Journalist and author, Max Rashbrooke was a speaker on day one of the TacklingPovertyNZ workshop. His presentation is now available to view on the McGuinness Institute YouTube channel. You can also watch the video below.
Max discussed the relationship between a lack of income and poverty. He argued that solutions to tackling poverty do not need to have a negative effect on the economy. Max suggested two ways to tackle income poverty: boosting wages by strengthening bargaining power, and boosting benefits by indexing them to wages. Thirdly, Max suggested that a matched savings scheme would allow people to make plans for the future, a boost to overall wealth. He explained that these three recommendations were core to tackling the issue of a basic lack of material resources.
About TackingPovertyNZ
The TacklingPovertyNZ workshop brought together 36 young New Zealanders between the ages 18 and 25 to prepare a youth perspective on the issue of poverty in New Zealand and how we might, as a country, go about tackling it. Participants spent most of their 72 hours in Wellington working hard at Treasury, in order to present their findings to MPs and other guests at the finale at Parliament on Wednesday, 9 December 2015. Every year, the McGuinness Institute has worked in collaboration with the New Zealand Treasury to create a place for young New Zealanders to explore complex public policy issues together. The workshops have always proved exciting, enjoyable and insightful. The McGuinness Institute would particularly like to thank the staff at the New Zealand Treasury for their continued support and encouragement. Learn more about TacklingPovertyNZ on the website.