Children's watchdog laments "distressing" child poverty in New Zealand

A government plan to reduce the number of New Zealand children living in poverty is "well overdue," the official Children's Commissioner said Tuesday.

Setting targets and creating a plan were vital to prevent the entrenchment of a third generation of children in poverty, said Commissioner Judge Andrew Becroft on the release of the annual Child Poverty Monitor report.

"There is a suite of government measurements which are not impossibly complex. These measurements create a clear and distressing picture of child poverty - as set out in our monitor. Creating targets should not be beyond a modern, prosperous country such as New Zealand," Becroft said in a statement.

New Zealand already had one such target after signing up to the Sustainable Development Goals along with 193 other countries in September last year.

"These goals are little known to most New Zealanders. One goal is to halve poverty in all its forms, including child poverty, by 2030," said Becroft.

"To attain this goal within the next 14 years, we need a plan to reduce child poverty. The time has come to commit ourselves to real action."

While New Zealand's economy continued to grow and prosper, the 2016 Child Poverty Monitor showed there has been no real improvement in child poverty rates.

"We are in real danger of creating pockets of a third generation of ingrained poverty, which seriously impacts children's health, ability to learn and contribute to society. We can't accept that," Becroft said.

The monitor showed that 14 percent of children lived in material hardship, meaning 155,000 children were in households living without seven or more items from a total list of 17 items necessary for their wellbeing.

Another 8 percent were experiencing even worse material hardship with households missing out on nine or more items from the list.

More than 8 percent of children were in severe poverty, meaning 90,000 children were experiencing both material hardship and living in a low income household.

"This is not the New Zealand I grew up in nor is it the New Zealand most of us want. However you cut it, there are at least 85,000 children in this country who are living in very tough circumstances," said Becroft.

The government has persistently refused to set a measure of child poverty, saying it would be subjective and that the numbers of people moving in and out of poverty were too fluid to measure.

Opposition lawmakers and charitable groups backed the commissioner's call for setting targets and creating a plan to tackle poverty.

"How long do reports such as the Child Poverty Monitor need to keep highlighting this desperate situation before comprehensive action is taken?" Salvation Army social policy director Ian Hutson asked in a statement. Endit