Source: Donna Wynd, Hard to Swallow Foodbank Use in New Zealand (2005).
David Armstrong claimed incorrectly that there have been no food banks in New Zealand until recently:
That’s how it used to be here not so long ago, when foodbanks didn’t exist and the number of homeless was tiny. I remember when we had few cases of “poverty” diseases such as rheumatic fever or rickets.
What else explains the increased popularity of food banks, which have been long-standing in New Zealand, it is not falling wages.
The main economic development over the last 25 years is the return of real wage growth after decades of wage stagnation in the boys own good old days of David Armstrong.
Source: Low Wage Economy | New Zealand Council of Trade Unions – Te Kauae Kaimahi.
As for the number of homeless being tiny in the good old days of New Zealand, a New Zealand Parliamentary Library 2014 paper on homeless started its historical narrative in 1850 and spent a lot of time discussing housing deprivation in the early and mid-20th century:
A 1936 national survey found nearly a third of the total urban housing stock was unsatisfactory and 15% of this only fit for demolition. [5] Māori in particular experienced poor housing conditions. The first Labour Government loaned money for private house purchases and built state housing to rent.
During the 1950s, the National Government moved to reduce the waiting list for state housing and promoted home ownership, but lengthy waits for some people were reported. Likewise, concern was expressed over severe overcrowding, especially among Māori. By the late 1950s, Wellington’s housing needs were identified as ‘particularly acute.
In the 1960s voluntary organisations recorded a gradual increase in some groups experiencing housing difficulties. The Christchurch Methodist Church night shelter found that their main users were employed people who could not afford other accommodation, unmarried women with children, and those leaving homes because of domestic violence also increasingly sought shelter
Not even a self-described liberal elitist of the left can be forgiven for forgetting some of the key achievements of the first Labour government in social housing. The idea was to improve the quality of New Zealand housing for the poor.
Source: The first state house – State housing | NZHistory, New Zealand history online.
In common with Max Rashbrooke, David Armstrong’s recollection of his boys own childhood does not include Maori as they drifted to the city. Prior to the middle of the 20th century about 85% of Maori lived in rural areas, often lacking electricity, running water and living on dirt floors as the Encyclopaedia of New Zealand explains:
Attracted by work opportunities and the ‘bright lights’ of city life, rural Māori began to move to Auckland and Wellington in the 1920s. However, many faced problems finding accommodation. The reputation Māori had among Pākehā for overcrowding and taking poor care of their homes meant few landlords were prepared to have them as tenants. As attendee James Rukutoki told a Māori leaders conference in 1939, ‘the only dwellings open to the Maori are the ramshackle discards of the Pākehā’.
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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