New Zealanders believe in justice. We care about protecting our right to a dignified and decent life. An effective welfare system is only serving its purpose then, when it is taking care of the people at the heart of it. We know we’re not there yet.

Many of us are anxious about the tally of expenditure and what that will mean for the year to come.

When New Zealand’s tamariki and rangatahi were consulted about wellbeing, they responded with the kind of clarity, insight and brutal honesty that my kids usually reserve for observations on my fashion sense.

Rather than encouraging beneficiaries to do more paid work if they can, the current thresholds have exactly the opposite effect.

There’s a line in the Executive Summary of the Welfare Expert Advisory Group (WEAG) report that sums things up perfectly: “Urgent and fundamental change is needed”.