Louise Upston, Minister for Child Poverty Reduction has set New Zealand’s first persistent child poverty reduction target at one per cent over the next 10 years.

‘Speechless’

This was the first reaction of CPAG’s Executive Officer Sarita Divis at the Minister’s lack of ambition for families living in persistent poverty.

‘When the Child Poverty Reduction Bill was first read in the house, Louise Upston challenged the then-government to be "more aspirational in terms of the targets". Fast-forward to Upston being in a position of power and we see a complete lack of ambition for children and families in Aotearoa’.

As noted in the official press release, the government’s chosen policies will not result in any meaningful change for children experiencing persistent poverty for at least 10 years.

‘Shockingly, the government has given itself the option to increase persistent poverty from 9.4 per cent to 10 per cent within the next three years’. [1]

‘The government should change its policies if it doesn’t think they will be enough to unlock children from poverty’, Divis states.

‘They are essentially saying that Christmas is cancelled for the next 10 years, for the 10 per cent of New Zealand children experiencing persistent poverty.’

The government cannot set a three year reduction target because they defunded the study that would allow them to do that

CPAG not only questions the government’s aspirations for our country’s children, but the excuses they made in not setting a three year reduction target.

The government’s fact sheet states ‘persistent poverty is a newly developed measure and cannot yet be reliably modelled or forecasted like some other child poverty measures’.

However, as CPAG Researcher, Harry (Yu) Shi points out, ‘The government is actually sitting on years of data collected through the now-defunded Living in Aotearoa Survey and is choosing not to use it. Put simply, the government slashed Statistics NZ’s funding which then led to Stats NZ scrapping the Living in Aotearoa Survey (an annual survey designed to gather longitudinal data on families in New Zealand).’

‘That decision also led to $20.7 million of wasted investment and the missed opportunity to better understand the key drivers of child poverty in New Zealand. For instance, the survey was designed to help us understand how housing, unemployment and natural disasters contribute to people’s life satisfaction, sense of purpose and anxiety. Combined with household income and material hardship data, the longitudinal insights from the Survey would’ve served as a foundation for wellbeing-centred policies, including lifting children out of persistent poverty’.

Different policies needed - now

‘Children have limitless potential, but powerful interventions are needed to unlock families from poverty to allow them to realise it’, says Divis.

‘The Minister’s proposed solutions will not unlock these families from experiencing poverty and their paltry target is proof of this.’

CPAG calls on the current government and all political parties to work towards a future where all tamariki grow up surrounded by loving, thriving whānau within supportive communities where there are resources, opportunities and systems to enable them to live self-determined lives and futures.

In order to get there, CPAG has a suite of policy recommendations. Chief amongst them is the need to fundamentally redesign the welfare system so that dignity and respect are at the centre.

‘With nearly one in nine New Zealanders receiving income support, it is needed now more than ever. Far from preventing or even alleviating poverty, the current welfare system has been designed to hold people in poverty. The result is that families are overloaded with stress. But we can redesign a more inclusive system that allows people to actively participate in society. It starts with understanding our history, understanding the complexity of people’s lives, and working with people rather than punishing them’, says Divis.

CPAG is calling on all political parties that were part of the bipartisan agreement bringing in the Child Poverty Reduction Act (Labour, Greens, NZ First and National) as well as those in support of action on child poverty (Te Pāti Maori) to speak up for tamariki in persistent poverty. Now is the time to put forward the policies that will bring forward the future that New Zealanders all care about - halving child poverty by 2028 and ending it for good.

Note:

[1] See the Government’s Fact Sheet which states ‘...we have set a target that aims to prevent this from climbing above 10 per cent.’

© Scoop Media