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Alex Penk
Auckland, October 19, 2018
I was born at the end of Generation X and I grew up with a saturated pop culture of "Fear of Commitment", which is perhaps best characterized by Joey and Chandler in Friends.
So, when I heard the child poverty reduction bill described by an expert as an "engagement device" intended to materialize the attention we always pay to the Child poverty, I almost heard Chandler's voice: "Could this government be more determined to tackle the problem?"
In fact, I think they can.
Targets and Reports
Let me illustrate. Persistent poverty, which is stuck in poverty for long periods of time, is the most damaging, because over time, the disadvantages associated with poverty have a devastating cumulative effect.
The bill recognizes this and sets out official goals and reports on persistent child poverty, but they should not begin until 2025.
Frankly, I think it's too long to wait, and advancing it within that time frame was one of the major improvements we recommended when the bill was introduced, which was recently a report from one of Parliament's special committees.
Primary measures
Our brief was favorable, like "two cries for the bill". We like the way the bill creates a series of measures of poverty that will serve as official measures and definitions. Too often, supporters of all parties have been able to choose different statistics to denounce or minimize the problem to their advantage.
As income and hardship measures are ranked side by side as "key measures", this should be more difficult to do.
But we also indicated that there were ways to improve the bill to make it globally recognized. First, we said that the bill should include indicators related to child poverty, which measure the factors associated with the causes and consequences of poverty, such as housing, education and health.
This is because poverty is not just about income or wealth. For policies to make a difference in people's lives, they must be informed and guided by measures that include the complex mechanisms that lead to poverty.
We are delighted that the Special Committee has listened to us and others, and has recommended including these indicators.
S tackle the problem
Secondly, we stated that it was more urgent to tackle persistent poverty, which is also supposed to be a "main measure" of poverty.
This is important because the other measures "do not distinguish between people passing through [poverty]those who come and go and those who have languished for many years. This urgency begins with defining persistent poverty and collecting the data needed to measure it, ideally much earlier than 2025.
If this poses technical problems, we recommend adding a combined measure of low income and material hardship as a "primary measure", at least temporarily.
Inter-party support
The bill will be passed with the support of all parties and, with the addition of indicators, I would now like to express my congratulations for that.
But I would like to see the government take the final step, make the difficult but necessary commitment to take action that will attract attention and help those who need it most.
Alex Penk is managing director of the Auckland-based Maxim Institute.
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