An anti-poverty group wants the Government to spend what’s needed — possibly billions — to meet its child poverty targets, saying it’s simply not enough to grow the overall economy.
Child Poverty Action Group CEO Sarita Divis said New Zealand “can’t afford not to” invest in reaching its targets under the Child Poverty Reduction Act.
Last year, Treasury officials warned the government its policies were “likely to fall well short of the reductions required to meet the current ten-year [child poverty reduction] targets”. At the last election, National campaigned to halve child poverty by 2028.
Treasury’s modelling estimated meeting one of the ten-year targets would cost the government more than $3 billion annually over the next two to three years, meaning it was not “practically achievable”.
When asked about that specific figure, Divis told Q+A: “We’re calling on the government to spend the money… under the act to reach those targets.”
“[CPAG] has a whole suite of policies that they [the government] could do across education, housing, health, Māori health, that they could do to reach those targets.
“We don’t really expect that this government, or even the other political parties, will take them all on. But some of the key things that they could do is around food in schools — reversing those cuts.”
The Child Poverty Action Group wants targeted interventions to improve child poverty rates — but it may come with a huge price tag. (Source: Q and A)
Divis said, for many students, school lunches represented the only proper meal they could have in a day.
“So we need to make sure that the lunch they receive is nutritious, healthy, and delicious so they get those educational and health benefits.”
It comes after new figures showed the Government missed all of its interim three-year child poverty targets.
Stats NZ data released on Thursday revealed the number of children living in material hardship grew by 12,500 to 156,000 in 2024 — about one in seven children. Divis said, since last year, more people were now struggling, including working families.
Child Poverty Reduction Minister Louise Upston said the statistics showed there “has been no significant increase year-on-year” for the 2022/23 financial year.
She said the numbers reflected “a prolonged cost of living crisis” that had started before her Government.
“Our Government has lifted the incomes of working households experiencing hardship by providing tax relief, reducing inflation, and making childcare more affordable by introducing the FamilyBoost childcare tax rebate,” Upston said.
“We’re also providing lunches to around 242,000 learners every day so Kiwi kids have access to food.”
Upston said last year she didn’t agree meeting long-term child poverty goals would cost $3 billion a year because the coalition was taking a different approach to the previous Labour government.
It was more effective to grow the overall economy rather than try and tackle poverty through welfare payments and tax credits, she said at the time.
CPAG’s Divis said targeted measures were needed to address poverty.
“We need to look at how the economic growth is distributed and who benefits from it,” she said.
“What we’re seeing, what [the Government] are talking about, is that it’s going to trickle down.
“What we know from the evidence is that, actually, it hoovers up.”
Q+A with Jack Tame is made with the support of NZ on Air
