2021 Budget seeks to redress inter-generational poverty

The Justice and Peace Commission of the Catholic Diocese of Auckland commends the Government’s 2021 Budget efforts to improve the welfare of some of our most vulnerable families.

“We are so pleased that at long last a Government has given attention to the injustice of the 1991 slashing of base rates of Social Welfare payments to some of our most vulnerable families that has led to decades of inter-generational poverty,” says Loraine Elliott, who is the Vicar for Social Impact and Communication for the Catholic Diocese of Auckland.

“The increase in base benefits in the 2021 Budget is the first substantive increase for many decades. It will enable so many families to support themselves with dignity and start New Zealand on the road to reverse the march of child poverty that is unnecessarily blighting so many lives,” Ms Elliott said.  

Housing

The other key component to addressing child and family poverty is the provision of more public housing and affordable private housing.  We welcome the already announced allocation of funding for Kainga Ora to buy land for public housing but stress that the waiting list continues to outstrip the amount of public housing available.

Ms Elliott said that she would have liked to see a greater sense of urgency about this in today’s budget in order to house the 22,000 families still on the waiting list.

Climate Change

We are pleased that Budget 2021 has set aside funding to respond to the Climate Change Commission’s final recommendations. We welcome the Government’s commitment for the public sector to become carbon-neutral by 2025 but would like to see investment in reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% across the whole economy by 2030.

For more information contact:

Peter Garrick [email protected]    ph 022 130 0730