Green Party Plan May Save $6 Billion!

-



The Green Party has today launched a bold plan to bring 100,000 children out of poverty by 2014.

"One quarter of all New Zealand children are living in poverty. These are not nameless, faceless kids, they are our kids, and they deserve better," Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei said.

"Kids who live in poverty don't get the start in life they need and deserve - through no fault of their own. They don't get the essentials, so they miss out on the opportunity to fulfil their potential.

"Reducing child poverty doesn't just make humanitarian sense, it makes economic sense.""International research puts the economic cost of not acting to address child poverty at around 3 percent of GDP, or about $6 billion per year. Our solutions to bring 100,000 kids out of poverty by 2014 would cost just $360 million per year, less than 0.3 percent of GDP.

Mrs Turei said the Green Party had developed four solutions which, if implemented, would bring 100,000 New Zealand kids out of poverty in the next term of Government.
These solutions were: 1) make Working for Families work for every low-income family; 2) provide better study support for sole parents and beneficiaries; 3) raise the minimum wage to help working parents; and 4) make sure rental properties are warm and healthy for kids.

"Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour and making Working for Families fairer will give enough families the extra income they need to bring 100,000 children out of poverty just like that," Mrs Turei said.

"These solutions are so simple and affordable, there's really no excuse not to implement them.

"Providing better study support for sole parents and beneficiaries helps people to find a path out of poverty, and sets their kids up to stay out of poverty in years to come.

"And making sure we have warm, healthy rental properties helps to keep power bills down, leaving more for the essentials, and saves on health costs from the childhood illnesses associated with poor housing.

"These are easy, affordable, practical solutions that would make a huge dent in our shameful child poverty statistics, and make life better for hundreds of thousands of kiwi kids."

Mrs Turei said bringing 100,000 children out of poverty was one of the Green Party's top three priorities in 2011. The others were making our rivers safe to swim in, and creating thousands of new clean green jobs. The details of these plans would be released in the coming weeks.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The US is actually unique for not valuing life!

-
Image
"...that’s what sets America apart from every other country; we value life. That is what makes us unique.” - Sarah Sanders There is a high level of delusion operating in the White House. The stream of mistruths that come out of President Trump and Sarah Sanders' mouths are clearly blatant lies but millions of US citizens believe them. With daily diets of Fox News and living in a very insular culture , there is little that challenges these false perceptions of US "greatness".  When comparing the United States of America with most other developed nations it becomes clear that it probably places less value on life than most and doesn't compare well with many developing countries too: If the US really valued life then it would abolish the death penalty, it is the only Western Country that executes people under law ( 23 people were executed in 2018 ).  If the US really valued life then it would have an equitable and universal health care system. The cur
Read more

NZ, the Unethical Investor

-
Image
New Zealand is not wealthy in a global sense and our Government's investments would barely rate against many international corporates but our Crown Financial Institutions, like our $19 billion Superannuation Fund, do have a global impact. It is important that our money has a positive influence on the world and that we use reasonable diligence to ensure our investments are well vetted. Norway has a similar population to New Zealand yet it has taken a far more responsible approach to how it has invested its oil riches. Norway uses a Council of Ethics to closely evaluate its state pension fund investments against strict ethical guidelines. The guidelines are based on two premises. The first being that future generations will benefit from current oil wealth and that the return from invested funds are contingent on sustainable development in an economic, environmental and social sense. The second is a commitment that the fund should not allow a risk of investment that could contribu
Read more

ANZAC DAY REFLECTIONS

-
Image
I find ANZAC Day creates a dilemma for me, consequently I rarely attend dawn parades. I fully support people recognising the human cost of wars and remembering family members who lost their lives on battlefields. A grandfather of mine fought in WW1 and was gassed in the French trenches, which compromised his health for the rest of his life. His wife (my grandmother) lost her young brother in WW2. The sacrifices and human costs of war should never be minimalised. However, while speeches at ANZAC parades are full of statements promoting peace and the futility of war, those who campaign hardest for peace, promote nonviolence and call for weapons reductions are often treated like criminals. Anyone who dares to mention our own war crimes or that of our allies are generally shut down or demonised. It has become a sort of cultural heresy to question the reputation and glorification of the ANZACs.  I would love to see greater balance in how we talk about war and properly recognise those who ha
Read more