Poverty by Design Seminar Series
Poverty by Design: The Systems that hold families in poverty, and what needs to change.
Seminar Series 24 July to 28 August 2024
Seminar 1 - 24 July 2024
Presenter: Dr Max Rashbrooke
Poverty in Aotearoa New Zealand: Where are we now?
Six years after the introduction of the Child Poverty Reduction Act, Max looks at our collective response to the crisis of poverty. He gives an overview of the multiple economic and social foundations of poverty in Aotearoa New Zealand, and how those systems hold people in hardship. Max will also look at the state of welfare reform following the 2019 Welfare Expert Advisory Group, and where things are headed now.
Max Rashbrooke is a Wellington-based writer and public intellectual, with twin interests in economic inequality and democratic renewal. His books include Too Much Money: How Wealth Disparities are Unbalancing Aotearoa New Zealand and Inequality: A New Zealand Crisis. A senior research fellow (adjunct) at Victoria University’s School of Government, he pens a fortnightly column for both The Post and The Spinoff and writes for international outlets including the Guardian. He has also recently helped launch IDEA, the Institute for Democratic and Economic Analysis, a new public policy think-tank.
Chair: Stephanie McIntyre, former Director of Downtown Community Ministry
Seminar 2 - 31 July 2024
Presenter: Charles Waldegrave
Broken Homes
Charles Waldegrave on our failed housing system and what we can do about it. How have we become a country with one of the highest housing costs per income in the OECD? How did we transition from one of the most affordable countries to buy a house in, to one of the least affordable? Why is New Zealand growing the divide between an asset-owning class and a non-owning asset class? Charles has been working in this space for thirty years and latterly on research for the Waitangi Tribunal’s inquiry into Māori housing – “Māori Home Ownership 1991 – 2021”, with another report on Social Housing to come. He will demonstrate, with evidence, how Aotearoa provided affordable housing stability during the post-war years and then abandoned that achievement and created the conditions for the current housing crisis. He will reflect on the lessons to be learned and suggest ways to create secure affordable housing in Aotearoa again.
Charles Waldegrave coordinates the Family Centre Social Policy Research Unit. He leads the research team that sets New Zealand’s ‘Living Wage’ each year. With colleagues, he set up the New Zealand Poverty Measurement Project which developed 7 of the 10 measures of poverty used in the Child Poverty Reduction Act 2018 and included housing costs. He was a member of the Welfare Expert Advisory Group where he led the Housing workstream. He has published numerous papers on housing, and most recently a commissioned report for the Waitangi Tribunal: ‘Māori Home Ownership 1991-2021’.
Chair: Paul Gilberd, CEO of Community Housing Aotearoa
Seminar 3 - 7 August 2024
Presenters: Ragne Maxwell, Jason Ataera, Michelle Picard, Lisa te Morenga
Hunger to Learn
One in five children in Aotearoa live in households where food runs out often or sometimes. For Māori and Pacific children the percentages are higher – 35% and 40% respectively. Ka Ora, Ka Ako, the government-funded school lunch programme, was launched in 2020 for schools whose students face the greatest socio-economic barriers. But it has become politically controversial, and funding for children in years 7 to 13 has been significantly reduced, with the savings going to a new programme for low-decile, non-profit, community early childhood centres. The future of Ka Ora, Ka Ako remains uncertain, with the government planning a full redesign.
The seminar will hear from school principals Ragne Maxwell, Jason Ataera and Michelle Picard about their experience of Ka Ora, Ka Ako and its impact on their students and school communities. They will be joined public health researcher Professor Lisa te Morenga about the impact of food poverty on children’s learning, and the results of Ka Ora, Ka Ako after four years of operation.
- Ragne Maxwell is principal of Porirua College, a year 9-13 co-ed school in Cannons Creek, Porirua.
- Jason Ataera is principal of Tairangi School, a year 1-8 primary school in Waitangirua, Porirua.
- Michelle Picard is principal of Taita Central School, a year 1-6 contributing school in Taita, Lower Hutt.
- Massey University Professor Lisa te Morenga is a nutrition and Māori health researcher, Rutherford Discovery Fellow, investigator with the Riddet Institute, and co-chair of Health Coalition Aotearoa.
(please note that some power points did not live stream/record and are available below).