Time to give New Zealand children choices

Public Health Association media release 15 December 2015

The Public Health Association (PHA) says the 2015 Child Poverty Monitor, released today, confirms poverty is worsening and that its causes are systemic and intergenerational and won't be solved with piecemeal solutions.

Chief Executive Officer Warren Lindberg says the evidence in the 2015 Child Poverty Monitor cannot be ignored or explained away with myths about personal responsibility.

“This year’s Child Poverty Monitor reveals poverty is much worse now than it has been for the last two generations. In 2015 it’s almost double the percentage for 1985. Thirty percent of children now live in poverty and for 9 percent that poverty is severe,” Lindberg says.

“The worst aspect of this situation is that it’s intergenerational. The children suffering the most today are the grandchildren of the people put out of work by the economic restructuring of the 1980s. Throwing an extra $25 a week at poor families, as promised in this year’s budget, will simply not be enough and a much more comprehensive approach that looks at how the economy includes and excludes opportunity for people is required.

“What we have to understand is that children learn what they live. If they've grown up in poverty they tend to stay in poverty because that’s what they understand and they can't make the choices needed to escape the trap.”

Lindberg says the report also shows that it’s a myth that low-income parents only have themselves to blame for the poverty they and their children live in, or that their situation is somehow the result of poor household management.

“No New Zealand family chooses to live in a damp, cold, overcrowded house. Nobody wants to struggle to put three healthy meals on the table every day. These families are doing the best they can with the increasingly limited choices they have.”

Lindberg says it’s time to take a nationwide approach to make sure that New Zealand children and their families can choose the healthy homes, decent clothing and shoes, safe walkable neighbourhoods, educational opportunities and the health care they need.”

He says the PHA supports Children’s Commissioner Dr Russell Wills when he says New Zealand as a nation has a choice in how it responds to the problem.

“While community initiatives are making a difference, systemic changes such as reforming income support so that children have the same opportunities whether or not their parents are in paid work, and setting national standards for housing, can only be done by central government.”

Lindberg says the PHA will be promoting the Children’s Commissioner’s #itsnotchoice message because it fits with the organisation’s values of reducing inequality and promoting good health for all – and will continue to advocate for a National Children’s Plan to build on successful local and regional initiatives.

“Let’s be clear because the evidence is. The more unequal a society is the less prosperous it will be as a whole. We need to shake off the myth that the poor have chosen their lot and take immediate steps to stop the inter-generational slide into poverty that will only become even worse.”

ENDS

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