More than 100 children, community leaders, iwi, businesses and supporters have gathered at Parliament with a challenge for politicians heading into Election 2026 — stop planning for children three years at a time.
Barnardos Aotearoa is calling for political parties to support the development of a Generational Plan for children, creating a shared national direction stretching through to 2050 and designed to survive changes of government.
The proposal would put children at the centre of major national decisions and establish long-term outcomes measured over decades rather than individual parliamentary terms.
Barnardos says children born in 2026 will be adults by 2050, meaning many of the decisions being made today will directly shape the country they inherit.
One in seven children in material hardship
The call comes against a difficult backdrop for children and whānau.
Barnardos says around one in seven children is growing up in material hardship, while a similar proportion is growing up in homes affected by violence.
The organisation argues challenges such as poverty, housing, family violence, education, health and wellbeing are interconnected but are too often addressed through separate programmes and short-term government strategies.
Its proposal is based on a different approach.
Instead of beginning again every three years as political priorities change, Barnardos wants Aotearoa to agree on where it wants children to be by 2050 and work backwards from that destination.
Put every major decision through a child-first test
At the centre of the Generational Plan would be a simple principle.
When governments make major decisions, they should consider what those decisions will mean for children now and for the generations that follow.
That could potentially change how decisions are considered across portfolios extending well beyond the traditional children’s sector.
Housing policy affects children.
Tax and welfare policy affects children.
Healthcare affects children.
Education, transport, climate change, employment and family violence policies all eventually shape the environment in which tamariki grow up.
Barnardos wants those connections considered together rather than managed through separate government silos.
A plan designed to survive governments
The politically ambitious part of the proposal is its longevity.
Barnardos wants all political parties to support the overall 2050 vision and make an in-principle commitment to developing the plan.
It is calling for the detailed Generational Plan to be developed during 2027 with children, whānau, iwi, communities, businesses, philanthropy, NGOs and government.
The organisation ultimately wants political agreement capable of binding successive governments to continue progressing the plan.
Individual governments could still have different ideas about how outcomes should be achieved.
But the destination would remain consistent — an Aotearoa where every child has the opportunity to thrive by 2050.
Tamariki and mokopuna Māori must be central
For Māori, a generational approach carries particular significance.
Many of the challenges facing tamariki Māori are already measured across generations.
Housing deprivation, poverty, health inequities, educational outcomes, family violence and interaction with the state care and justice systems cannot always be separated into individual policy problems.
They frequently overlap within the same whānau.
That makes the involvement of iwi, hapū, Māori organisations and tamariki Māori essential if a national children’s plan is to achieve its ambitions.
Helmut Karewa Modlik, Tumu Whakarae CEO and a supporter of the proposal, has put tamariki and mokopuna at the centre of the kaupapa.
His argument is that New Zealanders regularly express the belief that people are the most important thing in the world, but the country’s taxpayer-funded systems remain structurally focused on short political and funding cycles.
For Modlik, translating that principle into reality requires politicians to commit to planning for tamariki over generations.
Children want a voice in the decisions
Barnardos is also involving its Generation Hope Ambassadors in developing the concept.
Young people have participated in workshops exploring what a Generational Plan could look like and have emphasised the importance of sustained action on children’s rights and ensuring children themselves are heard.
That could become one of the most important tests of the proposal.
A national plan created for children but designed almost entirely by adults risks repeating the very problem it is attempting to address.
Barnardos says children and young people must therefore be involved alongside whānau, iwi and the organisations responsible for delivering services.
More than 100 leaders join the kaupapa
Support for the concept has been building over the past year.
Barnardos says more than 100 leaders from business, iwi, philanthropy, education, health, community organisations, academia and government have joined discussions around the Generational Plan.
At a recent Barnardos Foundation Gala Dinner, more than 460 people stood in support of developing the proposal.
That coalition is important because many of the conditions affecting children cannot be changed by government alone.
Businesses influence employment and household incomes.
Iwi and community organisations provide services and support.
Philanthropy funds innovation.
Schools and health providers encounter children every day.
Whānau ultimately raise them.
The proposed plan attempts to bring those different parts of society around one long-term direction.
Four challenges for political parties
Barnardos is now asking political parties to make four commitments.
First, support a vision that by 2050 every child should have the opportunity to thrive regardless of where they begin in life.
Second, support the development of a Generational Plan through a whole-of-government process involving children, whānau, iwi, communities and other sectors.
Third, work towards political agreement on the completed plan in 2027 so its direction survives future changes of government.
And finally, commit to implementing the actions required to achieve its long-term goals.
Election 2026 puts short-term politics under the microscope
The timing of the campaign is deliberate.
As political parties release policies and promises ahead of Election 2026, most will naturally focus on what they intend to achieve during the next parliamentary term.
Barnardos is asking them to look considerably further ahead.
A baby born today will be around three years old when the next election cycle concludes.
By 2050, that same child will be 24.
The quality of their housing, education, healthcare, family environment and economic opportunities between those two points will be shaped by multiple governments.
No single administration will control that journey.
That is precisely why Barnardos believes children’s wellbeing requires a commitment bigger than one political party and longer than one term.
The challenge now sitting on Parliament’s steps is therefore straightforward:
If today’s children will inherit Aotearoa in 2050, should the country finally start planning for them that far ahead?
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