, and Bingham says it’s time for some new projects. Their work as journalists has been regularly featured in The Bulletin. Go well, enjoy the grandkids.

Keep going!
Labour leader Chris Hipkins has called for an immediate ceasefire between Gaza and Israel. (Photo: Joel MacManus)
Labour leader Chris Hipkins has called for an immediate ceasefire between Gaza and Israel. (Photo: Joel MacManus)

The BulletinNovember 20, 2023

Labour breaks away from caretaker convention calling for ceasefire in Gaza

Labour leader Chris Hipkins has called for an immediate ceasefire between Gaza and Israel. (Photo: Joel MacManus)
Labour leader Chris Hipkins has called for an immediate ceasefire between Gaza and Israel. (Photo: Joel MacManus)

Chris Hipkins has acknowledged that ‘constitutional purists’ may not necessarily welcome the party’s statement but says ‘they cannot stand by any longer’. National has accused them of playing politics, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.

Chris Hipkins calls for immediate ceasefire

As cities in New Zealand hosted now recurrent protests calling for a ceasefire in Gaza yesterday, Labour leader Chris Hipkins made a statement calling for an immediate ceasefire between Gaza and Israel. “We are urgently calling for a ceasefire. Israel and Hamas need to immediately ensure the conditions for a ceasefire are met and to commit to a lasting peace in the region,” he said. “I, and the Labour Party, cannot stand by any longer in the face of the horrific scenes we are witnessing without calling for a ceasefire,” Hipkins said. Hipkins also called for Hamas to release all hostages immediately. A poll conducted by Talbot Mills released last Friday found 60% of New Zealanders want a full ceasefire.

‘The caretaker government did seek agreement from the National Party… and we did not get that’

Hipkins made it clear he was speaking as Labour leader, not as the caretaker prime minister and acknowledged that his decision to make the call was an unusual one, one that “constitutional purists will also probably not necessarily welcome”. He said National rebuffed his offer to make a bipartisan call for a ceasefire. “The caretaker government did seek agreement from the National party to call for a ceasefire, and we did not get that,” he said. National responded by saying the caretaker government had approached the party on Friday about calling for a ceasefire. National wanted to seek advice from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and received notice about the call Hipkins was about to make four minutes before Hipkins began speaking yesterday. In a statement, a spokesperson for National said, “It is very disappointing that Chris Hipkins is playing politics with such a serious issue.” The spokesperson added that National supports the goal of a ceasefire, however, the conditions haven’t yet been right for one.

Hipkins puts ceasefire call in context of domestic affairs

Hipkins’ comments on foreign affairs did strike something of a domestic tone. Hipkins said that as there was “no end in sight” to negotiations to form a government, he needed to make a statement as Labour leader. As talks continued over the weekend in Auckland, National leader Christopher Luxon said yesterday there are “three or less issues” that require sorting out. Opinion is diverging about whether the talks are taking too long. Writing on his Substack, Philip Crumb, editor of Newstalk ZB Plus, argues the proof of the pudding is in eating. “Time spent now agreeing a fulsome coalition agreement will undoubtedly be time well spent.” Vernon Small says Luxon “looked like a political innocent being played by NZ First leader Winston Peters and has been upstaged with the media by Act leader David Seymour.” The University of Otago’s Michael Swanson points out the time being taken pales in comparison to government negotiation processes around the world.

Negotiations continue on deal to pause conflict and hostage release

Around the same time as Hipkins’ statement, The Washington Post reported that Israel and Hamas had reached a “tentative U.S.-brokered deal” that would pause the conflict in Gaza and allow some women and child hostages to be free. The Post had to walk that back after US National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson clarified that a deal had not been reached but “we continue to work hard to get to a deal.” ReutersAl Jazeera and the BBC all have reports this morning of a deal “being close”. As Israel continues to make its case for its operation at the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, alleging that Hamas has a command and control centre underneath the hospital, an evacuation has been underway to rescue premature babies from the hospital. Hospital staff have strenuously denied Israel’s claims about the hospital. As Al Jazeera reports, a poll from November 14 has Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s popularity among Israeli Jews at about 4% and both his opponents and traditional allies are calling for him to resign once the current war ends.