Brian Anderson The Western Front www.sunlive.co.nz

A couple of replies to last week's column suggested families are as important as communities for holding our society together. I agree and so do the political parties in their own way.

The Green's know that a green economy will solve all of our problems, Labour looks to wages for answers and National plans for growth in business to improve the number of jobs. Perhaps we need all of them to get together. They are all right, except for one thing. What is this family that they are so concerned about? What is this poverty we are threatened with now? At this moment, politicians are just scoring points off each other, but do we know what we are voting for? We may be attacking poverty looking for more wages, wanting less tax, more jobs and affordable housing, but are we seriously considering the needs of families? Do we even care?

Poverty

A few years ago, a prominent activist defined poverty as a plight of any person in society who is getting less than they expect as their right. Forget about a minimum income or a living wage. A 24-year-old couple was looking to buy a cheap house for about $230,000 in Katikati. When the agent asked if they could afford or borrow a little bit more to move up to a better housing band, the young girl confessed they had another $60,000, but they were buying her partner's new Holden with it.
They gave up buying a house and continued renting because the house they wanted was unaffordable. They weren't ready. Some might say they hadn't grown up. A genuine nesting urge usually demands a nest. The urge for house ownership is a sign of a desire to start a real family. The average age of a couple having their first child now is 30 and the age of the parents applying for their first affordable house is 36. We know times have changed, but this 10 year late start almost doubles the price of an entry level house and halves the time available to pay it off. The price of an affordable house is not really a problem. Again it is just different expectations and priorities? What about the real poor in New Zealand? What is this poverty trap?

The real poor are not very hard to find today. I checked out John Key's statement that a two parent, two child family with a $50,000 income doesn't pay tax. It is true. Bill Rowling, an early Labour Prime Minister, promised that no one in New Zealand would earn less than the average wage. Many shook their heads in despair with such a mathematically impossible concept, but David Lange and Helen Clark worked on the idea with tax rebates and a top ups and gave us the situation we have now.
Half of New Zealand receiving the ‘average' income sounds good, but think again. These families are not only on the average income, they must also be on the lowest family income in New Zealand. There are many people earning less, but they are not families. How can these poor people live? Where are they?

From local government figures, 48 per cent of all houses in New Zealand only have one or two people in them. Houses with four occupants account for only 17 per cent of all households and not all of these would be mum, dad and two kid families. The old State Housing concept was meant to provide for families, but we now seem to be supporting individuals. Politicians are attempting to meet individual wants for votes, but families are voting with their feet and moving to Australia.

Training for youth

I am more worried for the children leaving school, not just with low qualifications, but leaving with low expectations. John Key's suggestion of a low youth rate idea is weak in comparison with an even more miserly apprenticeship rate which was thrown out by businesses. Jobs for many of the young of Katikati should be available in Katikati, a concept that is central to the council's Built Environment Strategy which promotes jobs locally for local people, allows them to live in their own homes and allows them to walk safely to work. This is a good example of why council prefers strategies to planning. Plans have measurable goals; strategies are dreams.

Where next?

Job and housing opportunities are central to the working of any healthy town. Families should be able to stay together and grow together within their home towns. The Katikati demographic profile of residents has a hole between ages of 16 and 30 years which indicates a town that is not meeting the needs of its people. How we have survived this is covered in next week's column and we will be looking at Psa and a Plan B for our local economies in the Bay of Plenty.