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Campaign for a Budget to End Child Poverty Launched
Campaign for a Budget to End Child Poverty Launched
Grassroots campaigning group ActionStation
has teamed up with UNICEF, Child Poverty Action Group, NZ
Council of Christian Social Services, members of the the
Equality Network and Tick for Kids partners to launch a
petition calling on the government to take real action on
child poverty in Budget 2015 by treating all children
equally and boosting the incomes of the poorest families in
New Zealand.
“Since we launched in July last
year, ActionStation members have consistently ranked child
poverty in their top three issues of concern.” says
ActionStation National Director, Marianne Elliott. “So
we’ve teamed up with New Zealand’s leading independent
experts and advocates on child poverty to call for change
for our most vulnerable children.”
Child poverty
regularly topped pre-election polls as an issue of concern
to New Zealanders in 2014 and at the time all the political
parties assured voters that, if elected, they would take
real action to end child poverty in our country.
“The time for that action has come. says
Elliott, “In less than a month the Government will release
the 2015 Budget, and what our members want is a broad
political consensus, with support from all parties, for a
Budget that will end poverty for New Zealand children.”
“One in five children in New Zealand live in
poverty is not only a national crisis, but also an entirely
avoidable one,” says Elliott. “We know what it would
take to turn around the lives of hundreds of thousands of
New Zealand children living in poverty, and we have the
resources to make it happen. What we need is political
courage, grounded in strong public support, and that’s
where our members come in.”
The petition calls
on Prime Minister John Key, Minister of Finance Bill English
and Minister for Social Development Anne Tolley to ensure
that Budget 2015 treats all children equally, and boosts the
incomes of the poorest families in New Zealand, by extending
child-related tax credits to the poorest children, who
currently miss out. The petition will be delivered in the
week before the Budget.
Petition link: http://www.actionstation.org.nz/endpovertynz
More information and references: http://www.actionstation.org.nz/endpovertyfaq
ends
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