Huge Increase In Part Time Workers Earning Nothing

New Zealand’s part-time workers are caught in a vicious cycle, ground down by a system that punishes ambition and rewards poverty. Work and Income’s draconian deductions regime ensure that every extra dollar earned by part time workers is clawed back, leaving many with nothing to show for their efforts. Add sky-high rents and government handouts to landlords, and you’ve got a recipe for despair. The Coalition of Chaos isn’t only complicit in this fraud, they're actively rigging the game to keep wages low and welfare costs down, all while ramming through legislation that deepens inequality. This isn’t governance; it’s economic sabotage.

New Zealand Part Time Employment

Let’s break it down. Part-time workers, already scraping by, face immediate deductions from their benefits when they earn extra income. Accommodation Supplements, vital income for those crushed by New Zealand’s extortionate rental prices, get slashed as soon as you declare income from your part time work. For those with even higher costs, Temporary Additional Support also vanishes, leaving workers no better off than if they’d stayed at home on the couch.

A 2024 report from the Child Poverty Action Group highlights how these abatement rates create a “poverty trap,” where low-income earners lose up to 90 cents of every dollar earned through work. It’s not incentive; it’s punishment, especially when you consider that all work has overheads that 10 cents in the dollar aren’t going to cover.


In 2024, the Child Poverty Action Group reported:

ISSUES—THE CURRENT REALITY


Children whose families receive a benefit as their main source of income (around 200,000 children), are four times more likely than other children to live in poverty (material hardship).

Poverty due to low benefit incomes affects families of all ethnicities, but due to systemic issues such as racism and ongoing colonisation it inequitably affects whānau Māori, Pacific families and families of Middle Eastern, Latin American and African (MELAA) ethnicities.

Benefit-recipient families with children usually do not receive sufficient income and entitlements to cover typical expected costs of living (see Figure 1below).

In public or social housing where rents are lower, a typical sole-parent family of three children is still receiving ~$107 less per week than they need to cover their typical costs.

Private rentals are much more costly; four-person model families paying market rent – one adult and three children, or two adults and two children – have deficits of hundreds of dollars a week: they receive around a quarter less income (~22% to~28%) than they need to cover typical costs.

CPAG 2023 Policy Brief on benefit adequacy

Three of the four example families in the figure above are not in public housing: their income entitlements are so low that the system locks the families into severe poverty, below the AHC40 poverty line (i.e.the families are receiving less than 40% of the after-housing-costs (AHC) median income equivalised for their family type).

Even though the entitlements for the example family living in public housing are higher, they are not high enough: this family is still locked below the AHC50 poverty line (ie the family is receiving less than 50% of the after-housing-costs (AHC) equivalised median income).

Income inadequacy is particularly profound for couples receiving benefits – not only for the examples above, but in general.


Supplementary payments

It is likely that the data and research presented in Figure 1 under-estimates costs because some rents are far greater, and disability costs (and inadequate entitlements) are not included. Real-life indicators show that bills are increasingly tough for benefit-recipient families: new benefit advances – MSD loans for approved basic-need purchases – rose to over $90 million in the quarter to March 2023 for the first time ever, and totalled $345 million in the year to March 2023.

These loans then further reduce the money families have to pay their bills: weekly debt repayments are not included in the costs above and for many families these repayments are high, due to the chronic inadequacy of income support over many years. Nearly 10% of New Zealanders owe money to the Ministry of Social Development.

Working for Families debt to IRD is also common and rising. On top of this, many families also carry private debt involving high costs and interest rates.

Hardship assistance

Hardship assistance to benefit recipients – including non-recoverable special needs grants as well as the benefit advances discussed above –has been increasing every year and topped $900 million in the year to March 2023 for the first time. Yet this assistance is another very conservative indicator of the depth of the inadequacy of benefit incomes. These grants and advances are at the discretion of Work and Income, meaning the process does not guarantee dignity, discouraging people from applying. Moreover,not all who ask for hardship assistance are successful, and they face a significant power imbalance if they wish to challenge that decision.

Abatement rates

It is difficult for many families who have the capacity for paid work to enter into paid employment. Abatement (clawback) of benefits starts early ($160, equivalent to seven hours minimum-wage work) and is steep (30c to 70c per dollar earned), meaning families cannot attempt paid work without losing financial security.

We all know that rents are a national disgrace, and the government is only worsening the cost of living crisis. Auckland’s median rent hit $660 a week in 2025, with other cities not far behind. The government’s response? Funnel billions into landlord tax breaks while renters drown in debt.

These subsidies prop up a parasitic property market, ensuring workers need Accommodation Supplements just to survive. But dare to earn a bit more, and Work and Income yanks that lifeline away. It’s a deliberate catch-22: stay poor on a benefit, or effectively work to retain 10% of your wages, which is arguably illegal under the Minimum Wage Act 1983.

The rise in part-time work is no accident. Stats NZ reported in 2025 that part-time employment grew by 4.2% year-on-year, while full-time jobs stagnated. Unemployment, hovering at 5.1%, is the highest in years, with Māori and Pacific workers hit hardest. The Coalition’s “traffic light” welfare sanctions, outlined in National’s policy, bully jobseekers into any work...often low-paid, casual jobs without any security. This isn’t about jobs; it’s about slashing welfare costs by forcing people into precarious employment. The government knows part-time workers are less likely to unionise or demand better wages, which is keeping the labour market cheap and compliant.

Then there’s the repeal of Pay Equity legislation. The Fair Pay Agreements, scrapped in December 2023, were designed to lift wages in female-dominated, low-paid sectors like care work. The Coalition’s decision to gut them ensures wages stay artificially low, entrenching gender and ethnic pay gaps. A 2024 Minter Ellison report noted that 13 pay equity settlements had been reached since 2020, but without legislative backing, progress has stalled.

Worse, the government rammed through the Employment Relations (Pay Deductions for Partial Strikes) Amendment Bill under urgency in December 2024, a move Labour’s Willie Jackson called a “cynical” attack on workers’ rights. This bill, which allows employers to dock pay during partial strikes, weakens collective bargaining and keeps part-time workers’ wages suppressed. The hypocrisy is galling, particularly because National previously supported pay equity but now champions policies that widen discrimination.

This government’s agenda is clear: manipulate the vulnerable into part-time work, trap them in poverty with benefit deductions, and prop up a landlord class while wages stagnate. It’s a well-designed system of cruelty, dressed up as economic reform. The Coalition of Chaos isn’t just failing part-time workers; it’s actively screwing them over. We need a system that rewards work, not one that punishes it...and for that to be a possibility we will need a change of government.

Media Bias Over Erica Stanford’s Security Breaches

The Coalition Of Chaos’ Pay Equity Amendment Bill, rammed through under urgency, has predictably hogged the headlines. But while the mainstream media fixates on this gut-punch to women’s economic justice, Education Minister Erica Stanford’s reckless use of her personal Gmail account for sensitive government business is being swept under the carpet. This is a sackable offence, yet the press, ever distracted by the coalition’s shiny objects, is letting it fade into oblivion.

Despite the mainstream medias bias in favour of right-wing political parties, Stanford’s astonishing breach deserves further scrutiny. Documents show she repeatedly forwarded confidential government briefings (pre-Budget details included) to her personal email, citing “printing issues” as a flimsy excuse. This isn’t just a violation of the Cabinet Manual; it’s a national security risk in an age of rampant cyber threats. Labour’s Chris Hipkins nailed it, calling it a “welcome mat” for hackers. In any other government, Stanford would be packing her bags. Instead, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, with his trademark corporate nonchalance, dismissed it as “untidy” and claimed it’s now all “sorted.” Sorted? Tell that to the intelligence agencies scrambling to plug National’s slack security.

So why the media blackout? The timing of the pay equity bill’s rushed passage (announced the same day Stanford’s major scandal broke) offers a clue. The bill, which kneecaps 33 active pay equity claims and betrays women in undervalued sectors like nursing and care work, was a deliberate lightning rod. By gutting years of progress on gender pay equity without consultation or scrutiny, National and ACT guaranteed public outrage and wall-to-wall coverage. Protests erupted at Parliament, and the media lapped it up, dutifully amplifying the coalition’s talking points while Stanford’s email fiasco vanished.

This isn’t just about one minister’s incompetence; it’s about a media ecosystem too easily distracted by the coalition’s theatrics. Outlets like the NZ Herald and Stuff, quick to dissect Labour’s every misstep in years past, have barely touched Stanford’s breach. A few cursory articles, no hard-hitting editorials, no calls for accountability. Compare this to the frenzy over former Labour minister Clare Curran’s minor procedural errors, wall to wall coverage that lasted for months, and the double standard is glaring. Highlighting media bias here is easy with around 50 mainstream media articles about Curran compared to 12 for Stanford. But there's also a large amount of the coalition’s manipulations setting the narrative. Whatever the main cause of media bias, the fourth estate is failing to hold power to account over this most serious issue.

Contrast the stark lack of reporting on Erica Stanford's security breaches with the mainstream media's vitriol directed at Clare Curran, which even resulted in her being berated off of Twitter.
 

In 2018, the Otago Daily Times reported:

 

Twitter account deleted after exchange with reporter

…

Curran's Twitter account, with the handle @clarecurranmp, has since been deleted.

Comments on Patterson's original post largely echoed Curran's hostility towards the journalist's commentary.

One called Patterson "just another bully" while another called the comment "unprofessional".

"Expect better from an RNZ Political Editor," it continued.

The controversy around Curran's use of Gmail followed hot on the heels of an ongoing parliamentary scandal over Curran's failure to correctly diary two meetings.

The pay equity rollback is a travesty, no question. But letting Stanford’s security breach scandal slide sets a dangerous precedent. If ministers can flout security protocols without consequence, what’s next? The public deserves a media that digs deeper and holds power to account. If Luxon is too weak to sack her, Stanford’s resignation should be on the table, and the press should be treating her more serious breaches with at least the same scrutiny they gave Curran. Until they do, National will keep playing them—and us—for fools.

The Right-Wing’s Unemployment Victory Lap

Will you look at that. The National-led coalition and their media cheerleaders, popping champagne because New Zealand’s unemployment rate (currently languishing at a grim 5.1%) hasn’t quite fully spiralled into the abyss they’ve been digging. 

Bravo, you absolute legends of mediocrity! The mainstream media, ever the loyal lapdogs, are fawning over this “stability” like it’s some grand economic triumph, while conveniently ignoring the wreckage caused by this government’s boneheaded policies.

Under Christopher Luxon’s reign, the coalition of chaos has been slashing and burning with the glee of a pyromaniac with a can of petrol at a house fire. Their crowning achievement? Sacking thousands of public sector workers like they’re clearing out last season’s wardrobe. Over 15,000 public servants are reportedly at risk, with cuts already gutting essential services like health and education. Because who needs nurses, teachers, or functioning hospitals when you’ve got tax cuts for landlords? The result: unemployment has climbed steadily from a low of 3.2% in 2021 to its current sorry state, with forecasts predicting it could hit 5.4% by late 2025.

Then there’s the genius move of halting state house builds. In a country screaming for affordable housing, the coalition decided to slam the brakes on hundreds of school building projects and mothball thousands of social housing initiatives to “save” a few billion dollars. Never mind that this exacerbates the housing crisis, leaving families on the streets and construction workers jobless. It’s almost as if they want people to suffer to keep the “reserve army of workers” ready for their corporate mates to exploit. After all, high unemployment keeps a desperate workforce too scared to demand better wages.

 

And yet, the right-wing propagandists are out there penning love letters to Luxon’s economic “prudence.” They’re practically doing cartwheels because the unemployment rate hasn’t worsened this quarter, ignoring the fact that it is already terribly high. How low is the bar when maintaining a jobless rate that’s crushing Kiwi families is cause for celebration? This is the same media that parrots the coalition’s line about “growing the economy” while ignoring the human cost: Māori and Pacific Islanders facing disproportionately high unemployment, and migrant workers trapped in exploitative conditions.

The coalition’s austerity fetish, cheered on by their media sycophants, is a deliberate attack on the working class. Slashing welfare, imposing punitive “work tests,” and indexing benefits to inflation instead of wages, policies straight out of ACT’s libertarian script that nobody voted for, are designed to grind workers down. Meanwhile, the media spins this as “fiscal responsibility,” as if Kiwis losing their livelihoods is just collateral damage for a balanced budget.

So, congratulations, National and your media fan club, for keeping unemployment “steady” at soul-crushing levels. Truly, you’re the heroes we don’t deserve. Maybe next you’ll throw a party for not setting the entire country on fire. Until then, spare us the self-congratulation and start bloody fixing the mess you’ve created.

Trump’s Tariff Tantrum Has Backfired

Donald Trump's tariff tirade, sold as a patriotic push to “Make America Great Again,” is backfiring spectacularly, driving iconic US manufacturers like Boeing and John Deere to pack their bags and head for the exits. Far from reviving the heartland, Trump’s trade war is gutting it, and the numbers paint a grim picture of an economy teetering on the edge.

Let’s start with the carnage. Trump’s “Liberation Day” on April 2, 2025, unleashed tariffs as high as 54% on China, 46% on Vietnam, and 25% on South Korea, Japan, and Canada, among others. The pitch? Protect American jobs and bring manufacturing home. The reality? A complete disaster.

Companies such as Boeing, John Deere, Ford, GM, Stellantis, and Harley-Davidson are shuttering US plants, with at least 50,000 manufacturing jobs lost since April. While these figures are unverified, they align with the economic chaos unfolding. John Deere, threatened by Trump’s 200% tariff for moving production to Mexico, is doubling down on offshoring to dodge the skyrocketing costs of US production. Boeing, reliant on global supply chains, faces similar pressures as tariffs inflate costs and disrupt trade. Make no mistake, these companies are trying to survive, and are only looking to offshore their production because of Trump’s destructive tariffs, the exact opposite of what the orange fool apparently wanted to achieve.


Today, CNBC reported:

Trump trade tariffs slump widens to ‘nearly all U.S. exports,’ supply chain data shows

What began as a rapid drop in U.S. imports as shippers cut orders from manufacturing partners around the world has now extended into a nationwide export slump, with the U.S. agricultural sector and top farm products including soybeans, corn and beef taking the hardest hit.

The latest trade data shows that a slide in U.S. exports to the world, and China in particular, that began in January now extends to most U.S. ports, according to trade tracker Vizion, which analyzed U.S. export container bookings for the five-week period before President Donald Trump’s tariffs began and the five weeks after the tariffs took effect.

The farming sector has been warning of a “crisis” and ports data is showing more evidence of lack of ability to move product out to global markets. The Port of Portland, Oregon, tops the list with a 51% decrease in exports, while the Port of Tacoma, Washington, a large agricultural export port, has seen a 28% decrease. Tacoma’s top destinations for corn, soybeans and other ag exports include Japan, China and South Korea.

The economic toll is staggering. The Penn Wharton Budget Model projects Trump’s tariffs will slash US GDP by 8% and wages by 7%, with middle-income households facing a $58,000 lifetime loss. That’s not pocket change…it’s a gut-punch to working families that will keep hurting for many years to come.

The Tax Foundation estimates an average tax hike of $1,300 per US household in 2025 alone. Inflation, already a voter sore spot, is spiking. The University of Michigan’s consumer confidence survey shows long-run inflation expectations at a 32-year high, with two-thirds of consumers bracing for rising unemployment. NPR reports the economy contracted at a 0.3% annual rate in Q1 2025, a sharp reversal from 2.4% growth in late 2024, with tariffs fueling recession fears.

Despite the fallout from Trump’s monumentally stupid tariff’s, right-wing idiots like John Key are still claiming that there is some sort of plan. 

 

Today, 1 News reported:

 

Sir John said he "wasn't entirely surprised" at Trump's call to go ahead with the policy.

"They're just a negotiating point. I think he simply put on widespread and high rates of tariffs on every country to give himself a leverage point and a negotiating point.

"What I think he actually grossly underestimated was the stock market reaction. He saw not just the stock market, but the bond market imploding.

The only time we should be hearing from John bloody Key is when he's trying to explain about his own insider trading scandal. Why exactly haven't the mainstream media reported on this?

The problem here is that Trump and his sycophants simply don’t understand how modern day manufacturing works. This wasn’t a plan to try and negotiate better trade deals. Instead, it appears to be a plan for Trump and his mates to manipulate stock markets to line their own pockets. If this was a plan to negotiate better deals, it has failed spectacularly and come at the cost of thousands of US jobs and trillions of dollars.

Ultimately, Trump has eroded trust in the United States to such a degree that countries are now actively avoiding trade negotiations. Key’s claim that there was a workable plan is perhaps the dumbest analysis yet, given that Trump is displaying all the signs of a dictator in complete cognitive decline and his tariff’s regime has entirely failed to achieve the stated goal of bringing back manufacturing to the US.

Markets are reeling too. The S&P 500 plummeted nearly 5% on April 3, its worst day since June 2020 when the entire world had to shut up shop because of Covid. It even flirted with bear market territory. JP Morgan now pegs the odds of a global recession at 60%, up from 40%, solely because of the orange buffoon. Trump’s claim that tariffs will “make the country boom” again rings hollow as consumer confidence also tanks to its lowest rate since the pandemic.

The irony? Trump’s tariffs are doing the exact opposite of what he promised and hurting his blue-collar supporters the most. Instead of reindustrialising America, Trump's idiotic tariffs are deindustrialising it, pushing manufacturers abroad and jacking up prices for consumers. This isn’t economic patriotism; it’s economic vandalism. As the US economy shrinks and China’s grows, Trump’s trade war looks less like a strategy and more like a self-inflicted wound...a wound that the United States would be well advised to cauterize before it bleeds out.

Luxon Isn’t Focused On The Cost Of Living Crisis

When the National Party came to power in 2023, they promised to have a laser-like focus on New Zealand’s cost of living crisis. Their pledge was seductive: tax cuts, streamlined spending, and relief for the “squeezed middle.” Yet, two years into their coalition with ACT and NZ First (the coalition of chaos), and the numbers paint a grim picture. Far from easing the burden, National’s policies have exacerbated the crisis, with their handling of pay equity claims being the latest fiasco that will hit Kiwi wallets hard. Let’s dissect the coalition’s rhetoric against the cold, hard stats and expose the disconnect.

Before National took the reins, the cost of living was already biting. Stats NZ reported a 7.2% increase in household living costs for the average household from June 2022 to June 2023, driven by soaring food prices (12.3% annually) and rising housing costs. Median weekly rent hit $620, and mortgage payments devoured 49% of household income. Inflation, at a three-decade high, was punishing. Labour’s measures, like free prescriptions, half-priced public transport and small benefit increases, offered little relief, but at least they were something. 

Fast forward to 2025, and projected inflation was meant to be 2.1%, but has (accounting for Stats NZ mistake of not counting car registrations) climbed to 2.6%, mainly because of National’s economic mismanagement. 0.5% might not seem like a lot, but when you’re already strapped for cash, it can be the difference between paying the rent or ending up on the street. New Zealanders are feeling the pinch now more than ever, and we’re still awaiting the impacts of National’s latest round of socially damaging policies and Trump’s idiotic tariffs, which the coalition of chaos have simply chosen to ignore.

I'm such a fan of your work. Not only have you tamed inflation in NZ, but your incredible efforts have wrestled inflation to the ground in the US, UK. Ireland (and, well, everywhere) pic.twitter.com/vGpIBEKzUr

— Musical Chairs (@MusicalChairs14) October 16, 2024

Then there’s National’s flagship tax cuts, which were meant to put money back into people’s pockets. Instead, they’ve been a complete flop. Their 2023 plan promised $1,600 annually for a dual-income family on average wages. But with bracket creep unaddressed for most, stagnate wage growth and inflation eroding purchasing power, the real value of these cuts, which didn’t deliver anywhere near what was promised, is negligible. Worse, National scrapped Labour’s public transport subsidies, jacking up costs for low-income Kiwis.

 

A family relying on buses now faces double the fares while their incomes have barely budged. Add to that National’s restoration of interest deductibility for landlords, which has fueled housing costs and rent hikes of 9.7%. Median weekly rent hit a whopping $680 in mid 2024. No cause evictions are also back, meaning that if a landlord needs a new car or another holiday, they can simply evict tenants to find someone who can pay more. The annual evictions in New Zealand in order to increase rents are now a feature of most real estate agents schedules, and along with the government's lack of proper support, are ensuring that homelessness numbers have more than doubled in some areas.

But if that wasn't bad enough, the pay equity claims debacle is the coalition’s latest middle finger to struggling workers. Once again the government’s rhetoric of fiscal prudence has clashed spectacularly with their mishandling of public sector pay disputes. In 2024, unresolved pay equity claims for nurses and teachers resulted in strike actions. The government’s delay in settling these disputes, coupled with a welfare reform package that punishes jobseekers, has squeezed public servants and beneficiaries alike.

 

Meanwhile, their decision to axe Fair Pay Agreements has weakened workers’ bargaining power, leaving wage growth largely non-existent, particularly when you compare it against things like a 9.7% rise in food prices from 2023 to 2024. Despite these additional costs, Kiwis are still waiting for the government to do anything about the supermarket duopoly. But all we get is another worthless announcement from a worthless Minister.

National’s spin machine claims they’re taming inflation, but their policies…favouring wealthy property speculators and corporations, have only increased costs and deepened inequality. Kiwis aren’t buying the “relief is coming” line when rents, food and power bills keep climbing and climbing. The coalition’s laser focus? More like a smokescreen for austerity that is hitting the poorest hardest. It’s time to call out this charade and demand accountability for a crisis Christopher Luxon has only worsened.

The Coalition's Pay Equity Betrayal

The Coalition of Chaos' latest incredibly short-sighted move sees them throwing pay equity claims into the bin to fund a few new helicopters and in so doing has set employment law back decades. We all agree that modern search and rescue equipment is necessary, but at what cost? Pay equity laws, painstakingly initiated to address systemic wage gaps for teachers, nurses, and other underpaid mainly female-dominated sectors, have been shelved, even though these claims are about righting decades of injustice. It’s a typical move from a government that loves photo-ops but baulks at properly funding the people who keep society running.

Contrast this with Labour’s tenure. When they invested in new helicopters, like the eight NH90s for the Defence Force, they didn’t gut social progress to do it. Labour balanced defence upgrades with commitments to public services, including advancing pay equity. For example, they settled major claims for social workers and education support staff, lifting thousands of low-paid employees closer to a living wage. Budgets were tight, but Labour didn’t pit helicopters against fairness. They found a way to modernise without screwing over the workforce. Why can’t National?


Today, RNZ reported:

 

Overhaul of equal pay legislation is halting progress, Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner says

The Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner says she has serious concerns about the proposed overhaul of equal pay law.

The government is planning to limit the scope of pay equity claims and raise the threshold of proof, making it harder to prove a job has been historically undervalued.

It said settlements had cost the Crown $1.78 billion dollars a year.

 

The Coalition’s excuse? “Fiscal responsibility.” Spare me. This is the same bunch of idiots who are happy to pay more for less ferries to be delivered at a later date...the same morons who splash cash on tax cuts for the wealthy while crying poor when it comes to minimum wage rises. Scrapping pay equity to fund helicopters isn’t about balancing books; it’s about priorities. National’s vision is one where elite interests soar, while the rest of us are grounded. And let’s not ignore the optics: helicopters are great for getting in the news with favourable press releases. Pay equity? That’s just “woke” noise to them, despite the fact it directly impacts thousands of struggling Kiwi families.

What’s worse, this move is set to bypass normal due process and therefore undermines trust in the government. Workers who’ve campaigned for equity now see their efforts trashed for political expediency. Christopher Luxon gloating about how much the government will save is a slap in the face to unions, advocates, and every Kiwi who believes in a fair go. Labour’s approach, while not perfect, at least showed respect for the people who keep New Zealand ticking. They didn’t sacrifice one public good for another; they governed with a broader lens.

It’s not just about helicopters...it’s about a government that cannot balance the books. If they can’t fund both defence and fairness through equal pay, maybe the problem isn’t the budget. Maybe it’s their moral compass. Wake up, New Zealand. We deserve better than the coalition of chaos’ short-sighted vision for New Zealand.