Podcasts about child poverty action group

For their weekly catchup with the Green Party, Oto spoke to Ricardo Menendez-March about the government's new replacement to the Resource Management Act, The Green's call for the compassionate release of Dean Wickliffe, and renewed calls for executive MP support of Chloe Swarbrick's members' bill to Sanction Israel  For this week's Green Desk, producer Liam speaks to Brent Bielby, manager of EcoMatters' Bike Hubs, a community project aimed at encouraging more people to take up cycling. Oto spoke to Rich Greissman - Deputy Chair of the Child Poverty Action Group about their call to senior Government Ministers and finance Minister Nicola Willis to restore funding to Ka ora Ka Ako, the healthy school lunches programme. And, for this week's Get Action! Oto spoke to founding chair of Te Taiao o Kāwhia Moana - John Forbes about his group's petition to remove vehicle access from vulnerable areas of the Kāwhia harbour.

The free school lunch program has been in the headlines here in Aotearoa for several weeks after facing significant impacts to their quality and delivery following a complete restructure of the program led by associate education minister David Seymour. Many schools have reported late deliveries of meals beyond the lunch period, plastic packaging melting into the food and one student even experiencing burns from the packaging that required medical attention. This, of course, has the greatest impact on the more than 150,000 Tamariki living in severe poverty, who relied on programs like Ka Ora Ka Ako to receive daily meals. In response, the Child poverty action group has made a call to senior government ministers and Finance Minister Nicola Willis to restore the funding that was cut from the school lunches program so that schools across the motu could receive meals from local community suppliers. Oto spoke to Rich Greissman - Deputy Chair of the Child Poverty Action Group's Governing Committee, to discuss the group's call and why it's important for the government to ensure the provision of healthy school lunches to Tamariki.

For their weekly catchup with the Green Party, Oto spoke to Ricardo Menendez-March about the government's new replacement to the Resource Management Act, The Green's call for the compassionate release of Dean Wickliffe, and renewed calls for executive MP support of Chloe Swarbrick's members' bill to Sanction Israel  For this week's Green Desk, producer Liam speaks to Brent Bielby, manager of EcoMatters' Bike Hubs, a community project aimed at encouraging more people to take up cycling. Oto spoke to Rich Greissman - Deputy Chair of the Child Poverty Action Group about their call to senior Government Ministers and finance Minister Nicola Willis to restore funding to Ka ora Ka Ako, the healthy school lunches programme. And, for this week's Get Action! Oto spoke to founding chair of Te Taiao o Kāwhia Moana - John Forbes about his group's petition to remove vehicle access from vulnerable areas of the Kāwhia harbour.

The free school lunch program has been in the headlines here in Aotearoa for several weeks after facing significant impacts to their quality and delivery following a complete restructure of the program led by associate education minister David Seymour. Many schools have reported late deliveries of meals beyond the lunch period, plastic packaging melting into the food and one student even experiencing burns from the packaging that required medical attention. This, of course, has the greatest impact on the more than 150,000 Tamariki living in severe poverty, who relied on programs like Ka Ora Ka Ako to receive daily meals. In response, the Child poverty action group has made a call to senior government ministers and Finance Minister Nicola Willis to restore the funding that was cut from the school lunches program so that schools across the motu could receive meals from local community suppliers. Oto spoke to Rich Greissman - Deputy Chair of the Child Poverty Action Group's Governing Committee, to discuss the group's call and why it's important for the government to ensure the provision of healthy school lunches to Tamariki.

Described as a rogue economist and ex-trader, Gary Stevenson appeared on Piers Morgan to "debate" pro-capitalist political commentator, Dave Rubin, we intentionally put speech marks around the word "debate" because never has the Shakespearian quote “I would challenge you to a battle of wits, but I see you are unarmed” be truer than watching Rubin try to cope with Gary's facts.National's Andrew Bayly has resigned as a minister after admitting to an “incident” for which he confirmed he had to apologise to a member of his staff after what he described as an “animated discussion” that turned physical. This is the second issue around Bayly's conduct in five months. Child Poverty Action Group says the Government must consider reversing cuts to the school lunches programme as, for many students, it's the only proper meal they have in a day. The organisation's CEO Sarita Divis says child poverty is getting worse.

This week on the Wednesday Wire...  For our weekly catch up with the Green Party Evie speaks to Ricardo Menendez March about the Treaty Principles Bill submissions and the Regulatory Standards Bill.  Sasha speaks with Sarita Divis, Executive Officer of the Child Poverty Action Group about the recent social security bill amendment and its implications for New Zealand's human rights. And Evie also speaks to  the University of Waikato's Joe Ulatowski about Meta deciding to ditch its third party fact checkers, and the risk of disinformation on social media as a result.  Whakarongo mai!

The recent social security amendment bill is an extension of the government's agenda to cut those on benefits by 50,000. While this may seem like a strategic move by the government, it is important to consider that they are not creating any new jobs and unemployment is at 4.8 percent as of September 2024. The proposed changes aim to make it harder for those struggling to receive the benefit, additionally introducing 'money management' schemes, which splits the MSD payment onto a card which can only be used at specific locations. These changes are unrealistic, because many people already pay more than half of their income for rent. Anti-Poverty groups have spoken out about this amendment and are aiming to raise awareness around this. These groups want the government to move away from using sanctions against people who need income support. Sasha spoke to the Child Poverty Action Group's Executive Officer, Sarita Divis about the social security bill amendment, and potential consequences for those seeking support.

Oto reached out to Sarita Divis from the Child Poverty Action Group for her organisation's take on the proposed changes to Child Poverty Reduction goals by Minister Louise Upston.  This comes after Louise Upston, called for a statutory review of New Zealand's current 10-year child poverty reduction targets, and subsequent reduction of them, in a recently revealed document. The Child Poverty Action Group have officially criticised the review, saying that the current goals were important for reducing child poverty and have called upon National to retain them. 

This week, Kate Anstey, Head of Education Policy at Child Poverty Action Group on the latest analysis published this week with The Food Foundation The report urges local leaders to do everything they can to ensure more children get a free lunch but say the onus is squarely on the UK government to expand provision of free school meals and end classroom hunger.Click here for more information, here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up to our newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on the Tuesday Wire...  For Dear Science this week, we chatted with our expert Doctor Cushla McGoverin about bats with glowing toes, glue sealing wounds inside the body, and new technology to make green and yellow lasers.  In our weekly catchup with the National Party, Wire Host Castor spoke to MP Katie Nimon about the death of Kiingi Tuheitia, Candace Owens potentially visiting Aotearoa, and the government's second draft emissions reduction plan.  They also spoke to Doctor Timothy Welch about the government's recently announced transport funding allocation.  With the return of the Green Desk, Jack Marshall talked to Sophie Journee from the Mountains to Sea Conservation Trust about the waterways in an Auckland golf course.  And News and Editorial Director, Joel Armstrong, spoke to Staff Researcher at Child Poverty Action Group, Harry Yu Shi, about a recent report showing Aotearoa has poor child poverty statistics compared to European countries.

For their regular catch-up, Oto spoke to the Green Party's Ricardo Menéndez March about resignation of the party's key Pasifika members following the investigation of former MP Darleen Tana, as well as the changes to the government's child poverty reduction targets. He spoke to Hayden Eastmond-Mein, an organiser discussing a campaign of his calling for New Zealanders to donate their tax cuts to fund aid in Gaza He spoke to Emmy Rākete from the University of Auckland to discuss how the abuse in care inquiry unveiled a care-to-prison pipeline for Māori Rangatahi. And for this week's Get Action! He spoke to Synteche Collins from End Child Prostitution and Trafficking, talking to us about a petition calling for a dedicated helpline for survivors of exploitation. Sasha spoke to Greg Waite of the Child Poverty Action Group to discuss the decrease of affordable rental shares and the need to develop more public housing.

The Child Poverty Action Group is calling for better monitoring of private rentals, as new research reveals the share of affordable rentals has decreased significantly over the last five years. However the national trend saw a consistent share of private rental housing in Auckland and Christchurch compared to other regions, this in part is due to increased home projects in those regions. The Child Poverty Action Group is advocating for the need to increase public housing builds in all regions, stating the government prioritises one and two bedroom housing over other rental housing. Sasha spoke to Greg Waite of the Child Poverty Action Group about the decrease of affordable rental shares.

One child poverty advocate is shocked the government has discreetly softened the target for children in poverty. Child Poverty Action Group head Sarita Divis spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss.

State housing advocates believe more people will become homeless, living on the street and in garages, as a result of the government's neutering of Kainga Ora. Five board members are going, and the chief executive Andrew McKenzie has resigned. Child Poverty Action Group's housing spokesperson Alan Johnson spoke to Corin Dann.

The Child Poverty Action Group's has an alternative review into Kāinga Ora's financial position. Spokesperson and author of the alternative review Alan Johnson spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss.

Money Box gets a special look at a new exhibition at the Bank of England Museum about the future of money. Paul Lewis picks up a gold bar, sees the new King Charles money, and finds out more about the consultation for a new digital pound. The pensioners getting in touch to ask why they're soon to start paying tax on their pensions. We'll discuss that with the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group.And, there are calls this week for the government to slow down the speed at which its moving existing benefits claimants onto Universal Credit. The Child Poverty Action Group says it is seeing cases of people struggling to claim, or missing the deadline as they are unsure what's required of them. The Department for Work and Pensions told us the vast majority of Tax Credit claimants have successfully moved to Universal Credit, and that there is a range of support available to help people move. Presenter:: Paul Lewis Reporter: Dan Whitworth Researchers: Sandra Hardial and Jo Krasner Editor: Jess Quayle(First broadcast 12pm Saturday 2nd March 2024)

A long-awaited report on how women born in the 1950s were affected by increases to their retirement age - the so-called WASPI women, which stands for women against state pension inequality - has been published today. It recommends compensation and says the Department for Work and Pensions failed to adequately inform the women affected. Emma Barnett hears from Steve Webb, former pensions minister from 2010 to 2015, when changes to pension ages were accelerated, and to Frances Neil, a WASPI coordinator in Essex.Dr Jen Gunter is a gynaecologist and author based in California, with a huge global following, known for calling out products marketed to women which claim to address their neglected health issues but have no evidence base and could be harmful. In her latest book, simply called Blood, she tackles the menstrual cycle and myths ancient and modern associated with it. Jen joins Emma in studio.John Lennon told them that ‘girls don't play guitar', but these four girls from 1960s Liverpool were determined to prove him wrong. Mary, Sylvia, Valerie and Pamela formed Britain's first female rock'n'roll band The Liverbirds, and went on to tour stadiums across Europe, record two hit albums and play with the Kinks, Rolling Stones and Chuck Berry – all in the space of five years. Emma talks to the two surviving members of the band about their incredible story.Figures out today show that 4.3 million children in the UK are living in poverty. Emma speaks to Sara Ogilvie, Policy Director at Child Poverty Action Group and to Jo, a lone parent living in Greater Manchester with a 14-year-old son and on a low income.

Former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern once said that ending child poverty was the reason she got into politics.  I wish someone had told her at the time that she was dreaming, because a politician standing-up and saying they're going to end child poverty is like those appalling old Miss Universe competitions where the contestants stood around in their togs saying they wanted world peace.  World peace is never going to happen, and zero child poverty is never going to happen.  And, if someone had told Dame Jacinda way-back-when that she might have been setting out to achieve the impossible, then there would probably be less people going ‘na-na-na-na-na' today.  Although, she probably would have battled-on anyway, because that's what idealistic politicians do, don't they?   But we are going to have all the ‘na-na-na-na-na' now, aren't we, after these latest numbers from Stats NZ which show that thousands more kids in New Zealand are going without essentials such as shoes and visits to the doctor.   Living in households that get-by on less than half the median income, before basic living costs are taken into account.  Now I've looked-up online to find out what the median income is in New Zealand and there seems to be all sorts of numbers available, but one figure I've seen is $91,400. So, let's go with that one, for the purposes of today's discussion.  Half of that is $45,700. So, it's kids living in households where less than $45k is coming in the door annually.   With tax, that takes it down to about $38,000. Or about $730-a-week to live off. So, families that have less than $730-a-week to play with before any living costs are taken into account.    And for the year to June last year, the number of children living in material hardship increased by just under 24,000. So, in 12 months, we've gone from 10.5% of all kids living in poverty to 12.5%. Another way of putting it is that one-child-in-eight is living in poverty.  And the experts are saying, too, that it's likely to be worse than that in reality because there's a lag in the time when this data is gathered.  And that's just the ones who fit into the way we define poverty here in New Zealand.  You might have heard Jane Searle from the Child Matters charity on Newstalk ZB saying that, as well as the kids defined as being in poverty, we've got the “working poor” who aren't unemployed but are struggling too.   Since these stats came out yesterday, not only are we getting people saying Labour failed to deliver, we've got others saying they don't have much faith in the new government doing any better.  Louise Upston is the new Child Poverty Minister and she says the way the Government's going to reduce child poverty is by reducing the cost of living.       But Mike O'Brien from the Child Poverty Action Group says the cost of living or inflation aren't the only reasons why people end up in poverty.  He says, if the Government is serious, it should be paying more to beneficiaries, increasing family tax credits and also paying the family tax credits to beneficiaries, and supporting people better who are on low wages.  But that's never going to happen, is it?   And just like the last government, the current child poverty minister isn't going to do much to reduce the number of kids doing it tough. In a country which, we tell ourselves, is the best place in the world to raise kids. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It has been really good this week to hear Assistant Education Minister David Seymour talking about tackling truancy rates. The stats are awful. The latest figures, released in December, showed only 46 percent of school pupils attended school more than 90 percent of the time in term 3 2023. In comparison, 63 percent attended in term 3 of 2019, before Covid-19. Students who attend less than 70 percent of the time - known as chronic absenteeism - was 12.6 percent in December. This is higher than in previous years, with Maori and Pacific students over-represented. The statistics before Covid were average and clearly things have gone further askew since the pandemic, so it's good to see this is a priority issue for the new Government. Education, after all, is as important to the future of the individual as it is to the future of the country. Seymour has ideas for how to tackle it. There's talk of using current legislation to prosecute and fine parents of chronically absent children. That's one way to clarify a parent's responsibility - but the judicial system is clogged up already, and will fines be paid? Seymour also wants schools to report absenteeism weekly rather than each term. More regular data would be useful, but surely monthly is enough? More importantly than frequency is quality of information about why a child is absent. To fix this problem you need to know the specifics. You need to understand the community and its challenges, and how to reach the parents and children. This is where truancy services come in, so the proposed closer monitoring of what they're doing is also a step in the right direction. But truancy is more nuanced than the headlines suggest. It isn't just about a bunch of neglectful parents who can't be arsed getting their kids to school. There are also parents who don't feel they can send their children to school until they've managed to buy the uniforms and stationary. One Rotorua intermediate school trialed using their operational funding to provide free uniforms and stationery. The improvement in attendance at the beginning of the year was so good, the school is prepared to do it again. Then there are teenagers having to decide if they'll get an education or help put food on the family table. This is not a decision teenagers should face, but it's a reality. Just this week, The Child Poverty Action Group released a report stating around 15,000 teenagers are working between 20-50 hours a week to help support their families. We've also seen a rise in mental health issues post-Covid. Often, children suffering from acute anxiety and depression want to go to school but simply can't. It's hard and takes too long for families to get into the health system to access support they need, and many students are falling through the cracks. It's the same for the neurodiversity. 1 in 5 youngsters in New Zealand are neurodivergent. So why aren't we prioritizing getting children diagnosed for learning disabilities? There is no reason why those children can't with a little extra help get a good education. Prison stats shows over 57 percent of male prisoners in New Zealand have dyslexia. Get it sorted early. Give the kid some hope, and keep them in school. So I applaud David Seymour for getting serious about truancy – but let's hope that he's prepared to deal with the wide spectrum of issues facing our children and adolescents which prevent them from getting a decent education. It won't be solved with just a big stick. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Child Poverty advocates don't appear to be jumping for joy over the Government's new Working for Families payments.    The Government's raising Family Tax Credit rates by $8 to $144 per week for the eldest child and $117 for each subsequent child.   Child Poverty Action Group spokesperson Alan Johnson says that overall, indexing tax settings to inflation is a good idea.  But he told Mike Hosking that it's just an adjustment to make up for increased food, fuel, and electricity prices, and is no more generous than it was a year ago.  Johnson says the group believes the system could be made more generous to relieve child poverty.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Thanks for tuning in! E whai akei nei, on the show today: Rosetta spoke to Auckland central MP Chloe Swarbrick about recent investigations by Waka Kotahi into the Waiheke island ferry route and why she believes the service should be subsidised as public transport.  Rosetta also spoke to Age Concern Aotearoa Chief Executive Karen Billings-Jensen about the charity's collaboration with Driving Miss Daisy Aotearoa to produce the resource “Life without a car” for our older population who no longer drive or have access to cars. For our weekly catch up with the ACT party, Lou spoke with ACT MP Karen Chhour about the coalition updates, funding for the department of conservation as well as ACT's stance on calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. She also spoke with Claire Henry from the University of Otago in Wellington about the rise of Endometrial Cancer in New Zealand. Lou also spoke to Alan Johnson from the Child Poverty Action Group following an open letter to the Government in their role to target the issue of Child Poverty in New Zealand.

National's plans to evict unruly Kianga Ora tenants will just see more people living in cars and substandard lodges according to one policy analyst. The party says there is deep community frustration at Kainga Ora's unwillingness to enforce the law and evict anti social tenants who make their neighbours lives a misery and if in government it will direct the agency to remove repeat offenders. National says it will also tighten the eligibility criteria for emergency motels, so that only people genuinely in need can access a grant. Its goal is to eradicate large scale use of motels as social housing in its first term if elected. And it plans to build more social houses in partnership with communty housing providers. Child Poverty Action Group housing spokesperson Alan Johnson joins is now. [embed] https://players.brightcove.net/6093072280001/default_default/index.html?videoId=6336947967112

This week, Kate Anstey, Head of Education Policy at Child Poverty Action Group tells us about the limitations and the current free school meals policy. CPAG's most recent figures find that 900,000 children in England don't currently qualify for a free school meal, and Kate explains why that matters.Click here for more information on CPAG's Imagine campaign Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For our weekly catch up with the ACT party Rawan spoke with Simon Court about ACT's recent pledge to make changes to judge sentencing policies, and where they stand on National's phone ban proposal. Host Caeden spoke to Glen Barclay, Chair of Tax Justice Aotearoa, as well as Economist and Child Poverty Action Group spokesperson Susan St John about Labour's tax policy announcement. Ash spoke to Able CEO Dan Buckingham about the launch of their new app Earcatch. And for Tomorrow's World Leilani and Rawan spoke to Girl's on Ice Director Lauren Vargo about their upcoming expedition for 15 to 16-year-old girls.

The Labour Party announced their tax policy over the weekend. It included policies like dropping GST off fruits and vegetables and changes to Working for Families. The Policy has received some support, but several organisations advocating for the eradication of poverty and tax reform say it does not go far enough to address the wealth gap in Aotearoa. Caeden spoke about this with Glen Barclay, Chair of Tax Justice Aotearoa and the Better Taxes for a Better Future campaign which is a coalition of 20 organisations aiming to work for better taxes to grow revenue and have a fairer tax system. They started by asking Glen if Labour's announcement is fair tax policy. Caeden also spoke to economist Susan St John for the Child Poverty Action Group's position on the announcement. As they have been quite critical of it, they started by asking what the issues were.

The Child Poverty Action Group has criticised Labour's tax policy as hugely disappointing, saying the poorest families would miss out. The policy, aimed at easing the cost of living, would see GST removed from fruit and vegetables from April 1st next year, while changes to Working For Families would put at least $47 a week into the pockets of eligible families by 2026 - if Labour wins the election. But economist and spokesperson for Child Poverty Action Group, Susan St John says there's nothing for the 160,000 children living in benefit-dependent homes which get no Working for Families support at all. St John spoke to Corin Dann.

The Child Poverty Action Group believes a Green Party income policy would have real benefit for children. The Greens would bring in an income guarantee of at least $735 a week for single parents, and would introduce higher taxes for the wealthy. Auckland University economist and spokesperson for the Child Poverty Action Group, Susan St John, says she'd hoped the government would address some of the income issues facing New Zealanders during the budget, but it didn't. She spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss.

Debts owed by current and former beneficiaries have ballooned to 2.4-billion-dollars. Ministry of Social Development data shows nearly 600-thousand-people have loans, averaging around four-thousand dollars each. They've been given the money for essentials like clothing, household appliances, and bills. Child Poverty Action Group Founder Janfrie Wakim told Mike Hosking that employment helps, but it's not everything. She says many people in paid work are accessing food banks to feed their families. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wage growth has meant some families are being pushed past the level they can receive Working For Families tax credits. The Government lifted the abatement threshold in 2017, from a little more than $36,000 to $42,700. Adjusted for wage inflation, the threshold would be just shy of $52,000. Child Poverty Action Group convenor Alan Johnson told Mike Hosking inflation has eroded settings around various policy - and the Government should be more adept at responding, than it has been. LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Young families, anyone needing a doctor's prescription and people under 25 who catch the bus or train were the winners in yesterday's election Budget. Let's go through the details : - At a cost of more than a billion dollars over four years, young families will get cheaper childcare with the free 20 hours subsidy extended to two-year-olds from March next year. It could save some families of them more than 130 dollars a week. - At the same time public transport will become free for all children under 13 and will stay half-price for those aged 13 to 24. - Most prescription medicine will be completely free from July with the government's scrapping the current 5 dollar charge at a cost of almost 620 million. - And as for future investments, 71 billion has been committed to infrastructure spending over the next five years - that's money for building schools, hospitals, public housing and roads. But how far does it go for families struggling to keep up with the cost of living squeeze? Child Poverty Action Group economic spokeswoman Susan St John spoke with Ingrid Hipkiss

Questions to Ministers ANGIE WARREN-CLARK to the Minister for Social Development and Employment: What reports has she seen on material wellbeing? CHRISTOPHER LUXON to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by all of his Government's statements and actions? RACHEL BROOKING to the Minister of Finance: What recent reports has he seen on the New Zealand economy? NICOLA WILLIS to the Minister of Finance: Does he stand by his statement, "The year 2023 is a tough time for many New Zealand families", and what impact is the rising cost of living having on them? CHLÖE SWARBRICK to the Minister of Health: Is the Government's approach to drugs evidence-based, and does it ensure the best possible health and wellbeing outcomes for New Zealanders? CHRIS BAILLIE to the Minister of Education: Does she agree with the Ministry of Education's Literacy and Communication and Maths Strategy that "A critical maths pedagogical approach uses maths to develop critical awareness about wider social, environmental, political, ideological, and economic issues. Critical maths recognises the importance of understanding, interpreting, and addressing issues of power, social justice and equity in the community and the wider world. Akonga are encouraged to interrogate dominant discourses and assumptions, including that maths is benign, neutral, and culture-free"? IBRAHIM OMER to the Minister of Immigration: What recent announcements has he made regarding the migrant workforce? HON LOUISE UPSTON to the Minister for Child Poverty Reduction: Does she agree with Child Poverty Action Group that the latest child poverty statistics are "a sad indictment on the country with no real improvement in policy that could turn things around", and why was the reduction in the number of children living in material hardship over the last five years less than half the reduction from 2013 to 2017? TAMATI COFFEY to the Minister of Tourism: What recent announcement has he made on the Tourism Infrastructure Fund? ERICA STANFORD to the Minister of Education: How many decile 1 students passed the writing assessment for the second 2022 literacy and numeracy pilot released last week, and what advice, if any, has she received on the number of students next year that will leave school with no qualification? GLEN BENNETT to the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs: What reports has he seen about how competing businesses can cooperate to respond to natural disasters? PENNY SIMMONDS to the Minister of Education: Does she believe the results of the Te Pukenga network employee survey, which notes one-third of Te Pukenga staff see no future for themselves in Te Pukenga, is a positive or a negative representation of Te Pukenga's performance over the last three years?

Psalm 113:5-7 When you hear that God is enthroned on high, it's easy to assume that he must therefore be totally disconnected from the harsh realities of our world. The psalmist makes it clear that the opposite is true. Mighty and exalted as he undoubtedly is, God is also intimately concerned about what is happening here in the world. So much so that he not only looks down at what is going on but takes action to rectify the situation. The whole Bible shows a concern for the poor. The law of Moses insisted on the poor being protected and supported. The prophets continually reminded people of their duty to care for the most vulnerable, and Jesus went out of his way to reach out to the weak and marginalised. In every society there are poor people, and yet the majority of us try to get on with life as if they don't exist. God calls us to care for the poor in our society. After a visit to the UK in 2018, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, expressed great concern that “14 million people, a fifth of the population, live in poverty. Four million of these are more than 50 per cent below the poverty line, and 1.5 million are destitute, unable to afford basic essentials.” That's an incredibly shocking statement and it is deeply worrying that the situation has only got worse with the pandemic and the recent sharp down-turn in the economy. Children are amongst the most vulnerable members of our society and so we have a special responsibility to care for them. Child Poverty Action Group has defined child poverty as existing when parents can't afford to pay for basics such as food, housing and clothes - it affects one in four children in the UK. 46 per cent of children from black and minority ethnic groups are in poverty in the UK, compared with 26 per cent of children in white British families. God is still in the business of lifting the poor from the dust and the needy from the garbage dump, and he looks to us to make it happen. QUESTION In what ways are you able to help the poor in your community? PRAYER Lord God, I thank you that you care for the poor and vulnerable. Help me to find ways to reflect your love to all those who are marginalised in my community. Amen

Breaking up for the Christmas holidays is exciting for a lot of children but for some it means a stop to one guaranteed warm meal a day in a heated place. We're joined by teacher Andria Zafirakou, who's seeing children come to school hungry and unwashed and Sara Ogilvie from Child Poverty Action Group. Cally Beaton had a high-flying career as a TV executive. But she swapped the boardroom for the comedy club after receiving career advice from none other than Joan Rivers. Cally joins Jessica Creighton to describe how she has now achieved her comedy goal by making her debut appearance on the Christmas Special of Live at The Apollo' at the age of 53. How equal is the division of labour in your household? According to new research the man-child phenomenon is real - a man who depends on his partner for everyday tasks that he is actually capable of - and it can have a real impact on the woman's sexual interest in her partner. One of the authors of this research is Sari van Anders Professor of Psychology at Queen's University, Kingston, Canada. Lockdown caused a lot of us to change our habits permanently including when it comes to our hair. Lots of people let their natural grey take over – and now there's even a trend emerging where people are purposefully showing their roots. Hairdresser Sofia Sjoo joins Jess. For those who are grieving the loss of a loved one - Christmas time can be a very difficult period – even more so when it's the first Christmas without them. One listener got in contact us with to suggest that we feature an item at this time on how to talk to parents whose child or children have died. Ruth's son Fergus was just twelve years old when he died of cancer in May this year. She joins me now. Presenter: Jessica Creighton Producer: Lucinda Montefiore

The scale of the hunger crisis facing Londoners is revealed in a joint investigation by the Evening Standard and the Independent.As winter approaches, headteachers and youth workers tell how the cost of living crisis is leading many families in London and other parts of the country to increasingly desperate measures.There reports of the teenager who didn't want to worry his heavily indebted mum asking for lunch money, hungry pupils stealing from the canteen and one headteacher telling how a mother broke down in tears saying she was arrested after being caught shoplifting spaghetti, tomato sauce and a small loaf of bread at the supermarket to feed her family.Child Poverty Action Group data shows there are up to 800,000 children in England living in homes receiving Universal Credit who breach the £617-a-month government threshold for free school.So, with the energy bills crisis biting now the nights are drawing in, how are London's families coping?Adding to the distress, there are now fears a decent Christmas will be beyond the reach of many Londoners hit by the cost-of-living crisis.The Leader's joined by Sara Ogilvie, CPAG policy director. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Every week New Zealand Herald Wellington business editor Jenée Tibshraeny joins Nick Mills for Tuesday Business. This week she discusses The Child Poverty Action Group's concerns with the Government's proposed income insurance scheme, mortgage rates tipped to rise and the consequences supermarkets will now face if they don't comply with Government rules.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New Zealand pre-schoolers experience worse health and welfare outcomes than older kids do, according to a report released Monday. The report, published by Save the Children, Whānau Āwhina Plunket, the Child Poverty Action Group and the New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services, also highlighted the direct connection between Aotearoa's poverty and preventable childhood illnesses. "Sadly, the report reveals a bleak picture of upholding children's rights in Aotearoa, with poverty directly affecting the health outcomes of our youngest citizens, who are often forgotten about in terms of rights," Save the Children's Advocacy and Research director Jacqui Southey said. "The report finds that the leading causes of ill health and mortality of New Zealand's under-5s are largely preventable and are attributable to poverty." Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (Sudi), oral health, skin infections, and respiratory infections made up the four key areas that significantly impact kids under 5. Poor health outcomes are caused by inequality in low-income households, which fail to guarantee timely access to healthcare, adequate amounts of money, and healthy housing for families with small children. Southey also said for Māori and Pasifika under-5s, systemic disparities, colonial effects, and racism are also causing higher rates of poverty and worse health outcomes. By addressing these disparities, the country might be able to reduce hospitalisations for respiratory infections and dental decay in our under-5 population by up to 66 per cent, Southey maintained. "When it comes to Sudi, Māori are nine times, and Pasifika are six times more likely to die from Sudi than non-Māori and non-Pasifika infants. "If we are to shift the dial to significantly improve positive health and development outcomes for our children under 5, we need to prioritise children (and by age and stage) as a key stakeholder group in the new health authorities; raise incomes to liveable levels; provide access to healthy homes for families with children under 5, and address systemic bias and racism that continues to persist." The report also revealed that preschool-aged children have a significantly higher risk of dying by homicide than older kids do and that reporting of sexual assault and related cases for children under 5 has remained "appallingly constant" over the past five years despite a notable decline of 35 per cent in assaults and neglect during the same time. The chief executive of Whānau Āwhina Plunket, Amanda Malu, said the organisation, which interacts directly with tens of thousands of families each year, had seen first-hand the effects that poverty had on our youngest Kiwis. "If we are truly going to support our tamariki to thrive, we need to provide systematic and concrete solutions that ensure all of our tamariki truly get the best start in life." Children's Commissioner Judge Frances Eivers said the report was a "compelling piece of work" and "giving children the best start possible must be our priority". She is adamant the nurturing we experience as children forms the foundation of who we become as adults. "Under-5s are particularly vulnerable. They are not out in the wider world and they have so many milestones to hit. "We see that some children do not get the same start. We see the same themes arise again and again: poverty, housing costs and access to health services, which are often not accessible in terms of cost, where people feel judged, or where language or culture is a barrier." Judge Eivers called for change and for the report to be taken seriously by decision-makers. "We can do better than this, and I believe people expect us to." Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern spoke passionately at the beginning of her campaigns about reducing the rates of child poverty in New Zealand while her Government is in power. A spokesman for the Prime Minister said yesterday that addressing child poverty and its health impacts is a priority for the Government. He said all nine child poverty measures had decreased since Labour came to power and its policies had helped bring 66,500 children out of poverty. "While average incomes have increased across all family types in the last 12 months, the largest increases have generally been for families with children, reflecting policy changes, particularly to main benefit rates. "We know there is more to do and we will keep working to reduce all impacts of poverty, including health."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Groups representing those most disadvantaged in Aotearoa say they're disappointed the budget hasn't gone far enough. Child Poverty Action Group says while it is encouraging to see large investments in healthcare and services, there is limited direct relief for families. Professor Emeritus Innes Asher is the group's spokesperson and a member of the Welfare Expert Advisory Group. She spoke to Corin Dann.

Talking with Georgina Burt and Ellie Harwood from the Child Poverty Action Group about the Cost of the School Day Project and practical steps schools can take to make education more inclusive and equitable for children from low income families. #pupilpremium #deprivation #lowincome #pastoral

The Government announced plans this week to impose more regulation on firms where people legally buy and sell bitcoin. One major crypto platform where people do this is called Kraken - which is where 77-year-old Graeme moved more than half a million pounds which thieves then stole. Graeme was robbed of his savings, his car, and his house by thieves who manipulated him to buy cryptoassets. We hear from Curtis Ting, a Managing Director of Kraken. In an extreme case of council tax arrears, we hear from Robert who has just received his first council tax bill after 24 years living in the same house. The London Borough of Barnet is demanding more than £30,000 in arrears. So what's going on? And does Robert have to - finally - cough up? We hear from barrister Alan Murdie who specialises in council tax, and edits the Council Tax Handbook for the Child Poverty Action Group. Thinking of claiming a Working From Home tax rebate? Listen to this first. HM Revenue & Customs has told Money Box it will be launching a consultation this year to find new ways to tackle repayment agents who charge people for claiming routine tax rebates which they could claim free themselves. If you go via an agent, it could take half your pay out in fees. Money Box reporter Dan Whitworth investigates, and we also hear from technology journalist David McClelland. Presenter: Paul Lewis Producer: Paul Waters Reporter: Dan Whitworth Researcher: Marianna Brain Production Coordinator: Janet Staples Editor: Emma Rippon

Listen above to an interview I did today with Bernard Hickey from the excellent The Kākā Substack. It really is rather excellent and I can highly recommend you take a look if you haven’t already. Today’s post is the latest in a series of deeper dives I’ll make into topics that come up in my curated weekly Noise Reduction newsletter, and / or public interest topics and other good stuff. I couldn’t do this work without the support of my paid subscribers. Thank you. If you’re not a paid subscriber, please consider becoming one. Financial insecurity tightly constrains how we experience the world. It also limits the trajectories of life that may be available to us. This is not about personal responsibility and having the resourcefulness or energy to ‘choose’ to do something about your situation. Many of these ‘choices’ are not available for us to make - not because we don’t have money at the moment, but because our entire relationship with money and its inter-relationship with how we meet our most fundamental needs have become warped. Financial precarity means this is not a level playing fieldIn modern society, money is very much tied up in our sense of self-worth. I’m not talking about the amount of money you need to buy a flash car, or an iPhone. I’m talking about the basics. Not just feeding, clothing and housing ourselves and our loved ones, but also not sticking out and being socially identified as impoverished. Not being that kid with the gaping holes in their uniform, or shoes that are leaky or don’t fit. Or perhaps not having shoes at all. A life of dignity, not unending shame. And according to a report by the Child Poverty Action Group in 2017, over 1 in 4 children in New Zealand were living in relative income poverty. It’s unlikely things have got much better, especially in these inflationary times. We often think that mental health issues cause poverty. But this simplifies and misrepresents the relationship in all kinds of ways. The link between poverty and children’s mental health is well recognised in a range of international research. This relationship not only affects childhood experience, but also extends out into adulthood too. Not only does impoverishment cause mental health issues, it also means people who are financially insecure just don’t have the bandwidth available, the luxury of being able to think about wide-ranging life issues and pleasurable pursuits in ways that people who are financially stable are able to do.Scarcity ‘consumes your mental bandwidth’ …It crashes your IQ by 13-points - that the equivalent to trying to think after being forced to stay up all night without sleep. That’s how powerful scarcity is. Imagine that, day in, day out. Financial insecurity corrodes your adaptive capacityThink about it like this: when you have financial security, when you have money to deal with short-term stresses that need cash to solve them, you have a reserve of adaptive capacity that helps to smooth out the ups-and-downs of life. Sure, they may throw you off kilter for a while, and while money won’t solve everything, it can go a long way towards solving your problem. Other stresses that pop up during this time will be unpleasant, but are manageable. People without that cash, without that financial security are going to not only feel that short-term stress a lot more because they know they don’t have the financial means to deal with them, but it then cascades to how they experience further short-term stresses: much more acute, and far more disturbing. Constant financial insecurity can also change how we process informationHave a comfortable buffer of cash means that you’re less likely to see the world as a threat all the time. Stresses come and stresses go, but being financially stable enables you not only to think strategically and creatively but also not to ruminate and obsess about how to get yourself out of a tricky situation. Money helps you to move on and think differently. However, tight financial constraints and  / or a history of finding it difficult to make ends meet means that we can be a perpetual state of apprehension, seeing threat everywhere. Food prices, overcrowded houses causing family strife, and living in houses that are hard to heat. Parents are working multiple jobs and are preoccupied with navigating their way through a tough world and not being able to spend enough time with their kids, even though they desperately want to. “A person in poverty might be at the high part of the performance curve when it comes to a specific task and, in fact, we show that they do well on the problem at hand. But they don’t have leftover bandwidth to devote to other tasks. The poor are often highly effective at focusing on and dealing with pressing problems. It’s the other tasks where they perform poorly.”“The fallout of neglecting other areas of life may loom larger for a person just scraping by... Late fees tacked on to a forgotten rent payment, a job lost because of poor time-management — these make a tight money situation worse. And as people get poorer, they tend to make difficult and often costly decisions that further perpetuate their hardship” - Eldar Shafir, Princeton’s William Stewart Tod Professor of Psychology and Public AffairsThe luxury of bandwidthThis is not a delusion: the world really is a harsher place when we are financially insecure. We have fewer choices available, and our minds are fixed on solving the problem in the here-and-now. This is how the brain works. Creative, playful, sensitive and strategic thinking are luxuries our brains afford us when the threat has passed. If we are in a constant state of threat-management, we seldom experience these brain states. We are just focused on managing the latest in a long line of seemingly never-ending stresses. We can become both aggressive in trying to fight the latest threat, yet also feel helpless in the face of overwhelming odds. Here is the plausible link to not only limited choices and seemingly ‘bad decisions’ as they have been framed, but also to how these states can be passed on from one generation to another. Growing up in financial insecurity seriously impoverishes the time you get to spend in creative or strategic states that are playful or can focus on the long-term. You grow up in an environment of trying to manage the here-and-how, and how threatening this can be. So we learn to solve, or most likely, try to live with, these problems, and the social stigma and impoverishment that comes with them. You can’t take part in a ‘normal’ life in a society like others all around you do. Or we get left behind by friends who carry on doing what ‘normal’ people do. And we become more isolated, more alone, and we feel more stress.This is the impoverishment funnel This is not a ‘choice’. It’s survival. It’s existing, not living.As a society, we can decide on whether we want these inequalities, these distortions, to remain. If we accept that financial insecurity is a key factor in what leads people down the impoverishment funnel, then what should we do? Shouldn’t we be able to live a life where we can access not only the bare essentials but also what enables us to live a public life with dignity? Lack of income is a fundamental problem that needs to be fixed in a just society. A parallel approach might also be to remove the income requirement to access key services, such as making public transport and access to key social, health and cultural amenities free. The situation is critical. As a society, are we prepared to get out of threat-management mode and lift our head beyond the three-year parliamentary cycle of short-term fixes? Can we think strategically and creatively for the long-term? Because unless deal with the inability of people to meet their basic needs through adequate income and services, we are dooming them to ‘choices’ they have no control over, and wilfully impoverishing generations to leading diminished lives, and stripping them of their dignity. It is that stark. Will we choose to intervene?We have the financial bandwidth to choose a national poverty reduction programme to improve lives and break inter-generational cycles of poverty, improve the social determinants of wellbeing and break the shackles of financial insecurity. Imagine the pain it would diminish and the creative and strategic thinking it could unleash. As far as policy programmes go, this is a no-brainer. Thank you for reading Noise Reduction by Sarb Johal. This post is public so feel free to share it. Get full access to Noise Reduction by Sarb Johal at noisereduction.substack.com/subscribe

The government contends that two new reports reveal progress is being made to lift children from poverty. The reports are the first statutory Annual Report for the Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy and the third Child Poverty Related Indicators Report. Among improvements cited are that fewer families are running out of food and that there's been a 10 percent reduction in youth offending. Child Poverty Action Group health spokesperson Emeritus Professor Innes Asher spoke to Corin Dann.

Questions to Ministers ANGELA ROBERTS to the Minister of Education: What is the Government doing to encourage healthy drinks in schools? DEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER to the Minister for Social Development and Employment: Does she agree with the Child Poverty Action Group, who said in October 2021, "in the face of abundant evidence that the stop-gap measures initiated in the first 2020 lockdown for low-income families were nowhere near enough, this year, unbelievably, the Government has done even less"; if not, why not? NICOLA WILLIS to the Prime Minister: Does she have confidence in all of her Ministers? BARBARA EDMONDS to the Minister for the Environment: What announcements has the Government made about supporting the restoration of waterways? CHRIS BISHOP to the Associate Minister of Housing (Public Housing): How many people were on the Housing Register in September 2017 compared to today, and what is the median wait time for people on the Housing Register to be housed in public housing? Dr EMILY HENDERSON to the Minister of Internal Affairs: What work is the Government progressing to reduce gambling harm in vulnerable communities? Hon MARK MITCHELL to the Minister of Police: Does she stand by her statement regarding the reported blowout in police response times, "I am not over the detail of that"; if so, why? KAREN CHHOUR to the Minister for Social Development and Employment: Does she believe that jobseeker beneficiaries who fail to meet their work obligations should have their benefits reduced; if so, why were work-related benefit sanctions in the last quarter of the last year less than half what they were in 2019? SHANAN HALBERT to the Minister of Transport: What updates has he seen regarding the Government's Clean Car Programme? ERICA STANFORD to the Minister of Immigration: Are there migrant doctors or nurses currently in New Zealand who are not eligible to apply for the 2021 Resident Visa, and, if there are, will he change the criteria so that all migrant doctors and nurses are eligible to apply to stay in New Zealand? NAISI CHEN to the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs: What recent announcements has he made regarding business transparency? CHLÖE SWARBRICK to the Minister of Housing: Does she agree that rent prices are contributing to hardship; if so, what steps, if any, will she take to lower them?

Today the government increased Working for Families Tax Credits in response to inflation. Jessye spoke to Susan Saint John, economic spokesperson for Child Poverty Action Group about the changes.

This week on the Wire we're recapping some of the best news pieces the 95bFM news team has produced this year with our Best of 2021 shows. So, today Louis Macalister and Charlie Parker bring you the best of the Monday Wire.  Louis recaps his conversations with the Green Party's Teanau Tuiono about their concerns over Rocket Lab, University of Mainz's Dr Martine Robbeets about the origins of transeurasian languages, BBC and Guardian journalist Neha Wadekar on conflict in Mozambique, truck driver Wayne Hill about work, pay, and safety conditions, and University of Auckland's Dr Lisa Reynolds on research into LSD micro-dosing for cancer patients.  Charlie goes over and updates us on her interviews with Child Poverty Action Group's Janet McAllister on the role of foodbanks, University of Auckland's Dr Joel Rindelaub about lasting firework effects, and Shine's Policy Advisor Holly Carrington about family violence.

CHRISTOPHER LUXON to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by all of her Government's statements and actions? Dr DUNCAN WEBB to the Minister of Finance: What recent reports has he seen on the New Zealand economy? Hon SIMON BRIDGES to the Minister of Finance: Does he agree with the latest ANZ Quarterly Economic Outlook's assessment that “Government spending remains highly expansionary … The fiscal situation is quite nuanced. Many businesses and households are in desperate need of targeted support, but from a macroeconomic perspective, high government spending in an economy facing severe capacity constraints risks just adding to inflation pressures.  That wouldn't be a good return for taxpayers, and also implies the RBNZ will need to hike interest rates more than otherwise”? MARJA LUBECK to the Minister of Education: What reports has he seen about numbers of people undertaking vocational education and training? JAN LOGIE to the Minister for Social Development and Employment: Is the Government still committed to welfare overhaul; if so, why does the Child Poverty Action Group report released today show not a single key recommendation from the Welfare Expert Advisory Group has been fully implemented nearly three years on? Dr LIZ CRAIG to the Minister of Health: What medicines has New Zealand recently secured access to for treating COVID-19? DAVID SEYMOUR to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by her statement in relation to wage growth rising faster than inflation, “Of course, it has, with wage growth being at around 3.5 percent and inflation around 2 percent”; if so, does she agree with Statistics New Zealand that inflation for the year to September 2021 was 4.9 percent and wage growth was only 2.4 percent? TĀMATI COFFEY to the Minister for Building and Construction: What recent reports has she seen on the construction sector? CHRIS BISHOP to the Minister for COVID-19 Response: Did the Government receive public health advice ahead of the Cabinet meeting on 29 November 2021 that the hard or enforced boundary around Auckland should be removed when Auckland and the rest of the country move to the COVID-19 Protection Framework, and did this same advice also recommend any regions enter the traffic light system at green? VANUSHI WALTERS to the Minister for Diversity, Inclusion and Ethnic Communities: What actions has the Government taken to support our ethnic communities to get the COVID-19 vaccine? SIMEON BROWN to the Minister for the Public Service: Does he stand by all of his statements and actions regarding pay and workforce expectations for the public sector? INGRID LEARY to the Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence: What is she doing to support the UN's Orange the World campaign?

We're urged to be more environmentally friendly, but one listener has found he cannot release the equity he has tied up in his specially built, and officially signed off, eco-house. Is the equity release market out of step with efforts to counter climate change? We find out, with Money Box reporter Dan Whitworth and Amanda Moore, senior adviser at the UK's largest equity release advice firm, Key. Money Box has fresh revelations about criminal websites on the open internet. Two weeks ago we told you about the websites on which crooks buy and sell your confidential financial information. This week, Money Box reporter Kaf Okpattah has found another website which sells a do-it-yourself tutorial explaining how to bypass banking security by intercepting one-time passcodes, in order to steal money from accounts. The government is proposing an Online Safety Bill - but will it stop criminals taking our cash? We hear from Damian Collins MP, Chairman of the parliamentary Select Committee looking into it. Some people who claimed Universal Credit benefits during the Covid pandemic may have to pay it back because the Department for Work and Pensions is suspicious about some claims. That's according to the Child Poverty Action Group, which says the DWP may be acting unlawfully by assuming that anyone who has failed to verify their identity in time - by sending a selfie by their front door holding a local newspaper, for instance - has been wrongly claiming help. We hear from CPAG solicitor, Claire Hall. And our Money Box Mini this week: Can I give my beach hut to somebody without anyone having to pay tax? Listen in for the answer. Presenter: Paul Lewis Producer: Paul Waters Reporters: Dan Whitworth & Kafui Okpattah

Covid-19 may have tipped 18,000 more children into poverty. The Child Poverty Action Group says its modelling shows more whānau have been doing it tough since the nationwide lockdown - with Māori and Pacific the hardest hit. It says the government hasn't acted with enough urgency. Social issues reporter Sarah Robson has the story.

Covid-19 may have tipped 18,000 more children into poverty. The Child Poverty Action Group says its modelling shows more whānau have been doing it tough since the nationwide lockdown - with Māori and Pacific the hardest hit. It says the government hasn't acted with enough urgency. Social issues reporter Sarah Robson has the story.

The Child Poverty Action Group is questioning why the government isn't acting faster to remove a benefit sanction that isn't even being enforced. Parents on the benefit have to meet several social obligations, such as having their child in school or enrolled with a doctor. But not one has ever had their payment cut for failing to comply and the Ministry of Social Development says the time spent checking could be better spent helping beneficiaries find jobs. Janet McAllister from the Child Poverty Action Group told social issues reporter Sarah Robson social obligations aren't helping vulnerable families.

The Child Poverty Action Group is questioning why the government isn't acting faster to remove a benefit sanction that isn't even being enforced. Parents on the benefit have to meet several social obligations, such as having their child in school or enrolled with a doctor. But not one has ever had their payment cut for failing to comply and the Ministry of Social Development says the time spent checking could be better spent helping beneficiaries find jobs. Janet McAllister from the Child Poverty Action Group told social issues reporter Sarah Robson social obligations aren't helping vulnerable families.

The Child Poverty Action Group wants the Government to do more - and faster.The Government says it will lift up to 33,000 children out of poverty by next year, with benefit lifts in today's Budget.Child Poverty Action Group researcher Caitlin Neuwelt-Kearns says it's a big step.But she told Simon Barnett and Phil Gifford it's still not enough.“We’re disappointed that the announcement is of a two-year roll out of benefit increases, we’ve seen the government admit that incomes are inadequate, so why are we making children wait?”LISTEN ABOVE  

The response to the 2021 budget is testament to the fact that you can't please everyone. Changes to benefits and investment in Maori housing are being welcomed in some quarters - while others say Labour has missed a chance to do more for the most vulnerable in New Zealand society. At the same time, plans are being laid for a social insurance scheme that will make payments to people who lose their jobs. Is it a radical idea that will protect workers from upheavals, or an expensive piece of middle-class welfare? There are complaints from business that they've been left in the cold in the midst of the Covid-19 recovery. Kirk Hope is the chief executive of Business NZ, Dr Lara Greaves is a political scientist at the University of Auckland, and Janet McAllister is from the Child Poverty Action Group.

The response to the 2021 budget is testament to the fact that you can't please everyone. Changes to benefits and investment in Maori housing are being welcomed in some quarters - while others say Labour has missed a chance to do more for the most vulnerable in New Zealand society. At the same time, plans are being laid for a social insurance scheme that will make payments to people who lose their jobs. Is it a radical idea that will protect workers from upheavals, or an expensive piece of middle-class welfare? There are complaints from business that they've been left in the cold in the midst of the Covid-19 recovery. Kirk Hope is the chief executive of Business NZ, Dr Lara Greaves is a political scientist at the University of Auckland, and Janet McAllister is from the Child Poverty Action Group.

New Zealand's housing crisis continues to stagnate efforts to slash child poverty, the latest data shows.The Government today released two child wellbeing reports, holding it to account on measures introduced in 2018 to reduce child poverty.Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who is Minister for Child Poverty Reduction, said the reports highlighted most children and young people in New Zealand were doing well, with many improvements in key measures."However, there is still a group of children for whom life at home is quite different."Too many children live in low-income households, or experience racism, bullying or violence. And overall, Māori, Pacific and disabled children and young people are more likely to experience worse outcomes."The Government has to report annually on Child Poverty Related Indicators, which cover housing affordability, housing quality, food insecurity, school attedance and potentially avoidable hospitalisations.They are related to but different to the 10-year child poverty targets the Government has set to hold itself accountable.The indicators showed over 2019/20, 36 per cent of children and young people (ages 0–17) lived in households spending more than 30 per cent of their disposable income on housing - higher than the 2018/19 level of 35 per cent.Housing quality also showed barely any movement from the previous year, with 7 per cent of children and young people remaining in homes reporting a major problem with dampness or mould, down from 8 per cent the year before. This nearly doubled to 13 per cent for low-income households.Food insecurity continued to be a major factor in child poverty, with 20 per cent of children aged 0-15 lived in households reporting that food ran out often or sometimes.The rates for Māori were 30 per cent and Pacific 46, however these have been trending downward.School attendance showed an upward trend, and there was also a significant drop in potentially avoidable hospitalisations.The rate in 0-15 year olds was 49 per 1000 - down from 67 per 1000 in 2014/15.However, it remained higher for Māori and Pacific children at 56 and 72.1 respectively.Although there had been a minor downward trend, the numbers of patients decreased significantly since March of 2020, likely because of the Covid-19 lockdown measures.Ardern said many of the issues were "complex, stubborn and intergenerational"."We know change will take time, and will require sustained action across government and across our communities."Covid-19 was also likely to give major challenges in the lives of the most vulnerable, she said. This was why they had increased main benefits, rolled out the wage subsidy and expanded employment services."We will continue to take steps to ensure our recovery from Covid addresses inequality and doesn't leave our most vulnerable children behind," Ardern said."The results will take time, but we will continue to build on progress, putting children and young people first, so that New Zealand really can be the best place in the world for them to be."Child Poverty Action Group's Professor Emeritus Innes Asher said the reports were "grim reading"."When one out of five children don't have enough food to eat in Aotearoa New Zealand, that's a chronic, mass emergency. It's politically created distress."Systemic discrimination was behind Māori and Pacific families and those with disabled members being more likely than others to face the "toxic stress of poverty", she said.The Government's Ka Ora Ka Ako food in schools programme would assist, but familes simply needed more money to cover their essential costs, Asher said.The report also used pre-Covid data, meaning the next report could show further impacts."We need to see urgent, robust measures such as liveable incomes, so we can all be secure in the knowledge we are supporting families, not making their lives impossible," Asher said.Act Party leader David Seymour said the Government was letting Māori and Pacific chil...

We talk the latest COVID-19 news and the government's devolution of responsibility to anonymous cases in the community. In the second half of the cast we speak with Janet McAllister, spokesperson for Child Poverty Action Group, about the recent child poverty measurements released by Statistics NZ. With music from @the-prophet-motive

'Shocking and disappointing', Those are the words the Child Poverty Action Group are using to describe the state of child poverty in New Zealand following a new report from Statistics New Zealand. Over two years, the new figures show more children are moving out of poverty - but not quickly enough. Disabled children and Maori and Pasifika children are in urgent need of further support. Innes Asher is a spokesperson for Child Poverty Action Group.

The social security system is failing to prevent millions of families from experiencing poverty. Andy McClenaghan is joined by Sophie Howes, Head of Policy at the Child Poverty Action Group and Kerri Prince, BASW Public and Political Affairs Lead, to discuss Universal Credit, the two-child limit, the £20 uplift and what all this means for children and families across the UK.

The co-author of a recent Child Poverty Action Group report Caitlin Neuwelt-Kearns speaks to The Panel.

The government is being accused of not moving fast enough to overhaul the welfare system - despite its focus on lifting children out of poverty. The Child Poverty Action Group has just released a stocktake of progress on the 42 key recommendations of the Welfare Expert Advisory Group, which was charged with advising the government on possible reforms. But stocktake co-author Caitlin Neuwelt-Kearns told RNZ social issues reporter Sarah Robson they found that none of the main recommendations have been fully implemented.

Child advocates are slamming the Government for its "unjustifiably slow" action on welfare reform, with a new report finding just four of 126 recommendations have been fully implemented.And it found none the 42 key recommendations made by the Welfare Expert Advisory Group early last year have been achieved almost two years later.The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) said "urgent systemic transformation" was needed for the Government to fulfil its promise of welfare overhaul and urged it to do more than "incremental tweaks".The group today released an audit of how the recommendations made by the advisory group in February 2019 had been implemented and found it had delivered "remarkably little"."Children cannot wait for more resources, as their minds, emotions, bodies are constantlydeveloping and are often permanently adversely affected by toxic stress and lack ofessentials," the report said."Our inadequate and ineffective welfare system continues to entrench poverty forchildren. The stress for these children and families not only has immediate adverse impacts for their wellbeing, but has lasting effects on their lives and society; downstream costs in areas of health, education and justice alone are huge."Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni said it could take upwards of 10 years to implement the welfare advisory group's recommendations. Photo / Mark MitchellThe stocktake found four of the 126 detailed recommendations had been fully achieved, seven of the 42 key recommendations had been adopted with a further 12 "minimally" implemented.And there was no evidence of any implementation at all for more than half (23).The 11-person panel of academics, social advocates, economists and business leaders was appointed in 2018 and tasked with conducting a wide-ranging review of the welfare system.After the advisory group recommended an extra $5.2 billion a year for social welfare, with an immediate increase in main benefits ranging from 17 to 47 per cent. At the time Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni said it could take upwards of 10 years to achieve and embed.But the report's authors, Innes Asher, who served on the Welfare Expert Advisory Group, and Caitlin Neuwelt-Kearns, said a 10-year timeframe for welfare reform was "unreasonable and inappropriate" given the scale of urgent need.And there appeared to be "little urgency" in the last government's approach, they said."There is immediate severe need, and children cannot wait."The Child Poverty Action Group says the Government is making only "incremental tweaks" to the welfare system. Photo / Getty ImagesCPAG was among the 53 organisations which penned an open letter to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern urging her to raise benefits by Christmas but she ruled it out.The group today called on Labour to honour its election promise to "continue overhauling our welfare system" beyond its commitment to let people earn more in paid work before their benefit starts reducing.Labour's $1 billion election promise also committed to restoring an allowance for sole-parent beneficiaries going to university.It identified the areas it saw as in the most urgent need for attention:Increasing benefits, lowering the abatement rates in Working For Families and establishing a minimum income standard.Ensuring disability supports were adequate because none of the recommendations for children affected by disability had been implemented.Amending the Social Security Act and ensuring that the welfare system fulfils theprinciples of this amended Act.Accelerating public housing development becausethe current rate of building was insufficient.Change the rules so that relationship status has less effect on someone's income entitlement.The report said increases in the 2018 Families Package and the 2020 benefit increase of $25 per week were "steps but inadequate to meet the income needs of children and their whānau and families"."With the Labour Government now in its second...

The Child Poverty Action Group is dismayed the government is not moving fast enough to lift New Zealand families out of poverty. It's been nearly two years since government-appointed experts called for an overhaul of the welfare system, but a new report shows the vast majority of advice has not been taken up. Innes Asher is a Professor Emeritus at The University of Auckland and co-authored of the report. She speaks to Corin Dann.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says she disagrees with some of the findings of a report that has found most of advice from the Welfare Expert Advisory Group (WEAG) has not been taken up. The new report, from the Child Poverty Action Group, found out of the WEAG's 42 key recommendations none have been fully implemented, seven have been partially implemented, 12 have been minimally implemented and 23 have no evidence of implementation. "There are elements of what the Child Poverty Action Group has said that that I just disagree with," she told Morning Report. Ardern told Morning Report the government had done plenty to improve welfare and pointed to the general benefit increase of $25 a week, the winter energy payment and family tax credit increases as examples of what has been done. The WEAG had suggested an increase of 47 percent, but Ardern said the government had said at the time it noted that was not something it could do.

Anti-poverty campaigners are urging Labour to move fast and use its massive electoral support to forcefully tackle inequality. The Child Poverty Action Group is one of several advocating for the new government led by Child Poverty Reduction Minister Jacinda Ardern to immediately raise income support. Campaigner Janet McAllister says benefit levels are so low they lock many children into severe poverty. She speaks to Corin Dann.

Today on the Wire it is our final week of election coverage and we're looking at human issues.  Karanama looks into the inequity faced by Māori in the healthcare, justice and economic systems in Aotearoa. He speaks with the Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson and the National Party’s healthcare spokesperson Dr Shane Reti about these issues.  Hanna talks to spokesperson for the Child Poverty Action Group, Janet McAllister, about whether the government’s targeted focus on child poverty has really made a difference this parliamentary term.  Jemima talks to Māori Party co-leader John Tamihere about Oranga Tamariki and the Māori Seats in Parliament.  To wrap up the show Jemima chats to University to Auckland politics lecturer Dr Lara Greaves about the Māori Electoral Roll and the Maori Seats and what impact they have on participation in elections. 

While Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has made tackling child poverty one of her main issues, measures of child poverty have largely remained stagnant since Labour entered government in 2017. Hanna spoke to Child Poverty Action Group spokesperson Janet McAllister about the construction of child poverty as a distinct category from poverty, and the extent to which it can be addressed in isolation.

In this episode, we speak to Alexandra McMillan, co-founder of the Legendary Community Club, a grassroots project delivering emergency food provision across Lewisham, London, and campaigning for systemic change alongside Save The Children, the Children Society and Child Poverty Action Group, to make sure that food banks become a thing of the past.Visit lovelouderproject.com for show notes and the full transcript.

Campaigners for 26 weeks of paid parental leave are now setting their sights on higher payments and more leave for partners.From tomorrow, a working parent will be able to get 26 weeks of paid leave, up from 22 weeks.Workplace Relations Minister Iain Lees-Galloway said that payments would be lifted by $20 a week, following a similar lift in payments last year."Our youngest Kiwis' first days are so precious and it's wonderful to give parents and caregivers that extra time with baby," he said.The extension in paid leave, which came after a law change in 2017, was spearheaded by 26 for Babies, an advocacy group associated with the Council of Trade Unions.Spokeswoman Fleur Fitzsimons said the milestone had taken years to achieve and was worth celebrating."When we started, I had two children. Now I have four. We've had marches to Parliament with pushchairs, Mother's Day cards for John Key, we requested Bill English not to use the financial veto."But the constant in this campaign has been the overwhelming public support from across the political spectrum."Members of the 26 for Babies campaign in 2012, near the beginning of a long campaign to extend paid parental leave. The milestone of 26 weeks' leave will be introduced tomorrow. Photo / Natalie SladeShe said the scheme still needed improvement. In particular, the group wanted the Government to lift weekly payments to at least the minimum wage.Parents can currently get $585 a week before tax, and the minimum wage is around $750 a week.Fitzsimons said New Zealand should also consider more flexible arrangements for partners."At the moment, partners get 10 days unpaid. We'd like to see that paid, but also the flexibility to allow both parents to take parental leave at the same time."Because we know that those first months of life are so precious and it's incredible support to have both parents around."Speaker Trevor Mallard holds baby Heeni during the debate on paid parental leave law changes in 2017. Photo / Parliament TVDespite the latest increase, New Zealand's paid parental leave is low by international standards.The OECD average is a year of paid leave. The United Kingdom gives parents 39 weeks of paid leave, including six weeks at 90 per cent of their income, and parents can split the leave.University of Auckland economist Susan St John said paid parental leave was "wonderful for those who could get it".She said only around half of New Zealand parents were entitled to paid parental leave, mostly because they were not in work before having their baby."It is still differentiating between the different situations of having a baby, which I don't personally think is valid. If you're looking after a baby, you are working, and it should be supported."St John, a founding member of the Child Poverty Action Group, said an overhaul of the welfare system - such as that proposed by the Green Party on the weekend - should consider more inclusive policies for all parents.The 26 weeks of leave will apply to families of babies which are born from tomorrow, or who had a due date of July 1 or later. It will cost around $81 million a year.Parents will also be able to work more hours while on parental leave without it being considered a return to work.Known as "keeping in touch hours", parents can do occasional paid work with agreement from their employer. The maximum number of hours will lift from 52 hours to 64 hours.It is one of a raft of changes taking place on July 1, which include petrol tax hikes, free apprenticeships, pay rises for ECE teachers, and the lifting of the refugee quota.JULY 1 CHANGES• Paid parental leave lifted from 22 weeks to 26 weeks• Petrol excise rises by 4 cents (to 70c/litre)• Road user charges for diesel and heavy vehicles rise from $72 to $76/1000km• All apprenticeships and vocational courses in key industries become free for 2 years• 17,000 ECE teachers get a pay rise of up to 10 per cent• New Zealand's annual refugee quota lifted...

In this online launch event, Rita Griffiths, Fran Bennett and Jane Millar discuss findings from their new report, co-authored with Marsha Wood, 'Uncharted Territory: Universal Credit, Couples and Money'. They are joined by Nick Pearce and Chief Executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, Alison Garnham. Access the report via: https://www.bath.ac.uk/publications/uncharted-territory-universal-credit-couples-and-money/ This event took place on 22 June 2020.

What has the Budget 2020 delivered for child poverty. Georgie Craw, the executive director of Child Poverty Action Group talks to the Panel.

If this crisis reveals anything, it's the structural depths of inequality that scar our country and the lives of millions of people. Yes, COVID-19 impacts on everyone – but it impacts us differently. This week, our feature guest is Ruth Lister who has put the fight against inequality at the heart of her political life, from running the Child Poverty Action Group to campaigning for asylum & refugee rights. From her seat in the House of Lords, we hear Ruth's take on the present crisis, & our hopes of building a fairer society in the wake of this pandemic. It's Bloody Complicated is a new podcast series that features thinkers, politicians, journalists, and community activists from across the progressive spectrum, created by Compass which campaigns for a Good Society, now available on The Real Agenda Network. www.realagenda.org

Many parents have been longing for the the day the kids can go back to school following the lockdown. How are you feeling about sending your children back into the classroom? Over the last week, a number of old and offensive posts on Twitter have resurfaced. Many of them were written by influencers, artists and presenters. The majority of them contain abusive language towards dark skinned black women. Now the "court of public opinion" is calling for these individuals to be "cancelled". What's behind highlighting something some one said years ago? And what impact is it having on young black women online? . Despite having no experience of crofting or of island life, Tamsin Calidas moves with her husband from London to a remote island in the Scottish Hebrides. It’s idyllic, for a while but as the months wear on, Tamsin finds herself in ever-increasing isolation. She talks to Jane about beginning her journey back from the brink. Plus a report out today from the Child Poverty Action Group and the Church of England suggests that tens of thousands of families newly claiming Universal Credit because of the pandemic and shutdown will be affected by the benefit’s two child limit. It means that for claimants with three or more children only those born before 6 April 2017 will be counted in the benefit payment. We hear why they want the cap to be lifted. Presenter Jane Garvey Producer Beverley Purcell Guest Tobí Rachel Akingbadé Guest Bella Frimpong Guest Tamsin Calidas Guest Dr Emma Kell Guest Jonathan Ball Guest, Louise McGeehan.

If this crisis reveals anything, it's the structural depths of inequality that scar our country and the lives of millions of people. Yes, COVID-19 impacts on everyone – but it impacts us differently.  This week, our feature guest is Ruth Lister. Ruth has put the fight against inequality at the heart of her political life, from running the Child Poverty Action Group to campaigning for asylum and refugee rights.  From her seat in the House of Lords we hear Ruth's take on the present crisis, the state of Labour and our hopes of building a fairer society in the wake of this pandemic. If you'd like to take part in a live podcast recording, please join here: https://action.compassonline.org.uk/podcastSupport the show (https://www.compassonline.org.uk/podcast/)

When the early poverty researchers Charles booth and Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree visited the East End of London in the late 19th century, they found large numbers of people living in the most desperate poverty. Inadequate food and shelter and unsanitary conditions were commonplace for Booth, Rowntree, and their contemporaries. Measuring poverty was a relatively simple matter of counting the number of people engaged in a daily struggle to exist in the face of absolute hardship. Today, measuring poverty in developed nations has become a far more complex and contested matter. The struggle to acquire the basic essentials of food, shelter and hygienic conditions no longer exists on such a widespread basis.Indeed, it could be argued that it no longer exists at all in this country. But many people, including the UK government, and charities such as Oxfam, the Child Poverty Action Group, and the Resolution Foundation, believe that poverty remains rife in the United Kingdom.The UK defines poverty as disposable income that falls below 60% of the national medium. But imagine a country in which the national median income is a million pounds, someone making £590,000 a year might well fall below the 60% of the median average income, but that person would hardly be impoverished.Similarly, those making more $168, the actual median per capita income in Burkina Faso in West Africa, are no better off for their neighbor's poverty.So are we getting poverty measurements wrong? Is poverty relative, or is it absolute?Joining IEA Digital Manager Darren Grimes to discuss is Kristian Niemietz, Head of Political Economy at the IEA and author of the 2011 release 'A New Understanding of Poverty'.

On Newshub Nation:Jami-Lee Ross on the murky world of political donations and electoral reform.And the government champions its welfare reforms, but are they really fixing child poverty? We ask the Minister of Social Development Carmel Sepuloni.Outgoing Green MP Gareth Hughes reflects on 10 years in politics.In The Pitch, Louise Upston gets five minutes to convince you she’d do a better job than Carmel Sepuloni as Social Development Minister.And on The Panel, we are joined by NZ Herald Political Reporter Jason Walls, public relations expert and former National Party President Michele Boag, and Professor Innes Asher from Child Poverty Action Group.

More in our series looking at what wigs mean to a range of different women. Yesterday we looked at the experience of women who'd lost their hair through cancer treatment. Today we look at why wigs can be so political for black women. Mikai McDermott is a blogger and hair stylist and specialises in wigs for women of colour. Maria Edaferhoro chooses to wear wigs and believes there can be a stigma against them in the black community and Michelle Annan-Baidoo owns a hair salon in East London.The Sheffield-born poet Helen Mort talks about writing her first novel ‘Black Car Burning' about women climbers, polyamory and trust. What is the best way to care for a parent with early on-set dementia? A few weeks ago we spoke to Wendy Mitchell who was diagnosed with young on-set dementia at just 58 years old. Today we hear from her daughter Sarah about how she helps support her mum and the techniques they use to make caring easier. A new report on children from low income UK families highlights their experience of hunger, shame and social exclusion because of lack of money and food. Rebecca O' Connell lead author of Living Hand to Mouth published by the Child Poverty Action Group describes the stories she heard from the 11-15 year olds in the studyPresenter Jane Garvey Producer Beverley PurcellGuest Rebecca O' Connell Guest Mikai McDermott Guest Maria Edaferhoro Guest Michelle Annan-Baidoo Guest Helen Mort Guest Sarah Mitchell

The number of children living in poor households has increased slightly since the last survey, according to the latest figures from Statistics NZ.The number had been decreasing since 2015 but rose in 2018, leaving about 254,000 children in low-income homes after housing costs were deducted - up 0.4 per cent from the previous year. Meanwhile, 183,000 children live in low-income homes before housing costs were deducted.This was a 2.3 per cent jump on the previous year. With about 148,000 children living in material hardship.Child Poverty Action Group spokesperson, Susan St John, told Kate Hawkesby things like the Government's Families Package will help, but the full effects won't be seen until 2020.When the Government introduced the package, it estimated that by 2020/21, when the package is fully rolled out, some 384,000 families with children will be better off by about $75 a week. It is projected to lift the number of children living out of poverty by 64,000, or about 41 per cent, by 2020.However, St John said in the meantime families are struggling to make ends meet."The baseline figures...do not include any of the effects of what the Government has been doing with the Families Package."She said the figures focus on three different markers of poverty, two of which are income based and the other is material hardship."Those families simply don't have enough money...so they obviously need more money and that's what the government has tried to deliver with the Families Package, but the Families Package didn't start until July last year and we are not going to pick up the effects of that in full until 2020."St John believes the government is genuine in their desire to help children out of poverty, but she says there is still more that needs to be done."The Families Package was absolutely necessary because ether was such neglect for so long...so the Families Package needed to happen but it was just the start.""If you look at the figures that have just been produced, there are 170,000 children underneath the 40 per cent poverty line, which is extraordinarily low and really worrying," she said."The problem with the Families Package, is that it lifted those children a bit but not nearly enough, so it will take some children who are pretty close to the 50 or 60 per cent poverty line above those lines, but the families that are struggling the most are the ones that desperately need help."Susan St John said what is needed is significant increases in benefits, more increases for housing assistance and Working for Families tax credit."The Government will seriously have to look at making sure the low income families get the full Working for Families. Currently, because of its design the worst of children miss out of $72.50 a week."Other Families Package measures include:•An increase in paid parental leave from 18 to 22 weeks, and a further increase to 26 weeks on July 1, 2020•A rise in the Family Tax Credit and Working for Families abatement threshold, making 26,000 more families eligible, rising to 39,000 by 2020/2021•An automatic winter energy payment for beneficiaries, superannuitants and veterans pension beneficiaries. Those who don't want it can opt out•An increase in the orphans benefit, unsupported child benefit and foster care allowance by $20.31 a week.•Increases in accommodation supplement and benefits, announced by the previous National government.To check what you're eligible for, go to check.msd.govt.nz and www.ird.govt.nz

There are many myths about solo parents on the ’benefit’. These myths are perceptions that arise from stereotypes generated in public and private conversations. “Myths often appear highly plausible, and they may even hold a grain of truth. But they far from represent reality and can cause lasting harm. They allow the government and its welfare policies to be shielded from proper scrutiny and help explain why there is little public outcry as the safety net supporting many families and their children is progressively eroded.” Child Poverty Action Group 2013 https://www.cpag.org.nz/assets/Backgrounders/130402%20CPAG%20Myths%20and%20Facts.pdf Myths such as ‘the benefit’ is a lifestyle choice, or sole parents are teenagers who can’t be bothered working, are very damaging.In fact the majority of sole parents are between the ages of 25 and 64, and have had jobs, but need to be at home with their children for varying reasons. Just over 12% of sole parents are men. In 2013 there were 234,000 children growing up in families on benefits and it is estimated that in New Zealand that one in two mothers will have spent some time on the ‘benefit’ by the time they are 50. Read more myths and facts at the link above.In 2017 the Labour Government announced a Families Package which has helped beneficiaries a great deal but unless we change the attitude of people generally, there will always be resistance against an empathetic government.Housing is a huge issue for solo parents as Chantelle describes in the interview. Constantly having to move house puts families under stress and if children are constantly having to move schools, it disadvantages their education.Chantelle Campbell grew up in West Auckland, where she still resides with her two sons. Chantelle has been raising her sons as a sole parent and has gained a Bachelor of Social Practice while her boys were younger, and now practices in the community as a social worker and community developer. Chantelle is passionate about human rights, social justice and easing the challenges that sole parent families face. This has led Chantelle to founding, “Inspire Up Trust”, a charitable trust to support sole parents families to reach their full potential. The e-mail for the trust is inspireuptrust@xtra.co.nz Financial support is required to get a web site up and running for the trust. Please e-mail if you can contribute. The two Facebook pages mentioned in the interview are “NZ Single Parents” and “Separation and Sole Parent Support”.

It’s 'Our Place’, to do our thing. Kiwis can put quality-made programmes up on the site. He says it asks of Kiwis “What are you going to DO with this new resource? You can MAKE things with this. You don’t have to ask permission” . At 6.24, Bryan explains the problem with our current NZ media: a producer has to go through the gateways of the commercial television channels who really are trying to assess your programme on the one question of : “How big an audience can you bring to the commercial gaps?”. It has always been thus. And if you’re good at that, then they will buy your next programme. It’s not about how good a programme is, it’s about what kind of audience? and how big will it be? to cater to the advertisers in the commercial gaps - and it all comes down to producing money instead of quality. At 7.16, Bryan says the main channels are going to self-edit. They re not going to take a programme that is not going to fit well with their sponsors. The other side of it is we tend to think of government- funded broadcasters as being more independent, but that is not true either, because they are not going ‘to bite the hand that feeds them’ and stand up to their government money-source. If mainstream media gets money from a business, then that piper calls the tune. At 7.46, Bryan explains that the idea for this came up about 3 years ago when he walked out of TVNZ one day having had it explained to him that his programme on health was probably going to get lots of ratings but “Really we’re not necessarily into the business of doing programmes in the public good. They have to be commercial because we might sell ourselves off one day” . Bryan walked out of that building and thought: “ Well, if these guys aren’t going to do NZ public television, maybe I can.”. Bryan registered a company called ‘NZ Public Television Ltd”, and he talked to friends: “ If you were starting television today, you wouldn’t do it in the way that the BBC told us how to do it all those years ago - no big dishes, sky satellites, large building. How would we do it today ?” At 8.43, he says the answer is clear: we’d use the World Wide Web. And how would we put our programmes up? When Bryan talked to servers , they had gleeful visions of making lots of money out of this being a version of Netflix. But Bryan instead saw it as a bus station. You, the viewer, come to NZPTV to be pointed in the right direction of a programme that someone else is hosting on Vimeo or YouTube or other sites. So NZPTV is a curator of quality programmes with NZ content. And at 9.13 he says the producers and their websites - the people who own the copyright to their own work- will be acknowledged . At the same time, NZPTV will also make its own programmes and put those up on NZPTV Vimeo and direct viewers to that content also. So Vimeo might be the host of a programme but NZPTV will direct traffic there. At its core, the aim is to work out how to make cost-effective television and then also make it a People’s Channel which says - Look , you might see Bryan Bruce or others doing an introduction but it’s not his channel, it’s OUR channel. NZPTV will also help producers. Bryan says he has been to see NZ on Air and asked how many eyeballs a week does NZPTV need for independent producers to be able to be funded to make and put their programme up on this new platform. “ They couldn’t tell me” he says. At 10.07, he says “ This is a new world for them !” NZ on Air don’t know what the numbers might be so NZPTV will educate them on what the numbers CAN be. At 11.30, Bryan talks of his own motivations in programme making: “ What I try to do in a programme is say “ Here’s a problem. How did we get to this? Let’s unpack it a bit and look at some solutions”. That’s where hope arises - rather than leave people in a dark place with overwhelming negative story-telling “ When he made ‘The Investigator’, each case involved some element of The Law that needed further examination - for example- David Tamihere was identified while wearing handcuffs outside the courtroom . Was this a correct identification? And what are the rules for identifying someone? The Defence said this was unfair. The Court allowed it- so now there are new rules that apply to each of us. At 13.20 Bryan says when making a programme it’s important that you’re not just doing ti because ‘crime rates’. Why are you upsetting people and going through all of this misery again for the families that were involved for no good reason? At 13.39 Bryan says he encourages producers to ask ‘Why am I making this? What is the outcome I want to have from it?”. At 14.41 he says the question we all need to ask is “ Who owns the media now? Who owns the way that our attitudes and our opinions and our thoughts about life are formed?” . The Big Questions to ask are “ Who -How-What -Where- Why”. He says those questions are often not being asked in journalism today. “ It worries me. I watch reporters ask very simple questions - even , are you having a nice day ?”. At 16.14 he says he sees Free Media and True Democracy as connected . At the start of the last century, the total number of people you could address verbally was on a street corner through megaphone. But the end of the 20th Century, you could address the whole world through the various media and now with the internet, you can reach places that don’t even have broadcast facilities but have telephone lines. At 17.01, he says “ If you can control the means of talking to people, whether for your private ends or for the government’s ends, that’s a lot of power. That’s actually a means of accumulating power. And now what NZPTV does is give the power BACK to the People and says “ YOU are in control of the stories” . At 19.05 he says this is a Wake Up. it’s more than just a channel. “ We’ll grow as much as the People want to do it. My call is out to independent producers. Our gateway is much wider than any of the public or private broadcasters. You can come to us with a programme provided that it is professionally made , something you might see on a commercial channel in terms of its quality of production. For example, if you have made a programme about the TPPA or Water Issues, and you’ve done your homework and kept to the Broadcasting Standards Authority issues of fairness and balance . At 21.04 he explains balance in the context of his programme 'Jesus, the Cold Case' which was criticised because Bryan talked to certain theologians but not others. He says that the ‘balance’ is that, on any given day, a viewer can turn to the Christian channels and hear the opposite view. It’s equally so for NZPTV, which would make sure that, with a controversial programme, then somewhere there is the counter view shown, or NZPTV itself would run the counter view so the viewer could see both sides. At 22.00 he says that it’s not true to say there are NO editing gateways to go through, but they relate more to the legal ones- you cannot defame people , and if it’s an argument for one viewpoint, it must be well though out , or if it’s science-based, it must be peer -reviewed. But at 22.19, he says NZPTV is not going to say to a producer “ It doesn’t quite fit with our sponsors” (because there are no sponsors of the channel)- or “It doesn’t quite fit with our ‘brand’ “ (which is commonly heard in Mainstream Media ). In fact The NZPTV ‘Brand’ is Independence ! “ If it fits with that, we should have it “. At 23.23 Bryan underlines that “ If we don’t hold on to life rafts like this , we’re all going to drown”. At 24.19, he says public education has taught questioning and yet we have a media that tried to manipulate popped who are actually very intelligent . “ I’m always amazed at the wisdom that comes out of people from whom, at face value, you wouldn’t assume that wisdom”. At 24.50, he gives an anecdote from a programme he made called “Stand By Your Man’ about three women whose partners had committed major crimes. “ And she said “ They never fixed his drug and alcohol addiction - and that was his problem” And you’re just about to move from this interviewee, when suddenly they come out with this absolutely insightful gem about what we’re NOT doing for men or women in prison. We’re not addressing the issues that have led to them being IN there!” At 27.55 Bryan outlines that one of the ways that governments gain power over us is: if they don’t collect data on, for example, how much Chinese money is coming in to the country, then they can pretend it isn’t a problem. No one knows! “ Oh”, they say “ it’s all just anecdotal. You’re just bashing the Chinese”. Bryan says "NO! I’m saying: let’s collect the data! You’re giving away visas to very wealthy people - gold visas. If you have ten million you can buy a residency in our country . But what are these people DOING for our country ? And where is that money going ?”. And the answer comes back from the government: “I’m sorry we don’t know because we don’t follow the money trail” . At 29.10, Bryan suggests that one of the roles for NZPTV is to encourage independent producers to pick a topic, investigate it, and bring us the data that the government is not collecting because it’s' inconvenient ‘. “ The last thing that governments want is inconvenient truths”. At 29.58 he says that if you DO your homework and collate the data, then policy changes” . At 30.23 he talks of the effect of his programme ‘Inside Child Poverty” which went out on TV3 the week of the election in 2011. "There was a debate about whether it should have been screened in election week, driven by right wing commentators like Sean Plunkett who said Bryan Bruce should not be funded to make programmes like this! Then a marvellous thing happened. The National Government which had initially said “ This is made up by a left wing journalist”, then started to change its tune and admitted “ Well it might exist but we can’t measure it”. Then the Children’s Commissioner Russell Wills said “ Ok, I’ll get a group off academics together and we WILL measure it” They put out an amazing report. It could not be ignored any more. The word “child poverty’ became part of our vernacular. And by the NEXT election it was an election issue” . So Bryan uses this example to say that this is what we can do as media people: we can investigate, we can collate data, we can inspire people. He credits The Child Poverty Action Group with inspired him to make the programme . He says they had been doing their work for years and he thought “ Well maybe I have few skills in terms of taking complicated things and trying to make them understandable - and that was my role. Something like 580 thousand Kiwis watched that programme and then the Public started asking questions. I had offered the programme to TVNZ and I seem to remember someone saying “ Who’s going to watch a programme with ‘Poverty’ in the title?” ( and 580,000 viewers is up there with All Black fixture numbers in terms of ratings ) “ . At 33.17, Bryan says NZPTV is not competitive- but rather, co-operative. “ We could make a programme that is of great public interest and make it in a dynamic way. We could take the online rights and a mainstream media outlet could take the broadcast rights. That would be an adult way of dealing with different kinds of distribution “ At 34.48, Bryan says it’s no accident that one of the longest running programmes in this country is called ‘Fair Go’. He feels that deep down, most Kiwis believe in a fair go and many of felt terribly betrayed by 1984 and the adoption of Neo Liberalism and being told it was the only way we could go. “ Well it wasn’t. there are about 30 different kinds of capitalism in the world and if you look at what happened in Scandinavia, they took a deep breath and paused - and then they adopted certain elements ONLY. They fenced off policies to do with children, the elderly and housing, and then they said they would allow OTHER policy to be more entrepreneurial . Whereas in New Zealand , the government said “ ALL of that is wrong and this new evangelistic way is right, and there is now only ONE way to do this”. Bryan cites David Lange’s book which shows he later realised this was the worst thing he did. In fact, he may not have fully understood it and “ To be fair, I’m not sure that many of us understood it at the time. I certainly didn’t” says Bryan. “ I did up one house and sold and got a better house. What I didn’t think about was that 20 years down the track, other people’s children would not be able to afford a house because of what I was doing - and many of us were doing. We were just doing the best by our families and we were encouraged to think that that’s what you should do. Even Roger Douglas may have thought he was doing the right thing. I’ve never spoken to him. I’d like to interview him. But the reality is; it WASN”T the right thing. It created a HUGE inequality. When the National Party came in afterwards and created The Mother of All Budgets under Ruth Richardson, then ALL of the childhood diseases that relate to poverty, skyrocketed. And that’s nothing to be proud of. That should have told anybody who had social concern that there is something fundamentally wrong with this economic system that is creating this.” . From 40.30 in, Bryan discusses the structure of NZ Public Television. At 50.09 he says one of the way it will benefit producers who have good product, is that they give that programme to NZPTV for free for 7 days and then it goes to the ‘Pay Per View’ section . But all that money goes directly to the producers, not to NZPTV. (This is also a reminder to viewers to check the weekly offerings on NZPTV as there is a brisk turnaround of programmes). At 53.07 Bryan says the whole idea of New Zealand Public Broadcasting is to return to an early idea of television: namely , using it to communicate with one another , to talk to each other. To find out more, go to nzptv.org.nz or sign up to Bryan Bruce on Facebook.

Institute of Historical Research The Politics of Poverty: The Child Poverty Action Group, 1965-2015 Dr Ruth Davidson (King's College London) Voluntary Action History seminar series

The President of the Child Poverty Action Group, Baroness Ruth Lister, gives an insight into poverty research in the UK.

Frank Field’s entire career has been concerned with improving the lives of those worst off in society, initially as Director of the Child Poverty Action Group, and for the last thirty years as MP for Birkenhead. The new Coalition Government has now asked him to lead an independent review on poverty and life chances. The Review will look at how we measure poverty in Britain today - whether low income alone constitutes poverty, and if not what are the other aspects of poverty, and how they are measured - what the key determinants of good life chances are - taking account of the importance of a child's development before attending school and how good influences at this stage of a child's life can best be embedded in society.