Stephen Knowles is a board member of the Otago Southland Baptist Association and a member of Musselburgh Baptist Church in Dunedin.
In Luke 4:18 Jesus says he has been anointed to bring good news to the poor. I recently saw this video where Baptist National Leader Chris Chamberlain said these words of Jesus are an economic statement. As I’m an economist (a Professor of Economics at Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka, the University of Otago), this grabbed my attention. Below I discuss how seeing these words of Jesus as an economic statement resonate with me and how this may influence how I vote in New Zealand’s general election on 7 November 2026.
New Zealand is a wealthy country. Over a long period of time most New Zealanders’ incomes (including those on the minimum wage) have generally increased more quickly than inflation. Life expectancy has also steadily increased and governments are spending more on health care than ever before.
However, there are things to be concerned about. Since COVID-19, many people’s incomes have risen more slowly than inflation. We also have a housing crisis, with the cost of buying a first home now beyond the reach of many. Most worryingly, child poverty (as measured by the percentage of children living in material hardship) has increased since 2022 and is back to being as high as it was in 2018. One in seven New Zealand children face material hardship, with the numbers even higher for Māori (one in four) and Pasifika (almost one in three).[1] These numbers are alarming. The Child Poverty Reduction Act (2018) committed governments to halving child poverty within ten years, but it would now take a miracle for this to be achieved.
What can be done to reduce child poverty? Revelation 21:4 looks forward to a time when there will be no more pain. Theologians like Tom Wright argue it is the role of the church to do what we can now to model this Revelation 21:4 future.[2] Encouragingly, many churches have fantastic programmes to support the less fortunate, fulfilling the call to be ambassadors of Christ (2 Corinthians:20).
What I have been asked to reflect on is how the verses mentioned above will impact how I vote.
Policies like free school lunches in low-decile schools (which most political parties seem to support, at least in some form) can help. There are other initiatives that could help too. Ultimately though, children are living in poverty because their parents’ income is not high enough. How can this be fixed?
The political parties on the right of the spectrum focus on economic growth as the solution. Those on the left focus more on redistribution. Economic growth is important. It’s the key reason why over 1 billion people in countries like China and India are no longer living in extreme poverty (living on less than $3 per day) compared to a few decades ago. It is possible child poverty in New Zealand would not be as high if our economy was growing more quickly.
However, I’m increasingly of the view that to reduce child poverty, and poverty more generally, we also need more redistribution than we have now. Options include Labour’s capital-gains tax (with the family home exempt), the Green’s proposal to make the first $10,000 of income tax free (with higher marginal tax rates for those earning over $160,000 and a wealth tax) and The Opportunities Party’s idea of a universal basic income (something that Baptist pastor Martin Luther King supported), funded by a land tax. There are of course pros and cons of all these policies, and this isn’t the place to go into these.
I’m yet to make a final decision on who to vote for, but I hope that decision will be strongly influenced by which policies will be good news for the poor, in particular for children living in poverty.
Endnotes/bibliography
[1] Living in material hardship means regularly going without daily essentials like fresh fruit, doctors visits or adequate heating. For more information see https://www.cpag.org.nz/statistics/latest-official-child-poverty-measures-202425-26-february-2026
[2] Tom Wright, The Vision of Ephesians: The Task of the Church and the Glory of God, SPCK Publishing.
