Northland's kids worse off

Photo / Michael Cunningham

Unicef report paints grim picture of child poverty in NZ

Northland social leaders say more kids in Northland are worse off than ever despite an international study finding child poverty rates nationally had stagnated.

A report released by Unicef found the rate of child poverty in New Zealand had dropped by just 0.4 per cent between 2008 and 2012. During the same period Australia reduced child poverty by 6.27 per cent.

The report, titled The Children of the Recession, also found youth unemployment in New Zealand had increased as had the number of families without enough money to buy food.

President of the Te Tai Tokerau Principals Association, Pat Newman, said he thought Kiwis would be ashamed and appalled if they saw the level of child poverty in Northland.

"I have no doubt that if you just talked Northland alone, we would blow those figures out of the water," Mr Newman said.

While for most people New Zealand is a great place to live, increasingly more families were living in poverty, he said.

Health promotion manager for Manaia Primary Health Organisation, Ngaire Rae, said the Unicef report backed up previous reports and her own experience.

"My take, really, is that things are getting worse," Ms Rae said.

Incomes of poor families need to increase and there needs to be cross-party co-operation on child poverty, she said.

"We just need leadership. We just need national policy solutions."

Convenor of the Child Poverty Action Group in Whangarei, Sherry Carne, said children in the region were suffering more than the report reflected.

"I suspect that it will be worse," Ms Carne said. "In Northland it's always worse".

The report should reiterate to the government that it needs to change the way it approaches child poverty, she said.

"For me it really just confirms that children are suffering the most," she said. "But nothing happens until there are actual targets around it."

Last week Prime Minister John Key rejected suggestions a food-in-school programme would reduce child poverty, a sentiment Mr Newman agrees with.

"It's reasonably logical that the needs are not always food," Mr Newman said. "Some don't need food but they need help other ways."

Schools should be given a fund by the government that is set aside to meet the individual needs of poor families, he said.