Latest / Best of Business / Louise Upston: Child Poverty Reduction Minister on the Government failing to meet targets for reducing child poverty

Transcript

Louise Upston: Child Poverty Reduction Minister on the Government failing to meet targets for reducing child poverty · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from Newstalk zed B. Follow
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Child poverty stats out today basically flat for twenty three
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: twenty four. The figure show from stats n Z seventeen
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: point seven percent of all key we children were in poverty.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: That's based on household income after housing costs have been paid.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Material hardship that was just over thirteen percent. Target for
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: the government was nine percent. Loise Ubstance, the Minister for
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Child Poverty, who's with me, High Minister, Good afternoon, Ryan.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: You happy with that?
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: Of course not. I mean, no New Zealander wants to
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: see children in poverty and unfortunately it reflects the very
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: challenging economic conditions we've had for the last few years.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: It's interesting, isn't it, because Labour's come out today and
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: said you've got the minimum what you know, you guys
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: didn't increase the minimum wage enough. You didn't you did
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: the indexation with the benefits. But really, when it comes
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: down to it, this is about economic growth, isn't it.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: And it's about inflation.
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: Absolutely so if you look at the cost of living,
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: we do know that those on the lowest incomes are
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: hit the hardest with the cost of living, so why
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: we've made really good progress in the last year. These
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: statistics are for the thirtieth of June twenty four and
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: we still know that there are some families the cost
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: of living is still affecting them. The ocr drop yesterday
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: takes a while for that to flow through and for
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: families to really feel it in their household budgets. So
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: we're a little way off yet. I know that's frustrating,
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: and it's just recognizing we've had very tough economic times,
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: but we as a government do not shy away from
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: the challenge. One of our three priorities for children and
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: young people is to reduce material hardship, and that's what
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: we will continue to work towards.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Do you think that that'll happen in the next round, Well,
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: what we do know is.
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: That a growing economy provides greater opportunities for people and
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: does have an impact on material hardship. I can say
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: that confidently because when National was last in office in
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: the years from twenty thirteen to twenty seventeen, we reduce
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: the number of children in material hardship by fifty six thousand.
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: That is possible when the economy is growing and there
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: are opportunities for people to be in work and to
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: be earning higher wages.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: How to argue with that minister? Thanks for your time,
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: Louise Upston, who's the Minister for child poverty. The result
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: not great, but the driving force is growth. So we
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: need a bit of growth and we need to get
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: rid of inflation, which, hopefully, according to the Reserve Bank,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: we've done.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: For more from News Talks at b Listen live on
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: you go with our podcasts on Irradio