Source: Radio New Zealand
Shamubeel Eaqub, co-author of the latest Social Cohesion report Supplied
Financial stress is putting pressure on New Zealand’s social cohesion, a new report says.
The second Social Cohesion in New Zealand report by the Helen Clark Foundation said the country’s social fabric was “fraying on almost every measure”.
The survey of nearly 3000 people has been conducted for the second time, and will be an annual exercise.
“The results are both frightening and hopeful,” economist and co-author Shamubeel Eaqub said.
“New Zealand still has strong foundations, but there are growing cracks in how people experience fairness, opportunity and connection. Financial stress is the dominant driver.”
Trust in government dropped from 42 percent to 39 percent. The share of people who believed that hard work would lead to a better life fell seven points to 45 percent.
“Interesting people who are currently prosperous are not really sure that hard work in and of itself is enough. There’s a broadening acceptance, a fear, that just working hard is not enough – there are other structural barriers we need to work on,” he told RNZ’s Nine to Noon.
Attitudes to immigration were also becoming more negative.
Eaqub said there were three key groups of New Zealanders. Thirty percent could be counted as connected with high levels of belonging, institutional trust and acceptance.
Another 41 percent were ambivalent – this was often older homeowners, retirees and centre-right voters.
Another 28 percent were alienated, and often engaged in protest and online political activity. Almost half of Māori and Pasifika respondents fall into this group, as do nearly half of Green voters and seven in 10 NZ First voters.
“We have three very different New Zealands living alongside each other,” Eaqub said. “Financial stress, political allegiance, institutional distrust, and social isolation are reinforcing each other, producing a population that is frustrated and disconnecting from the conventional institutions we rely on for collective decision-making.”
He said the research showed financial stress was the single biggest driver of low social cohesion.
“People struggling to make ends meet are significantly less likely to feel connected, trust institutions, or participate in community life. At the same time, loneliness and isolation are rising. “Isolation doesn’t mean people disengage entirely,” he said.
“But it does change how they participate – away from traditional institutions and toward more oppositional or online forms of engagement.”
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
