The politics of child poverty

Over on NZCPD today Muriel Newman writes "Alleviating child poverty"

and my accompanying effort is "The politics of child poverty".

Something about the way the Left is presenting the ‘child poverty’ problem doesn’t stack up. When interviewed, Green co-Leader Metiria Turei repeatedly stresses that 2 in 5 of officially poor children come from working homes. Their parents are doing their best to provide for their children but not making ends meet. It’s unacceptable, she says.

They probably are doing their best and deserve respect for their work effort. Some wages are low and some rents are high. Certainly that presents a problem for those parents. But for Turei and other anti-poverty advocates to continually highlight this group when attempting to influence voters implies there is something less laudable about being benefit-dependent. Not a sentiment normally associated with the Left.

So what’s going on?