Child poverty in New Zealand has been front of mind for the Diocesan Social Justice Committee this year, with the economic fallout from COVID-19 pushing more children and their whanau into poverty. We are asking people to write to Members of Parliament to highlight this issue...

What's The Problem?

As a nation, New Zealand has a surplus of food. We need to challenge the systems and structures that allow so many of our children to go hungry.

The Social Justice Committee urges parishioners across the Diocese to write a letter to their local MP, or to Jacinda Arden as Prime Minster and Child Poverty Reduction Minister, Grant Robertson as Finance Minister or Carmel Sepuloni as Minister for Social Development and Employment, asking for real and meaningful action to tackle child poverty in New Zealand.

In the lead-up to the election, Jacinda Arden said “I’m not done on child poverty” but the new government has ruled out any benefit level increases this year. With Christmas rapidly approaching, the gap between families who struggle to make ends meet, and those who do not, will only intensify. While there are many things we can do at an individual level, the scale of the problem requires urgent government intervention.

Earlier this month, a number of organisations, including the Child Poverty Action Group, the Social Justice Group of the Auckland Anglican Diocese and the New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services wrote an open letter on child poverty to Jacinda, Grant and Carmel. 

What Can I do?

The Social Justice Committee asks you to add your voice to this call for action on child poverty by writing to your MP. Writing to your MP need not be daunting or time consuming. A short personal letter that expresses concern about child poverty keeps the issue in front of MPs and shows them that the public wants to see change. Or add your MP to your Christmas card list: as well as offering Seasons Greetings you could express the hope that 2021 will be a year of action for child poverty. The more people who write, the more powerful the message.

There are lots of online resources that can help...

• If you want to learn more about child poverty in New Zealand, the Child Poverty Action Group website has lots of resources, statistics and other information: https://www.cpag.org.nz/
• The Better Public Media website has some helpful tips for writing to an MP. For greatest effect, they recommend personal letters sent by mail rather than cut-and-paste letters, or an email. The good news is, you do not need to pay for postage to parliament. https://betterpublicmedia.org.nz/get-involved1/letter-your-mp
• The parliamentary website covers the nuts and bolts of writing to your MP: https://www.parliament.nz/en/get-involved/have-your-say/contact-an-mp/

An example of one (video) resource from the Child Poverty Action Group follows: 

“I am angry and grumpy” – As last speaker of the day, economist Susan St John gave an immensely quoteable yet in-depth tour of why she has cause to be cross (exhibit A: the government’s WEAG report burial) as well as giving a warning to commentators (ensure recommended ideas are not just ‘soft and fuzzy’ but rather robust and defensible) and some solutions - a tax on net equity would sort out the ‘mess’ of the rental market: “Housing is the inequality elephant in the room”.