Hear no child poverty, see no child poverty, speak no child poverty

Hear no child poverty, see no child poverty, speak no child poverty

The level to which the National Party do poverty denial is actually more draining than the energy needed to solve it. The fact that the UN are deeply critical of our ridiculous Ministry for creating Vulnerable Children should embarrass National…

New Zealand child poverty a source of deep concern, says UN

The UN has said in a damning report that it is deeply concerned about New Zealand’s persistently high rates of child poverty.

Unicef says 300,000 children – a third of New Zealand’s child population – now live below the poverty line. This is a rise of 45,000 in a year.

Government representatives travelled to Geneva last month to present the country’s progress on its commitment to protecting the rights of the child to the UN.

The UN committee’s report acknowledges widespread public debate and media attention on child poverty in New Zealand, but expresses serious concern about the government’s failure to address the issue systematically.

“The committee is deeply concerned about the enduring high prevalence of poverty among children,” the report says, highlighting “the effect of deprivation on children’s right to an adequate standard of living and access to adequate housing, with its negative impact on health, survival and development, and education”.

…sadly it does not embarrass National at all. Key had the audacity to claim human rights activist and Green Party MP Marama Davidson being illegally arrested in International waters ‘was not a good look’.

The UN criticising his Government’s appalling record on Child Poverty however is a promotion of us is it?

The reason National allow children to rot in poverty is because the issue cuts right across one of their greatest neoliberal myths – that society isn’t made up of hegemonic structures and success is a personal achievement.

If you succeed in life, it’s because you are wonderful, if you fail at life that’s your fault and that’s because you are a loser.

This mentality has been allowed to spread like rot throughout our social services so that CYFs, Corrections, Housing NZ, WINZ, Ministry for making Vulnerable Children and Ministry of no Development etc etc etc.have now become part of the problem, not the solution. The appalling manner in which these so called public agencies denigrate, damage and hurt the most vulnerable is critical to the success of these neoliberal mythologies. If you have fallen so low to require their help, the needy are given the stick to force them to find help elsewhere.

It’s economic darwinism.

But National can only get away with such cruelty as social policy if the sleepy hobbits of muddle Nu Zilind let them and we can see the exact same poverty denial expressed by voters. The mentality that it’s the parents fault for not being able to feed their children and it has nothing to do with the draconian welfare reforms is wide spread and accepted.

National can get away with poverty denial because the voters who are gaining hundreds of thousands annually from untaxed capital gains on their property portfolio allow them to ignore inequality.

This isn’t National’s fault any longer, it’s ours for allowing them to do this to most vulnerable.