Driving Out Poverty - Mana's Priority

MANA leader Hone Harawira says every New Zealander should be horrified and embarrassed at the story told on the Inside Child Poverty documentary tonight.

"Hungry kids, mouldy damp rooms in cold houses; overcrowding; third world diseases; kids scared for life by preventable illnesses; impossible electricity costs; unaffordable medical bills etc etc - how did it come to this?

"The answer is simple. We've had 27 years of Labour and National polices (15 years Labour and 12 years national) which have enriched the wealthy at the expense of families and children on low incomes. We now have hundreds of thousands of kids living in poverty but we also have the richest 150 New Zealanders getting an increased in wealth of seven billion (sic) last year. And these rich pricks did not pay tax on most of their unearned income.

"Neither Labour nor National have policies to deal with child poverty. Labour had nine years but left the kids to suffer. National has contempt for families in poverty and has demonised those struggling on benefits. National blames the poor for the economic problems caused by the economy being run for the 1%.

"MANA is determined to drive out poverty from New Zealand with policies funded by a rebalancing of wages and taxes.

"MANA would not muck around. There's no time for hand-wringing. We would -

Feed the kids by providing free breakfasts and healthy lunches at all schools starting with decile one to three primary schools where the need it greatest.

Make schools the centre of healthy communities with free dental and medical services available to every child.

Build 20,000 state houses in a national rebuilding program not seen since the 1930s. We would insist on a warrant of fitness for every property up for rent.

Drop GST to put extra money on the pockets of those struggling the hardest. (Low income families spend 14% of their income on GST but the wealthy spend just 4% - GST is a tax on the poor)

Raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and peg it at two-thirds of the average wage.

"This is not pie in the sky. We know we will have to fight hard for every policy but MANA will fight. We are a movement of fighters who don't give up," says Mr Harawira.

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