### ODT Online Tue, 28 Aug 2012
Universal child benefit a ‘dopey’ idea: Key
Prime Minister John Key has dismissed as “dopey” a recommendation from a panel of experts that a universal child payment should be reintroduced as a way of reducing child poverty. The expert advisory group brought together by Children’s Commissioner Dr Russell Wills to find solutions to child poverty released its recommendations today.
Group members include AUT accounting expert James Prescott, Major Campbell Roberts of the Salvation Army, Professor Ritchie Poulton of the Dunedin School of Medicine and Philippa Howden-Chapman, a public health expert.
Among [the group’s] recommendations for the longer term was a universal child payment for under sixes. The payment would be highest while the child was a baby, when costs were high, and would decline through childhood. Co-chair Dr Tracey McIntosh said the payment was about ensuring children had the best start in life. “Investment in the early years has a particularly strong link to better outcomes for disadvantaged children”.
Read more
Download report and related documents here:
http://www.occ.org.nz/publications/child_poverty
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### ODT Online Sun, 26 Aug 2012
Child poverty costs country $6b a year: report
Child poverty is costing New Zealand $6 billion each year, according a new report commissioned by organisation Every Child Counts.
Every Child Counts chairman Murray Edridge defined poverty as children missing out on needed goods and services including adequate housing, nutrition, warm clothing and healthcare.
Manager Deborah Morris-Travers told TVNZ’s political programme Q+A 25 per cent of children in New Zealand are living in poverty. She said it was concerning to see how poverty affected different ethnicities with 40 per cent of Pacific Island children and 27 per cent of Maori children living in poverty. The report, “1000 days to get it right for every child – the effectiveness of public investment in New Zealand children”, released this week, examines initiatives from the Netherlands which could be applied here. APNZ
Read more
Download report here:
http://www.everychildcounts.org.nz/news/1000-days-to-get-it-right-for-every-child-poor-child-outcomes-costing-the-nation-billions/
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Household Incomes in New Zealand: Trends in Indicators of Inequality and Hardship 1982 to 2011 (Aug 2012)
Download report and related documents here:
http://www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/monitoring/household-incomes/index.html
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Related Posts and Comments:
17.2.12 Salvation Army: The Growing Divide
23.11.11 Last night, did John Key watch…(TV3): Inside Child Poverty
26.10.11 2011 Voices of Poverty: Research into poverty in Dunedin
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
What if? Dunedin... 
Minimum wage comes under further attack
The minimum wage of $13.50 has come under further attack today, with community organisations, churches and unions combining on the issue. Those groups have formed Living Wage Aotearoa New Zealand, which will be launched in Wellington tomorrow with a march.
http://www.ch9.co.nz/content/minimum-wage-comes-under-further-attack [article]
Bravo, Murray Kirkness – or whoever wrote today’s editorial ~!!!!!!
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### ODT Online Sat, 1 Sep 2012
Editorial: Changing the world
When it comes to inequality, it appears the more things change, the more they stay the same. Perhaps the lesson of at least some dead men, however, is that the required response is equally timeless.
His message detailed the plight of women and girls in the clothing industry, forced to work long hours for little pay in order to barely survive in slum conditions. Mr Waddell (who was later granted an honorary doctorate) placed the blame for sweated labour at the feet of everyone whose lust for cheap goods, he said, was pushing wages below subsistence levels. He was joined in his campaign by Otago Daily Times editor George Fenwick (later Sir George) and chief reporter Silas Spragg. In late 1888 and early 1889, Mr Spragg wrote a series of exposés confirming and highlighting the situation. Mr Fenwick used the newspaper’s resources and influence to bring the issue to public attention. The widespread concern it generated was such that the government established a Royal Commission.
Read more
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WADDELL, Rutherford (1849–1932). Presbyterian minister and social worker.
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/1966/waddell-rutherford/1
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/2w1/1
Have just read the facile comments of Cull The Ineffectual, attaching to today’s lead story in SST (see page A3 – Otago). As the (short-arsed) mayor, Cull says ‘there was a buzz in Dunedin as council consulted on a serious of future-proofing strategies’. Then stupid SST perpetuates the MYTH that the stadium cost only $200 million. FFS. PricewaterhouseCoopers’ forensic audit (2012) put the cost of stadium construction at $224 million, not including ‘exclusions’, SH88 realignment, debt servicing, etc. The media KNOWS THAT, given all council press statements and reporting! Doh.
WHAT ABOUT THE EXCESSIVE DEBT LOADING THAT DUNEDIN CITY COUNCIL AND DUNEDIN CITY HOLDINGS LIMITED ARE CARRYING — which is NOT about future proofing your future.
Cull is ALL LIES AND DECEPTION.
http://m.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/7586908/How-do-you-feel-New-Zealand
Did i just say that ?
That position of New Our Stadium Mayor Dave Cull brought to mind Don Regan, former chief of Merrill Lynch (whom Jonkey worked/works for), telling then President Ronald Reagan to “speed it up”. You see, I don’t think Dave is in charge anymore. He’s like a string puppet who is made to sing and dance and distract the crowds with empty words and a big, big smile… hmm, better make that Dave and John.
Quite.
Search engine term: is dunedin built on a sinkhole
### ch9.co.nz September 6, 2012 – 5:48pm
Serious poverty issues impacting upon New Zealand children
A new report shows there are serious poverty issues impacting upon the health of New Zealand children. The concerns were the focus of a high-powered panel discussion, which took place at the University. And the panel came up with some solutions which have already proven to be controversial.
Video
http://www.ch9.co.nz/node/31501
### ODT Online Fri, 7 Sep 2012
Challenge in overcoming child poverty
By Rebecca Fox
New Zealand had a great opportunity to make positive changes to eradicate child poverty but there were challenges to overcome, a seminar on poverty and child health was told yesterday. Dr Tracey McIntosh is the co-chairwoman of the Children’s Commission expert advisory group on child poverty. There was a “naturalised” response to the topic: that it was all about terrible parenting, Dr McIntosh said. This response needed changing, she said. “It’s an incredible shift that is our greatest challenge.” People who believed poverty was just part of New Zealand’s natural environment needed to be reminded it was a man-made situation, she said. “We made it, we can unmake it.” Dr McIntosh was part of a panel discussion for the seminar on Poverty and Child Health held in Dunedin yesterday.
Read more
### ODT Online Thu, 23 May 2013
NZ blasted over child poverty
New Zealand’s high levels of child poverty, violence against women and a proposed law affecting asylum-seekers have been criticised by a human rights watchdog. The Amnesty International Annual Report on the state of the world’s human rights highlighted the high numbers of Maori and Pacific children affected by poverty. Amnesty’s New Zealand executive director Grant Bayldon said the 270,000 children living in poverty, according to a 2012 Ministry of Social Development report, was “a stain on New Zealand’s human rights record”.
Mr Bayldon said New Zealand had signed up to international covenants on these rights but had not put them into law. Adding them to the Bill of Rights would provide a measuring stick for new laws and policies, he said. APNZ
Read more
### ODT Online Wed, 29 May 2013
Life good in NZ – except for the poor
By Andrew Koubaridis – NZ Herald
New Zealand has scored well in a global study in safety, education, community involvement and even health – but a big gap between the richest and poorest remains. The Better Life Index, released yesterday by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), places New Zealand close to the top in each of the 11 categories measured. APNZ
Read more
### radionz.co.nz Updated at 3:18 pm on 29 October 2013
RNZ News
Commissioner to do annual report on child poverty
Children’s Commissioner Russell Wills will publish an annual measure of child poverty, which he says is a world-first. The report, done in conjunction with the University of Otago, will be published annually for the next five years and will be underwritten by the J R McKenzie Trust at a cost of $100,000 a year. It will identify measures of child poverty in order to assess if it is getting better or worse.
Dr Wills says while the Government has done some good things on reducing poverty, including allocating more than$3 billion of new spending in the May budget, measuring child poverty was not addressed. He says the report will be the first of its kind in the world, and will be available to everyone and in a form that people can understand. “We want the public of New Zealand to look at this report so they can understand the impact of poverty on children and on their health, their education and their social outcomes, because that’s how we’re going to get real change in time.” Dr Wills says communities can help in reducing poverty.
RNZ News Link
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Originally aired on Nine To Noon, Tuesday 29 October 2013
09:09 Children’s Commissioner to do annual stocktake of child poverty
Jonathan Boston is the co-chair of the Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty, which has just released an update on progress since the group’s report in December which made 78 recommendations. The Government has rejected many of these including that there should be a new law requiring it to measure child poverty and set targets to reduce it.
Audio | Downloads: Ogg MP3 (24:27)
University of Otago
Otago study reveals persistent deprivation for NZ children
Wellington campus
Friday, 21 September 2012
A sizeable and “difficult to ignore” proportion of New Zealand children have experienced persistent low income and deprivation in recent years, according to a new University of Otago study using seven years of longitudinal survey data.
The researchers, Dr Fiona Imlach Gunasekara and Dr Kristie Carter from the Department of Public Health at the University of Otago, Wellington, used data from the Survey of Family, Income and Employment (SoFIE) and a sample of 4,930 children aged 0 to 17 years beginning in 2002, followed up until 2009. By 2009, the sample ranged in age from 6 to 23 years.
The results, published today in the New Zealand Medical Journal, show that 16%, or 765, of the sample of 4930 children in the survey experienced persistent low income. Persistent low income is defined as where (before tax) household annual income is less than half of the median household income during four or more out of the seven years of the survey. In 2002 low household income was defined as below $21,530. Seven years later in 2009, a household would need to receive less than $28,295 to be classified as low income.
http://www.otago.ac.nz/news/news/otago037454.html
John Key continues to want for a another rugby stadium in Christchurch, long before the social and housing needs are fully addressed in the community. I’m sure there are diehard fans who agree but I’ve yet to speak with a rugby fan who doesn’t find his position uncomfortable. The National ministers have turned out to be a nasty bunch of buggers. And let’s not forget his mouthpiece Hekia Parata who is hellbent on destroying public schools while their own spoonfeds attend private schools with much smaller classrooms. They wouldn’t have it any other way.
(Eds – PM backs Christchurch city asset sales and Four Christchurch schools to close are both available at The Edgar Daily Times but wasn’t sure if you wanted them linked.)
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{PM story posted last night on another thread. Links helpful for the items you mention at this thread, have added. -Eds}