PM Jacinda Ardern has today revealed details of the eagerly-awaited Child Poverty Reduction Bill.
The Bill will hold the current and future governments to account on the measurement and progress of reducing child poverty in New Zealand.
The plan is to "focus" governments and society on the topic of child poverty reduction, hold government to account on targets, create transparency and increase political commitment.
It introduces child poverty measures, targets, requires regular reporting on reduction, creates a child well-being strategy and is attempting to ensure agencies work together.
Jacinda Ardern says she wants to work across the House to “create a commitment” to child poverty reduction. (Source: Other)
Child poverty was a pressing issue for Ms Ardern, who took up the role as Minister for Child Poverty Reduction.
"For too long, too many of our children have lived in poverty and hardship. Economic growth alone, while a crucial part of the solution, has not fixed this," she said today.
"New Zealand has the opportunity, and the moral obligation, to ensure children are free from the burden of poverty."
The Child Poverty Reduction Bill was an integral part of the government's 100-day-plan, which ends shortly on February 3.
National, however, is yet to be convinced and hasn't decided whether it will support the legislation. (Source: Other)
It requires government to set a ten-year target on defined measures, with targets published every three years, and the annual Budget will require Government to show its progress on reduction targets and highlight how the Budget would reduce child poverty.
The Bill will set four primary and six supplementary measures of poverty, the government will then have to set targets.
"We know targets are not enough. The Bill requires governments to develop a comprehensive child well-being strategy that keeps child poverty top of mind, and keeps the focus on improving the living standards of children," Ms Ardern said.
A government statistician will report independently measurement trends.
"I want to create a framework that is durable enough to require future governments to do the same."
The Bill's four primary measures are:
1. Low income before housing costs (below 50 per cent of median income, moving line)
2. Low income after housing costs (50 per cent median, fixed line)
3. Material hardship (using the EU’s standard threshold)
4. A persistence measure (for low income, material hardship or both)
The six supplementary measures are:
1. Low income before-housing-costs (60 per cent of median, moving line)
2. Low income after-housing-costs (60 per cent of median moving line)
3. Low income after-housing-costs (50 per cent of median moving line)
4. Low income after-housing-costs (40 per cent of median moving line)
5. Severe material hardship
6. Both low income and material hardship (using 60 percent AHC moving line and the material hardship measure from the primary list).
The Government said between 150,000 and 290,000 children in New Zealand are living in poverty or hardship, dependent on the above measures.
"Many of these children not only go without the basics, they are also more likely to have a harder time at school, more difficulty finding work, earn less, and experience poorer health," the Bill states.
The National leader has anticipated the Government’s child poverty legislation will ignore social causes. (Source: Other)
Opposition leader Bill English was critical of Ms Ardern's attempt to draw cross-party participation on the Bill, and said National would not be voting for it.
National’s leader says the Prime Minister’s letter did not count as a consultation. (Source: Other)
He said despite a letter being sent to National on December 13, the Opposition had not been given an adequate consultation.
“The public service is already reporting publicly on the exact measures the Government is proposing
"This is a significant long-term issue. We haven't had the opportunity to influence it. Our main concern is with the fact the government has abolishing the targets that we set dealing with the other half of the poverty equation," he said.
Mr English says the Government’s proposed child poverty legislation is "predictably full of positive intentions but contains no substance to address the drivers of deprivation".
"National shares the Government's goal of reducing child poverty. But you don't need new legislation for any of this. In fact, the public service is already reporting publicly on the exact measures the Government is proposing," Mr English said.
"Thanks to National’s economic stewardship, the Government has had the luxury of being able to allocate surplus cash to lift family incomes, picking up National’s Family Incomes package, with some additions," he said.
"But what is much harder is changing the lives of our most vulnerable families trapped in deprivation by long term benefit dependence, low educational achievement and recidivist crime. Poverty isn’t just about lifting incomes."
Mr English said: "Inexplicably, the Government last week announced it will abolish the Better Public Services targets we designed to tackle these issues, seemingly for no other reason than they were National’s initiatives.
"The targets we designed focused the public service on reducing benefit dependence, increasing educational achievement and reducing crime, to name just a few."
The National Caucus will consider the legislation in the coming weeks, Mr English said.
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