More than a thousand people packed St Paul’s Cathedral in Wellington for a joint Roman Catholic and Anglican initiative to hear politicians address child poverty. 

Roman Catholic Archbishop John Dew and Anglican Bishop Justin Duckworth invited the Children’s Commissioner, Dr Russell Wills, and politicians to speak on child poverty in the leadup to the election.

Dr Wills said child poverty affected not just the poor but the entire country.

Calling for a plan for children, he said inadequate housing, debt, low incomes, alcohol and gambling harmed the young most of all.

Social pressure was the key to policy change, he added.

“To get a thousand people on a mid-winter’s night speaks volumes about what people care about, and the way these two denominations can collaborate in this way leaves me proud to be a Christian.” 

The crowd reminded Labour leader David Cunliffe of the Hikoi of Hope.

“You stood up in the Hikoi of Hope in the 1990s in the Anglican Church and now you are doing it again, this time as 260,000 children live in poverty,” he said.

“it is important for people of faith to do so.”

Archbishop Dew said references to children in the gospels did not reflect the image of children in New Zealand and that politicians alone could not solve child poverty.

It was up to the church to continue  working with programmes that address issues of child poverty in acts of daily solidarity, he added.

He believed the church needed to see child poverty as a theological concern, not simply a sociological, political or cultural issue. 

The speakers were:

The Hon Chris Finlayson, National: the Hon David Cunliffe, Labour;  the Hon Peter Dunne, United; Mr Hone Harawira, Mana Party; Ms Jan Logie, Green Party; Mr Mataroa Paroro, New Zealand First; and Ms Marama Fox, Maori Party.