Dawn chorus: Child poverty progress stalls

Latest figures show improvement in child poverty stalling after initial families package boost was less than forecast; WEAG member hits Govt for not boosting benefits as welfare review recommended

TLDR: Child poverty statistics out yesterday showed improvements from the 2018 Families Package were less than expected and reductions have stalled since then as the Government delays rolling out the full $5.2b increase recommended by the Welfare Experts Advisory Group (WEAG) because it is worried about debt.

I discussed the figures with WEAG member University of Auckland Professor Emeritus Innes Asher and CTU Economist Craig Renney in a recorded zoom call available for all. Asher criticised the Government for not doing enough, quickly enough to reduce child poverty and said the initial improvement was not as much as forecast for the Families Package.

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Elsewhere in the local political economy

RNZ @radionz

Exhausted Covid-19 testers in South Auckland are bracing for a big surge after three new cases of infection were confirmed in the cluster around Papatoetoe High School.

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Stuff.co.nz Politics @NZStuffPolitics

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Stuff.co.nz Politics @NZStuffPolitics

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Stuff @NZStuff

Canterbury regional council rates could jump more than 24 per cent

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Stuff.co.nz Business @NZStuffBusiness

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In the global political economy

AFP News Agency @AFP

#BREAKING Fed Reserve Chair Powell pledges low rates until US economy at full employment and inflation on track to exceed 2%

Ryan Mac🙃 @RMac18

Not much internal interaction on our latest Facebook story besides one manager blaming leaks and including a wartime poster photo w/ the phrase "Loose Lips Sink Ships." "We need people to stop leaking. It's honestly that simple," he writes. (lol)

buzzfeednews.com“Mark Changed The Rules”: How Facebook Went Easy On Alex Jones And Other Right-Wing FiguresFacebook’s rules to combat misinformation and hate speech are subject to the whims and political considerations of its CEO and his policy team leader.

BBC News (World) @BBCWorld

Facebook v Australia: Who blinked first?

bbc.inFacebook v Australia: Who blinked first?The media payments skirmish may be over but there are bigger battles to come.

Other notable views

Stuff.co.nz Politics @NZStuffPolitics

We don't know how many houses we need - we should

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Latika M Bourke @latikambourke

"If Australians don’t want to pay for news about their own country, it’s hardly the responsibility of foreign companies to foot the bill for them."

foreignpolicy.comWhy Facebook Is Right to Pull the Plug on AustraliaThis isn’t about regulating Big Tech. It’s about fleecing foreigners for news that Australians no longer want to pay for.

Jonathan Haidt @JonHaidt

A really helpful distinction for understanding effects of social media on dialogue and civility: There are two types of communication culture--high context and low context. Social Media puts us all into very low context:

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Threads worth unravelling

Yael Eisenstat @YaelEisenstat

Important piece by @CraigSilverman & @RMac18. Facebook’s decisions on far-right content are political, not some grand defense of free speech or democracy. I’ve tried to point this out in pieces about my time working on election integrity at FB. (Thread)

buzzfeednews.com“Mark Changed The Rules”: How Facebook Went Easy On Alex Jones And Other Right-Wing FiguresFacebook’s rules to combat misinformation and hate speech are subject to the whims and political considerations of its CEO and his policy team leader.

Ka kite ano

Bernard

PS Thanks to Karl Halvorsen via Instagram for today’s great pic.

PPS: Some fun things

Adam Best @adamcbest

Daft Punk’s wonderfully weird video for "Around the World,” directed by Michel Gondry.

Seán Gillespie @SeanDG

Oriental Bay a moment ago

Jon Erlichman @JonErlichman

This computer helped astronauts to make the first moon landing in 1969. iPhones today have +100,000 times more processing power.