It Worked! The child poverty message got through and change happened.

16,000 voices helped build the pressure to lift incomes for the poorest families in New Zealand as the team of online activists at Action Station worked with UNiCEF, Child Poverty Action Group, Every Child Counts and NZCCSS to call for government action in the 2015 Budget to lift incomes for the poorest children and their families.

The first significant lift in benefit incomes for a whole generation (since the savage cuts to welfare benefits 25 years ago in 1991) was a welcome sign that the message about poverty is understood and the pressure on politicians to take action is growing.

quote (2)Maori Party MP Marama Fox received the petition on Parliament steps along  with MPs from the Green Party & Labour.

This is nothing more than a first step and much more is needed (see our article on Child Hardship) but it is also a recognition of many years of work from many groups consistently showing the harm that high levels of child poverty are doing to our children and to our society.

Please add your voice to the chorus for change, to lift incomes for the poorest and call for more action from those in leadership in our country.