Statistics NZ yesterday released the annual child poverty statistics. The reveal small achievements and big shortcomings, writes Janet McAllister from Child Poverty Action Group. Successive governments have neglected families with disabilities – with appalling results Here’s a fact to change the conversation: more than half of the New Zealand children in material hardship, 53%, live … Read more
Statistics NZ yesterday released the annual child poverty statistics. The reveal small achievements and big shortcomings, writes Janet McAllister from Child Poverty Action Group. Successive governments have neglected families with disabilities – with appalling results Here’s a fact to change the conversation: more than half of the New Zealand children in material hardship, 53%, live … Read more
With an extra $4 billion a year in revenue and backed by plenty of support from voters, the government has the opportunity to tackle some of the country’s most urgent problems. But first, Labour must abandon its cautious approach, writes Clint Smith. At Labour’s first caucus of the new year, Jacinda Ardern – reflecting on … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for December 5. Get in touch at info@thespinoff.co.nz 2.00pm: Cases continue to surge in hotspots The sunny news of zero new cases in New Zealand finds its tragic contrast in ongoing reports around the world. In Brazil, for example, the latest officially reported tally recorded 43,209 new cases and … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for December 4. Get in touch at stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 3.10pm: Pakistan cricket team’s MIQ training hopes dashed Ashley Bloomfield has chosen not to grant an exemption to the Pakistan cricket team that would allow them to leave their hotel to train in groups, while in managed isolation. “I have very … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for December 3. Get in touch at stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 7.00pm: The day in sum There were nine new cases of Covid-19 in managed isolation, four active and five historical. The UK became the first Western nation to authorise a Covid-19 vaccine, with the rollout set to begin next week. The … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for December 2. Get in touch at stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 7.00pm: The day in sum Parliament formally declared a climate emergency, and the government announced it would be going carbon neutral. The auditor general issued a damning assessment of the University of Auckland purchase of a Parnell home for its vice … Read more
Threads of a political career, woven together: climate change, child poverty and global leadership. Within weeks of a history-making victory, Jacinda Ardern and the Labour party face a growing list of demands. Local government is in disarray, the housing market is out of control and the spotlight is once again on children being removed from … Read more
Working For Families payments are a lifeline for kids in poverty – but only if they happen to have a parent in paid work. It’s time to end this false dichotomy between the ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ poor, writes Child Poverty Action Group’s Susan St John. As 2020 stumbles to an end and the wage subsidies … Read more
The prime minister has been quick to rule out benefit increases before Christmas – but the welfare system is failing our communities, which she ignores at her peril, writes Child Poverty Action Group’s Janet McAllister. More than 60 organisations – and counting – have signed an open letter to the government, urging it to increase … Read more
Significantly reducing poverty in New Zealand needs serious commitment and investment, something which Child Poverty Action Group’s Janet McAllister says she’s yet to see from the party of Jacinda Ardern. “We can’t just tinker with the so-called social welfare system … it’s just not going to cut the mustard.” – Professor Cindy Kiro, chair of … Read more
Brooke Stanley Pao, the incoming co-ordinator for Auckland Action Against Poverty, has some choice words for the current government on exactly what ‘kindness’ without action achieves for people living in poverty. Back in 2017, before Jacinda Ardern was sworn in as prime minister, she said she wanted the new government to be “empathetic and kind”. … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Family support looms as election policy battleground, warm winter heralds climate change fears, and warnings of insolvency cliff looming for government supported businesses. National has launched a policy package around support for new parents, reports Stuff. The headline announcement in it is a package of $3000 to … Read more
Budget 2020: With the unemployment rate growing and predicted to rise further, many more people face financial hardship and poverty. Alan Johnson explores how the government could address this in Thursday’s budget. In previous budgets the finance minister Grant Robinson proved himself a fiscal conservative, suggesting that it wasn’t time to fully address our various … Read more
New child poverty figures were released today by Statistics NZ. A press release from the prime minister boasts, ‘18,400 children lifted out of poverty’. National meanwhile claims ’20k more children in poverty under Jacinda Ardern’. Can they both be right? As ever, the numbers are more complex (and malleable) than they seem. Leonie Hayden and … Read more
Every year the Salvation Army releases a report assessing areas like child poverty and housing. Here’s how we’re doing in 2020. When Jacinda Ardern announced Labour’s first Wellbeing Budget in 2019, she emphasised the importance of placing people at the heart of economic decisions. She acknowledged “New Zealand has had strong growth for a number … Read more
This content was created in paid partnership with the Child Poverty Action Group. Learn more about our partnerships here.
The government would argue it’s on track to reduce child poverty significantly by the next reporting round, and culture change is well underway at Work and Income. But change at WINZ is a slow-moving process. Pip Colgan is an advocate at Auckland Action Against Poverty (AAAP), which means she spends a lot of her life at … Read more
Data scientist Aaron Schiff pays tribute to the gorgeous new atlas which is also about poetry and climate change and privilege. We’ve also run an extract, here. What Chris McDowall and Tim Denee have made is a smashed-it-out-of-the-park heroically monumental work of data visualisation art. We Are Here deserves to become a much-loved dog-eared reference, … Read more
Within households grappling with food insecurity, parents will often choose to go without essentials long before their children do, writes Dr Rebekah Graham. As a wealthy, food-producing nation, New Zealand has a responsibility to all its citizens to ensure access to sufficient food for health and well-being. Yet currently, almost one in five Kiwi children … Read more
With children’s vegetable intake in decline, decision makers are too focused on pointing the finger at parents, a new study suggests. When it comes to children’s nutrition, key players in our food system are stuck on the idea of individual responsibility. That’s a key finding of new research that surveys decision-makers about their views on New … Read more
Reducing food waste is a win-win solution for everyone as less food goes to landfill and more food goes to those who need it. So what’s being done to make this a reality? And what can you do to help? In 2020, New Zealand will vote in a general election with poverty and climate change … Read more
Newly released child poverty statistics show that 254,000 Kiwi kids are living in poverty. For the young people affected, it’s much more than just a number, writes Lorraine Taylor of Variety. Every day, applications that cross my desk speak to the challenges our families, and our tamariki, face. Some of our most vulnerable children are … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Landfills in focus after pair of disasters, new firearms laws to be streamlined through Parliament, and generational conflict over climate change in Thames. A pair of recent stories have shown that what gets put in landfills doesn’t ever really go away. Over and above the widely-covered crisis in recycling, … Read more
Susan St John of the Child Poverty Action Group assesses the government’s impact on the lives of the most deprived children after its first full year. For children’s advocates the end of 2018 saw much cause for gratitude and celebration. Grant Robertson affirmed that Budget 2019 will have a wellbeing focus. For the first time … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Man appears in court charged with murder of British backpacker Grace Millane, little progress made on child poverty, and National responds to UN pact critics. A 26 year old man has appeared in court, charged with the murder of 22 year old British backpacker Grace Millane. The … Read more
Treating the types of conditions and injuries which present in this era requires doctors to become advocates as well as healers, writes Dr Jin Russell. Last Thursday, the National Rifle Association (NRA) posted a deeply provocative and surprisingly idiotic tweet about doctors in the United States. This move was a retaliation against an email from … Read more
Our welfare system is more miserly than I thought and the government needs to get a move on, writes Janet McAllister Exactly two years ago, I expressed scepticism about Labour’s concern for poor kids. Since then, Jacinda Ardern, minister for child poverty reduction, has convinced me via the Families Package that her coalition is at … Read more
We won’t stop fearlessly holding the government to account, but on this we decided that together we could put forward legislation that would improve the lives of children, writes opposition leader Simon Bridges There’s a fine balance to strike when you’re in opposition. Your number one job is to hold the government to account. It’s difficult … Read more