Labour’s Willie Jackson has accused the Government of displaying a cold-hearted attitude towards struggling families as controversy grows over thousands of emergency food grant applications being recorded as declined because food was not considered an essential need.
Speaking to Radio Waatea, Jackson says the revelations expose a wider problem with the way vulnerable New Zealanders are being treated at a time when unemployment, food insecurity and the cost of living are putting increasing pressure on whānau.
But Jackson also turned his attention to another group often invisible in public policy — the tamariki left behind when a parent is sent to prison — saying a recent Radio Waatea interview examining new research into parental incarceration shows how much more work needs to be done.
And on climate change, Jackson says Labour’s position is equally clear heading towards Election 2026: a Labour Government will not walk away from the Paris Climate Agreement.
FOOD GRANT CONTROVERSY DEEPENS
The MSD controversy erupted after information obtained by 1News showed that over the past six years more than 8,000 Special Needs Grant applications for food were recorded as declined on the basis that food was not an essential need.
MSD says the wording resulted from an administrative coding error and does not mean the underlying decisions themselves were necessarily incorrect.
The scale of food hardship, however, is significant.
More than 318,000 people sought food grants during 2025, generating around 1.4 million applications. More than 88,000 applications were declined, while MSD paid more than $130 million in food assistance during the year. The Ministry says around 94 to 96 percent of applications are approved annually.
Jackson says the episode reflects what he sees as an increasingly hard approach towards people experiencing hardship.
His criticism comes as Child Poverty Action Group has also called for an apology and challenged the Government to explain how thousands of applications could carry such a reason.
MSD’s own rules explicitly provide for food grants where an applicant or their immediate family needs food, has no resources available and would otherwise need to rely on a food bank.
WHEN WHĀNAU NEED KAI
The issue is particularly relevant for Māori communities already facing disproportionately high unemployment and financial hardship.
For a whānau living from one payment to the next, an unexpected car repair, electricity bill, medical expense or rent increase can be enough to leave nothing for groceries.
The Government points to substantial investment in community food support. Budget 2026 provides ongoing funding of $8 million annually for food distribution infrastructure, with another $7 million for community food providers and food-security initiatives during 2026/27.
MSD itself acknowledges demand remains elevated largely because of continuing cost-of-living pressures.
Jackson’s argument, however, is that emergency support should be available when families reach crisis point rather than vulnerable people feeling judged or discouraged from seeking assistance.
THE TAMARIKI LEFT BEHIND
Jackson is also reflecting on Radio Waatea’s recent interview about groundbreaking research examining what happens to children when their parent or primary caregiver is imprisoned.
The Borrin Foundation-funded project brings together researchers from the University of Auckland and AUT, including Professor Tracey McIntosh of Ngāi Tūhoe and Professor Khylee Quince of Ngāpuhi, Te Roroa, Ngāti Porou and Ngāti Kahungunu.
Researchers are examining whether the rights and interests of tamariki and rangatahi are adequately considered when courts make bail and sentencing decisions.
The existing evidence demonstrates why that question matters.
When fathers are imprisoned, previous research found 79 percent of children continue living with their mothers. When mothers are imprisoned, care arrangements are much more likely to change, with only 21 percent remaining with their fathers.
Women in prison are also almost three times more likely than men to have dependent children and more than twice as likely to be single parents.
For Māori, the consequences are particularly significant. Sixty-seven percent of women currently imprisoned are Māori, while Māori children are more likely to live in single-parent households, most commonly headed by mothers.
A SENTENCE THAT REACHES BEYOND THE PRISONER
Jackson says the discussion reinforces how much work remains to be done across the justice system.
The research will examine what happens to children’s schooling, health, housing and care arrangements before and after a caregiver is imprisoned, as well as whether alternative sentencing approaches could better recognise the interests of dependent children.
The issue is not about removing accountability for offending.
It is about recognising that imprisonment can create consequences extending far beyond the person sentenced by the court.
When a primary caregiver disappears behind prison walls, tamariki can lose their home, school stability, daily contact with their parent and sometimes connection with wider whānau.
For Jackson, that demands greater attention to the intergenerational consequences of incarceration, particularly for Māori.
LABOUR DRAWS A LINE ON PARIS
Jackson is also drawing a clear dividing line over climate policy, saying Labour will not withdraw New Zealand from the Paris Climate Agreement.
The issue is increasingly significant heading into the general election as political parties debate New Zealand’s future climate commitments, the Emissions Trading Scheme, forestry and the costs of meeting international emissions targets.
Labour has already signalled it wants to overhaul the ETS if elected, including reviewing how the scheme balances genuine emissions reductions against forestry offsets.
Jackson’s message is that whatever changes Labour makes domestically, abandoning New Zealand’s international climate commitments is not on the table.
For Māori, climate policy extends well beyond international diplomacy.
It reaches into whenua Māori, forestry, farming, fisheries, coastal communities, marae exposed to flooding and erosion, and the responsibilities of kaitiakitanga to future generations.
THREE ISSUES — ONE ELECTION
Food hardship, parental imprisonment and climate change may appear to sit in entirely different parts of government.
But Jackson says they ultimately raise the same political question ahead of Election 2026 — what responsibility does government have to the people most affected by the decisions it makes?
For whānau struggling to put kai on the table, tamariki whose parent disappears into prison, and communities facing the long-term consequences of climate change, those decisions are anything but theoretical.
They land directly in the lives of whānau.
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