government strategy underpinned by legislation as “a first step” in addressing child poverty.14 Parliament’s Health Committee has also recommended that the government develop an action plan for reducing child poverty, with annual targets and a transparent monitoring system.15 In its response to the Health Committee, the government did not address this recommendation directly and pointed to its work in developing the Vulnerable Children’s Act and Better Public Services Results, among other things, as evidence of current related actions.16 31. The Vulnerable Children Act 2014 provides the basis for the introduction of a Vulnerable Children’s Plan, to be implemented by specified Government agencies. The Vulnerable Children Act enables the Vulnerable Children’s Plan to include measures to improve the economic and social well-being of vulnerable children. This provides the basis for a systemic approach to be implemented, albeit across a relatively narrow cohort of children, with the current policy definition of a “vulnerable child” limiting its application to approximately 30,000 children who are deemed to be in significant risk of harm. However, the Vulnerable Children Act does not contain a specific definition of a “vulnerable child”, which means it is possible that its scope could be expanded in the future to include a greater range of vulnerable children, including those living in poverty. The Vulnerable Children’s Plan is yet to be introduced by the government. 32. Reducing material deprivation and the related non realisation of economic and social rights relating to household income poverty, poor quality housing, poor educational outcomes and poor child health outcomes on New Zealand children will of course require additional investment by the government. The absence of a budgetary mechanism that enables budget allocations which are targeted to materially deprived children to be tracked, monitored and evaluated means that it is difficult to accurately ascertain the extent of the government’s subsequent and ongoing additional spending on initiatives aimed at reducing child poverty or mitigating its effects. The introduction of such a mechanism was proposed by the EAG. However, there has been no formal government response or apparent consideration of that particular proposal.17 33. The Committee may wish to consider including the following questions in its LOIPR for New Zealand: 14 Supra note 7 at 7. Health Committee, Report of Health Committee on Inquiry into improving child health outcomes and reducing child abuse with a focus on preconception until three years of age, Recommendation 5 16 Government response to Report of Health Committee on Inquiry into improving child health outcomes and reducing child abuse with a focus on preconception until three years of age, page 9 ihttp://www.parliament.nz/resource/minz/50DBHOH_PAP25992_1/33af84276a8645b14543e16c411e6b2e881afa1e 17 The EAG recommended that the introduction of legislation that would implement a systemic approach to child poverty reduction which included obligations upon the Minister of Finance to include child poverty related allocations in annual budgetary statement issued under the Public Finance Act – see EAG Working Paper 6: Legislative Mechanisms to Reduce Child Poverty, para 87 http://www.occ.org.nz/assets/Uploads/EAG/Working-papers/No-6-child-poverty-legislative.pdf 15 9