Caring for Mothers and Children

POLICY — Caring for mothers and children

The Women’s Rights Party advocates for income support while raising our children or caring for our elders, recognising that mothering and caring is work and contributes to society.

We support the campaign of the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) to reform the Working for Families (WFF) package, in order to support all lower income families, and to lift the poorest families out of poverty.[1] In particular discrimination against beneficiary families, many of whom are headed by single mothers, should be removed.

We call for more support for new families, including wrap-around services for vulnerable mothers and their babies. We recognise the links between poverty and harm to children and support action on strategies to alleviate poverty. The number of children being removed from their families must be reduced by tackling the underlying societal issues.

Midwifery and maternity services must retain words such as “mother”, “woman” and “breastfeeding”.

Maternity services should be adequately resourced and funded to ensure quality, affordable provision for all. In particular, we call on Health NZ | Te Whatu Ora to properly recognise and fund continuity of midwifery care, and to provide publicly funded primary maternity services in both rural and urban centres.[2]

We support a review and extension of paid maternity leave from six to 12 months, and entitlement of women’s partners to paid leave at the time of the birth in addition to the mother’s entitlements.

The Party also calls for access to quality, affordable (or free) childcare, with qualified and fairly paid staff available to all who need it. To that end, the Women’s Right’s Party supports a complete review of the current for-profit ECE sector to ensure it meets the needs of women and their children.

Women’s health services, including cervical smears and breast screening, must be free and easily available to all women. Such services must be exclusively for biological women and use clear language, including use of the word “women”.

[1] CPAG 2023 Policy Brief on Working For Families

Fix “Working For Families” income assistance for children in low-income families Susan St John, Mike O’Brien June 2023       https://tinyurl.com/px3rsh2r

[2] Women’s Rights Party submission on 3-day post-natal stay, 11 February 2025.https://womensrightsparty.nz/submission-on-the-pae-ora-healthy-futures-3-daypostnatal-stay-amendment-bill/

Many of the poorest members of our society are women and children, often in families headed by single mothers. The denial of critical parts of the Working for Families package to anyone who receives a benefit, entrenches this poverty, and divides some of the poorest women and children in society from the rest of society.

Nearly a fifth of all children in New Zealand, 220,000 children, live in poverty,

More than 200,000 children live in families for whom a benefit is the main source of income, and they are four times more likely than other children to live in poverty (material hardship). These figures reflect the fact that many mothers are also living in poverty.

Women and children who are Māori, Pacifica or disabled are especially likely to be locked into material hardship.

Discrimination against beneficiaries contravenes our obligations under the Convention of the Rights of the Child.

A package aimed at supporting the financial needs of families, should value and support all women’s mothering. It should not attempt to pressure the poorest of mothers, including those with young children, into paid work; by depriving them of essential support if they are not in paid work.

A key proposal of the CPAG is to fold the In Work Tax Credit (IWTC) into the Family Tax Credit (FTC), which is available for all low to middle income families. This would be an effective first step towards greater social equity for mothers and children. It would help to quickly lift some of the poorest mothers and children out of poverty.

The following proposals from the CPAG are also worthy of consideration:

• Index annual increases of WFF with annual wage increases. This will help maintain social equity.
• Raise abatement thresholds and reduce abatement rates for those in paid work, which will facilitate mothers to undertake paid work and raise their incomes.
• Change the name, WFF, to make it clear that this income support is available for all families who need it, not only those in paid work.