Report on poverty has shocked us to our core – SODELPA

SODELPA Leader, Viliame Gavoka says the 2019-2020 Household Income and Expenditure Survey has shocked them to their core as he says on ethnic basis, 76 percent of the poor are iTaukei and by religion 78 percent of the poor are Christians.

Gavoka says this was in 2019 and 2020 and one can imagine what it is like in 2021 with the COVID-19 pandemic.

He adds SODELPA has always decried the poverty of the iTaukei, calling it as the ‘elephant in the room’.

The SODELPA Leader says it looms large and cannot be ignored, but that is exactly what the FijiFirst Government has been doing by ignoring it.

He says one wonders about the Bainimarama boom.

Gavoka further says this is very serious and SODELPA will insist that poverty of the iTaukei is central to the discussions in Fiji.

He says they will chart their own policies on the way forward to combat poverty.

SODELPA has also shown appreciation to the Fiji Bureau of Statistics for factoring ethnicity in the report.