We’ve tackled child poverty before, and we should do it again

A report telling the story of child poverty in Aotearoa New Zealand since the 1980s was released last week by the Ministry of Social Development.

Published annually, Child Poverty in New Zealand is a detailed report with lots of graphs and numbers. It didn’t make much of a splash this year. But it should have.

Those graphs and percentages track child poverty rates over the past four decades, showing trends over time using a range of measures. The report shares the hard realities of financial and material hardship, and international comparisons that show we rank poorly compared with other relatively wealthy countries.

Crucially, the report makes clear the impact that Government decision-making has had on child poverty rates over time. What stood out to me, looking at the data over time, is that Government decisions and policies, at some key points in time, have improved the lives of families and children’s day-to-day experiences. It’s an important reminder that as a country, New Zealand has reduced poverty affecting children before. This is somewhat reassuring, as it shows that we can do it again, by making policy choices and decisions that focus on poverty reduction.

Using already-published Stats NZ data, this year’s report shows increases across three of the nine official measures of child poverty under the Child Poverty Reduction Act 2018.

Of particular concern is the jump in the percentage of children experiencing material hardship, up from 10.5% in 2021/22, to 12.5% in 2022/23. This means that there are still 144,000 children living in homes that cannot afford at least six of the 17 items regarded as essential – things like having fresh fruit and vegetables, a separate bed, waterproof coat, warm clothes and shoes and doctors’ visits.

It also shows that Māori, Pacific and disabled children continue to be disproportionately affected by poverty. And more than half of children in material hardship live in working households.

With current cost of living challenges like soaring energy, housing and food costs, we’re in real danger of our child poverty rates worsening.

There is some good news though: the report reminds us of a general downward trend in material hardship rates from 2013 to 2021. While a strong economy with good-quality jobs played a role during this period, the trends show that significant Government commitments have been effective in lifting children and their whānau out of poverty. These commitments were made by Governments across the political spectrum. Since 2018, we also have the Child Poverty Reduction Act, a legislated framework to help us keep on track, passed with cross-party support, and the goal of having child poverty by 2028.

The data in the report shows the impact that Working for Families and other tax transfers, minimum wage and benefit increases have made to reduce poverty, alongside practical supports like free doctors’ visits and school lunches.

This tells me that it’s actually within our reach to improve life for children in our country who are doing it the toughest.

Addressing high rates of child poverty in our small, relatively rich nation requires a wider focus beyond parents being in employment. Alongside this, we need Government policies to lift incomes and provide practical support and investments focused on children’s wellbeing. This is especially important because the parents of over half of the children currently in material hardship are already in jobs.

It’s no secret that poverty, especially when it is severe and persistent, can detrimentally affect children’s daily experiences, educational outcomes and mental and physical health. The environment that children grow up in is crucial in shaping their ability to participate fully in society, and their future opportunities. But homes where poverty is the daily experience are understandably stressed out on multiple fronts.

We all want our country to be a great place to grow up. But right now, as this latest report shows, poverty is shutting large numbers of children out of thriving childhood experiences. It’s really hard to thrive when you’re poor, and no child should want for the very basics in life in New Zealand.

When we look back on this time, what do we want to say we’ve done about it? We can choose to change the story here. Now is the time to do that, by pulling as many effective levers as possible so that we don’t see any more children being shut out of their childhoods by poverty, and so this burden is lifted off the thousands who are living it daily.

It will require our Parliamentarians working together on a cross-party basis to sustain ambition and focus towards ultimately ending child poverty in New Zealand. And it requires leadership from the Government – and future successive governments – to make ending child poverty our enduring project of national significance.

This week’s report shows we have made progress on poverty before, so that children can grow up participating, well and thriving.

We can do it again, if we want to enough.

This op-ed was first published on The Post.