28 May 2013

KickStart expansion a token gesture

The limited expansion of the KickStart Breakfast programme is yet another token gesture as National makes a cynical pretense of caring, says Auckland Action Against Poverty spokesperson Michael Brenndorfer.

“Committing less than $2 million a year for five years is paltry and insulting. By making businesses carry the can and most of the financial responsibility for the KickStart programme, National is entrenching private charity as the way to ensure our kids don’t go hungry. But poverty is a social issue and a public – government – responsibility,” said Brenndorfer.

“The KickStart programme is an insufficient version of Hone Harawira's food-in-schools bill – it provides no lunch, and the breakfast will be limited and lacking in nutritional variety.

“Key is stressing that it should be the parents’ responsibility to feed their children. But the reality is that beneficiary families do not have enough money to do so. If children are going to school hungry, in the vast majority of cases this means their parents have been hungry for longer.”

“Contrary to their boasts, John Key and Paula Bennett’s welfare reforms are set to make life even harder for children growing up in New Zealand.

“Child poverty is a result of adult poverty, the solutions to which are decent job creation, a living wage, and a universal basic income.”

ENDS

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