Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is rejecting claims her Government has done little to solve poverty among New Zealand's tamariki.
It comes after the Government's Welfare Expert Advisory Group made 42 recommendations in February last year, but none have been fully implemented.
This morning on TVNZ1's Breakfast, Ardern told John Campbell that recent benefit increases "do make a difference".
"It is not window dressing. You cannot tell me $7 billion of investment is window dressing," she said.
"Let's just acknowledge the progress, but no one is going to say that we're done yet because we're not."
Ardern said as part of the Covid-19 relief package, beneficiaries got access to a permanent $25 weekly increase to their benefit - a total cost of $2.8 billion.
"These are huge investments and we are making them but we have to, of course, at the same time make sure they stick.
"I don't want the things that we do as a Government the moment that we go, because politics is cyclical, for us to have a situation where the next Government comes in and strips everything away and we end up back where we were in the 1990s.
Andrew Becroft says things haven’t improved for children, in response to a new report.
"What I do, I want to stick. So when I talk about transformation, transformation isn't a three year change it has to be a forever change so I'm going to bring New Zealand with us on this and I'm going to make it stick."
Last week Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) spokesperson Innes Asher said bold and substantial action needs to be taken urgently to address child poverty.
Spokesperson Innes Asher says bold and substantial action needs to be taken urgently.
Ardern said her goals were the same as CPAG, but she disagreed with them in some areas.
"I absolutely agree these groups need to keep holding us to account. Not everything we are going to put in because I don't agree, for instance, with removing all sanctions from the benefit system, but some of it will also take us time."
Going forward, Ardern said the Government would move to make a difference to material hardship, which means being able to afford things like food on the table or go to the doctor.
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