A Ministry of Social Policy report released last week showed that the gap between rich and poor is widening.
"(Since the 1980s) income inequality has increased overall. The gap between the incomes of households at the top of the income distribution and those at the bottom has widened as the incomes of the highest ten per cent of households has increased, and those of the households in the bottom 25 per cent of the distribution have dropped," it says.
The report, titled Distributions and Disparity - New Zealand Household Income, outlines trends in New Zealand household incomes from 1982 through to 1998.
"There is a big gap between those who have and those who have not. There is a whole heap of reasons why, never just one," says Ratahi.
The Trust's plan for addressing the issues of housing, education and health centre on reducing the number of agencies serving their people.
"It's about trying to assist the family through one lead organisation. It's something that the government have been advocating but have not quite got off the ground really," he says.
Mr Ratahi says establishing a community-led organisation which could put a face to the total service and act as a case manager would be ideal.
Once you've got the approach settled, then you can start thinking about closing the gaps, he says.
CTU economist Peter Conway has a huge stake in the conference because his organisation is "all about people having employability, meaning that they've got transferable skills".
"We don't see the problem so much as people's attitude to acquiring knowledge so much as access and cost and quality."
"It's a matter of how can I persuade my employer to do more, how can I get access to courses that don't cost an arm and a leg, how can I find an appropriate qualification that is transferable from one employer to another?"
Under the theme of social dynamism and knowledge opportunities, the Catching the Knowledge Wave conference will consider not only the need to improve living standards across the board but also address the growing disparity between those who have the ability to access and use information and those who don't - the so-called "digital divide".
The term was first used to describe the gap between rich and poor - "disadvantaged groups" - in their ability to participate in the information economy. Increasingly the term now refers to the gap between urban and rural areas due to differences in telecommunications infrastructure.
One example of efforts to bridge the divide began last year when internet service provider Ihug entered into a partnership with Telecom to supply high-speed internet services to Wairoa, as part of a community development project.
Just last month, Telecom's Cook Strait cable was switched on, delivering high quality and huge bandwidth, allowing South Island businesses and private users to tap into advanced information technologies.
As well, the Digital Opportunities partnership among the Government, Telecom and other business partners helps bridge the gap by opening up online learning opportunities to students regardless of their backgrounds.
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