Search

The Ministerial Committee on Poverty is working through a number of issues critical to improving the lives of low-income New Zealanders and their families.

It is focused on supporting New Zealanders from all backgrounds to move out of long-term poverty, tackling the impacts of poverty and ensuring the Government’s interventions are effective and delivering value for money for taxpayers.

The committee was set up earlier this year under the National-Māori Party relationship accord and confidence and supply agreement.

Prime Minister John Key and Deputy Prime Minister Bill English today announced a set of ambitious targets the Government has set for the public sector to achieve over the next five years.

“These targets are central to the Government's plans to create a public service that is more innovative, enterprising, driven, and focused on results,” Mr Key says.

These measurable targets, which will be reported on regularly, sit underneath the 10 challenging results the Government announced in March for the public sector to achieve over the next five years.

The Government intends to introduce a package of legislative changes to help the public sector achieve better results for New Zealanders, Deputy Prime Minister Bill English and State Services Minister Jonathan Coleman say.

As indicated in the Budget last month, the Government has started consulting other parties on changes to the State Sector, Public Finance and Crown Entities Acts as part of its Better Public Services reforms.

The Ministerial Committee on Poverty met for the first time last night, with ministers reaffirming their focus on providing opportunity for low income New Zealanders and getting better results from spending on social services.

"The Government's focus in tackling poverty is on providing opportunity – through things like better education and jobs," Deputy Prime Minister and committee chairman Bill English said.