Some Northland children have been reduced to foraging for pig scraps by poverty akin to that of a Brazilian slum, according to a Kaitaia GP. And that doesn't surprise the Office of the Children's Commissioner.
Dr Lance O'Sullivan first made public reference to the story he had heard of three
Kaitaia children, aged five, seven and nine, eating pig scraps from a bucket in his Northland Age column in December.
At around the same time he had been called by a mother whose toddler had drunk a bottle of medicine he found in the fridge.
"The fridge was bare except for medicine bottles, half a block of butter and a small amount of milk and cheese," Dr O'Sullivan said.
"This child had not mistakenly come upon this bottle of medicine and got past the child-proof lid. This child was hungry, and in desperation had taken whatever was available to put in its puku."
Those incidents were at the extreme end of the poverty spectrum he had personally encountered, but he did not believe they should have happened in New Zealand.
"It's what you hear about in the slums of Brazil. We say we're a land of milk and honey, and we shouldn't accept one incident like this, let alone two in one small community," he said.
In some cases poverty was caused by irresponsible spending - providing welfare support in the form of pre-charged cards which could be used only for food was an "awesome idea," - but in others people simply did not have enough money for basic necessities.
Meanwhile the Office of the Children's Commissioner said child poverty was a top priority, and it had called on national experts in housing, welfare, business, employment and education to come up with a workable solution to put to the government. The report should be released in August.
Deputy commissioner Jo Cribb said she was not surprised by reports of children eating pig scraps because the office had heard about similar cases.
