Hi John,

Today is the World Day of Social Justice, and this year’s theme is about closing the inequalities gap - a subject I know is important to many of us within our movement.

I want to take a few moments today to reflect on the work we’ve done in Government to close this gap here in New Zealand, but also to acknowledge that there is still further work left to do.

I was a child of the eighties and nineties. I only had to look around me to see some people were being left behind. Jobs were being lost, manufacturing was moved offshore, government support was being cut, and the gap between rich and poor was expanding.

I was only young when this was happening, but it began to shape my worldview and is why a sense of fairness and looking after one another is so important to me. Without knowing what to call it back then, I can see now that a belief in social justice has always driven me, and is ultimately why I got involved in politics.

I'm proud that, as New Zealanders, commitment to equality is one of the core values we hold. I’m also proud that social justice has been central to Labour’s agenda since we formed Government in 2017.

Today, on World Day of Social Justice, I want to share with you just some of the ways our Government is making progress on the long-term challenges facing New Zealand and working towards greater social justice and equality:

• We’ve increased the minimum wage, meaning that from April 2020, someone earning minimum wage full-time will be $126 per week better off - that’s over $6,500 more per year than they would have made in 2017
  
  
• We’re making it easier for people to challenge pay inequity — because everyone deserves to be paid fairly
  
  
• We’ve increased paid parental leave from 18 weeks to 22 weeks (rising again to 26 weeks in July this year), giving families more time with their new arrivals
  
  
• We’re helping young people gain valuable, sought-after skills and qualifications through our Mana in Mahi programme
  
  
• We’ve built more state houses and introduced the Healthy Homes Guarantee to make sure everyone has a warm, dry, place to call home
  
  
• We’re giving 384,000 families an extra $75 per week, on average, through our Families Package, and helped around a million Kiwis heat their homes through the Winter Energy Payment
  
  
• We’ll be providing thousands of kids with a free and healthy lunch at school, by 2021, to help them get the best start in life

We’ve made significant progress since 2017 - but we know that there is more work to do.

With people like you behind us John, we can keep making a difference. We can keep making New Zealand a fairer and more equal home for all Kiwis. But to do that we need to be re-elected in September.

Thank you for all you already do, but if you could donate even a few dollars to our campaign it could really make the difference on September 19th.

Thank you,

Jacinda