The Hon Dr Pita Sharples
Maori Party Co-Leader | MP for Tamaki Makaurau

28 August 2012

Maori Party welcomes report on addressing poverty in Aotearoa

The Maori Party has welcomed the fresh ideas and renewed focus on poverty as a result of the Issues and Options paper produced by the Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty released today.

“Addressing poverty is an extremely important issue for the Maori Party, and we are pleased that over the last few weeks there has been a real focus on solutions to the issues that face our whānau,” said Co-leader Dr Pita Sharples.

“On Thursday last week Every Child Counts produced the Netherlands Study identifying a number of positive policies that could be implemented here to improve the lives of our tamariki, and that has been followed up today with the release of the Children’s Commissioners’ expert advisory group’s report.”

“We believe that if we can work together as a nation, and as whanau to tackle the issue of whanau poverty then we can make a difference in the lives of our children. We welcome the many options presented by the panel such as increasing the minimum wage, issues related to housing, improvements to family assistance and much more,” said Dr Sharples.

“Ultimately we have been heartened by the focus of this report which firmly states that governments can do something about this issue. That is why we called for the establishment of the Ministerial Committee on Poverty to look at innovative, fresh and forward thinking solutions.”

“Our view is that you cannot separate children’s poverty from whanau poverty and we welcome the many solutions which address both of these issues,” he said.

“We look forward to further considering the findings of these reports and to identifying how we can support the implementation of many of the options put forward.”

ENDS

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