Social services administrator Kahukura Rogers-Rahurahu says they're seeing people who know how to make a dollar stretch struggling through this recesssion. Photo / Andrew Warner
Social services administrator Kahukura Rogers-Rahurahu says they're seeing people who know how to make a dollar stretch struggling through this recesssion. Photo / Andrew Warner
Tomorrow the Coalition Government will deliver its first Budget, with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Finance Minister Nicola Willis promising “good” surprises and “bold moves” despite grim economic forecasts. The Rotorua Daily Post spoke to locals about what they wanted to see in Budget 2024, and asked the mayor and a business leader about what it could do for the city’s tourism industry.
When Kahukura Rogers-Rahurahu’s daughter packs her lunch for school, she often packs more than she needs to share with others in her class.
Rogers-Rahurahu says publicly-funded free school lunches are sometimes the only food their daughter’s classmates get to eat. Working in Rotorua’s social service sector, they said they regularly saw families struggling to get by.
“I want my taxes to go to making sure kids don’t starve,” they said.
Rogers-Rahurahu, a community organiser for the Rotorua Chamber of Pride and solo parent, was on the benefit previously but now works fulltime as an administrator.
Raised by an artist and solo mum, Rogers-Rahurahu grew up learning “how to make a dollar stretch”. .
In their work, they said they had seen people who knew how to budget and stretch their money but were still struggling.
“We don’t have the services to support people who desperately need it and it’s getting worse,” they said.
“[What] we see with a lot of solo parents or anyone on the edges of society is a huge amount of isolation.”
A major worry this winter was power bills.
“We’re seeing people come in with incredibly high-power bills or being blacklisted in places,” they said.
Rogers-Rahurahu was on a benefit after their daughter was born needing cleft palate surgery and there was no one else to help care for her, they said.
“I want this Government to boost our social welfare and I want there to be safety nets for people.”
They disagreed with the Government’s moves to trim back the Ka Ora, Ka Ako school lunches programme. It was announced this month a no-frills version of the programme will get $478 million in the Budget to keep it going for the next two years, saving about $107m a year.
“In te ao Māori, there’s a whakataukī [proverb] and we talk about how you become a leader, which is by doing all the different roles.
“[I believe] they can have their 20 per cent raise if they live on a benefit for six months first.”
Restoring confidence in recession
Next Level Entertainment (NLE) is a creative hub based on Eruera St that has hosted live events in Rotorua since last year and recorded artists such as Kings, Pieter T, and Mikey Mayze at their studio.
Owner and operator Jay Kohunui hoped announcements in the Budget would give Rotorua’s hospitality and live performance scene a boost, including by encouraging people to get out of the house and support local businesses.
Working as a DJ and seeing the effects of the recession on how people spent their money, he said there was still a sense of uncertainty post-Covid.
“There was a drop in people going out but it’s slowly picked back up now.”
DJ Jay (left) and Sonny Bishop are creating a creative hub for local hip-hop artists on Eruera St. Photo / Andrew Warner
Music producer Sonny Bishop rents a room at Next Level Entertainment. He has been self-employed for more than six years.
He says the support given by the Labour Government during Covid to support artists who could not perform or connect with others to work was helpful in his community.
He had been fortunate not to need government subsidies, but said it was not like that for everyone.
“I feel like there could be more money for artists because it’s hard for someone to make it in the music industry, there’s no money or resources for artists to flourish,” Bishop said.
He said he had been fortunate to meet Jay and connect with the creative community building at Next Level Entertainment.
Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell
Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell said, like the Government, Rotorua Lakes Council was seeking to reduce spending.
”Rotorua is deserving of smart investment into worthy projects,” Tapsell said.
Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell says Rotorua needs help repairing its reputation. Photo / Laura Smith
”We want funding into our regions, not just towards bigger cities, so we can continue to grow jobs, meet our housing demands for workers, and restore our status as a top tourism destination.
”Despite a recession and increasing costs for everything, we see many local businesses continue to invest in new products and initiatives because we’re hopeful for our future,” Tapsell said.
Bryce Heard, Rotorua Business Chamber
Chief executive of the Rotorua Business Chamber, Bryce Heard, said the new Government deserved a chance to rectify the debt left by the prior Labour Government.
”We’ve elected a Government to fix it. Let’s let them fix it.
“As we go into this recessionary mode that we’re now in, we’ve got an unusual combination of high inflation, high interest and high unemployment.
”I think we’re in for quite a difficult winter as we go through this recovery phase, which is really not of our own making in Rotorua in the tourism industry.”
Rotorua Business Chamber chief executive Bryce Heard. Photo / Andrew Warner
The local tourism industry was almost back to what it was pre-Covid.
He said domestic activity bounced back quickly and while international had taken longer, it had come back from most places. China, however, was “still lagging”.
His advice this winter was to cut back costs wherever possible.
”The sooner we all make that decision and stop whinging the sooner the economy will come.“
”Let’s do it willingly and get stuck in and do our bit to get the economy back on track,” Heard said.
Aleyna Martinez is a multimedia journalist based in the Bay of Plenty.
