Reducing child poverty bill introduced in parliament

The Bill will hold the current and future governments to account on the measurement and progress of reducing child poverty in New Zealand. It introduces child poverty measures and targets, requires regular reporting on reduction, creates a child well-being strategy, and is attempting to ensure agencies work together. Hon Jacinda Ardern commented:

“When it comes to our first measure, which is taken before housing costs, we plan to do something New Zealand hasn’t managed before, and reduce the proportion of children living in poverty from the current rate of 15% of kids to just 5%. That is 100,000 children.

But that is not the only measure. We are a nation in a housing crisis, and that means families living in housing stress and with less discretionary income. Roughly 20% of children are part of families that could be considered to be in poverty after their housing costs. Our goal is to halve that, and get it down to 10%.”

Further detail can be found here:

Prime Minister’s speech

TV NZ newspost