January 05, 2022
Politicians urged to step up welfare reform
The coordinator for Auckland Action Against Poverty believes there’s broad public support for real action to address poverty this year.
Brooke Pao-Stanley says a recent poll showing 69 per cent of New Zealanders support an increase in welfare benefits indicates that politicians are now the ones out of step.
Pao-Stanley says they’re running out of excuses for the slow pace of welfare reform.
“Covid has shown us [that] politicians can make decisions overnight to change things and really transform things … There is no excuse any more for ‘it will take time to transform the welfare space’ or any other systems.”
Pao-Stanley says welfare reform can be a step towards the sort of societal transformation needed to cope with climate change.
The Crown also needs to get back to providing some of the services it passed over to the private and non-government sectors.