LoCarb

This is pretty disgusting

Very shameful as NZ was once near the top.
It's not as though we can't afford it.

https://tinyurl.com/ycuwpnx5

geoff52

If I lived in NZ I would find this report disturbing.

Woodlea

The child homicide rate is worse in Canada than NZ, I would find that deeply disturbing if I lived in Canada.

geoff52

That is the only thing you could come up with .78 vs .9 and ignore the
Teen suicide rate
Children in jobless households
Performance in reading, maths and science
No wonder the country is in the state its in, if you are a typical NZ.
No country is perfect but your response is just pathetic.

Woodlea

It was the only stat I saw that compared NZ to Canada.

bearskin

God, that's depressing reading.

NZ is a fairly weird place: when I first moved here I tended to blank out the negatives but as I've settled into living here, I find i can be more honest about it's shortcomings. You'd be surprised how many people will still just blank those kind of statistics.
Same with what's known here as 'the Road Toll' - that's how many people are killed on the roads every year. Lots of people are in huge denial over just how massive the figure is.

Bo-Jangles

When were they near the top? Thinking back over my past 12 or so years, we've been seeing and hearing the same reports from UN, Unicef and others expressing deep concerns over the increasing numbers / lack of improvement with youth suicide and child poverty statistics. Every year it seems to cause the same shock and outpouring of consternation at this shameful 'secret' but it has been widely discussed, reviewed by various Government departments and experts but still no improvement.

The inequalities and linkage between people living in dire social conditions and deprivation has never been more obvious or apparent to me than it has in NZ and is undoubtedly a major factor in these statistics. In my view some really basic education and family parenting programmes are required to provide support for families and intervention; especially where behaviour of drinking, taking drugs, violence and abusive relationships are evident.

Moses2013

Just another report and you'll find thousands of them. First of all, most of the data is old and comes from several sources and this point has nothing to do with wellbeing:


Another area where New Zealand performed poorly with a ranking of 34, owing to the 16 per cent of children living in jobless households, only Hungary and Ireland fare worse.


You could have a jobless household for many reasons and Ireland & New Zealand have a small population but high amount of family farms. Even during the boom that figure was high here in Ireland and what is so bad if parents have time for their kids? Some just don't have to work and live off the land (farming, rental income etc.). Some people just work during the season and register as unemployed during the winter, but are still finacially better off than others and have time for kids.

LoCarb

OK. Was a long time ago, late 1970's and earlier (pre neoliberal era) but shows what is possible with a government that cares about it's people.

This has a lot to do with unemployment too, example: 90 thousand under 25's unemployed is pretty sick IMO.

Most people don't know this, but the Government chooses the level of unemployment to control inflation.
It's called NAIRU (Non-Accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment) and is set at about 5% of the workforce.

So, one in 20 needs to be unemployed at any one time according to the theory & practice. So don't bash the unemployed. They are possibly doing the rest of us a favour

Charismatic

Traditionally in New Zealand we tut a bit and then the government ignores international agency reports.

We've all done the tutting, now for the ignoring part.

BEVS

Yup.

Seems to have been doing that for many decades.

You are havin' a big larf & have no idea of how a 'season' works around here nor who does the work in that season. Mentals & given I live among this you have done my head in.

LoCarb

Yes, thought comparing Irish farms with NZ farms was a bit daft.
Average dairy farm in Ireland is 60 cows.
Average dairy farm in NZ 400+ cows.

The days of the small family farm in NZ is long gone.

LoCarb

Yep, New Zealanders are well known for being door-mats.

Clappy

This year is a General Election year so the tutting will last until the end of November.

Then everyone will go on holiday and by March it all will long be forgotten.

Moses2013

Well, how does a season work in Latvia for example? So it's better for the childs wellbeing that the parents are both working full time and still don't have enough money at the end of the month.