Diane Robertson: Seasonal goodwill has power to end dependency

Diane Robertson says our growing social inequity is at its most obvious at The City Mission. Photo / Janna Dixon

Empathy will erode issues widening our rich-poor divide, says Diane Robertson

The door is closing on the joys and sorrows of 2011. The year ahead stands before us, unknown.

Life is full of uncertainty but over Christmas and New Year we tend to put aside the blend of anticipatory optimism and anxiety that shapes our everyday thoughts and feelings. This is a season in which we live in the present. We whip up pavlovas and we dust off the barbecue. We wrap gifts and we decorate trees. We go to church and we go to the beach. We spend time with the people we love. We also make more of an effort to be inclusive at Christmas than we do the rest of the year. Our empathy kicks in, and we look out for those who might otherwise spend Christmas alone, drawing them into our lives, at least for a day or two.

That mix of celebration and empathy sums up for me the spirit of Christmas, and we see plenty of it at the Auckland City Mission.

Each Christmas, thousands of Aucklanders donate to help those in their community who battle to hold their lives together, so they too can celebrate Christmas. Others volunteer to package up food parcels, or to cook and serve Christmas dinner with our Mission team. For many, it is the one time of the year when they see up close those at the wrong end of a New Zealand society in which OECD research tells us inequality has grown rapidly over the last 30 years.

As City Missioner I often hear that the poor are lazy bludgers prone to drink, smoke, gamble, and have too many children. It's a view of "the poor" as unrealistic and as unfair as any caricature of "the rich" as heartless brutes whose sole interest in life is to make money.

The practical generosity of the many wealthy Aucklanders who support the Mission give the lie to that stereotype. Like me, they are nostalgic for the time when extremes of wealth and poverty were rare, where jobs were available for nearly everyone, and few needed to rely on the structured support of the welfare state, or the charitable impulses of well-intentioned individuals.

One of the knowns of 2012 is that it will see a renewed focus on poverty in New Zealand. The promised ministerial inquiry will provide a focus for the many New Zealanders who fear long-term damage to our social fabric if we allow a "haves, have nots" society to become entrenched.

Even with the best political will in the world, reversing the trends of the last 30 years will be a challenge.

Our chance of finding a way forward will be enhanced if those involved in the inquiry can bring to their task a genuine empathy for the less fortunate that looks beyond lazy stereotypes.

We need, in particular, a generous and active concern for the many children who live in homes in which economic and social deprivation blights their prospects.

I feel anxiety for New Zealand as I look at what might happen over the next 12 months. The world is being buffeted by an economic storm that is already blowing our way. I'm also optimistic. What I see in New Zealanders is a genuine goodwill towards each other that is not fettered by class, religion or race.

That goodwill drove our social innovation in the past. That goodwill will keep us motivated as we look for solutions to the problems we face now.

May Christmas be one of safety, of feeling cared for, and one to be happily remembered as you spend time with family and friends.

Diane Robertson is Auckland City Missioner