Government gets F grade for child poverty

A new ‘report card’ has found the government isn’t doing enough to help children suffering from child poverty.
The report by the Children’s Rights Alliance – a coalition of more than 100 organisations – gave the government an F grade and they say the problem is getting worse.
Tanya Ward is from the Alliance.
She says the worst performing areas were child poverty and health because of the delay in the Children’s Hospital and primary health care centres.
She says the cuts to child benefit in the December budget have not helped.
“The problem with that cut was that most of that money was not redirected into children’s services” she said.
“They need to make sure that child benefit does remain universal – but if they’re going to cut the benefit payment, they need to re-direct it into child care services, and a second-tier payment for families who are really suffering on the breadline” she added.