[7] In 2017 Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, responded to input from advocacy groups, including CPAG, for a united approach and greater consensus on the issue of child poverty in the country.
[1]: p.74 In a later publication the organisation stated that "for many children, poverty means "lacking the material resources to stay well...[and adequate income is needed for]...transport, doctors' fees, prescription costs [and] hospital parking".
While it accepted the complexity of the issue, the report concluded that there must be central government policies in place that identified risk factors and how these interacted with social structures in families, neighbourhoods and communities that may support or limit violence.
[17] The group has advocated strongly for the right of every child in New Zealand to have a home that is warm and secure, with improve residential tenancy laws to make them safer and affordable.
[19] CPAG has been outspoken on issues of equity in the public education system and supported campaigns for free lunches in schools so all children can learn effectively by having their nutritional needs met.
[9] In 2008 CPAG stated that inequalities in the New Zealand education system were compounding the disadvantages of many children because of the way funding was managed resulting in low parental involvement and community contributions.
[1]: pp 6-7 Issues of inequity in early childhood education (ECE) were identified by the group as important considerations for the government to address if possible disadvantages in future learning and life opportunities for children living in poverty were to be avoided.
[20] Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the Child Poverty Action Group challenged the New Zealand Government to redesign the country's welfare system to ensure children received the support they needed.
Georgie Craw, Executive Officer at the time stated: "The unfairness and the irrationality of the welfare system are being exposed in this crisis...[and the change needed to be]...swift and simple to use, easy to administer and treat people with dignity, while being broad enough to help all those struggling with the impacts of Covid-19 to ride out the turmoil".
In the same article, CPAG's Social Security spokesperson Mike O’Brien said that benefit levels should be raised, other changes made with regard to tax discriminations, entitlements and debt collection should be removed.
[22]: p.4 The co-author of the review, Janet McAllister said that this was particularly relevant for Māori and Pacific families who may have been unable to access relief payments and Nikki Turner concluded that COVID-19 was stretching the Government's resources and there needed to be a focus on ensuring preventable diseases in children in deprived areas did not have a resurgence.
The case was heard in June and July 2008, and the Tribunal in its decision recorded overall conclusions that the "discrimination...[was of]...a kind justified in a free and democratic society", and that there had been no breach of the Human Rights Act.