Horror stories of Christchurch families living in garages and tents continue to surface almost two years after the February 2011 earthquake.
Some families are still stranded in sheds or illegally overcrowding friends' and relatives' houses.
Meanwhile, rental housing prices show no sign of abating, and welfare agencies believe this year could be worse than 2012.
Demand on Christchurch's social services continues to increase. People who have never needed help before are queuing up at food banks, and many families still face impoverished living conditions.
Meanwhile, we're now a target of child-sponsorship schemes, the sort that normally operate in the third world.
This is National's New Zealand: grinding poverty for increasing numbers, while John Key and his rich mates laugh and sip champagne. Its obscene. But its so very, very National, isn't it?