Spend up large. That’s my message to the Government. Go large, spend up big and drag our military into the 21st century.

That’s not me having a go at the military, by the way. Anyone reading this at Burnham Camp, for example, might feel like I’m having a go at them. But I’m not.

But, what I am saying, is that we need to be spending more on defence - and I’m not saying that just because of what’s going on out in the Tasman, with those three warships from China.

A situation that went next level on Friday and over the weekend, with the live firing exercises.

I say next level - but we also need to remember that China isn't breaking any laws. It’s fully entitled to have those ships there because they’re in international waters.

My view last week was that we needed to calm the farm about the ships being out there. It wasn’t time for us to start banging on the table and getting on the blower to Beijing and giving China’s president what-for.

And I’m not saying this just because of what’s been happening over the weekend - but I agree with Defence Minister Judith Collins when she says we have no choice but to to invest heavily in our defence forces.

And she says it won’t just be a one-off investment, either.

Over time, it will be billions of dollars. As she pointed out on Newstalk ZB today, successive government over the last 30 years have underinvested in the military.

And Judith Collins says defence personnel are up for it. But are you up for it?

Because it’s very easy to say ‘oh yeah, buy more planes, buy more ships etc", but when you ask people where the money's going to come from, they don’t have an easy answer to that question.

Reason being: there isn’t an easy answer.

What do you spend less on So more money can go into the army, navy and air force?

Finance minister Nicola Willis will give us a bit of an answer to that when she delivers this year’s Budget in a few months.

But, right now, the bigger question is whether we support the idea of the government pouring a truckload more money into our military. I do.

There will be people who don’t. But, according to one defence expert, what happened on Friday and over the weekend might actually it an easier sell for the Government.

This is Professor David Capie from the Centre for Strategic Studies at Victoria University.

He’s saying that the live firing exercises forcing commercial airlines to divert to avoid the area makes the situation much more significant than it was last week.

And he’s going as far as saying that the warships are “a gift from Beijing” to our government, to help it convince us of the need to spend more on defence.

I’m convinced already. But what about you?

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Do you know why the Government has failed to meet all of its child poverty targets?

The overarching reason I’m talking about here. Because this is really complex and there are all sorts of reasons why kids end-up living in poverty and why politicians, generally, fail to fix the problem.

So the main reason why nothing seems to be achieved in this area. Why do you think that is?

It’s because of us. Those of us who aren’t living in poverty and aren’t one of those invisible people who feature in these latest stats which show we’re going nowhere on this front.

We’re the reason. Because, if we’re honest, we don’t really give a damn. Unless we're in that boat, we don’t really care as much as we might think we do.

If we did, we’d be demanding to know at election time what politicians are going to actually do for the 156,000 Kiwi kids living in hardship. They’re the latest numbers. If we really cared, we’d be grilling politicians on how they’re going to get them out of hardship.

But we don’t. Every piece of policy we look at it and want to know what’s in it for us.

We listen to the Prime Minister’s state of the nation speech, and we don’t flinch when we realise that he hasn’t mentioned child poverty once.

There was nothing in there about child poverty. There’s a lot of talk about fixing the economy —as there should be— but, as the Children's Commissioner is saying today, kids can’t wait while the Government tries to fix the economy and action is needed now.

She’s right. But it won’t happen because we’re not demanding that it happens.

Although, depending where people are on the political spectrum, some will be hearing this news today and some might be ripping into the government for not doing enough and others will be ripping into parents for not doing enough.

One of the most depressing examples recently of how we don’t actually care about kids in poverty is the debate over the school lunches programme.

Because, every time it comes up, there’s no shortage of people banging on about it being the responsibility of parents to make sure their kids are fed and why should us taxpayers pay for their kids to eat lunch?

It’s depressing because what someone is saying when they say that, is it’s the kids fault that they’ve got no-hoper parents.

In fact, that always seems to be the assumption, doesn’t it? A kid goes hungry because they've got hopeless parents.

Just like a kid who goes to school without shoes has got hopeless parents.

A kid who gets bronchitis every winter because they live in a freezing house. Bloody parents.

And, as long as the majority of people think like that, nothing’s going to change.

And, as long as the majority of people think like that, politicians know that they won’t be grilled by voters wanting to know how they’re going to get kids out of poverty and governments will know that they won’t be taken to task for not meeting child poverty reduction targets.

Sure, the coalition is feeling a bit of heat about it today with headlines and the usual talking heads out there saying they can do and should so better. But, after today, the government —in fact, every politician— knows that most people will be back to focusing on themselves, getting on with their weekend and not giving a damn about those 156,000 kids that, apparently, are growing up in the best country in the world.

And I’ll include myself as one of the guilty parties in all of this too. Well semi-guilty.

You won't hear me saying that a cruddy school lunch programme is okay because it should be those no-hoper parents feeding those kids, not us taxpayers. You won't hear me saying that. Ever.

But where I am guilty is that I’ve never asked a politician what they’re going to do for child poverty. I’m just as capable as the next person of turning a blind eye to all this.

Because, you know, gotta get on with life. Can’t take on all the world’s problems. And maybe it’ll sort itself out.

Thing is, though, child poverty won’t sort itself out. Criticising parents or punishing parents won’t sort it out. And politicians certainly won’t sort it out - because they know that, deep down, we don’t actually care whether they do or not.

It’s a terrible thing to say. But that’s where I think the problem lies.

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Today on Politics Friday, John MacDonald was joined by Matt Doocey and Duncan Webb to delve into some of the topics listeners are most interested in.

They mark the anniversary of the Christchurch Earthquake, which occurred 14 years ago tomorrow.

Rangiora’s after-hours clinic is still not underway, but some certainty has been gained after the Waimakariri District Council has offered to bankroll the project.

Child poverty statistics have not shifted – is this a problem governments can’t solve?

And what do they make about the Chinese Navy sightings in the Pacific?

LISTEN ABOVE

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