• Introducing income-related rents for over 50,000 state tenants from December 2000. More than 85 percent of State tenants now benefit from incomerelated rents, with most saving between $20-$80 a week.

  A secure and affordable home increases children’s chances of better health, giving them a greater opportunity to realise their potential. We have increased funding for community housing and are moving to extend or modify state houses where there are particular worries about crowding or health issues.

• Promoting the availability of the Special Benefit to assist people in cases of real hardship and removing the standard $5 deduction.
• Making sure benefits rise to take account of increased living costs.
• Reducing unnecessary hardship by reviewing the recovery rate of debts owed by beneficiaries to the Department of Work and Income, where the rate was over $40 a week. We are also looking into new measures to prevent debts being established.
• Restoring the level of NZ Superannuation.
• Increasing funding for health and education services, and improving equality of opportunity in education through the abolition of bulk funding of schools.
• Making access to tertiary education more affordable through changes to the student loans scheme.
• Investing significantly in skills development and capacity building, including programmes so Maori and Pacific peoples communities can take greater control of their own development.

We are also moving to ensure there is better information and co-ordinated social policy to address the connected problems of exclusion and disadvantage.

The Government is seeking improved information and research to guide our decisions.

Two areas of work underway are research into people’s living standards and social indicators reporting to build a picture of the quality of life in New Zealand.

Social reporting is important as it provides direct information about living conditions and quality of life, and whether these are improving or deteriorating over time. It can provide advance information about issues we ought to be concerned about or where action is needed and how we compare to other countries.

Through this it is also possible to identify groups or regions that are experiencing particular disadvantage.

By making information publicly available through social reporting, we enhance the ability of government, people and groups to make decisions, set priorities and generally participate in society.

To better co-ordinate services, we are forming the Ministry of Social Development which will become the Government’s primary advisor on strategic and crosssectoral social policy, while still delivering a range of income support, employment and other social services to the community.

Practical Capacity Building

The Department of Labour’s Community Employment Group has identified Pacific peoples as one of its priority groups for development services.

For example, it has helped set up Enuamanu Vainetini – a group of 30 women in Mangere from the Cook Island of Enuamanu who meet regularly to create intricately-designed and crafted tivaevae (Cook Island quilts). The Community Employment Group will also be helping them to market their tivaevae.

Measuring Living Standards

There are no official measures of poverty or deprivation in New Zealand. However, we are currently conducting research that will provide us with a clearer picture of the living standards of New Zealanders.