Police Minister Judith Collins has stuck by comments that parental influence has more to do with crime than poverty, saying it is "utter rubbish" to suggest crime is caused by poverty. "Do you think your government is doing enough for child poverty, and the gap between those that do have, and those that don't have?" "It's not that, it's people who don't look after their children, that's the problem. "I see a poverty of ideas, a poverty of parental responsibility, a poverty of love, a poverty of caring." "But when the inference is made to me that crime is crime because of child poverty, that is totally unfair to kids and to families who don't have a lot of money.

Source: New Zealand Herald October 12, 2016 20:46 UTC