A nation with poor children is a poor excuse for a nation.
That's the message from film maker Bryan Bruce whose documentary Inside Child Poverty: A Special Report screened last night.
It showed families living in third world like conditions, something Mr Bruce says politicians need to change and change quickly.
Labour Party leader Phil Goff says his party tried to take a bipartisan approach to help New Zealand’s children twice during the National Government’s tenure – but were turned away both times.
Mr Goff says his party’s policy is “almost a blueprint” of the exact changes Mr Bruce is calling for.
“We’ve gotta make sure that every one of our children has a right automatically to healthcare without the income of their parent depending on the quality of that care,” he says.
“We have to lift the level of home insulation in housing across the board, there has to be requirements on landlords and if need be assistance to upgrade the level of insulation so every child has a warm household.”
He says the party also wishes to bring in a Minister for Children.
Mr Goff says poor parenting is an issue “in a minority of cases” but lack of income, decent housing and access to healthcare is the biggest barrier.
“This isn’t the country that we dream about, the country that’s a great country to bring up our children, [it’s] good for many of us, but it needs to be good for all of us,” he says.
Click ‘view video’ to watch the full interview.
3 News