The Government’s attempt to justify why kids living emergency motels are not in material hardship is desperate and insulting, National’s Housing spokesperson Chris Bishop says.

“The suggestion by the Prime Minister’s office this morning that many of the kids living in emergency motels and cars wouldn’t count as being in poverty because ‘their household housing costs are less than private rentals’ is disingenuous spin designed to mask the Government’s embarrassment over its failures on social housing and child poverty.

"There are 4000 Kiwi kids waking up every morning in a motel room. As presenter Melissa Chan-Green rightly pointed out on AM today, a family of five living in a one-bedroom motel room is hardly living the life.

“The Prime Minister's office's logic suggests that child poverty would actually decrease if the number of kids in motels increased, which is clearly ridiculous.

“It’s a total insult to the kids waking up every day in cars and emergency motels for the Prime Minister, who is responsible for child poverty, to suggest that they’re not in poverty simply because they don’t live in private rentals.

“To rub salt into the wound, the Prime Minister’s office also suggested that the kids living in emergency motels and cars are ‘well within the margin of error’.

“These kids appear to be nothing more than a statistical inconvenience to this Government.

“Under the Prime Minister’s watch, there are over 4000 kids waking up every morning in motel rooms and around 200 kids living in cars – a quadrupling since this Government took office promising to reduce homelessness and poverty. Instead, the problem has got far worse.

“Rather than attempting statistical gymnastics to disguise the grim reality of the lives of thousands of children, the Government needs to face up to its failures and do something about them.”

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