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Greens co-leader Metiria Turei says advice that the Government should not spend any more money fighting poverty shows how demoralised and politicised public servants have become under National.
The advice was contained in the Ministry of Social Development's response to the Children's Commissioner's Expert Advisory Group's report into child poverty.
Ms Turei says the reports were kept under wraps until after the election, but they show officials told ministers what they wanted to hear rather than offering free and frank advice.
She says National has made it clear it is not interested in tackling child poverty, and it instead tries to blame the victims of its policies.
"Parents are being blamed all the time for the fact their kids are hungry and are accused of not making their kids their first priority. That exact same accusation can be made against National. They know there's hungry kids. They know they can fix that, they can do income stuff, they can feed kids at school, and they are refusing to di it because they don't consider kids to be a priority," Ms Turei says.
FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH METIRIA TUREI CLICK ON THE LINK
https://secure.zeald.com/uma/play_podcast?podlink=MjMyNzg=
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