Charm Skinner, who works for the Salvation Army, reminded us that “in all this data, these are the real lived experiences of whānau”. We have choices ahead at the next election, about how to tackle these problems. Recent decisions have taken us here. Let’s make better choices.

Drug consumption has rocketed over the past two years. Meth use has nearly doubled during that time. Support for people affected by drug abuse needs more support given this weight of consumption.

The number of households receiving transitional housing support fell last year. At the same time “A survey of local councils from Apr 2025 showed that all of the 18 respondents found that homelessness was either ‘slightly worse’ or ‘significantly worse’ than 12 months earlier.

The number of children living in poverty is growing and troublingly, the number of children living in material poverty has now reached 156,600. The number of children referred for possible child abuse or neglect requiring further action increased 13% this year to 44,532

On nearly every measure our measures of the labour market have fallen. The numbers of people needing help just getting the basics has increased. It’s getting harder - especially if you are poor - just to get by

If there is a recovery going on in the economy, it's not happening for working people. The cost of living is rising again. Work is harder to find. A tax cut doesn't help you if you don't have work. We need a real plan from the government, not another slogan.

There has been a fall in filled jobs in 11 of 16 sectors over the past two years. This includes manufacturing, construction, IT & telecoms, professional, scientific, technical & admin. Forestry & mining. Wholesale Trade. The fall in employment has been broad-based.

In the Wellington Region, the number of people who are unemployed has nearly doubled in just 2 years From 11,100 in Dec 2023 to 20,000 now. Wellington needs jobs urgently - yet there is nothing from the government to help turn this crisis around.

The highest number of people are in part-time work since 2017, and record numbers of people want more work but can't get it – a record going back to 2004. This hides the true unemployment rate. If you work 1 hour you aren’t unemployed. If you want more work – that doesn’t count.

Wages are continuing to fall behind inflation. 70% of workers got a pay rise less than inflation last year. 44% of workers got no pay rise at all - meaning a 3% real terms pay cut this year. Both public and private sectors saw real terms falls in the Labour Cost Index

The number of unemployed men and women rose in the last quarter, and 7,600 more 15-24-year-olds are unemployed than a year ago. With Waitangi just around the corner - Maori unemployment was 11.2% in December 2025 – more than twice the national average.

This data shows once again the uneven choices getting "back on track". Tax cuts tilted to those with higher incomes and higher assets. Wages stalling, and higher price rises for the poorest. Everything we do in economics is a choice. Let’s choose better than this.

Pensioners face an even higher rate of inflation at 3.8% annual change. Maybe not the right time for Treasury to be examining whether to means-test the Winter Energy Payment, is it? www.nzherald.co.nz/business/eco...

With the minimum wage due to rise by less than inflation in April, those on the lowest incomes will be hammered for the third year in a row from this government. 68% of workers overall got a pay rise less than CPI inflation last year. Working people and their families are going backwards right now.

Sing it brother! For me - value for money is the key to ensuring that we can both have nice things and retain the social licence to invest. We desperately need better analysis of this in New Zealand. It’s a really important issue, and one that I’m personally passionate about.

Budget is on 28 May. If things get a tiny bit better, then it's only because in 2 short years, they got so much worse. Cuts to essential public services. Record out-migration of Kiwis. Failing child poverty. New Zealand can't afford more of this failed plan. Let's make this a one-term government.

But as the Minister of Finance told us, we shouldn't take unemployment personally. So is it working for the Crown accounts? Er no - the OBEGAL deficit forecast for 25/26 has increased at every update. Turns out that totally unfunded tax cuts can be quite expensive!

Perhaps cutting & hoping that things get better really will work this time. Like it has for the forecast number of jobseekers - which has risen at every update since the election. 50,000 more between 2024 and 2026. The government's target is a reduction of 50,000 from 2023 levels