To the so-called poverty issue.
The report actually uses the word "hardship".
Kids in hardship, roughly, is flat. About 14% of kids allegedly live in some form of hardship.
Hardship is often replaced with the word poverty. They are different things and, also, the measure of hardship is open to real inquiry.
The stats department interviewed 18,000 families and "hardship" is a house that goes without 7 of 18 necessities e.g paying the power bill on time, feeling cold etc.
Now, without getting too picky, a seven-year-old who lives in a house who's power bill is overdue has nothing to do with hardship, unless the power is cut off, which mainly it is not.
i watched a press conference last week with the Prime Minister and police and justice ministers on crime and the poverty question came up. You note the word they used was "poverty", not hardship.
The question, inferred as they so often do, was what the Government were going to do about it.
The answer was one of only three;
1) Is a Labour view, which is hand out more money,
2) A current Government view, which is grow the economy,
3) The answer that is rarely used - get the parents to pull their finger out.
My read of these stats is that given the number is steady at 14%, you are essentially dealing with the same people, many of whom are hopeless.
Under Ardern her personal project was to reduce child poverty. It didn’t happen. Under this Government it hasn’t either. So approaches one and two haven't worked.
There are rightly or wrongly (obviously wrongly) a group of people who struggle. Their circumstances will be little different to many who have it tough as well, but get by. They have kids that aren't in hardship but face the same fiscal issues.
It will be benefit related. It will be about decisions, about priorities, what bill gets paid first, how far down the food chain, literally and figuratively, are the kids.
Within the same fiscal envelope, some kids are fine and some will be a statistic.
That, sadly, is not the Government's real problem. Government's can only do so much. Sometimes parents might have to do a bit more and be a bit better.
The child, as always, is innocent. You don’t choose to be born to some of the parents who masquerade as parents.
But these stats tell a sad truth. I don’t think there is an answer.
Whether its 14% or 15% or 11%, there are no miracles.
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