Child poverty a 'poverty of integrity'

Flaxmere councillor Henare O'Keefe's (pictured at a rally in Flaxmere) received with rapturous applause when he spoke at an Auckland hikoi to raise awareness for child poverty. Photo / File

Hastings District councillor Henare O'Keefe urged politicians to get back to basics during a hikoi to raise awareness of child poverty.

His moving message about the harsh realities for low-income families was delivered following Saturday's march down Queen Street in Auckland, organised by The Child Poverty Action Group.

"It wasn't political rhetoric, I had no agenda, I was just telling it how it is," he told Hawke's Bay Today. "In my opinion this shouldn't be happening, there's no need for it, there's enough wealth in the world to go around."

The issue of child poverty has become a hot topic in recent weeks, but it has always been close to the his heart.

He relayed experiences of working with people who had nothing and asked central government politicians to prioritise the fight against poverty.

"There's a poverty of integrity," he said.

"Our children didn't ask to be born, it's our godly mandate to provide for them."

Mr O'Keefe believed a change in attitude from a political mindset was required to kick-start positive change.

"If we all had the benevolence to give freely, poverty would be sold overnight ... they need to think like a mother first and a politician second."

Maori Party candidate Marama Fox said poverty was "the issue", a problem which could only be solved with the efforts of every single New Zealander.

"I think for myself, and the Maori Party, children are the litmus test of policy in this country, but it wouldn't be an issue without family poverty, so that's what we are addressing. Children play no part but they suffer the consequences."

In order to transform lives, more emphasis had to be placed on initiatives such as the Whanau Ora policy, combining health and education with social services.

Creating jobs, not only those which offered employment, but fair pay, were also required to make a real change.

"The crux of it is there's not enough money in the hands of parents, the things like alcohol and drug abuse keep people trapped in the poverty cycle," she said.

"We need more jobs within the region, but also employers to take responsibility for poverty by paying real wages."

It wasn't enough to work on one area of child poverty agreed National's Tukituki MP Craig Foss, which is why Government had multiple services in place to offer assistance for those facing adversity.

"It's not as though enough is being done or not, a huge amount of resources are going into families who are living in poverty," he said.

The likes of Breakfast in Schools, wrap around systems such as ASD, supporting children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, and passing legislation which targeted loan sharks, were all steps toward a better future.

"There are always going to be some issues, they have been around for a long time and will be around a long time, there is a lot being done but there's still a lot more to do."

The Green Party's Henare Kani said the age-old issue of child poverty was now affecting a greater cross-section of society, making it more relevant than ever. "Most Governments are trying to address the issues of disparity. I think the issues are starting to touch non-Maori communities, that's starting to make people jump up and down. Maori communities are still at the bottom of the lot - child poverty has a huge impact on them.

"What I have noticed is there doesn't seem to be anything being done about it, with the Greens we are trying to take a wide angle approach, we want to up the taxes on people earning over $100,000 to 40 per cent to create a fund that will start addressing some of these things."

"It takes a village to raise a child," that's Labour candidate Anna Lorck's approach to lifting local people out of the poverty cycle.

"I want to see The Flaxmere social Housing project, which also wraps support and resources around our most vulnerable go ahead. I see this social housing initiative as the future to helping support and care for our most vulnerable across all our communities," she said.