Rahui Katene, MP for Te Tai Tonga

General Debate; Wednesday 21 July 2010; 3.50pm

The Moral Crime of Child Poverty

I want to put the topic so far canvassed in this debate into a wider context.

Yesterday the New Zealand Youth Choir returned from a spectacular tour of Singapore, South Korea, China and Australia, ending with a spectacular simultaneous broadcast across Australia and New Zealand. Everywhere they went they received packed house support - they showed their massive talent and they represented our tiny nation with massive pride.

Tomorrow, the Aspiring Leaders forum will bring together a group of young people to share their ideas and philosophies of leadership, whether in the field of politics, arts, business or sport.

And yet what was the breaking news this morning?

“Youths arrested after crime spree”.

Yesterday afternoon, in my hometown of Nelson, police arrested two rangatahi at Taser and gun point, after having set police dogs out to track them across farm land.

It appears the two young people – aged 15 and 17 years – had gone on a spree from Christchurch to Nelson – stealing cars, and evading apprehension.

Mr Speaker, it seems to me that we have got the emphasis all wrong.

The crime spree that I think this nation should be focusing on is the moral crime of child poverty.

Just a month ago, the head of OECD social policy, Dr Monika Queisser, told the Government's Welfare Working Group that New Zealand was "out of step with other countries".

In her estimation ‘high child poverty’ was the third biggest issue for New Zealand social policy.

She told the Government that 15% of New Zealand children lived in families with less than half the median income, compared with an OECD average of 12%; and that the gap between material deprivation of children and older people is biggest in New Zealand out of 27 countries.

So where is the breaking news announcement that will stem the tide on this utterly unacceptable high child poverty rate?.

It’s not just international experts that are saying this.

In a report released this month by the Government’s own watchdog, the Human Rights Commission, we were told New Zealand needs to take a much stronger stand on child poverty.

The right to an adequate standard of living: focus on the right to social security, confirmed that recent policy initiatives show it is possible to reduce child poverty rates substantially over relatively short periods of time.

However, the report challenged the Government also to remember that sustained progress requires continued commitment and specific targeting of those most vulnerable.

Earlier in the year, the Race Relations Conciliator stepped into the fray, pointing to the 2010 statistics that one in three Maori and Pacific young people are unemployed and saying that there will be serious long terms effect.

The grim reality of child poverty; the generally poor living conditions for low-income children and its disproportionate impacts on Maori – have of course been long brought to our attention by the Child Poverty Action Group.

This group has told us that one in six New Zealand children lives in poverty, a third of children live in overcrowded conditions, and we have the highest rates – the highest rates - of youth suicide in the entire OECD.

These are not statistics to celebrate.

We must fix a vision in our sights, which invests in the promise of prosperity for all children.

We must promote success and be proud of the amazing achievements of our young people – such as the Youth Choir or the Aspiring Leaders – or the Youth Parliament – or in fact the hundreds of thousands of amazing kids in our communities.

But we must also ensure that EVERY child has the right to a fair deal, a decent life.

The Maori Party campaigned on the aspiration of setting a deadline to eliminate child poverty by 2020.

We know that this will have to work alongside other subsequent policy developments such as raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour; raising core benefit levels, and extending the inwork payment of Working for Families to all families.

But we have another of our policy goals which we were thrilled to see shared by the OECD expert – and that is the proposal of a universal child allowance to tackle child poverty.

She observed that the countries in the OECD that have achieved low child poverty (the Nordic countries and France) often have universal child benefits, and that this could be something that New Zealand might want to explore in more detail.

ENDS

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