Hunger Housing Heating Health – the Child Poverty in New Zealand – with Julie Timmins interviewed by Lisa Er.
We live in a society of benefit bashing. This is not only done by the uneducated, but by a wide range of people which includes the attitude of successive governments. This has resulted in the creation of a flawed in work tax credit, worth up to $60 a week, that while good for some families with working parents, discriminates against beneficiaries and so only assists some of the poor.
Our leaders have created a system that has left 27%, or 260,000 of our children being raised in poverty and a large percentage of those children come from families of beneficiaries.
This is basically the choice and the will of the people of New Zealand who are sufficiently hardhearted to say, Go get a job! Where are all the jobs! And where are jobs with appropriate hours for parents, especially women with young children?
How many of our political parties have made child poverty an election issue?