Factchecking David Cunliffe

In the absence of a completely dedicated NZ Factcheck site, which even a fully-staffed 24-hour version thereof would be kept sorely busy this election cycle, welfare blogger Lindsay Mitchell is as close as we get.

Fact-checking David Cunliffe’s campaign launch speech on child poverty, she discovers Cunliffe gets it wrong twice in as many minutes:

“We’ll tackle child poverty by increasing the minimum wage,” says Silent T. But as Lindsay points out:

In the Child Poverty in New Zealand book by left-leaning Johnathan Boston and economist Simon Chapple there is a lengthy discussion about lifting minimum wages, implementing a living wage and the effect on child poverty. They summarise:

In short, the living wage proposal, whether implemented via an increase in the statutory minimum wage or through voluntary actions in particular sectors or industries, will do little to solve child poverty in New Zealand.

Cunliffe continues, claiming that child poverty in New Zealand is rising.  Yet as she shows, using the official figures, “there are the same number of children living in poverty as in the first year National was the government.”

Cunliffe’s propaganda is about poverty. What it demonstrates the poverty of his propaganda.