MP to take letters to 'Dear John'

Northern Advocate reporter Jessica Roden discusses the "Dear John" campaign with Whangarei MP Shane Reti.

The ideas and comments of people in Northland concerned with child poverty are heading to Parliament.

Following a call by Prime Minister John Key for fresh ideas to tackle the issue, the Northern Advocate ran a campaign called "Dear John".

We wanted to take the voice of the Northland community and put it in a public forum. Northland leaders who at the coal face of the issue wrote letters about how they thought child poverty should be tackled and those were published in the Advocate.

Next Monday Whangarei's National MP Shane Reti will take the "Dear John" campaign to the Prime Minister's office.

On being presented with the campaign, Dr Reti raised a point that underlines what the Northern Advocate was trying to do.

He said the Government did not have a monopoly on good ideas. "We need the community to come up with the ideas too," he said.

Many of the comments from people approached to write letters, and online readers, charged that Mr Key wasn't going to do anything about child poverty.

Some even cited a 2012 report by the Children's Commissioner that had given 78 recommendations to reduce child poverty that the Government had not acted on.

We hope like hell they're wrong and this does lead to action.

Child poverty is a very real and tangible issue in New Zealand, and particularly Northland.

One comment received last week said we should not be complaining because if we wanted to see real poverty we should go to Africa.

Yes, there is a huge amount of poverty in Africa. But it shouldn't be a point of pride that we're not as bad as Africa. If even one child is living in poverty in New Zealand that is one too many.

That should be the Government's new policy.