Politicians challenged to be ‘courageous, not careful’ after ‘dark’ Salvation Army child poverty report

Salvation Army’s child poverty report shows some ‘pretty dark’ figures, including poverty rates being 50 per cent higher among Māori and Pasifika than European children, says policy analyst Ronji Tanielu

In the latest State of the Nation report, the Sallies said there was "rapid increase" of the number of children living in benefit-dependent households in 2020 — an additional 23,000.

“Unfortunately for a Samoan man in South Auckland, a lot of that hardship fell on Māori and Pasifika communities in lower income suburbs,” Tanielu said.

Tanielu said the “prophets of doom” Salvation Army had to be relentless in disturbing for change.

“Child poverty isn’t just a brown issue, or a left or right issue, a political issue as such. It’s a national issue. So we should be disturbed and disrupted by what’s happening here,” he said.

“We need to challenge politicians not to come up with careful politics, but courageous politics. That’s the whole point of these reports.

“We need more courage and boldness from our politicians.”

Tanielu also called on those in communities to take ownership of problems in their areas.

“It’s not just about raging against the machine of politics. There are also challenges without local communities as well. We need to own some of the problems in our local communities. There are local solutions as well.”