A discussion panel in Tauranga believes the government is moving away from addressing the consequences of child poverty.

Child Poverty Action Group and SociaLink, which supports the Western Bay of Plenty social and community sector, held an evening at the Historic Village to discuss the effects of last month's Budget on child poverty.

CPAG Convenor Alan Johnson says it's an Election year Budget which provides middle class welfare to marginal voters. It has a ‘spend and hope' attitude to address the middle class's cost of living grievances without fuelling inflation.

He says the quality of the new spending needs to be questioned, and there has been a ‘sleight of hand' in Working For Families where there has been no adjustments and bracket creep from wage inflation, which he says amounts to wilful neglect of the value of the Budget.

There has been real cuts in spending on health and by 2026/2027 spending is expected to have fallen by 20 per cent. But 20 per cent of the population will be over 65 and those aged over 85 will double in 15 years, increasing the demand on health.

Guest speaker Dr Ines Asher, Emeritus Professor in Paediatrics, says people have been driven into poverty since 1991 after the National Party's ‘Mother of all Budgets' which cut benefits and pulled people under, causing harm to everyone.

She outlines how systems locked people into poverty - through low wages which exploited employees, and inadequate benefits which left families with deficits of up to $350 a week in private rentals.

Abatements or clawbacks of Working For Families means families are often left with only 5 cents in every dollar earned, and so many families were ineligible for In Work Tax Credits.

'There are also inequities for Māori and Pasifika, while those with disabilities are put into terrible hardship. Changes are needed now.”

Other changes she suggests are redesigning the economy and other systems, including changes to income support, housing, health, disability, education and taxation as priority areas for children where their needs should be at the centre of changes.

There's a need for tax on unearned wealth as is already being done in Australia and the UK, she says.

The meeting also heard from Dr Lesley Lyons McAdam on early childhood education, which she says is a public good.

She says preschool education is being seen as providing private investment opportunities and children as a tradable commodity. Qualified ECE teachers should be paid by the Ministry at the same rate as kindergarten teachers, she said.

Rachel Ryan, a secondary teacher from Te Puke discussed what her school was doing to tackle poverty and students' real lives.

She says many students are just surviving and the school works for the community, not just the school to eliminate barriers to education.

She recommends improving the ratio of school counsellors, taking the GST off fruit and vegetables and providing more health and wellbeing centres in schools.