Our 2011 election manifesto - Labour Party

New Zealand has a significant child poverty problem:
Depending on the precise measure used, there are between 170,000 and 270,000
children living in poverty in this country. 8
Half of the children now living in poverty were from working families whose wages
were so low they could not adequately care for them. 9
55,000 kids go to school each day without breakfast. 10
The recession has made things worse: The number of children living in benefit
dependent households increased from 199,108 in Jun 2008 to 231,488 in Jun 2011, an
increase of 16% and 32,380 children. 11
This flows through into a whole range of negative social statistics:
More children going to hospital with poverty related diseases – up by 4,800 hospital
admissions per year between 2007 and 2010. 12
The rate of sudden unexpected death in infancy among Māori and Pasifika babies is
consistently higher than for Pakeha and Asian babies. 13
Child abuse notifications increased 37% from 110,000 in 2008/09 to 150,747 in
2010/11. 14
More than 30,000 students are truant from schools on any given day.
More than 7,300 school leavers left with no qualification in 2009
1,286 admissions for children were as a result of assault, neglect or maltreatment
More than 47,000 children 16 and under were present, or usually residing with the
victim, at an incident of family violence reported to police last year.
According to the OECD report, Doing Better for Children, New Zealand has one of the
highest rates of child poverty and one of the lowest levels of investment in the first 5 years of
life among the 34 countries. 15
In order to combat poverty the first step should be to lift the incomes of families across New
Zealand.
8 Perry, Household Incomes in New Zealand - Trends in indicators of inequality and hardship 1982 to 2010, published Jul 2011
9 Child Poverty Action Group
10 New Zealand Herald, 26 Jul 2011
11 New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services, Vulnerability Report, Sept 2009 and Sept 2011
12 Child Social Health Monitor 2011 Update, Released August 2011
13 Children’s Social Health Monitor 2011 Update
14 2008/09 Financial Review of the Ministry of Social Development; Ministry of Social Development Annual Report 2010/11
15 www.oecd.org/els/social/childwellbeing
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