Mana | Movement of the People

Ae Marika! 20 May

Budget Day is over for another twelve months and as usual there’s been a lot of crowing from the government and their friends and a lot of criticism from the opposition.

Free doctor’s visits and prescriptions for primary school visits are excellent, and the extension for paid parental leave and the increase in the parental tax credit are both worthwhile, but things will not change much for those at the bottom end of the social spectrum because some of the critical support factors haven’t changed at all.

There has been no change in either the accommodation supplement or the in-work tax credit – not just for the last three years, but the last nine – even though rents and food prices have continued to rise over that time. In real terms there has been very little change in benefit rates over the past 23 years and the family tax credit has been locked down as well for some time.

Having taken more than $1 billion out of the welfare budget last year, government’s spending of only $125 million over the next year is a massive hit for those families struggling to get by.

I make those points because government has taken heaps out of the poor and … again … taken NOTHING at all from those at the top end, which means the rich are getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer. So much so in fact that today, the richest 1% of NZers own 16% of the country’s wealth, while the bottom half own less than 5%.

Budgets play an important role in any society. Indeed, if a budget is about how we set out our priorities and outline the financial strategies to achieve them, then we need to be wise enough to identify the important priorities, courageous enough to allocate the money needed to achieve them, and then unwavering in our determination to realise them. Those priorities define what kind of society it is we want, and the resources we dedicate to them in a budget are an expression of our commitment to achieving them.

For me those priorities should speak of a society we would be proud to leave for the next generation and right now those priorities should include a commitment to feeding the kids, building homes for every family, providing jobs for everyone, and paying for it all by taxing those who can afford to pay.

Critics of this approach call it simplistic and a little naïve, but so what? There are many facets to a positive society, but if kids, homes and jobs aren’t some of the most important things in our world then what is?

I’d like to see government encouraging small businesses and keeping manufacturing at home. I’d also like to see Te Tiriti o Waitangi affirmed as the cornerstone of our constitution and Maori language made compulsory in every school in the country. I’d like government to withdraw all their money from an Australian owned bank and put it all into Kiwibank so the profits stay here. And I’d like to see the Warriors win the NRL as well!

But at the top of the list I’d still put healthy children, warm homes, and jobs for all. We have the means. We have the capability. All we need is the political will.

AE MARIKA is an article written every week by Hone Harawira, leader of the MANA Movement and Member of Parliament for Te Tai Tokerau. You are welcome to use any of the comments and to ascribe them to Mr Harawira. The full range of Hone’s articles can be found on the MANA website at www.mana.net.nz.