National urged to help poor - before three-course lunch

John Banks. Photo / Dean Purcell

Great poverty still affects pockets of New Zealand, ministers were told yesterday - shortly before their sumptuous three-course lunch.

Millionaire Auckland mayor John Banks told the conference at the SkyCity Convention Centre that "there are pockets of social deprivation" that needed to be addressed.

"We have to bridge the gap between the very poor and dispossessed and those of us who are making great progress," he told delegates.

When he spoke of great progress, he may have been referring to the National Party coffers: yesterday morning, MPs learned that Prime Minister John Key's neighbourhood restaurateur had donated $105,000 to the party.

Chef Tony Astle whips up a grilled venison back steak with celeriac salad, pearl barley and Madeira jus for a swift $50 at Antoine's Restaurant, in Parnell - a profitable little business, it appears, enabling generous donations.

But yesterday, conference delegates had to settle for a three-course lunch of flash-fried asparagus shoots and marinated fish salad, baby spinach leaves with toasted pinenuts, crispy prosciutto and garlic aioli.

Just 250m away at the Auckland City Mission, dozens of homeless people queued up for handouts of bread and jam.

A spokeswoman said the United Nations rated New Zealand with the sixth greatest gap between rich and poor among developed nations last year.

For Stephen Flowers, who has lived on the streets for about 10 years, Banks' words were empty rhetoric. He said: "It does make you laugh when you hear people like Banks and John Key talk as if they know what life is like for us. They have no idea, I haven't seen any improvements since National came to power. After my fines have been paid I've got $60 a week. ... Lunch for me usually consists of picking food out of rubbish tins."

Flowers has lived under the Hobson St overpass for two years, with his mates Chris and Edwin, who was left brain damaged after being stabbed.

Good Samaritan Claire Adams-Adamiak, who delivers food parcels to the homeless, said: "There are people living with rats who are at risk of starting an outbreak of rabies or TB. They are born in poverty, they live in poverty and they die in poverty."