The Children’s Commissioner says ending child poverty has to be a cross partisan aspiration.
The Child Wellbeing and Poverty Reduction Group’s 2023-2024 update on the child and youth wellbeing strategy shows avoidable hospitalisations and school attendance of tamariki Māori have worsened since the first report in 2020.
Dr Claire Achmad says it shows successive governments haven’t provided the resources needed to help children and families out of poverty.
None of the children want poverty for themselves or others.
“I have lots of mokopuna who have come up to me over the last few months and said to me, ‘I don’t want any other whānau to be homeless. I actually want every other mokopuna and whānau in this country, to have a home, to have the things that they need to be able to thrive,’” she says.
Dr Achmad welcomes a government commitment to continuing the Growing Up In New Zealand survey despite a cut in funding from the Ministry for Social Development but says long-term action is more critical.
