18 August 2005

Labour recognises raising children costs money

“The announcement today of the tax relief package aimed at middle income families at last gives some recognition to the realistic costs of raising children”, said Ian Hassall, spokesperson for Every Child Counts.

“The government’s rhetoric on sustainability has been hollow without recognition of the central importance of children to the country’s future. The Working for Families package was a beginning in redressing the balance of years of neglect of families at the lower end of the income spectrum. Now we have some recognition across the board of the importance of child-rearing.

“Whatever you may think about the timing, the tax relief will help in enabling families to make the important choices they need to in doing what is best for their children.

“There is a remaining concern which is that there seems to be little or nothing for children and their families at the very bottom of the heap. A commitment to eliminating child poverty would attend to them as well”, said Dr Hassall.

Every Child Counts is a coalition including Barnardos, Plunket, Save the Children, Unicef NZ and AUT’s Institute of Public Policy, supported by more than 335 other organisations and thousands of individual supporters. It will be providing informed comment, sometimes critical, throughout the election campaign, identifying sensible or poor policy proposals from any political party from a children’s perspective.

The public are invited to demonstrate their support for the nation’s children by adding their names to the Every Child Counts campaign at: www.everychildcounts.org.nz

ENDS

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