Jacinda Ardern wants to 'lift every child out of poverty'

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was quizzed live on TV about her pledge to lift 88,000 children out of poverty. 

Ms Ardern was attending The Nation's last show of the year, which was broadcasted live from downtown Auckland on Saturday.

Familiar faces in attendance included Green MP Chloe Swarbrick, Auckland mayor Phil Goff, and National MP Gerry Brownlee.

Before Ms Ardern could escape a 'selfie-and-run' with Lloyd Burr, Nation Host Lisa Owen called her back to answer a few questions about her chosen portfolio - child poverty.

Earlier this week the Labour-led Government introduced a $5 billion plan to cut child poverty rates.

"You have passed legislation that you say is going to lift 88,000 children out of child poverty. That's great but the National Party pledged to lift 100,000 out in the same time period - are you being ambitious enough?" asked Ms Owen.

"Their plan to lift those kids out was tax cuts, which only took 50,000 kids out of child poverty," said Ms Ardern. 

"What they're going to do about getting those extra 50? We don't know, but if they share our ambition on child poverty, that is fantastic.

"One of the things we're really wanting to do is commit future parliaments and future parties  to setting targets around this issue."

The Prime Minister emphasised that 88,000 was just a starting point to rolling out a wider plan, which will be conducted through robust research and transparency with the public. 

"Do I want to lift every child out of poverty? Yes, I do."

Ms Ardern also touched on Labour's Working for Families package, which would "benefit the working poor, beneficiaries, and middle-income workers', before moving onto talk of her role as Minister for Arts.

Newshub.