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Supplementary Order Paper No 20

No 20

House of Representatives

Supplementary Order Paper

Wednesday, 21 March 2018

Child Poverty Reduction Bill

Proposed amendment

Hon Alfred Ngaro, in Committee, to move the following amendment:

Clause 29A

After clause 29, insert:

29A Child poverty-related indicators

(1)

The Minister must identify, and regularly report outcomes with regard to, a selected number of child poverty-related indicators.

(2)

The child poverty-related indicators referred to in subsection (1) include 1 or more outcomes in any of the following areas:

(a)

household material conditions, including housing conditions and parental employment:

(b)

education and child development:

(c)

health, including mental health and disability:

(d)

dependency on the State, including welfare-related measures:

(e)

community safety, including reductions in crime rates and physical and sexual abuse:

(f)

any other indicators as may be appropriate.

(3)

The Minister must set 1 or more targets for each of the indicators identified in subsection (2), and each target may apply for any time period of up to 10 years.

Explanatory note

This Supplementary Order Paper inserts new clause 29A into the Child Poverty Reduction Bill (the Bill) to require the Minister to set targets in a number of specific areas.

National is committed to reducing child poverty, achieving tangible results, and promoting policies that are evidence-based and that we know actually work.

The previous National-led Government set ambitious targets and the most recent Child Poverty Monitor by the Children’s Commissioner in December confirmed that National made real progress in the past year, through a number of policy initiatives, in reducing the number of children living in material hardship. National is keen for policy settings in this area to remain on the right track.

Through our Better Public Services targets, the previous National-led Government changed the behaviour of the Public Service, not just by setting targets, but by creating a step-change in the way the Public Service goes about getting results.

This is why this Supplementary Order Paper makes the Bill broader and more ambitious.

It includes a requirement for the Government to set targets for selected child poverty-related indicators to tangibly track the progress the Government is making towards reducing child poverty. These targets should be precise and will provide a measure for the Government to mark itself against at every step.