Hello John, 

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I want New Zealand to be the best place in the world to be a child. It’s an aspiration I’ve held for a long time. It’s one of the reasons I entered politics back in 2008, and it’s why from day one, our Government has worked hard to lift children out of poverty and make life a little easier for many Kiwi families.

As I look back on the past three years, I’m proud of the progress we’ve made in such a short space of time. Problems like child poverty are complex and often decades in the making. They require a range of approaches to tackle them. In the shorter-term we’ve rolled out practical support to help families immediately, like creating the winter energy payment and best start, increasing the family tax credit, increasing paid parental leave and introducing free lunches in schools. We’ve also introduced laws such as the Child Poverty Reduction Act, with the aim of turning around New Zealand’s record over the longer term.

These policies have already lifted thousands of children out of poverty. But I know there’s more to do. As we recover and rebuild in the wake of COVID-19, Labour is committed to ensuring no one is left behind.

That’s why we will support low-income families and individuals now and into the future and that’s what my colleagues Carmel Sepuloni, Andrew Little and Phil Twyford all highlighted today, when they announced a series of policies focussed on Labour’s commitment to invest in our people.

Our policies set out the next steps in our plan to support Kiwi families and remove the financial barriers holding our whānau back from a better future. It builds on the work already underway to grow opportunities and incomes for families, and I know it’ll make a real difference for thousands of children across New Zealand.

In case you missed the announcements, here’s what we’ve committed to:

• We’ll help sole parents retrain and upskill by covering costs like childcare and course materials while studying, by expanding the Training Incentive Allowance. This will mean more people can afford to get the skills they need to get into work, which is especially important as our COVID recovery and rebuild picks up pace.
  
  
• We’ll incentivise paths into work by enabling people to keep more of what they earn without their benefit being reduced, by increasing the abatement threshold to $160 a week. For some people, this could mean an extra $3000 in their pocket each year.
  
  
• We’ll progressively extend Living Wage guarantees to contractors to the public sector – such as our cleaners, caterers, and security guards.

Together, these changes will mean better long-term outcomes for more Kiwi families: fewer barriers for training, more opportunities for employment, and more money in people’s pockets. Ultimately though, over time this policy will mean fewer children growing up below the poverty line, and will take New Zealand one step closer to being the best place in the world to be a child.

You can read more about the announcements here and here.

Of course, we’ve only been able to make progress on the tough issues like child poverty because of the voters that supported Labour at the last election in 2017. I’m relying on your support again this year to return a Labour Government so we can continue our work to build the kind of country our children and theirs can be proud of. If you think that aim is as important as I do, please give two ticks to Labour on 17 October.

Until then, thank you for all your support - it really means a lot.

Let’s keep moving!

Jacinda Ardern