Child Poverty Action Group
Media Release 12 May 2009

Rankin’s appointment alarming, says Child Poverty Action Group

Child Poverty Action Group is alarmed at the appointment of Christine Rankin to the Families Commission.

The group’s economic spokesperson Dr Susan St John said: “At a time of recession is biting and deepening poverty of many families in New Zealand, National hasn't grasped the seriousness of the mess we are in. The appointment of someone who has a record of blaming families for their own poverty to a position where they are supposed to advocate for those same families is alarming. We are deeply unhappy about this appointment.”

“This has unfortunate undertones of revisiting the hard line that National took in the 1990s. It seems odd that National's idea of family advocacy is to appoint someone who vigorously opposed the amendment of section 59 by spreading misinformation that thousands of parents would be criminalised, and launched a personal attack on the Children's Commissioner in the process,” she said.

In the event that Ms Rankin takes up this appointment, CPAG challenges her to take a less judgmental stance on children and families in poverty than she has to date.

ENDS

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