The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG)’s 2015 campaign, Healthy and Affordable Homes – calling on the government urgently to improve quality of and access to rental accommodation for families – has already received a groundswell of public support and strong media coverage. Alongside the harrowing story of Te Ao Marama Wensor and her son’s serious chronic lung issues as a result of living in a mouldy home, it was the lead story on many news bulletins, including print, radio and TV, and even prompted discussion in parliament.

The key now is to keep the momentum up, giving voice to children in need, and to their families – and the main upcoming event for that is the Hikoi for Homes.

The Housing Minister, Nick Smith, has announced that the government will introduce improvements to rental housing quality, following pressure from campaigning groups and public outcry about the death of a child in state housing.

Housing experts do not believe the measures go far enough, as is set out extremely well in this Briefing Paper here. However, the fact that the changes are happening at all is positive, and is the result of concerted pressure from civil society.

The 2015 Budget increased core benefit rates for the first time in 40 years – a small but significant step that is in large part due to the pressure brought to bear on the government by our member organisations.

AAAP are holding a protest at John Key’s post-budget lunch speech to business leaders at Sky City onMay 22nd.

The protest will start at 11.30 am on Friday May 22, at Sky City Convention Centre, 88 Federal Street, Auckland. 

Key and co. are arriving for 12pm so let’s make sure we’re there to give them our policy recommendations first hand. The business elite aren’t the only people in our society who should have their reactions to the 2015 Budget heard.

See the Facebook event details.

Why the Budget?

Year after year, the Nats have shown their commitment to promoting the interests of the rich while beneficiaries, low paid workers and students pay the price.

We know this Government’s budget will again have no solution to the poverty affecting thousands of New Zealander’s. We’d love to see decent job creation, support for education and students, higher benefit payment rates, a living wage and policies that promote social security as a right. That won’t happen. Come protest.

Child Poverty Budget Campaign

Go to www.actionstation.org.nz for more information and to join this campaign

A major campaign on child poverty was launched on Monday 4^th May to run in the lead up to the budget and following. The campaign has been developed by ActionStation and a group of key children’s advocacy organisations (UNICEF, CPAG, NZ Council of Christian Social Services + Tick for Kids partners) and will make a strong call for real change for children.

ActionStation surveyed its members about the issues they want to take action on in 2015 and ‘child poverty’ and ‘inequality’ were ranked first equal with ‘climate change’ so it is clear that this is an issue their members care deeply about and want to campaign on.

Real Action, Real Change

The campaign will centre on an ActionStation online petition calling for real change for children.

The goal of the campaign is to raise awareness of the long term harm caused by child poverty and focus attention on the need for Government to address the underlying policy and structural drivers of poverty, including family incomes.

The campaign will focus on:

• Creating real change for children by addressing the underlying causes of poverty
• Treating children as well as we treat our elders (principles of non-discrimination and inclusivity)
• A call to government to include the children who currently miss out on full child-related tax credits and boost the incomes of the poorest families.

The campaign partners will carry out a range of communications activity to boost the campaign including media statements, interviews, social media activity, op-eds and communication with Members of Parliament.

Key Messages

Parental Responsibility

Increasing incomes for families with children makes it easier for parents to meet their children’s needs.

Parents know best what their kids need and ensuring their income is adequate allows them to get more fresh food, warm clothes, heating for the house, and enable children to participate in normal things like school trips, swimming lessons, music lessons and other educational opportunities.  The government doesn’t need more cumbersome programs to deliver support, just give the parents tools (and resources) to help their kids thrive.

Research published by Superu (formerly the Families Commission) shows that some parents are missing out on meals to be able to meet the needs of their children (www.superu.govt.nz/lowincomefamilies)

All the available data internationally shows that, with few exceptions, parents in low income households prioritise the needs of their children. When they have additional income it is the needs of children which are given first priority. Moreover, New Zealand expenditure data shows that low income and beneficiary households spend less on alcohol, drugs, tobacco and gambling and a greater percentage of their income on food than high income households.

State Responsibility

Government is obliged by international law to ensure that all children have a standard of living that enables their physical and mental development.  That is not happening in New Zealand. Government should provide support to families to ensure they can meet their children’s needs.  Children need to be healthy, educated, and have a sense of belonging to participate in New Zealand society.

Children also have a right to the highest attainable standard of health and it’s clear that those living in poverty are unable to achieve this.  (60 babies under the age of 1 die each year from poverty-related illness; 40,000 hospitalisations from poverty-related illness each year)

Scale of the Problem

The government currently spends $6b-$8b each year mopping up the costs of poverty and its effects.  That cost is made up of the high health needs of children in poverty, remedial education, justice costs, and lower productivity downstream when children don’t get the best start in life.  If we spent just a portion of this – $1bn – we would significantly improve the standard of living, health and wellbeing of children, while also strengthening our economy.

Most effective way to improve children’s lives

The most effective, efficient way to improve the lives of children living in the poorest homes in New Zealand is to increase the income coming into those homes. This is a problem which can be fixed by ‘throwing money at it.’

This is about priorities

We can afford to invest in its children if we choose to. This is about our Government making the youngest and most vulnerable citizens a priority and recognising its role in supporting parents.

The options for raising $1bn would need to be carefully considered but they could include taxing high income earners or introducing housing taxes. It’s also worth noting that the 2010 tax cuts stripped $1bn out of Government coffers, which could have been targeted towards the children in most need.

Go to www.actionstation.org.nz for more information and to join this campaign now.

More and more people are talking about the growing gap between rich and poor. But what does it actually mean for you?

Just answer the two questions in this Inequality Calculator to find out how much you earn compared to everyone else – and how much better (or worse) off you’d be in a more equal New Zealand…

The project, a collaboration by data journalist Keith Ng, journalist Max Rashbrooke and Matthew Bartlett from the NZ Council of Christian Social Services, has caused an online sensation. Check it out now.

About 1000 people marched up Queen Street on Saturday September 6 calling for the Government to do more urgently to eliminate child poverty.

The hikoi was part of the Tick 4 Kids election campaign which is made up of almost 36 organisations including Plunket, the PPTA and the Public Health Association.

Tick 4 Kids is designed to encourage voters to keep children in mind come election time, and it’s also encouraging political parties to have policies for children.

Deborah Morris-Travers from Unicef is the campaign spokesperson. Ms Morris-Travers said there needs to be a much more comprehensive approach from the government.

“We still have a number of people in government who think that we can leave this issue up to the economy and the market. We can’t just rely on economic wealth to solve this problem, we need to have a redistribution of wealth.”

She said housing needs to be warm, of good quality and affordable.

“We would be encouraging the newly elected government whoever it is to be much more aspirational around this issue, to really keep the focus on children, and especially the youngest children who are those most likely to be in poverty.”

Read more about it here.

“From the mid-1980s to the mid-2000s, the gap between the rich and the rest has widened faster in New Zealand than in any other developed country,” writes Wellington journalist Max Rashbrooke in the book that has changed the way we think about the consequences of the relationship between the rich and the poor – Inequality: A New Zealand Crisis.

Since its publication in 2013, Inequality has made its mark, changing the nature of public debate about issues like wage equality, tax, benefits and work, among others.

Check out the website of the book here, along with Max Rashbrooke’s blog and other features which aim to spark debate about income gaps, the damage they do, and how to narrow them.

In early July 2014, Bryan Bruce surveyed all the political parties on where they stood on 10 issues  directly or indirectly  related to child well-being in New Zealand.

They were asked which of them they would or would not support  in principle  should it come to a vote in the upcoming parliament.

Check out the fascinating results here.

The man behind Mind the Gap, the NZ documentary that exposed the yawning gap between the rich and the poor in our country, has put his weight into his new website, which is full of powerful information to help you understand issues like inequality and poverty, and how these might play out in the 2014 election.