Minister Tolley fails Kiwi kids twice in a week

The Minister for Social Development has missed two crucial opportunities in the same period to put the rights of New Zealand’s children first, the Green Party said today.

In the same week as Anne Tolley was grilled by a panel reviewing New Zealand’s commitment to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCROC), the Government refused to include in new laws a commitment to ensuring our children have an “adequate standard of living”.

“Our children should have a right to live in warm, safe, dry homes so that they can get the best start to life as possible. That should be a bottomline for how we treat our children in this country, and that’s just not happening under this Government,” said Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei.

“National is clearly reneging on its responsibilities under UNCROC by not ensuring every Kiwi family has the income and housing they need to support children’s health and development*.

“It’s all very well Anne Tolley turning up in Geneva to preach to the UN about renaming ministries and Government ‘targeting’, but if you’re not willing to commit to reducing the number of kids growing up in cold, mouldy homes, and overcrowded cars and garages, then all that talk isn’t worth much.

“Just days after appearing in Geneva, Minister Tolley announced that the Government is incorporating the principles of Judge Carolyn Henwood’s Covenant for the Nation’s Children into new laws, which is a good idea.

“Unfortunately the Government has opted to leave out one of the Covenant’s most important principles, around ensuring an adequate standard of living for our kids. Blatantly ruling children’s standard of living out of the scope of new legislation shows National has no real interest in ensuring children are healthy, educated and safe.

“The problem is that this Government would rather put the financial interests of property speculators before the health, safety, and happiness of our children. If National really cared about reducing child poverty, it would introduce minimum standards for rentals, and build thousands of new state homes for the Kiwi families that need the most help.

“It’s shameful that in a wealthy country like New Zealand, we have 15 children dying and more than 40,000 hospital admissions from housing-related illnesses every year.

“We need to drastically reduce the number of kids growing up in poverty, and that starts at home,” said Mrs Turei.

*Article 27 of UNCROC states that children have a right to an adequate standard of living that supports their physical and mental development.

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