Judge Frances Eivers says child welfare and criminality are social issues and increasing poverty cannot go ignored.

Her comments come on the day of new ram raids - including one in which a digger was used to smash through the front of a petrol station in Wainuiomata and another in which three teenagers and a 20-year-old were arrested after fleeing the scene of a burglary north of Auckland, ramming police cars and driving on the wrong side of the road on the motorway.

"We'd be very surprised to find that any of these young people came from one of the leafy suburbs in Auckland where they've got plenty of food in the cupboard, where their disposable income is good, where they've got money not just to pay the rent or mortgage but to buy extras," Eivers said. Read more

Maori are likely to have been disproportionately affected by the new process but they have had no say in its design or implementation says Te Mana Raraunga, (TMR) the Maori Data Sovereignty Network.

They think the limitations of the Census 2018 have created an unacceptable brake on efforts to advance Maori social, cultural and economic wellbeing.

TMR says official statistics are fundamental for informing Maori and Crown actions to improve Maori wellbeing and realise Maori rights.

The delay in the release of data until September 2019 is also a major concern for TMR because timeliness is a key factor in the usefulness of such data to inform decisions.

After it became apparent that the census enumeration was incomplete, the dataset was augmented by drawing extensively on other government data.

Stats NZ notes that 11 percent of the total number of records in the dataset it created for Census 2018 have come from other government data.

TMR is urging Stats NZ to reveal what percentage of Maori ethnicity and Maori descent records in the census dataset have been sourced from outside the census.

Maori descent data are used to calculate the number of electorates and revise electoral boundaries.

Government Statistician Liz MacPherson said on Monday that the data was good enough to provide information for setting boundaries of both general and Maori electorates.

"By combining the census forms with the admin data, we've been able to come up with a Maori descent population which is more comprehensive than the 2013 census. And it's Maori descent that's used for electoral boundaries."

However, TMR says the Census 2013 had the lowest Maori coverage of any recent Census.

Data relating to iwi affiliation will not be available for the 2018 Census.

A lack of iwi affiliation data could have an impact on Treaty settlements.

Source

• static1.squarespace.com
• radionz.co.nz
• newsroom.co.nz
• Image: tvnz.co.nz

It says despite the country becoming wealthier, many Kiwis don't share the prosperity.

The Salvation Army says the number of families seeking food parcels from its 65 food banks jumped 12 percent this year.

It says demand had held steady for five years before this increase.

The Salvation Army calls the report Kei a Tatou, It is us.

It monitors progress in 25 areas and measures the past decade's social and economic equality.

New Zealand did well between 2013 and 2017 as a result of the economy growing by 14 percent.

The number of jobs grew 15 percent and per-capita GDP grew 13 percent, adjusted for inflation.

But the report finds that there was no big change in child poverty rates. Youth unemployment stayed around 20 percent.

The report's author, Alan Johnson, says everyone isn't sharing the strong economic growth.

He says there has been "frightening" rise in the number of families falling into food poverty.

"That's the true cost of rent rises and slow wage growth on our most vulnerable families," he says.

The people behind the figures

The Salvation Army's Social Policy & Parliamentary Unit's director urged the report's readers to remember it's about people.

Lt. Colonel Ian Hutson says, "Behind these statistics are people … sometimes thriving … while on other occasions they are isolated, living with extreme levels of stress, in poverty and highly marginal."

He says New Zealand can't separate its poorest people while pretending they don't matter.

While the report describes a desperate situation, it did hold positive signs.

It shows New Zealand is closing educational achievement gaps.

It is increasing participation in early childhood education.

There are reductions in infant mortality, teenage pregnancy and youth suicide.

The report found economic growth had not led to fewer children in poverty and furthermore it didn't reduce the number of young people without meaningful work.

Methamphetamine-related offences grew by 80 per cent in the past three years.

It found that government policies caused the prison population to surge to record levels. This despite a consistent drop in crime.

Sources:

• NZ Herald
• Salvation Army

Image credit:

• Salvation Army

The story was part of the Mission's Mothers' Day fundraising campaign.

"It was at odds with what I know of the brave and resilient mothers and grandmothers we work with and also the kindness and generosity that are such a part of our community," he said.

For Mothers' Day the Auckland City Mission celebrated the resourcefulness of the mothers and grandmothers who visit the mission, by highlighting an example of the sacrifices they make to feed their children.

The Mission decided to focus feminine hygiene products and the reality that mothers have to ask the Mission to provide these items because they need to spend all their funds on finding food for their children.

This mother hoped that she could personalise and humanise the issue by telling her story.

She spoke openly and readily about the reality of raising her family in poverty, raising awareness of the issue.

Subsequently, numerous people have taken to Facebook to write vitriolic messages to her and her children.

"Unconstructive and judgmental statements directed at individuals won't solve this they will just damage further the pride and resilience of already vulnerable and marginalised people," said Farrelly.

He said when he became City Missioner he was unprepared for the intolerance and critical judgment placed on families and individuals living in poverty, by some members of our community.

"It is at odds with the caring, compassion and awareness displayed by so many others," he said.

• Read: Athena Moana's story
• Watch: Food Parcels on Mother's Day

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• Image: resources.stuff.co.nz

On April 28, Pope Francis posted to his Twitter feed: "Iniquitas radix malorum."

In English this translates to "Inequality is the root of social evil".

The papal tweet came only days after French economist Thomas Picketty's bestseller "Capital in the Twenty-First Century?" sold out on Amazon.

Picketty posits that an unregulated free market creates an ever-widening wealth gap.

The papal tweet had nearly 10,000 retweets shortly after it was posted.

Writing for the Religion News Service, David Gibson noted that the papal tweet had drawn criticism from the libertarian, Catholic-run Acton Institute.

"Seriously, though, what was up with that tweet by @Pontifex? Has he traded the writings of Peter and Paul for Piketty?" tweeted the Acton Institute's Joe Carter.

"Hate and apathy are the roots of social evil," he added as a counterpoint.

"So, if we achieve maximum redistribution of resources, we will have eliminated ‘social evil' , whatever that is?" wrote Rod Dreher at the American Conservative.

"Yes, and that's why the Soviet Union was the Garden of Eden," Dreher added.

Gibson noted that Catholic Culture editor Phil Lawler called the Pope's tweet "a fairly radical statement" and as "a piece of economic analysis a very simplistic one".

Lawler added that Francis probably doesn't know what's going onto his Twitter feed anyway, and the Pope does not speak English.

"So we can be sure those aren't his exact words," Lawler said, echoing previous conservative efforts to downplay or explain away some of Francis' more provocative statements.

Yet Vatican officials have said that in fact Francis personally approves all of his tweets, and did so in this case as well, Gibson wrote.

Moreover, they noted that the tweet is taken directly from Francis' exhortation from last year, Evangelii Gaudium (see paragraph 202).

In his exhortation, Pope Francis attacking the "idolatry of money" and calling on politicians to guarantee all citizens "dignified work, education and healthcare".

Sources

• Huffington Post
• Religion News Service
• Evangelii Gaudium
• Image: salon.com