Budget disappointment
It is dinner time but for a Christchurch couple with five children, it is just another peanut butter sandwich. While their children eat the meat and vegetables they need to keep them nourished, the couple are forced to survive on bread since dad lost his job.
John Milligan’s inbox is full of emails with people in the same situation, expressing their gratitude to the chief executive of Foodbank Canterbury.
With need that great, Milligan, who has been outspoken on the city’s growing food security crisis, was certain the Government would address it in Thursday’s Budget. But Milligan, like many others working in the food relief sector, was disappointed.
‘‘There was nothing for the public to say ‘we have got something coming to us’. No inflation relief.’’ And that is a problem when your organisation is facing a 9% increase in people needing food parcels in the first quarter of 2023 alone.
It is still growing and it is not confined to those on low or no incomes, according to Milligan.
‘‘It is not a wealth-based equation any more,’’ he said, adding there were several routes the Government could take to help the situation, including reducing GST on primary foods such as meat and vegetables.
New Zealand is not alone in struggling with soaring food prices – the Covid pandemic and the Ukraine war have affected everyone. In January, Spain announced it would temporarily slash value added tax (VAT – similar to GST) on some food products including fruits, vegetables and
dairy. Now Germany is looking at cutting VAT altogether on fruit and vegetables, although the governing coalition is showing resistance to the idea.
To illustrate the scale of the issue in New Zealand, Milligan spoke of families from wealthier parts of the city who were now fronting at foodbanks. Some had huge mortgages, flashy cars and children at private schools. It only took one earner to lose their job for their situation to change drastically. ‘‘We are working in a totally different environment.’’
In central Christchurch, City Missioner Corrine Haines heads an organisation continually having to find innovative ways to keep increasing the number of food parcels it hands out.
Haines said the mission had less food to distribute than it previously did. Right now it had no meat. ‘‘The demand for food is higher than it has ever been.’’
That is why Haines was underwhelmed by this year’s Budget, while acknowledging cutting public transport costs and prescription costs would be helpful to many.