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.”
