As regular readers will know, Monday on my Susbstack is Hope day, and for over 30 years Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) has been bringing hope to children living in our most deprived homes, by fighting for their rights to food, housing, health and education.

They are an independent, registered charity, that since its inception has been working to eliminate child poverty in Aotearoa New Zealand through research, education and advocacy

Here’s their website.

https://www.cpag.org.nz

As their name suggests CPAG has been a driving force in getting the idea that there is such a thing as child poverty accepted, to the point where in 2018 The Child Poverty Reduction Act was passed, which set up a framework for measuring and reporting on it.

So when CPAG’s Executive Officer Sarita Divis received an invitation to a Child Poverty Reduction Summit, hosted by Ministry Of Social Development at Parliament Buildings. she was looking forward to hearing what initiatives the National/ACT/NZ First coalition government were going to announce.

In this episode of Head2Head Sarita not only describes her disappointment after attending the event - in which the assembled charities were told the onus would be on communities to look after the vulnerable - but points up some solutions we need to put in place at government level to ensure the well-being of all our children.

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Last Monday I wrote a Hope post about two independent film makers who are trying to crowd fund the money to finish their self- funded feature film 1978 .

They need $15,000 to do the post production and finish their film so it can be shown in cinemas up and down the country. As I write they have reached $10,834 on the Arts Foundation Boosted site. If they reach their target in the next 7 days they get the money. If they don’t they get nothing.

Cruel, I reckon.

But there it is.

Yesterday I spoke with Director Isaac Lee and Co -Director April Phillips about their quintessential Kiwi film - where the idea came from, the struggles they have had to shoot their feature length film which has now been edited and just needs some post production polishing before it gets released for the big screens around our country.

Do have a listen to the interview and if you can afford something to help them out please do. Every bit helps.

Thank you to everyone who has chipped in so far.

As you will hear in the interview they really appreciate your support.

Here’s the link

https://www.thearts.co.nz/boosted/projects/post-production-1978

Here is their website

https://www.1978.co.nz

And their Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/1978NZ

Let’s help make their inspiring 1978 film happen!

Thanks

Bryan

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Dr. Ganesh Nana is one of New Zealand’s most distinguished economists who has dedicated his career to addressing complex economic challenges.

He was formerly BERL Research Director and Chair of the Productivity Commission Te Kōmihana Whai Hua o Aotearoa leveraging his expertise to advocate for equitable policy reforms until the Commission was shut down by Finance Minister Nicola Wills who refused even to meet with them.

Which was short sighted to say the least, because increasing productivity is one of the secrets to growing our economy. If productivity is not increasing it affects our standard of living.

So I caught up with Ganesh this week to ask him to explain why our productivity is not increasing as much as it should, and it wasn’t long before we got on to the topic of what an economy is for away.

Head2Head is made possible thanks to the generosity of my paid subscribers. If you are receiving this post for free, please consider upgrading to paid. $9 a month (less than a cup of coffee each week) will not only give you access to all my documentaries and premium posts, you will get to join a group of New Zealanders in our chatroom who comment on posts and discuss the issues that are important to all us who want to live in a fairer,more democratic society.

Please restack and share posts you find worthwhile as it all helps to build readership.