What Have Labour Done For The Poor, Exactly?

• advantage
• 4 years ago
• Categories: benefits, Carmel Sepuloni, Economy, labour, uncategorized, welfare

There’s been plenty of criticism about Labour’s policies not being effective enough to alleviate poverty.

Time for a bit of perspective.

You’ll probably remember the interview Labour’s Carmel Sepuloni gave with TVNZ last year.

But, as with most policy areas, COVID19 focused the Minister’s mind, and that of Treasury.

Labour’s Social Welfare Minister has had a hard time from the Child Poverty Action Group recently. Their task is necessarily unceasing.

But, as the Minister rightly notes, Labour have implemented a lot.

For just a few of the highlights:

• Labour did the Families Package early on which gave 384,000 families an extra $75 a week
• Labour implemented the Best Start payment which gets parents with young children $60 a week for 3 years
• They implemented 7 months paid Parental Leave, up from 4 months.
• They actually did the hard political thing of setting legislated targets child poverty, which is going to grip them tighter and tighter each time it’s reported
• Labour now gives free lunches through schools – by mid next year that’s 200,000 children eating better so they can learn better
• Minister Sepuloni stopped the requirement to name the father or your benefit gets cut. A truly shitty National government policy.
• Minister Sepuloni shifted the mean and disgusting punitive culture of Social Welfare, though is happy to admit there’s a lot more to do
• Labour banned smoking in cars – great for child health – and when National started in power the smoking rate was about 20% and it’s down to 14.9%.
• Allocated over half a billion in funding against domestic violence – now let’s see them spend it to make a difference
• Did strong long term employment stuff like the Tupu Aotearoa and the expanded Mana In Mahi programmes for education pathways into work for Maori and Pacifica and generally people who had some massive social disadvantage
• Increased the minimum wage, and promised to raise it again to $20 next year

Sure, there is plenty they didn’t do. Minister Sepuloni should keep taking the criticism, and fighting harder for her patch in Cabinet. That’s what you get paid for.

Of all the political capital they’ve accumulated, it’s sure time to spend some of it in social welfare.

And probably COVID19’s social and economic effects will confuse any causality of the collected policies to any change to the GINI Coefficient. Brutal damn year.

But that scale of positive social intervention never happened under National. Or Act.

Labour’s Carmel Sepuloni led this change, as did the Prime Minister herself.

It would have been a meaner, crueller, more damaged country without Labour’s social welfare policies; a very, very dark entry into the crisis we are in.

Social welfare is another portfolio for which Labour should be voted back in.