Another non disclosure

Stuff reports:

Father of two ‘Ofa Ta’ufo’ou can’t spend more than $100 a week to feed his family.

That’s breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, drinks – the works. Any more and the Birkdale resident breaks the household budget.

The 43-year-old works “like an animal” for at least 40 hours a week and still struggles to make ends meet.

“At the moment I can’t afford to take my girls to the movies. So I have to ask: Who has failed my family? The system has.

“And I’m not the only one struggling. A lot of people in the community can’t function as a family because of their finances.”

The community worker says the problem is nationwide and something must be done.

I presume Mr Ta’ufo’ou is this one, who was a union delegate for the Labour-affiliated Service and Food Workers Union. That doesn’t mean he should ot be quoted, but does mean the public are not getting the full story.

Ta’ufo’ou supports the Living Wage Movement that calls on the Government, employers and society to strive for a minimum wage of $18.80 an hour to reduce inequality and poverty.

That’s the living wage movememt backed by the union movement?

Also note we are not given any details to allow us to make an independent decision on his claims. We are not told his hourly pay rate, or that of his partner. We are not told how much support they get from Working for Families, and we are not told how much money is spent on various activities, except rent (and not told how big a house it is).

Now of course there is no obligation for a person to reveal these details – unless they pimp their story out to the media about how hard it is to make ends meet for themselves. When media don’t provide enough detail for people to make an independent judgement, the story is little more than a press release.

UPDATE: Also the Herald doesn’t mention their previous story in 2011 when he got a $30,000 backpayment.