A paediatrician who has made it her "life's work" to help children says conditions for New Zealand's poorest kids have "dramatically worsened" in the last 30 years.
Professor Innes Asher, head of paediatrics at Auckland University's School of Medicine and spokesperson for Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), says nothing less than $1 billion needs to be set aside in the upcoming Budget if Prime Minister John Key is serious about his promise to tackle child poverty.
"It's the major social and economic issue for the country, because one in five our children are living in material hardship and poverty," she said on TV3's Paul Henry programme this morning.
"It's a huge issue for New Zealand for now and for our future."
The $1 billion figure would, according to Prof Asher, include extending child tax credits to families on benefits – 60 percent of kids below the poverty line are living in benefit-dependent families – as well as indexing Working For Families to inflation and growing wages, and reversing more than two decades of inadequate support for needy families.
"There were huge Government policy changes in 1991 that cut benefits, and then when there's been adjustments made they haven't actually adjusted things correctly… and they haven't given enough to the most disadvantaged children. We've got a bad scorecard from the OECD and the United Nations."
It's estimated more than 200,000 Kiwi kids are living in poverty, which is defined relative to average household incomes; and 180,000 of those are living in "material hardship" regardless of how you look at it, says Prof Asher.
"It has dramatically worsened over my working lifetime. In the '80s it wasn't nearly as bad and it's much, much worse [now]."
And it rarely has anything to do with parents' irresponsible choices.
"That's just simply not true for the vast majority of people," says Prof Asher.
"There will be a few who make poor choices, but the bulk of the people are making very responsible decisions, and they simply haven't got enough to meet all those essential needs for a growing child, and it's quite a tragedy for this country."
Mr Key and Social Development Minister Anne Tolley have promised this year's Budget will tackle child poverty head-on, although Ms Tolley has taken issue with how groups such as CPAG define poverty.
"There are one in four children that are perhaps not experiencing the full life that we all want for New Zealand children," is how she put it in December.
3 News
source: newshub archive
