Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei yesterday took her campaign to alleviate child poverty in New Zealand into the lion's den of Social Development Minister Paula Bennett's electorate of Waitakere.
Mrs Turei, of Dunedin, launched the Greens' policy to lift 100,000 New Zealand children out of poverty by 2014 at an estimated cost of $360 million over the next three years - 0.3% of GDP.
"We need to act now to take care of our children and bring them out of poverty - for their sake, and our own future," she said in an interview from Auckland.
Mrs Turei said there were 270,000 children in New Zealand growing up in poverty with two out of every five of them in the homes of working parents. The poverty "line" in New Zealand was defined at $14,000 a year after housing costs.
Reintroducing the training allowance would cost a maximum of $4000 a year for each person but provide overall savings of $10,000 as people with a degree spent six months less on a benefit.
"When I was on the DPB, I used the training allowance for child care so I could get my law degree. I was on the benefit for five years and have been independent ever since," she said.
The training allowance would cost about $40 million for 10,000 people but research had shown that if parents were well educated, they in turn had better educated children.
Policy's prongs
• Extending Working for Families to provide an extra $60 a week for 140,000 of poorest households in New Zealand.
• Providing better study support for sole parents and beneficiaries.
• Raising minimum wage to $15 an hour to help working parents.
• Ensuring rental properties warm and healthy for children.
