4 Jul 2008
For reasons of equity Child Poverty Action Group does not support proposals to introduce income splitting as a means of assisting families with the costs of raising children. With the greatest benefits going to those on the highest incomes CPAG believes income splitting's cost and complexity cannot be justified.
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29 May 2008
CPAG Economist Dr Steve Poletti found little in the Budget to prevent NZ's lowest family incomes from slipping further behind others as an economic slowdown appears.
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16 May 2008
Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) encourages the Finance and Expenditure committee to consider the impact of this Bill and the associated policies on low income and vulnerable families and their children.
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28 Apr 2008
Edited by Dr Susan St John and Donna Wynd, and written by a range of experts this report outlines how increasing inequalities are harmful to children and society at large - and what to do about it. Download the executive summary here, or write to admin@cpag.org.nz to request a copy of the full report (~180pages). Suggested purchase price is $25 - for those able to afford it. Most important is that our information gets to where it needs to go!
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16 Apr 2008
Kate Green, Chief Executive of CPAG UK, gave CPAG NZ her vision of how to go about "that ambitious, admirable and entirely achievable goal : to end child poverty in rich countries, for every child, for good."
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24 Feb 2008
CPAG presents ways to improve consumer protection in the financial sector - the lack of which must carry a share of the blame for the worsening economic position of children.
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18 Feb 2008
There is now an opportunity to further change the environment in which smoking occurs through banning retail display stands of tobacco. Smoking disproportionately affects the most disadvantaged groups in society.
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8 Feb 2008
CPAG's Claire Dale says New Zealand does not need to continue to be a place where unaffordable credit is the only kind always within easy reach of families without enough income to live on.
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4 Feb 2008
CPAG outlines some ways in which tax cuts could actually benefit the poor: There is an urgent need to reform the income tax structure to make it more progressive. Tax reform needs to redistribute the tax burden, rather than reducing the overall tax burden, which is not high by OECD standards.
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31 Jan 2008
Donna Wynd says coming to grips with some of the larger economic forces to which your family will be subject over the next year can be daunting. She gives some pointers on what to look out for in 2008.
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8 Jan 2008
Rotorua People's Advocacy Centre's new report finds that sole parents are often in relative poverty and have real difficulty getting a good work life balance whether they are in paid work or not. It calls for less punitive abatement rates of benefits.
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15 Nov 2007
CPAG made a submission to this review in support of the introduction of a sinking lid policy on pokie machines, not simply a cap.
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31 Aug 2007
In the European Journal of Social Security, Susan St John and others show ways in which policy can protect populations against child poverty. "The idea that child poverty is unacceptable enjoys strong support, yet progress is at best slow if there is any at all," the Journal finds. Read the introduction by Sinfield and Pedersen here. Order copies of the Journal V.8 #3, Sept 2006, from www.intersentia.com
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18 Jun 2007
Will you be better off with Kiwisaver? Only if you don't need the money now to pay off debt or feed the family. And the more you earn the more you can get. Think of it as redistribution up the income ladder, writes CPAG's Donna Wynd in the Workers Charter.
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15 Jun 2007
Housing affordability in New Zealand is the lowest it has been since the 1980s. CPAG believes the “ownership society” must be about more than superannuation savings; it must also include the ability of low- and middle-income New Zealanders to put down roots in stable, cohesive neighbourhoods.
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17 May 2007
Charmaine Pountney told CPAG's Budget Breakfast she'd like to see NZ take the lead in breaking the cycle of child poverty, illness and underachievement through targeted empowerment of families based in schools as community centres.
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17 May 2007
Dr Susan St John shows how measures to lift children out of poverty could have taken top priority in Budget 07 - as published in the NZ Herald.
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20 Apr 2007
Dr Nikki Turner told a UNICEF forum in February that to improve child health indicators we must reduce social and economic inequities affecting children and review all government policy for its effect on them, especially the most vulnerable. Read a summary of her presentation here.
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26 Mar 2007
CPAG supports full repeal of Section 59 of the Crimes Act, because it currently provides a legal defense for assaults on children which is not available for assaults on adults. Children deserve equal protection under the law. Download supporters flyer here.
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22 Mar 2007
Donna Wynd evaluates the National Party's new-found concern for the poor in the latest edition of the Workers Charter - and finds evidence of a prevailing idea in John Key's party that "governments can’t do anything right, and the private sector can’t do anything wrong."
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