Mana | Movement of the People

11 June 2013, Ae Marika! Hone Harawira

It’s been a couple of weeks since government announced how it was going to deal with the problem of child poverty, and I didn’t want to raise it any earlier in case they came up with something else because what they announced was so pathetic that I thought that it was only stage one in a roll-out, but no … that was it, and quite frankly it was a joke.

In 2012 the Children’s Commissioner’s Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty released a report showing that 270,000 children in New Zealand are living below the poverty line and recommended a comprehensive government-funded food in schools programme for low-decile schools.

The Prime Minister’s solution is $1.9 million a year to extend the KickStart breakfast programme from 2 to 5 days a week, and the Maori Party instantly claimed it as a victory.

Putting that into perspective, you will recall that a few years ago, government bailed out a failed finance company to the tune of $1.7 billion (neat alright Maori Party). And this year, their statistics showed government saving more than $1 billion a year by slashing benefits to poor people (congratulations Maori Party).

But they’re spending less than $2 million a year on a programme that only reaches half the schools and feeds only some of the kids. In fact, the research we have done over the last couple of weeks shows that even when the programme is running at full throttle, tens of thousands of kids living in genuine poverty will miss out … and my old mates in the Maori Party call it a victory.

That’s sad, but that’s politics I guess.

What it means for me though is that I will push ahead with the Feed the Kids Bill because its focus is on ensuring that every child at every decile 1-2 school gets a decent breakfast and lunch.

I get the argument about feeding the kids being a parent’s responsibility and all things being equal, I agree with it. But the fact is that this country has been through some real tough times, and most of the pain our kids are going through hasn’t come about because of ‘bad parenting’. It’s been caused by economic decisions made at government level – asset sales, privatisation, finance company bailouts, low wages, huge corporate tax breaks and massive welfare cuts which have seen the wealth of the nation concentrated in the hands of the few at the direct expense of the poor.

A poll taken recently shows that most New Zealanders (70%) want the government to fund food in schools, not public-private partnerships. And that tells me that we’re on the right track. This is not Transmission Gully. This is our kids we’re talking about here. They deserve better and it’s our job to give it to them.

AE MARIKA is an article written every week by Hone Harawira, leader of the MANA Movement and Member of Parliament for Te Tai Tokerau. You are welcome to use any of the comments and to ascribe them to Mr Harawira. The full range of Hone’s articles can be found on the MANA website at www.mana.net.nz.