Life got worse under Labour

If you felt life got worse in the last five years, you were not alone. The 2023 General Social Survey data lets us see the changes since 2018, and 2021. Changes are:

• Enough income to live on down from 68.1% in 2021 to 60.9% in 2023
• Have had to cut back on fruit and veggies to save money – up from 23.3% in 2018 to 47.7%
• In a poor state of general health – up from 14.7% to 19.2%
• Feel safe at home at night – down from 86.7% to 80.1%
• Feel safe out at night – down from 61.9% to 55.1%
• Mean trust for other NZers – down from 6.8/10 to 6.5/10

So after Labour’s wellbeing budget, fewer people had enough income to live on, more people had to cut back on fruit and vegetables, more people had poor health, fewer people felt safe at home or out and trust in other NZers fell.