Beech told the Committee how when she lived in Housing New Zealand flats in Petone, a long-time resident, a kaumatua figure, helped retrieve her precious 1840 violin when it was stolen from her car. He lived alone in a two-bedroomed flat and kept an informal eye on things.

‘From the perspective of his household, of his housing need, it might be easy to conclude that he didn't need a two-bedroomed flat,' said Ms Beech. ‘But our community needed him.... I hate to think of what it would have been like if our flats had been a series of unconnected households, rather than a community.'

Watch Lisa perform on Brook Sabin on the week in politics last Thursday (3:15 minutes in):

Caritas' oral submission to the Social Services Select Committee considering the Bill also included the experience of a state house tenant from Christchurch.

Caritas welcomed the government's increased focus on housing affordability and intention to increase social housing, Caritas Director Julianne Hickey told the Committee. ‘However, any expansion of social housing in the community must extend social housing by State and private providers, rather than replace it.'

• Read oral submission
• Read written submission

Source

• Caritas Aotearoa/New Zealand
• Image: Screen Shot TV3

In its submission to the Social Services Select Committee the New Zealand Catholic Bishops' Agency Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand has expressed very real concerns about the proposal for case managers to offer any woman on any kind of benefit, including married women, as well as the daughters of those on benefits between the ages of 16-19, free long term reversible contraception.

"The Catholic Church teaches a respect for human dignity and many of the proposals will damage that dignity. The key purpose of welfare changes should be to reduce poverty, not to make the vulnerable more vulnerable," says the CEO of Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand, Julianne Hickey.

"If contraceptive options and incomes become linked, a beneficiary facing a case manager may feel they have little option at all," she says.

"While the Government says that they won't be coerced, we know that coercion can be subtle and when punitive measures are proposed for those who have subsequent children while on welfare it seems there is little option but to take it."

Source

• The Catholic Diocese of Auckland
• Image: MSN News