Te Pāti Māori's Takutai Kemp on Child Poverty, Welfare Reform, and Pacific Foreign Policy: April 3, 2023

For their weekly catchup, Hanna and Te Pāti Māori's Takutai Kemp revisited last week's kōrero on stagnant child poverty rates highlighting a need for transformative change. Today, they discussed what policies could achieve this, covering changes to employment law, taxing wealth, and removing GST from kai.

They then discussed welfare reform as another prong in addressing poverty, noting the shortfall in current benefit levels, the marginalisation of unpaid work in MSD's job-centric focus, and addressing claims that liveable benefit levels foster welfare dependency.

Lastly, regarding the recently signed Mauri Partnership with Vanuatu, they spoke about upholding the indigenous knowledge of other Pacific nations in the battle against climate change, how Aotearoa should operate in the Pacific, and indigenous approaches to foreign policy.