The Children's Commissioner has slammed the poverty rates for Māori, Pasifika and disabled children calling them "totally unacceptable".
Even though the Government is on track to meet its own targets, structural barriers like racism and ableism mean some groups of children are in danger of being left behind.
The Child Poverty Monitor's latest technical report was released on Monday morning, collecting statistics from numerous sources to paint a picture of how bad many Kiwi kids have it.
The report showed alarming statistics about poverty and material hardship for children in New Zealand.
More than 25 percent of Pasifika children face material hardship - living in a household that can't afford six or more essentials including having enough to eat, fresh vegetables, and warm clothes.
Twenty percent of Maori and disabled children live in poverty and 11 percent of all children in New Zealand are experiencing material hardship.
The Children's Commissioner Frances Eivers told the AM Show on Monday, even though the Government has met its targets and that the rates in New Zealand have improved marginally by one or two percent from the report last year, the details around the groups who aren't meeting targets are "totally unacceptable."
"What this report does this year is focus on the details relating to those groups who aren't meeting targets," she says. "While the Government has met the target overall in terms of the measure when we look carefully at the details, the poverty rates, the hardship rates for our Māori, Pasifika and disabled children are totally unacceptable."
Eivers said it will take a lot of hard work to undo "generations" of issues that have caused the problems we are seeing today.
"I guess from where I'm sitting as the Children's Commissioner, we don't want those statistics, we want them to keep on moving and maybe one would say they aren't moving quickly enough but there is a lot of work to be done on poverty," Eivers tells the AM Show. "There are generations of many factors that have built up over generations that have caused this and it's going to take a long time to pull it back but we need to do the work and we need to do it now."
It is not just specific groups that are struggling in New Zealand. The overall statistics for all children show that 13.8 percent live in households with low income (living in households with incomes below 50 percent of the median, without deducting housing costs), 18.4 percent live in households with low income (living in households with incomes below 50 percent of the median, after deducting housing costs) and 11.3 percent of children are in material hardship.
The Children's Commissioner said racism is to blame for the big disparity between Māori, Pasifika and other ethnic groups.
"That actually comes straight from the children," she says. "If you look at the report you will see that we went out and spoke to all young people, mokopuna - all children of New Zealand - and that is one of the things they identified, which is why I said that.
"It's more about inequities across all systems. We have a western model but we are moving into a new space now. For example, the social welfare system was set up almost 100 years ago, it's no longer operable in 2021.
"Things like that need to change. It's about the inequities in all of these systems that we have that help our people, especially those that need help on lower-income.
The Children's Commissioner said something drastic needs to change if the Government is going to meet the 2028 target levels.
"On all main measures we track, Māori, Pacific and disabled children are bearing a much greater burden from poverty and hardship," Eivers said when the report was released. "Unless something dramatic changes, poverty rates for these children will not reach the target level.
"Just over 11 percent of all children are experiencing material hardship on current data, but for Pacific children, this is just over 25 percent, and about 20 percent for both mokopuna Māori and disabled children. This compares with just under 9 percent for Pākehā children.
"While rates across the board were lower than the previous year, the proportion of Māori, Pacific and disabled children in hardship is so high that a much more targeted effort will be needed to get anywhere near the goal.
Eivers said even though progress has been made, more still needs to be done to undo all the issues caused from decades ago.
"This is not to deny there has been progress," she says. "After decades of tolerating high rates of child poverty, Aotearoa now has strong foundations for making progress for children.
"Benefit and wage increases are making a difference, the school lunch programme is reaching more than 200,000 children.
"We want to see Māori, Pacific and disabled children experiencing these lower rates of poverty too. They face a history of barriers caused by racism, colonisation and ableism that get in the way of them living their best lives. We want to see a greater effort to understand their real lives and needs and speed up progress for these children."
Save the Children New Zealand’s Advocacy and Research director Jacqui Southey welcomed the findings of this year’s report but says more needs to be done to ensure every child around the country lives in a household with enough to thrive.
"Sadly, some groups of children are not seeing the same lift and are still too far behind their peers," Southey says. "The Government needs policies specific to Māori, Pasifika and disabled children to ensure they are not being left behind.
"Children with disabilities have the right to expect the same standards of living and opportunities as their non-disabled peers, it is essential we recognise these rights and do much better as a nation for our disabled children and their whānau.
"Ensuring every child lives in a family with an adequate income means they are likely to have improved school attendance and achievement, better health outcomes, and reduced food insecurity.
"The impacts of these challenges will be felt in Aotearoa New Zealand well into the future if we don’t put in the effort to get it right for our kids now."
