Anderton says today's picture very different to UNICEF report

"New Zealand would be much higher up in the rankings if the UNICEF report reflected the situation today," Jim Anderton, leader of the Progressive party, said today. He was commenting on the just released UNICEF report on child wellbeing, which is based on data relating to 2000-2003.

The report shows New Zealand with low ratings across a number of indicators. "The generally poor results in this report are undoubtedly a reflection of the situation many New Zealand families found themselves after the social and economic disasters of the eighties and nineties," Jim Anderton said.

"Under this Labour/Progressive coalition government, for example, the latest unemployment figures (December 2006) show that at 3.7% we have the second lowest rate in the OECD. And when the government's Working for Families package is fully implemented in 2008 we expect to have reduced the numbers of children living below 50% of the median income level to 4-5%. That would place us alongside the top four countries in the OECD Denmark, Finland and Norway."

The latest New Zealand data also shows that young people are well above OECD average rankings in maths, reading and science, and that more New Zealand students are leaving school with qualifications than ever before.

"On all these fronts this government has introduced measures to improve the wellbeing of children, and they are demonstrably making a significant difference," Jim Anderton said.

"The more disturbing issue of child violence clearly challenges all New Zealanders to respond constructively and urgently to take ownership of both the problem and the solutions to a culture of violence which can no longer be tolerated in our country."

ENDS

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