Wednesday, 31 January

Child Poverty Reduction Bill a Significant, Positive Move

Maxim Institute CEO Alex Penk welcomes the announcement of Labour’s Child Poverty Reduction Bill by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. “It’s a significant, positive move for the Government to clearly state how it is measuring poverty, and we’re pleased the Bill includes multiple measures of poverty,” says Mr Penk.

“Over more than five years of research on poverty in New Zealand, we’ve seen that different poverty measures all capture something important. Creating a regularly updated dashboard of measures is an important step in getting serious about reducing child poverty, because one measure alone can’t portray the multifaceted reality of poverty and deprivation in people’s lives,” says Alex Penk.

“We’d also like to see the Government go beyond child poverty and measure other forms of poverty in the same way, because children don’t live in isolation,” says Mr Penk. “Of course, this is all about making real change for real people, so now that measures are established we look forward to the details of the Government’s plans to reduce poverty; in particular how it plans to work together with communities to create long term solutions.”

ENDS

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