GUEST BLOG: Bryan Bruce – What about our children?

That parliamentarians can accept a substantial pay rise while increasing numbers of Kiwi families are struggling to make ends meet tells you everything you need to know about the ideology of self- interest that underpins Neoliberal economics and politics.

Reward the haves, ignore the have nots or, better still, punish them at any opportunity and promote people who are good at keeping the poor in their place.

Paula Bennett, recently made Chair of Pharmac, has always been a cheerleader for compassionless people. After my documentary Inside Child Poverty went to air in 2011, Bennett, who was then Minister for Social Welfare, declared there was no such thing as child poverty and even if there was you couldn’t measure it. There is even footage of her in parliament giggling at the very idea.

Since the Child Poverty Reduction Act of 2018 however, we do now measure the extent of the poverty problem and what the latest Stats NZ data tells us is that we are not doing anywhere near enough to make sure that all of our children grow up healthy.

According to the data recorded June 2022 to July 2023 the number of children living in households suffering material hardship rose by 23,400 to 143,700 (1 in 8 kids).

(Material hardship means households cannot afford 6 or more basics such as fresh fruit and veggies, heating, meat, doctor’s visits, car maintenance and unexpected bills).

143,700 children living in poverty in a land of plenty. That’s appalling. Imagine the entire population of Dunedin or Tauranga – that’s the size of the child poverty problem.

For Māori, Pacific and disabled children in poverty the numbers are even worse. More than 1 in 5 Māori, almost 1 in 3 Pacific Islanders, and almost 1 in 4 disabled children are living in poverty.

Yet the needs of children living in our poorest homes are simply not on the radar of the current National/Act/NZ First coalition government, except by taking away free transport for children to school, threatening the school lunch scheme and a plan by David Seymour to fine parents because their tamariki have been away from school. (Often, by the way, for poverty related reasons.)

The solution promoted by the Coalition of Self-interest is the predictable rhetoric of how creating jobs and getting people back to work will fix the problem.

But it’s not that simple.

We know that over half of the children in poverty live in households with at least two incomes and that secondary school kids are having to go to work before and after school to help the family make ends meet. No matter how hard these parents try they just can’t get ahead in an economic system designed to keep them poor.

What we need to create is a fairer society and cutting taxes won’t do that.

Cutting taxes benefits the already wealthy. Cutting services means the most vulnerable among us – especially our children – will suffer.

You can hard facts about child poverty issues in New Zealand here:

 

Bryan Bruce is one of New Zealand’s most important and respected documentary makers. His work is available on bryanbruce.substack.com