Media
Poverty
How we treat those who are struggling is one of the key markers of a compassionate society. We’re committed to investigating the reality of poverty and deprivation in New Zealand, with the purpose of contributing well-researched policy recommendations that have the potential to transform and redeem the lives of our neighbours who need help.
Most Recent Activity
“Random” answers for poverty prove Nobel-worthy
By Kieran Madden
Far too often, debates on topics that really matter are mired in oversimplification at best, and stagnate in sloganeering at…
Read More
Work = wellbeing
By Danielle van Dalen
“Choose a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” This cliché was printed on a…
Read More
Creating poverty-busting opportunites that work for people with disabilities
By Alex Penk
by Alex Penk and Danielle van Dalen This week there’s been a lot of coverage about employment opportunities for people…
Read More
Creating better opportunities for work
By Danielle van Dalen
New Zealand is in the middle of a national conversation on poverty, and yet, despite being over-represented in the poverty…
Read More
Policy Paper | Creating Opportunity
By Danielle van Dalen
People with disabilities are overlooked in the national conversation on poverty and overrepresented in New Zealand’s poverty statistics. They face…
Read More
Two-and-a-half cheers for child poverty bill
By Alex Penk
I was born at the tail-end of Gen X, so I grew up with a pop culture saturated by “fear…
Read More
Mana in Mahi isn’t your average work-for-the-dole scheme
By Kieran Madden
Translated to “strength in work,” Labour’s Mana in Māhī scheme shows real potential to make a difference in the lives…
Read More
Irresponsible lenders on borrowed time
By Julian Wood
While borrowing money at an annualised interest rate of up to 693% wouldn’t appear at the top of anyone’s wish…
Read More
Submission: Child Poverty Reduction Bill
By Kieran Madden
Maxim Institute supports this Bill and proposes amendments to strengthen it. We welcome this Bill and its potential to increase…
Read More
Promises and plans to change poverty in New Zealand
By Kieran Madden
A few weeks ago, my colleague wrote about Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s “courageous move” to introduce the Child Poverty Reduction…
Read More
Labour’s courageous move on poverty
By Jeremy Vargo
Labour’s announcement last week of the Child Poverty Reduction Bill was almost instantly hailed by many as a huge step…
Read More
Discussion Paper | Acknowledging Ability
By Danielle van Dalen
People who are living with a disability are vastly overrepresented in New Zealand’s poverty figures, and 74 percent of those…
Read More
Save Social Investment
By Kieran Madden
National’s Social Investment Approach must stay, but not as we know it. Imagine, for a moment, that policies are cars….
Read More
Investing in people, regardless of return
By Julian Wood
Like the proverbial frog in the slowly heating pot, many of us are blissfully unaware of the change currently going…
Read More
The State must serve
By Kieran Madden
Is the government’s flagship Social Investment approach simply the “incremental privatisation of social services?” When journalist Richard Harman posed this…
Read More
The trust trade-off
By Kieran Madden
The Government is going all in on its Social Investment strategy for fixing social ills, but the big data it…
Read More
Creating opportunities to contribute
By Danielle van Dalen
Last week New Zealander Robert Martin took up his position in Geneva as Spokesperson for Disabled People on the United…
Read More
Valuing access to work
By Danielle van Dalen
Unemployment is costly. It costs the unemployed person and it costs society. For plenty of people with disabilities this cost…
Read More
Poverty in New Zealand | The Heart of Poverty
By Kieran Madden
Research Series Every society tells a story about the good life, getting a fair go, or what it takes to live…
Read More
Welfare to work?
By Kieran Madden
Just where do people go when they move off a benefit? It’s a serious question that demands an answer. Why?…
Read More