Alliance Party Plan to Eliminate Child Poverty

The Alliance Party has further elaborated on its social security and welfare policies, with a focus on the elimination of child poverty.

Alliance social security spokesperson and West Coast-Tasman candidate Sara Dyatlova Murphy said the policy provides greater detail on the previously announced Universal Child Benefit, with a broader social justice focus.

“No child should grow up in poverty in Aotearoa New Zealand, and the fact is that children are not being paid poverty benefits or poverty wages – that happens to their caregivers” Ms Dyatlova-Murphy said.

The Alliance policy emphasises the status of children as citizens in their own right, not merely the dependants of adults. Ms Dyatlova-Murphy said all government policy must consider the impact on children as members of our society with their own rights and interests.

“The same level of care given to the impact on women, on the environment, on tangata whenua, when auditing government policy should also apply to some of the most vulnerable in our community who can not directly impact government through voting – children and youth.”

Ms Dyatlova-Murphy says the policy has been shaped by the work of the Child Poverty Action Group, whose research has kept child poverty on the national agenda for more than thirty years.

“CPAG have spent decades documenting what poverty does to children in this country, and making the case for change when it wasn’t popular. Their work has shaped our thinking, and we’re grateful for it.”

CPAG’s 2026 election manifesto challenges every party to commit to solutions for children. The Alliance policy is our answer to that challenge.

“There is no reason a child in this country should grow up in poverty and insecurity. Children have a claim over the shared resources of our society, and until all children are provided with what they need to thrive we will never realise our full potential as a nation.”

“If we care for the next generation, every New Zealander will benefit.”