Lindsay Mitchell: Study results baffle researchers

Fascinating news out of the US this week. The prevailing ideology - mirrored in NZ - is that poverty in and of itself harms children's development. That's the thesis behind welfare for poor mothers and more specifically, Ardern's impetus for her Best Start payments.

The US is a far more sensible country than NZ. It actually tests theories. Try to do this kind of research in NZ and academic ethics committees would be all over it like a rash. It'd never happen.