Hi John,  

This is going to be a long email, so I want to put the news right up top: Today, Stats NZ released the latest child poverty figures — and these figures show our work to reduce child poverty is making a difference.

More than 18,000 children have been lifted out of poverty — that’s the equivalent of 57 entire schools. Seven out of nine poverty measures have improved over the past year, compared to seven out of nine <[link removed]> getting worse under the previous National Government.

I’m really proud of this progress. Child poverty is an issue that’s really close to my heart, and it’s been a priority for our Government since day one. In fact, one of the first things I did as Prime Minister was set our team a challenge: to make New Zealand the best place in the world to be a child. 

Over the past two years, we’ve committed ourselves to this goal, delivering policies and programmes designed to turn around New Zealand’s record on child poverty. Under this Government:

- We’ve rolled out free and healthy lunches in schools to 7,000 students, increasing to 21,000 students over the next year
- We’re boosting the incomes of 384,000 families by $75 a week on average through the Families Package
- We’ve extended free doctor visits to all children under 14
- We’ve lifted the minimum wage to $17.70 an hour (and raising this again to $18.90 an hour from April)
- We’re indexing main benefits to wage growth, so families don’t fall further behind
- We’re easing the pressure on parents by scrapping NCEA fees, and increasing funding so most parents don’t have to pay school donations
- We’ve set child poverty targets into law, to hold governments now and in the future to account

We know that child poverty is a complex issue that will take time to fix, but today’s figures show that we’re moving in the right direction. 

Of course, there’s still work to do, and long-term challenges like child poverty won’t be solved overnight, but we’re committed to continuing this progress. 

Ending child poverty is the reason I first entered politics, and I’m really proud of what we’ve achieved so far. I hope you are too, and will support us as we continue to make the long-term changes needed to make New Zealand the best place in the world to be a child.

Before I go, I want to share with you a short video that shows our work in action.

The students at Flaxmere Primary School are among the 7,000 children receiving free and healthy lunches through the first roll-out of our new Lunches in Schools programme. Last week, I visited the school to see the impact firsthand — and here’s a look behind the scenes:

<[link removed]>

SHARE THIS <[link removed]>I’ll be back in touch soon with an update on other ways we’re making progress on the long-term challenges facing New Zealand. In the meantime, if you’re interested, you can read more about the latest statistics and our work to lift children out of poverty here <[link removed]>.
<[link removed]>

Thanks,

Jacinda




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