Economic apartheid : growing poverty in the nineties
Description: "Since 1987, as Member of Parliament for Porirua and now Mana, I have had the privilege to represent and advocate for many people in my electorate whose views would not otherwise have been heard by government and its agencies. They are often people whose lives are invisible to the general public -- beneficiaries or workers eking out miserably low incomes. Often they lack the education or confidence to exert their rights or challenge the establishment. Many are new immigrants from small Pacific nations and English is their second language. Others are Maori from rural New Zealand who are thrown into suburbia with little family support. More than half are Pakeha. One parent families make up a significant number ... It is clear that conservative politicians from very different backgrounds either don't believe what I say, or don't want to know ... Even if they do accept that there is a problem -- such as the crisis of overcrowding, poor health and poverty caused by high housing rents -- those MPs will snap back into line when I or others make suggestions for change with comments like "We cant go back to the failed old policies of the past" ... In July this year two reports were released. "Closing social and economic gaps", by the government agency Te Puni Kokiri, painted a gloomy picture about the deterioration of Maori economic and health status over the past decade. The differences between Maori and non-Maori rates for sudden death, teenage pregnancy, diabetes, youth suicide, stroke and pneumonia have all widened. Hard on its heels came a report by Professor Srikanth Chatterjee of Massey University revealing that New Zealand now has the widest gap between rich and poor in the western world. This study of our economic reforms has found that the bottom 80 percent of households have been left relatively worse off while the top five percent -- the wealthiest -- have seen their share of the national wealth rise by 25 percent. What I have written about here are some of the stories of ordinary people whose lives have been devastated by the growing poverty that has become a feature of our society ... By telling these stories, I hope to reach those New Zealanders who can influence the political climate in this country and therefore make a real difference to the lives of people who deserve so much better."--Foreword
Collection: DOCUMENTARY HERITAGEDescription: "Since 1987, as Member of Parliament for Porirua and now Mana, I have had the privilege to represent and advocate for many people in my electorate whose views would not…