It is interesting how, now that we have a Labour government, the reports on people living in their cars have completely dried up, and yet the housing crisis is worse than ever. Now, with the government’s generous wage subsidy package, we could all be forgiven for thinking that Jacinda is looking after us all. But although the wage subsidy package is generous, in the sense that taxpayer’s money has been allocated to provide people with incomes during lockdown, it goes without saying that these programmes never go far enough. $25 per week to beneficiaries costs a whole lot to taxpayers, but provides little relief to a beneficiary who cannot afford food. Similarly, a programme giving $545 per week to people who normally earn $1000 per week (both figures are before tax and deductions) costs taxpayers a huge amount but will not provide enough for families to live well. Poverty beckons for more and more people, and if there was ever evidence of this, look no further than the foodbanks.
RNZ reports:
After four weeks in lockdown, food banks around the country say there has been a dramatic rise in the number of people needing help to put food on the table.
The number of food grants made by the Ministry of Social Development has also skyrocketed under alert level 4 – hitting close to 70,000 in just a week.
Auckland City Missioner Chris Farrelly said the eight days before Christmas are usually the busiest of the year.
But over the lockdown period, he said the mission has been handing out about 1200 food parcels – double the usual demand.
“We’ve now been doing this day in, day out, already for 25 days. It’s Christmas on steroids, and we know this is going to continue.”
The numbers vary around the country but the basic story is the same. People are struggling. Under lockdown, with reduced incomes, those who never used to need to use foodbanks suddenly find themselves queuing for food parcels.
“And just about all the calls we’re getting in at the mission now are relating to food. Yes, there’s a few other things, but it’s essentially food.”
And some of those people needing help have never been to a food bank before, Farrelly said.
“Now we have this new group who have been affected by business closures, reduced hours, pay cuts, some of those in precarious work arrangements, who’ve just suddenly found themselves unable to feed their children.”
Some of these people will return to work next week, and hopefully will be back to normal soon, but many will not, and some jobs will simply not be there when we get back to Level 2. Jobs in tourism, hospitality, personal care and retail will start to disappear, if they have not already vanished.
Gerry Walker from the Salvation Army said they distributed almost 6000 food parcels around the country last week.
That’s more than four times the number they were handing out in early March.
But some places have been hit harder than others – and in Wellington and Palmerston North there’s been a more than 900 percent increase.
Walker said no one can predict how long this might last.
“But right now, looking at these figures, it’s very concerning, and each one of those [parcels] represents a person, family or wh?nau who are really struggling at the moment.
I constantly hear Grant Robertson telling everyone that they have a package in mind to get the economy moving again, but I am struggling to see what they can do. Governments cannot create jobs or businesses and they cannot keep paying for everything. The wage subsidy scheme has cost in the region of $12 billion. These are eye watering numbers, and we have only just started. I do give the government credit for trying to support New Zealanders, but if foodbanks are finding demand quadrupling already, I think many of us are in for a rough time ahead.
Like him or not, this is where I agree with Simon Bridges. Our COVID-19 case numbers do not justify an extra week of lockdown, and the economic carnage of what is effectively 3 more weeks of it will cripple us for decades to come. We need to start looking at the economy now, rather than try to eradicate a disease which will only come back in waves, as it has done in other countries. The government may have good intentions, but it can’t pay for everything. We need to stop this madness and, as a country, get back to work.
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