Q+A Debate between National's Paula Bennett & Labour's Jacinda Arden on Child Poverty

Key quotes:

“How our children live in this country is the top priority for this government.”

“I believe that how the economy is doing is absolutely most vital to those children and their families. So whether or not we've got, you know we had 83,000 more jobs last year, that matters more than just about anything else we can do.”

Paula Bennett, Social Development Minister

“Do you know what? I'm proud of the fact that I angst about children, it's one of the reasons I'm in politics. I'm not going to apologise for that.”

“I want to come back to what the Minister said about work being the answer. That should be true, work should be what lifts families out of poverty, except in New Zealand two out of five families who are in poverty have parents who are working. At the moment in New Zealand we have the working poor. It's growing. Our wages aren't sufficient to mean that work is the answer that the Minister claims it to be, and it needs to be.”

Jacinda Ardern, Labour’s Children’s Spokesperson

Q+A, 9-10am Sundays on TV ONE and one hour later on TV ONE plus 1. Repeated Sunday evening at 11:35pm. Streamed live at www.tvnz.co.nz

Thanks to the support from NZ On Air.

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