2. Child Poverty—Definition and MeasurementMETIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green) to the Prime MinisterChild Poverty—Definition and Measurement2. METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green) to the Prime Minister: Ka tū a ia i runga i te mana o ngā kaupapa here katoa o tāna Kawantanga?[Does he stand by all his Government's policies?]Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister): Yes.Metiria Turei: Does the Prime Minister still believe as he said in this House yesterday that it is better and more effective for the Government to set individual targets on components of child poverty rather than a specific child poverty reduction target?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Yes.Metiria Turei: When the Prime Minister talked yesterday about the Better Public Services targets like rheumatic fever and early childhood education did he know that the expert advisory group on child poverty provided a comprehensive list of 51 child poverty - related indicators including both of those?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Yes but that is exactly the point is it not? Last week the member was saying that the target should have 17—today she seems to be saying it is 51. For the last while she has been saying that the number of children is 360000 and then she said yesterday that she wanted to accept that the Government's number of 85000—or at least 60000 to 100000—was correct. She is all over the map and that is the point. The Government is far better to approach—Metiria Turei: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. He has not addressed the question and has instead talked about a Green Party position which he has no authority over.Mr SPEAKER: Order! No. When the Prime Minister rose to answer the question he addressed the question immediately. He certainly has gone on to enlarge on that answer which is probably unnecessary but he certainly answered the question immediately. Metiria Turei: When the Prime Minister committed to his Government using individual indicators and targets to address child poverty did he mean that he would adopt the expert advisory group's recommendations for a comprehensive list of child poverty - related indicators? Rt Hon JOHN KEY: What the Government did—and I think quite correctly—was to say that poverty is a very complicated issue but that there are some individual component parts that if the Government focuses resources on and gives attention to can make significant gains. We are doing that in terms of rheumatic fever. We are doing that in terms of the number of children being immunised. We are doing that in terms of the number of children having access to early childhood education. We are doing that in terms of the number of teenage pregnancies with young mums on the equivalent of the domestic purposes benefit. I think it is far more sensible for the Government to approach this issue in a systematic and thorough way dealing with each of these issues rather than the member spending as she wants to her lifetime dreaming up some dodgy number that she knows is wrong. Metiria Turei: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. That was an unnecessary and personal attack—Mr SPEAKER: Order! I could not hear correctly what the point of order is. Metiria Turei: I take personal offence at that personal attack on my integrity and I ask him to withdraw and apologise.Mr SPEAKER: I do not think that the final part of the answer was helpful to the order of the House; I accept that. But I hardly think it was a personal attack on the member.Metiria Turei: So will the Prime Minister expand the Better Public Services targets to include all of those other indicators that experts have said contribute to child poverty such as household crowding infant mortality self-harm and suicide by children and serious skin infections?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I doubt we would have an individual Better Public Services target for each one or there would be so many individual targets that it might lose some of its meaning. All of those issues are on the Government's radar and all of them are getting attention.Metiria Turei: When the Prime Minister is refusing to establish official measurements of child poverty and also will not set targets for a comprehensive list of child poverty - related outcomes is he not really telling the country that he will avoid any attempt to identify to measure or to reduce child poverty in New Zealand? Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Quite the opposite. This is the first Government in the history of this Parliament that has had a list of Better Public Services targets and has been quite happy to be measured against them and has set those targets in quite challenging areas. The Government produces a raft of different measures and reports in relation to poverty and income including the longitudinal study by Bryan Perry which shows that income inequality is not getting worse. The reason the member does not quote it is that she does not like it because it does not suit her arguments.Metiria Turei: So what has changed since 2012 when the Prime Minister said: If you don't measure monitor and report on things I don't think you can make progress."?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Absolutely nothing and that is why the Government has these individual targets and has a range of different measures. But it is not this Government; there has been longstanding advice from officials that one single measure of poverty in this country would be an inappropriate way of dealing with it."