A poll released last night showed an overwhelming 63% of people agreed that the Labour government's recent budget announcement of a Cost of Living Payment should be extended to those receiving benefits and superannuation.

'The government is aware of what's happening in our communities, as so many frontline organisations have spoken out about it. This payment in no way meets the standard that the Fairer Future coalition has set out, but it will help those receiving benefits and superannuation until we can have Liveable Incomes' says Auckland Action Against Poverty (AAAP) coordinator Brooke Stanley Pao.

The United Nations published its 2022 'Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction' which calls for us to be ambitious and transformational in our policies and systems in order to be resilient in preparation for the changing impacts of the climate.

'We are staunch about Liveable Incomes and Universal Services as bridges toward Matike Mai Aotearoa (Constitutional Transformation) as we're very aware that economic growth and ecological collapse are interconnected. We're aware of the ways in which all parts of our system are interconnected - and in order to enact a Just Transition, no-one should be left behind. We can't call it a Just Transition if whole communities are'.

'The recent increase in gun violence and ram raids are just the tip of a very long genealogy in which the government refuses to accept the part it's played in ignoring the needs and dreams of our communities. Weaponising our police force in Auckland isn't going to solve these issues, which are deep rooted and require lots of changes to occur at the same time. We need robust and universal services to ensure that our communities are looked after'.

'We support the Cost of Living Payment being extended to people receiving benefits and superannuation as a step toward Liveable Incomes and Universal Services for Matike Mai. Labour have a very rare opportunity to set the standard for what settler governments can be, and they should take it'.

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