Turei Metiria: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Turei Metiria: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 29 August 2012. Volume:683;Page:4870. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green) 
: 
 This week there has been a lot of focus particularly from the Opposition on the issue of child poverty. It is very welcome. I understand from my communications with the community that people are very concerned about child poverty and very concerned about inequality and they want this House and the parliamentary process to address this. They want the Government to provide solutions and to make the choices that will put our children first in all the decisions that are made. What I have heard most is this great disappointment at the dismissive and arrogant attitude of the Government in relation to this issue. The community wants to see much better quality leadership than the National Government is providing to the country on this important issue. It shows that the National Government does not put children as a priority and that it is not prepared to engage in a rational and sensible debate on what can be done to resolve child poverty in this country. Child poverty is not a given in New Zealand. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! I apologise to the member speaking. I hate to interrupt a 5-minute speech but members interjecting across the House and in front of the member speaking it is so discourteous. I ask members to desist please. 
METIRIA TUREI 
: Child poverty is not a given in this country. It is not a natural condition and we do not need to tolerate any aspect of child poverty in this country. We can choose something different. We can choose to eliminate it by choosing where we put the resources of this country. 
There have been a number of reports that have come out over the last few weeks. The Every Child Counts report on  
The Netherlands Study 
 showed a very interesting comparison. In the Netherlands if you take an investment approach to children when they are very young you reap the rewards. New Zealand has a very low investment in New Zealand children something like half of the OECD average that is spent for those under-sixes. But in other countries where there has been significant investment in those little children and babies there have been significant cost savings and social savings as a result. We know that the cost to New Zealand of child poverty is in the range of $6 billion to $8 billion a year. That is a cost this country cannot afford. 
So why do we not then take some leadership and invest in the babies and the kids when they are very young? That is part of the sets of solutions that have been put forward by the Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty formed by the Children’s Commissioner. The Children’s Commissioner’s advisory group has produced a very comprehensive set of solutions that it is consulting with the communities on so that people can have an input into it as they want to do. But we need the Government to be taking it seriously and all we have heard since that report came out is constant derision at the solutions that are being proposed and no engagement in the practical aspects of them. 
One of the interesting questions is around universalism and I have asked a number of questions today and yesterday about this issue and will continue to do so. If we are prepared to say that older people are entitled to a life of dignity and a basic income to keep them out of poverty why do we not say that about our youngest babies? Why are our babies allowed to languish in severe poverty? Twenty percent of New Zealand’s children are living in severe poverty in this country and this Government chooses to allow that to happen. It chooses that because it refuses to engage with a discussion on how we can support those babies when they need it the most and support those families when they need it the most. 
The expert advisory group has suggested a universal provision until the children are aged 6—so investment in those little babies when they need it the most—and then targeted provision until those kids are 17. It is a rational sensible and modest approach to child investment. Yet this Government will not even engage in the discussion about where we choose to put our resources. New Zealanders make a contribution to this country every day through their taxes through their hours of community service and through all of the work that they do and they deserve to have a rational response back to them. They deserve to have services that assist them when they need them. The solutions that are provided in this report  
Solutions to Child Poverty in New Zealand 
 go a very long way to identifying those solutions and what can be done. 
What has the Government done? It has effectively thrown it away. It has been dismissive and arrogant in its response. There is still the opportunity for the Government to choose differently. There is still the time for the Government to take a considered view of this report to look at the solutions and to engage with political parties and politicians across the board with the community and with the experts to look at what is possible. We ask the Government to take this report seriously—