Has Budget 2015 solved child poverty?

Abstract

The New Zealand public spoke and the pollsters listened: child poverty consistently ranks among the top concerns of New Zealanders (Levine, 2014). And the prime minister listened too. In September 2014, after securing a healthy election victory, he proclaimed that he was going to step in and tackle child poverty (Fox, 2014). The policy analysts in a range of government agencies were set a task: come up with a package for Budget 2015 that helps children in poverty, that doesn’t cost too much and that won’t reduce the incentive to work. This article will demonstrate that the policy analysts did the best they could with the brief they were given.