The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) welcomes the New
Zealand Labour Party’s commitment to index the annual
change in main benefit rates to whichever is higher out of
wage growth or CPI inflation.
“This lays an important
foundation in the fight to ensure the living standards of
the poorest families stop slipping a little further behind
others every year,” said CPAG executive officer Lyn
Amos.
If elected to government, Labour would reverse
the National-led coalition’s decision to index main
benefit rates to inflation alone. Labour’s proposal will
help families keep pace with rising living costs and share
in improvements in living standards.
“In the last
year, the cost of petrol and electricity has risen
substantially faster than average inflation. These pressures
make it harder for families on the lowest incomes to keep up
with the cost of living,” said Ms Amos.
“This policy
will make a difference for children living in poverty, and
is one we’ve advocated for in our Manifesto to Reduce
Child Poverty
(https://www.cpag.org.nz/news/manifesto-challenges-parties-to-commit-to-reducing-child-poverty),
and in particular, along with replacing Working For Families
with one, non-discriminatory Child Tax Credit so that all
children in low income families benefit
equally.”
Labour was among the parties who engaged
with CPAG’s manifesto, through its Child Poverty Reduction
spokesperson Jan Tinetti, and Social Development
spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime.
“Child poverty
persists because of failures in the labour market, housing,
health and disability, education, welfare and tax settings.
These are political choices, and though this one policy
doesn’t address all of those areas by any means, it is an
important foundational step,” said Ms
Amos.
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Nonetheless, CPAG maintains that accountability
to end child poverty needs to be much stronger.
“There
is no single policy silver bullet to end child poverty. It
requires a wide-ranging suite of policies, coordinated
across government, with strong cross-party accountability
for meeting our child poverty reduction targets.”
“New
Zealand remains off-track to meet its statutory child
poverty reduction targets. Any future government must do
more than make individual policy changes. It must commit to
a coordinated plan to reduce child poverty and be held
accountable for delivering
it.”
Notes:
- CPAG is an independent
charity that has researched and advocated on child poverty
in Aotearoa New Zealand for 32 years. - In August, we
released A Manifesto to Reduce Child Poverty, with 20
organisations pledging their public support of its
recommended policies. Those organisations are: Action
Station, Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers,
Auckland Women’s Centre, Brainwave Trust, Better Taxes/Tax
Justice Aotearoa, Disabled Persons Assembly of NZ, KidsCan,
LifeWise, Methodist Alliance, NZ College of Public Health
Medicine, NZ Council of Christian Social Services, NZ
Council of Trade Unions, NZ Nurses Organisation, NZ
Psychological Society, Parents of Vision Impaired NZ,
Paediatric Society of New Zealand, Project Gender, Royal
Australasian College of Physicians, Save the Children,
Wellbeing Economy Alliance
Aotearoa
