www.wairaka.net/ubinz/IR/pov99/1999B21SSTimesRuralPoverty.html

by SARAH CATHERALL, Sunday Star-Times, 21 November 1999
 

Parts of provincial and rural New Zealand - home to almost a fifth of the population - are disadvantaged from years of economic restructuring and unlikely to recover, according to a disturbing new report.

While city suburbs like Porirua and Mangere are constantly high lighted as poor and disadvantaged, the study reveals rural parts of Waikato and Bay of Plenty are hurting and their problems are being overlooked.

Local councils believe other regions are suffering just as much, if not more, and are calling on the next government to revive them.

Commissioned by Local Government New Zealand, the report investigates the impact of economic reforms between 1986 and 1996, finding the midland region - covering Gisborne, south of Taupo, Coromandel and Waikato - was knocked back in the early 1990s and has failed to catch up.

Locals are now more likely to be unemployed, on a benefit, uneducated, in a one-parent household and earning less than their fellow New Zealanders.

Young people are leaving and those who stay are more likely to be dependent, reducing the chances of rejuvenating the economy. The region houses 17% of the national population but its problems draw less attention than rural parts of Otago-Southland, home to half that number of people.

Locals in rural settlements and small towns in the region have suffered the most since the mid-1980s, with places like Kawerau hardest hit.

The timber town suffered a population exodus, a huge decline in incomes (down by 16%) and a rise in unemployment over that time.

An area like Mangere-Otara, "almost a byword for disadvantage", was better off than nine sub-region within the Waikato and Bay of Plenty, the report by Portal Consulting says.

"We have presented here a depressing picture.

"(The region) is not only a disadvantaged one, but it is also one in which one of the key elements for recovery is itself in a markedly weak position."

Local Government New Zealand vice-president Gordon Blake said other councils, such as those in Manawatu, West Coast and South Canterbury, were shocked the region had fared so badly and claimed their areas were even worse off.

Blake, also the mayor of the South Waikato District Council, said it was disturbing that young people were forced out of the region, unable to find jobs and training opportunities.

"They're supposed to be the future. Even growth areas like Tauranga and Hamilton are experiencing high unemployment and other problems," he said.

Blake said councils were keen to work more closely with the next government to revive their areas.

"Successive governments have promoted the urban drift to places like Auckland and that is creating huge infrastructure problems for those councils. The same money could be used to draw businesses out of those areas, to take the pressure off and revive the provinces," he said.