Off the track

Written By: - Date published: 11:26 am, February 28th, 2017 - 7 comments
Categories: Economy, Politics, Social issues - Tags:

The Auckland Fabians have a lecture on Thursday at 6:30pm at Lecture Theatre 5 , 12 Grafton Road, Owen Glenn Building. University of Auckland. There is parking beneath the building. Sounds like it will be worth going to.

Off the Track is the 10th State of the Nation report from The Salvation Army’s Social Policy and Parliamentary Unit. It draws on the picture of the tramping tracks so familiar to many Kiwis. Walking these tracks requires frequent checking of maps and track markers to ensure the trail is not lost. Failure to do so in the New Zealand bush can carry significant and sometimes tragic consequences.

In the context of this report, ‘off the track’ reflects a sense that many of the markers routinely analysed for the State of the Nation report currently suggest we are not heading in the best direction for New Zealand as a whole.

In a follow-up presentation to the report’s launch Alan covers the stark contrast between an economy which is apparently doing well alongside a social environment which is becoming increasingly divided. He offers some ideas for how we might reset our priorities.

Both the full text and summary of the report are available here.

7 comments on “Off the track ”

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  1. Michael who failed Civics 1
    28 February 2017 at 2:36 pm

    At least poverty and inequality aren’t increasing as fast as they did under the Fourth Labour Government. We really broke the records then. An achievement to be truly proud of.

    • Cinny 1.1
      28 February 2017 at 9:30 pm

      One would think that the current outgoing government would have made necessary changes in the last nine years they have been in power, rather than blame who was in Labour almost forty years ago.

      Michael, please supply facts/stat’s to back up your comment, because I find that very hard to believe. Thanks.

      • Michael who failed Civics 1.1.1
        1 March 2017 at 12:40 am

        I’ve got a graph, from official statistics, showing exactly that, but I don’t know how to post it here. MSD’s Household Income Report for 2014 records, at para 10, the dramatic rate of inequality growth during the term of the fourth Labour government, especially 1987-1990. Since then inequality has continued to widen, although not as fast as those years. There are plenty of other reports too. Look for yourself.

  2. Michael who failed Civics 2
    1 March 2017 at 1:02 am

    Here’s another official source of evidence for you:

    “Income Inequality
    Two ways of measuring income inequality are percentile ratios and theGini coefficient. Percentile income ratios summarise the relative distance between two points in the income distribution. The ratio of the 80th percentile to the 20th percentile of the equivalised disposable household income distribution is used to measure inequality. The higher this ratio is, the greater the level of inequality.

    “Based on the 80:20 ratio inequality increased from 1986 to 2010.Inequality increased most rapidly from1988 to 1992….”
    (“Household Incomes, Inequality and Poverty”, Parliamentary Library Research Paper,
    December 2011)

    • John up North 2.1
      1 March 2017 at 9:55 am

      Post links Michael, we’re very familiar with hit and run BS lines like the one you’re pushing. We’re also very familiar how Nact fans like yourself either

      a). Can’t interpret data.
      b). Cherry pick data sets.
      c). Use anecdotal “evidence”.
      d). Cry ” Junk Science”.

      Until links posted what I’m reading here is just a “Michael reckons”

    • Cinny 2.2
      1 March 2017 at 11:06 am

      Up to date research please, not something from six or seven years ago such as you describe in point 2.

  3. lprent 3
    2 March 2017 at 7:15 pm

    Interesting lecture so far. Housing (or rather the lack of it) really is the core of set of issues on poverty.