Mötika Tangata më Te Tiriti o Waitangi: Mate Korona më te Noho Rähui i Aotearoa Taumata 4
Women - Te ira wahine
In the era of COVID-19, women have been
disproportionately impacted by job losses in retail,
hospitality and tourism. This will lead to a rise in
poverty for women, particularly Mäori, Pacific and
women from ethnic minority groups, who worked in
large numbers in those industries.
Some of these issues are also considered in the next
‘snapshot’.
Most single parent households are female led. Single
parents have been disproportionately impacted
during the Level 4 lockdown, shouldering a burden of
responsibility to care for children, home schooling and
carrying out domestic tasks while working from home.
Under Level 4, children were initially unable to
accompany adults to the supermarket, making it more
difficult for single parents to obtain food and essential
supplies.
The impact is increased poverty for women, ongoing
hardship and stress for single parent families, an
increase in child poverty and an increased burden of
unpaid care work for women. For wähine Mäori and
their whänau, the impacts of COVID-19 exacerbate
systemic failures to uphold Te Tiriti.
Wage-subsidies that were put in place quickly by the
government have cushioned the economic impact of
large-scale job losses and have kept workers tied to
jobs.
The government pressed ahead with raising the
minimum wage on 1 April despite opposition. This will
positively impact women who make up the majority of
people on the minimum wage.
Impacts on women during the COVID-19 crisis are
human rights issues. There is an obligation to ensure
no discrimination based on sex, and a positive duty on
the government to eliminate discrimination against
women. In addition, there are obligations on business
to ensure workers’ rights are respected. Applying
Te Tiriti and human rights to economic and social
policies will reinforce existing initiatives that strive to
revalue low paid “essential” occupations, eliminate
pay inequity by gender and ethnicity, alleviate poverty
for single parent families, value unpaid work and
enable flexible work. Human rights will help to lift the
economic, social and cultural value of women’s lives
and work, and advance gender equality.
Collecting demographic data about people receiving
the wage subsidy will provide better information
for planning and help to advance gender equality in
Aotearoa New Zealand. These exercises must include
quality data collection on ethnicity.
Employment - Whakamahingia
The government’s decision to move to Alert Level 4
inevitably led to a crisis of employment. As at midApril, the government had paid in excess of $10 billion
to support 1.6 million workers. It had also launched a
$6.25 billion business finance guarantee scheme for
small and medium-sized businesses to protect jobs
and support the economy. This is a huge investment
and an act of human rights guardianship. Also, the
government has introduced a 6-month rent freeze and
3-month protection against terminations.
Poverty
During Alert Level 4 many people worked on reduced
wages or were made redundant. There have been
allegations of poor redundancy procedures, including
discrimination. There have also been significant
increases in poverty and hardship for many people,
including working households.
The crisis has had a disproportionate effect on those
who were already living on or below the poverty line,
with insecure housing and work. Certain industries,
such as tourism and hospitality, are likely to take
longer to recover than others. There is a real risk
of prolonged unemployment within regions, and
for Mäori, Pacific peoples, women, sole parents,
disabled people, the rainbow community and migrant
communities.
Many people are moving onto government benefits
for the first time. As unemployment rises, foodbanks
have reported a “tsunami of need” with some
people queuing for four hours. In the first week of
Level-4 lockdown, the number of Ministry of Social
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