Cry me a river. Nothing liberates tears of frustration like the rising incidence of child poverty and its siamese twin; child abuse. Despite decades of kicking the can down the road, neither successive Governments nor legions of researchers can claim a modicum of success in identifying a solution. The latter group, in tandem with advocates for the most ‘at risk' demographic (Maori children) rarely stray from their default position 'send more money”.
Nobody has demonstrated the political courage to cross the cultural Rubicon and confront what is arguably the major driver of child poverty: industrial-strength birth rates legitimised in the guise of ‘culture'. Maori leaders - most notably, Tariana Turia - stubbornly stick to the line that 'every child is a taonga (treasure) so keep ‘em coming”. Irrespective, that is, of financial circumstance.
When herculean birth rates and lilliputian budgets collide, children cannot get out of the way. Today's taonga swiftly becomes tomorrow's irritation with all the dark implications that brings. Child poverty, in a New Zealand context, needs re-thinking. The discussion, more accurately, should be around poverty of the parental, political and cultural mind - where common sense went out for the day and never came back.

Peter Bullick, Bethlehem.