The Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers (ANZASW) welcomes the announcement of the Child Poverty Bill, which outlines government plans to ensure that targets for reducing child poverty are met in the future.

ANZASW strongly believes that long-term efforts need to be made to tackle the crisis of deprivation endured by many Family / Whanau, in particular the urgent problem of severe poverty faced by tens of thousands of Children and Tamariki who often go without basic necessities.

The Bill goes some way to ensuring that these enduring changes can be made by setting targets over a course of three years and a decade, using multi-tiered measures that analyse housing and living costs.

However, targets in themselves are only useful if they are backed up by a framework which helps to ensure that they can be successfully met, so that commitments set in law can be translated to real change in the community.

ANZASW therefore also commends the government’s plans to accompany efforts to monitor and reduce poverty with strategies that promote the well-being of children, a move that complements its Families Package.

ANZASW looks forward to seeing these measures translated into real change for Family / Whanau and children and Tamariki across the country and hopes for bipartisan efforts to strive for lasting change, with a view to ending child poverty once and for all.

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