Professor Jonathan Boston, Professor of Public Policy at VUW, Director of the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies and Co-chair, Expert Advisory Group (2012) on Solutions to Child Poverty discusses the issue of child poverty: myths, misconceptions and misunderstandings. In discussions about child poverty in New Zealand, one often hears the following claims: ‘There is little or no real child poverty in this country’; ‘The fundamental problem is that some people have too many children’; ‘Many parents are lazy or irresponsible and thus deserve to be poor’; ‘The real problem is not poverty but poor parenting’; ‘We can’t afford to reduce child poverty’; and ‘If we give the poor more money, they will simply waste it’. How valid are such claims? What does the available empirical evidence tell us? What can we learn from the experience of other developed countries? And what ethical principles should guide our policy responses to the challenge of child poverty? 12 June 2014