Starting in our own backyard

OPINION: Recently I put out a media release setting out my concerns about the widening gap between the "haves" and the "have nots", writes Rahui Katene (Maori Party) in this week's From the Beehive.

As I travel around the Te Tai Tonga electorate and meet with my constituents and community organisations, and receive their letters and emails, I am becoming increasingly aware of the effect of this recession on people with low incomes and high health and social service needs, particularly Maori, who are disproportionately represented amongst the "have nots".

We've all seen the employment and income statistics, and they make for woeful reading.

But seeing the reality of those statistics, and meeting the people those statistics represent, really brings home to me the struggle daily life is becoming for too many people, including children and their families.

Our Prime Minister wants to lessen the gap in income between New Zealanders and Australians. Somehow, a rise in GST and accompanying tax cuts is supposed to help achieve that. But without question, a rise in GST and accompanying tax cuts will further increase the gap between the "haves" and "have nots" here at home. The Government says that the rise in GST and tax cuts will mean our people will not be worse off. But "no worse off" is not the same as "better off".

The reality is that again those with money will get bigger tax cuts. Because less of their spending is on essential items, the increase in GST will not affect them to the same extent it will impact on those without money, and inevitably the gap between rich and poor will widen. In the drive to lessen the gap with Australia, the gap between our own citizens is being ignored.

I say the Government and economists should be counting the dollars being earned in New Zealand and developing policy around closing the gap between the poor and the rich here rather than focusing on what Australians earn.

In my opinion, and it is the view of many people I have spoken to, if we want to make a meaningful difference for people in this country, the best place to start would be in our own backyard. The Maori Party wants the minimum wage to be increased to $15 an hour, more investment in training and education, and for GST to be removed from healthy kai.

Let us worry less about the wage gap with Australia, and work harder on reducing the gap that already exists here in Aotearoa.

» Rahui Katene is the Maori Party MP for Te Tai Tonga.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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