Don’t worry students, help is on the way!!!!!!!!!
Ask the majority of the population what they think of when they hear the word ‘student,’ and you’ll most likely get bombarded with the words “poor,” “shitty flats,” “stressed,” “overworked,” and “2-minute-noodles.” For far too long these stereotypes have been normalised and accepted, but with today’s rising cost of living and a worsening housing crisis, it is finally time we stood for change. Thankfully, the Green Party and NZUSA, Te Mana Ākonga, Tauira Pasifika and the National Disabled Students’ Association have started the movement for us.
A survey of more than 4500 students has recently been launched “to build up irrefutable evidence on the basis of making asks and pushing for interventions. It is also to help students going through these experiences to understand that they are not anomalies, that these are not individual problems that people are going to resolve all by themselves, but that they are systemic,” says Green Party MP, Chlöe Swarbrick.
The survey found that two-thirds of students do not have enough money to buy food, clothing, pay bills, get healthcare or other basics. It showed that those living in a shared flat spend an average of 56% of weekly income on rent, when affordable housing is considered not more than 30% on both international and domestic measures. 91% of students support rent controls, 82% support a rental warrant of fitness, and two-thirds aren’t able to pay for transport or the costs of a vehicle.
To combat student poverty, the Green Party has made a number of proposals, including raising student allowances and making them universal, making public transport free for tertiary students, improving the accessibility and capacity of student mental health services, and progressing the Rental Warrant of Fitness and Rent Controls proposals.
“So frequently you will hear politicians talking about how education is a pathway out of poverty, not realising that poverty is in fact a barrier to education,” says Chlöe Swarbrick.
“You’ll often also hear narratives or myths about how ‘back in my day we were still working a million hours a week and bla bla bla.’ Well the reality is, as our research shows, that students today in real terms are hundreds if not thousands of dollars worse off than students even five, ten years ago, when you take into account all the variables around rent, and increase in course costs etcetera.”
Aotearoa’s Green party are not the first in the world to recognize the imbalance in student to worker welfare. Germany, Denmark, Finland and Iceland have some of the lowest rates of student poverty internationally due to price restrictions and cost subsidies granted for those studying.
“There are a range of countries, particularly in Europe, that provide free education and people don’t have to take on debt in order to get their qualifications. Those countries realise and recognise that education is a public good, and that in turn is reflected in productivity statistics from those countries,” says Chlöe Swarbrick.
“Every time you walk into a building or walk across a bridge and it doesn’t collapse, you’re benefiting from somebody’s education. Anytime you interact with any piece of technology, you are benefiting from someone else’s education. It really all boils down to whether we want to prioritize that education and that social advancement and the opportunity for everybody to thrive, or whether we want to keep gatekeeping it.”
On the topic of implementing more strategies in New Zealand to eliminate student poverty, Chlöe Swarbrick says, “the Greens would love to do it overnight. These are things that we have been campaigning for, for a really long time. The barrier of course is Labour and obviously National who aren’t so keen on doing them.”
“So many of our students aren’t realising that our politicians are accountable for them in the same way that our politicians are accountable for the loudest voices in the room, such as the landlords and the business owners. What it all boils down to is that we can do it all tomorrow if we wanted to, the only barrier is political willpower.”
Any students that would like to stand for this change and be a part of the hand that digs our collective body out of poverty, there are a number of things that you can do. Firstly, it is important to gain an understanding of the politics happening around us. Everyday members of parliament make decisions that go on to affect the future of our entire country. By recognising these decisions and responding to them, we can help force the hand of those that hold the vote in parliament. The next steps include getting involved in a student association.
“Research shows that far fewer students than we would hope are involved in their student associations, which prompts a range of other systemic and long-term issues around how students don’t have that kind of representation that is sustainable and long-term. Our student associations are constantly having to relearn how to do their jobs every single year with new executives and do not have that ability to have that long term planning and funding,” says Chlöe Swarbrick.
“Students have to get political, and have to realize their power. There are nearly 400,000 students in this country who make up around 6% of the population which is a huge voting block. When you consider the communities and the neighborhoods and the towns and cities and regions that students come from, and their families and all the rest who they are all connected to, well that’s a massive opportunity to push for a change and transformation.”
“It is all political and it is not going to change unless students realise their power. A part of this research process was to empower students by letting them know that they are not alone, and to encourage them to look around their lecture theatre and realise the power in that room.”