TacklingPovertyNZ: Exploring ways to reduce poverty in New Zealand

The McGuinness Institute is running the TacklingPovertyNZ workshop on 6–9 December in Wellington with 36 New Zealanders between the ages of 18 and 25 to articulate a youth perspective on the issue of poverty in New Zealand and how we might, as a country, go about tackling it. This workshop is in collaboration with the New Zealand Treasury and follows a similar format as our previous workshops.

As a precursor to the workshop’s formal start on Monday, 7 December 2015, the McGuinness Institute has published a video on our YouTube channel to illustrate one aspect of poverty in New Zealand – relative income poverty. In this video McGuinness Institute interns Ali Bunge and Callum Webb use Lego to explain the proportion of people in New Zealand who live in poverty through a range of metrics.

Wendy McGuinness, CEO, says: ‘workshop participants will engage with and learn from policy analysts within the New Zealand Treasury, key people in the wider community and individuals who have experienced poverty first-hand. The discussion aims to build a shared understanding of the complexities surrounding the current policy landscape, matching knowledge with public policy tools.’

‘At the end of a fast-paced 72 hours, the group will make a presentation to MPs at Parliament on how New Zealand might best tackle poverty as a country. They will have the floor for one hour, during which time they will report their observations, outline key obstacles and set out potential opportunities going forward.’ This event will be filmed and published on our YouTube channel in early 2016. The ideas presented at parliament will also be published in a booklet, similar to those created at our previous workshops: StrategyNZ (2011); EmpowerNZ (2012); LongTermNZ (2012); LivingStandardsNZ (2013); and LocalNZ (2014).

ENDS

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