Sallies’ report uncovers stark issues

The Salvation Army annually offers the public an independent report of the state of the nation in social terms. The research of its author and policy analyst, Alan Johnson, carried the added authority of the Sallies’ well-known work in the front line of social support. Talking to this year’s report, Johnson said the change of government in 2017 has yet to have an impact on entrenched social problems such as inequality and child poverty.

That is surprising because he also observes “modest growth in wages of the past year”, driven by the Government’s increases in the statutory minimum wage rather than labour shortages. He also reports demand for Salvation Army food parcels declined in the last year, reversing a 10-year trend. That, he acknowledges, could be the result of greater government support for households in hardship. Let’s hope so, because the previous Government increased benefits in April 2017 and the present Government lifted them again last year.

Campaigners were forever telling governments the cure for child poverty was simple — more money. So it is surprising that, foodbanks aside, Johnson has found no sign of progress on this front. A 20 per cent quarterly rise in hardship grants in the last year also suggests low income and benefit dependent households are finding it harder to pay the bills. Some of that might be explained by very high petrol prices for a period last year and steady increases in tobacco tax will be hitting the budgets of those households disproportionately.

But the Salvation Army has sounded a timely warning about a drug appearing at all income levels. Methamphetamine is becoming “possibly a plague”, Johnson says. “We need to redouble our efforts to address both the people making and selling the stuff and the people growing addicted to it,” he said. “It just seems to get worse year on year.”

It will be interesting to see whether it gets better or worse after the Government’s directive to police, announced in December, that they should not prosecute possession and use of any drugs as a rule, and concentrate on the dealers. The difficulty for the police will be that it becomes harder to find the dealers if they cannot threaten prosecution of those found in possession. Methamphetamine accounted for 45 per cent of drug convictions in the past year, up from 18 per cent 10 years ago.

But some conviction rates are dropping. Youth crime has hit its lowest level in 25 years and there were 600 fewer people in prison. The teen pregnancy rate is half what it was just eight years ago. But youth suicide rose again over the year with a noticeable increase among young women. No problem ought to have higher urgency for the Government than youth suicide. It received no answers from the inquiry last year into mental health and addiction.

The overall picture of New Zealand society offered by the report is of slow progress on most fronts with a few stark problems that need more focused attention from the Government. Youth suicide is one, methamphetamine is another. Solutions must be found.