I know this will come as a shock to many, but New Zealand, the land we called “god’s own country” has poverty and inequality statistics that make for bleak reading.

Every day I am reminded by the constituents coming to my office, they are not just numbers on a page – the families we see, many with young children are real people in deep distress, many through no fault of their own.



High unemployment, low wages and a housing crisis in the major cities of Auckland and Christchurch, now spreading further afield, have created a perfect storm for many in this country. Many families struggle to find shelter – let alone a warm, safe, dry house – and to adequately feed, clothe and educate their children.



Sadly, despite claims I have seen to the contrary, the situation of the Saitu family featured in the Guardian’s piece this week is not a one-off. It is systemic.



One of the many families we are now helping was referred to us by the social worker in the school. A mother together with her six children have been living in a garage for a few months and it wasn’t until our office was involved that the priority for this family was increased, and with the involvement of Al-Jazeera TV this family was miraculously offered a four-bedroom home within two days.



New Zealand is now a country of high inequality. Last year, the top 10% of households owned 60% of total wealth, while the bottom 40% held just 3%. European people’s individual net worth was $114,000; Asian people’s $33,000; Māori people’s $23,000; and Pacific people’s individual net worth at just $12,000.

The number of children living in poverty in New Zealand is a disgrace. According to the Office of the Children’s Commissioner we have over 300,000 children living in poverty and nearly 148,000 of whom go without basic needs. Three out of five children living in poverty are living in “persistent poverty” and will live that way for many years. All the while the current government calls the stories that bear out these facts ‘sensationalised.’ Not where I sit.



South Auckland, which includes my electorate, has high Māori and Pacific populations. Around a third of Māori children and 28% of Pacific children live in poor households, compared with an average of 16% of European children.



A three-bedroom house in South Auckland rents for about NZ$450 a week. Often people can’t afford the rent but don’t qualify for government assistance even though they’re on low incomes. Almost half those families that do receive an accommodation supplement from the government are paying 50% of their income on housing costs, but subsidy caps have not changed in years.

Families are renting garages for up to $560 a week in South Auckland. Some of these families have lived in garages for over two years, without bathroom or kitchen facilities. Many families living in cars come to my office in the cars they live in asking for help. One of the public parks in our area has up to 50 cars a night and many of them are working people but they can no longer afford the high weekly rent in Auckland.



Those who are “lucky” enough to have a house, are often in one that is making them sick. Our lack of rental standards means we have an abundance of cold, damp housing – linked to increased rates of respiratory diseases such as asthma, bronchiolitis, pneumonia, and rheumatic fever. Bronchiectasis – scarred dilated airways – caused by repeated or severe pneumonia is eight to nine times more common in New Zealand than it is in the UK. This results in some 40,000 children who are admitted to hospital each year with respiratory and poverty-related health issues.



As Prof Innes Asher has shown, New Zealand is at triple jeopardy for preventable diseases and mental illness – those causes being unhealthy housing, inadequate basic healthcare and poverty.



There used to be a saying that it can take two crises and you can find yourself homeless. Now, it takes a lot less. I work with homeless families who often have one working parent and sometimes two. We’re now seeing working families who have never lived in a state house or ever been on a benefit needing help, including families living in a car, garage or overcrowded houses every week.



It’s just not OK that so many of our children, largely Māori and Pacific children, are living in poverty in this comparatively wealthy country. It’s happened because of political choices. We can and we must choose a better way.



Jenny Salesa is MP for Manukau East.