This year Child Poverty Action Group is having three events to look at the 2011 Budget and its impact on children in poverty. Information about each of these events is available online and can be accessed here for Auckland; Wellington and Whangarei. These events are all on the 20th May.

This year’s budget is more important than ever for vulnerable families. Please register as soon as you can and be part of the move to put children’s needs at the centre of policy.

CPAG is extremely pleased to join with the Retirement Policy and Research Centre in conjunction with the Public Policy Group, and The Department of Sociology at The University of Auckland to host a seminar on the 27th May. Details for registering for this seminar are available here: Reflecting on the May budgets, the recession, and the vulnerable in New Zealand and Australia.

In this seminar we look to the recent budgets announced in Australia and New Zealand. How do these budgets respond to the crisis, and how do they share the burden of austerity? What are the longer term implications for social policy and inequality?

While New Zealand and Australia shared similar policy frameworks for much of their colonial histories, these paths began to diverge during the period of economic restructuring. Finally, we ask whether these policy differences are being entrenched, and what the implications of this are for both countries.

The seminar will include a presentation by Dr Ben Spies-Butcher. Dr Ben Spies-Butcher is a visitor at the Retirement Policy and Research Centre. He teaches Sociology at Macquarie University in Sydney, and is a Fellow of the Centre for Policy Development and a member of the Centre for Research on Social Inclusion.

ENDS

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